For those astronomy buffs out there, there is a saying there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on earth.

Whoever said that has never been in the Sahara when it’s windy. The sand. Oh the sand.

The first night in the desert, we almost believed the saying.   Once the lanterns were quenched and the bonfire died down, the world was pitch black and clear enough to follow the Milky Way all across the sky.  We lay on the swinging mattress behind a dune and tried to remember more constellations than the Dippers and Orion.  As city dwellers back in the real world, we could drive 3 hours in any direction and still not find a sky this bright.  It was stunning and overwhelming all at once.  

(Taking picture of stars is really hard….especially for someone who only graduated from a 4 week Intro to Camera class….so instead, here are the pretty lanterns…unlit…)

The next day, however, we experienced the Saharan wind.  Early in the day, it was a welcome respite from the heat.  We lounged in our shaded hut after the camel ride to eat, drink, and rest in a cooler area of the dunes than our main camp.  Quickly around 1 pm the wind kicked in and blew swirls of sand across our faces.  We wrapped ourselves up and waited for our Berber guides to come rescue us from this terrifying sand storm…only they didn’t come.   As we cowered and coughed, we heard them still talking and laughing as before.   Apparently, this too was normal, everyday life in the Sahara.  So when in Rome and all that, we fashioned head scarves and turned our backs towards the wind and played a round of dominos as the sand applied our Jersey shore level spray tan…no one at home would recognize us with this golden glow!