dreams almost come true

so there we were, (what a great way to start a story) a few hundred kilometers from home about to venture into The desert. the unforgiving and forbidding anvil of the sun, the Sahara. and we're lost. oh, what a great way to start a story. we know somewhere in this border town, this oasis bridging the inhabitable with the formidable, there is a road that leads out to the desert. we're just not sure where. so these two guys, both straddling the same tiny old scooter and reminding me of the ambiguously gay duo, very proffesionally and gracefully (one is wearing an obviously american-made how to grow it yourself shirt showing us all how to grow our own weed. globalization; thank you america) ride alongside our car, dodging oncoming traffic-since they're in the next lane-and offer us their assistance: "we can show you through the desert. you will die there alone. two people died last year trying to go on their own. for merely 100 dirhams (about 11 dollars) we will help you. what is 100 dirhams compared to your life? save yourselves. buy your life." so of course we blew them off...and found the road on our own. so off to the desert.

we're supposed to meet some people in this small town in the middle of nowhere and hire a guide to take us, on camels, out into the dunes for the night. so we're driving and driving and driving. and nothing. finally we spot ahead of us about five other land roavers. by this time the nicely paved road has turned to gravel and is pitted with dangerous looking holes and probably quick sand (so i'd like to think.) so we decide to follow these guys cause they obviously know what they're doing. so we're behind one of them when suddenly, and i mean this happend all at once, no lie, they all swerved off in different directions. it was like they were talking to one another and decided our little red land rover was a threat to their big, rough white ones and they were going to lose us. not one to be intmidated, our brazilian driver smashed down on the gas peddle and headed off road in close pursuit. well, off road was even worse than on. we're all bouncing everywhere, hitting our heads on the ceiling, our bags in the back are flying around and more than once the vehicle slams into a particularly nasty hole and threatens to roll over. all the while, the rough, white, old man of the desert land roaver ahead of us seperates itself further and further. finally we give up and stop the truck. so we're sitting there, in the middle of the desert, off road and off map wondering what to do. and just when i think my dreams have been realized and we're going to have to aimlessly wander the wilderness, facing bandits and death, another truck pulls up behind us and offers to show us the way. curse them. and their stupid white truck. so we end up following them, not to the place we had intended to go, but to their own desert compound and their own guide company. but they're cheaper so we agree to let these perfect strangers take us out into the dunes for the night.

so there we are, the five of us on camels in the middle of the bright orange, nearly red, erg cherbi dunes. nothing but sand. as far as we can see. mountains of it. and i literally mean mountains. the sand was piled so high and steep, it often looked insurmountable. it was dusk and our guide stopped to do his evening prayers. behind us the sun was setting and the sky was turning various shades of red; from bright pink to brilliant orange. and not a sound. the stillness was palpable. with our white-robed guide bowing to the sunset, camels at hand taking their rest, it was easy to imagine we were in some other century, some other world. and i was happy. darkness fell. it too was so complete as to be felt. ahh, but then the stars came out. first just one. you know that one star that is always first, and brightest; the one that seems to have been awarded a speacial position in heaven because it's the only one that gets to wittness the entire night in all it's glory, even unto the grey morning? that one was out. but it was soon followed by them all; by every single star hevean has tucked away in it's infinate vastness. they were all there. every single one... then our guide got lost. yes, lost. we were all wondering how he knew where he was going, especially in the dark. well, apparently he didn't. so we backtracked. and turned a different way. and then backtracked some more. and then our camels got tired. so we had to walk. but once again my dream was cruely snatched away and we stumbled into camp.

but that night i woke up, too hot to be in a tent and walked outside. the moon was out and the orange desert was now blue. so i wandered a ways from camp, past the sleeping camels and climbed a dune. on one side was the valley with our tent asleep at the bottom, a few hundred yards away, on the other side the rolling dunes, stretching away to meet an anonymous range of mountains. and everywhere, the stillness. not a sound. nothing. it was amazing. like being deaf. and then i started to wonder what actually lived in the desert. and what that shadow over there was. and exactly what sort of animal made those tracks and what caused it to leap off the side of the dune so suddenly as it apparently had. thus i found myself running back to camp. and falling on my face. and smashing underfoot a variety of animal droppings. and startling a sleepy herd of camels. but i fell alseep in that silence, on that blue sand, under those amazing stars. and had amazingly quiet, beautiful dreams. God bless those camels and their quiet dreams. i wish i were still with them.