{"id":864,"date":"2013-10-15T09:32:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T09:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/?p=864"},"modified":"2024-04-19T19:24:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T19:24:15","slug":"erg-chebbi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/?p=864","title":{"rendered":"Erg Chebbi"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last day of the trip began with a sunrise camel trek into the Erg Chebbi dunes for those willing to get up early enough to go. \u00a0After the rich experiences we’d been having with John and Eric, I was a little reluctant to go on the unabashedly-touristy sunrise trip to the dunes of Erg Chebbi. \u00a0So here’s my confession: I had a blast.<\/p>\n

I was not, for instance, looking forward to getting up at 4 to drive for an hour in a land-rover across the hammada (stony desert). \u00a0But the drive was less bumpy than I had feared, and it was undeniably atmospheric, to see loads of camels awaiting us, with the “blue men of the desert” costume adding a touch of color to the scene.
\n\"IMG_1249\"
\n<\/a>The blue outfits are pure window-dressing. \u00a0The Amazigh people of this region are not Tuareg (“blue men of the desert”): they just dress up for the tourists. \u00a0But they’re kind enough to help us dress up, too: arranging scarves into turbans and even bringing along a bag of extra outfits for any students who want to try them on.
\n\"IMG_1254\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Riding the camels through the dark, with the star-studded sky overhead was also intensely satisfying. \u00a0I thought it would be the best part of the morning, until the light started to work its magic:
\n\"IMG_1267\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, the many shades of sunrise:
\n\"IMG_1276\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then there’s all the delight of the world’s biggest sandbox:
\n\"IMG_1299\"<\/a> \"IMG_1296\"<\/a>
\nWe were so taken with the sand and its subtle color changes that we almost missed the moment of the sunrise, which comes shockingly fast:
\n\"IMG_1320\"<\/a>
\nThe guides had to call \u00a0to get our attention, and we shouted to the students, one of whom lifted Jeremy up in his own ritual greeting to the sun:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1325\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Even Zo\u00eb felt the pull of the dunes:
\n\"IMG_1337\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

But I’m glad to report that she came back to us, eventually:
\n<\/a>\"IMG_1336\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And yes, we were as taken with the camels as anyone is likely to be, despite our young friend Colm’s minute-by-minute warnings to Jeremy: “Does it hurt yet, Jeremy? It’s going to!” \u00a0(None of us found the ride as uncomfortable as we were warned it would be.)
\n\"IMG_1375\"<\/a> \"IMG_1366\"
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

So, even if it seems a bit of a come-down, from the 12,000 camels of Ibn Battuta’s day to the \u00a0multiple camel caravans of the costumed and touristed sunrise,\"IMG_1379\"<\/p>\n

the stars and the dunes were still far more exhilarating than we had dared to hope they could be.
\n\"IMG_1361\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last day of the trip began with a sunrise camel trek into the Erg Chebbi dunes for those willing to get up early enough to go. \u00a0After the rich experiences we’d been having with John and Eric, I was a little reluctant to go on the unabashedly-touristy sunrise trip to the dunes of Erg … Continue reading Erg Chebbi<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4JDdJ-dW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=864"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2851,"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864\/revisions\/2851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maghrebi-voices.swarthmore.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}