camel trekkin'

So I did the tourist thing in Atar, Mauritania. (Keep in mind, it’s a certain strain of hardcore might-get-heat-stroke tourism.) I, along with some PCV friends, rode camels three hours into the Sahara desert until we came upon an oasis. We drank cool water, ate tuna sandwiches and listened to music under the shade of palm trees.

As the sun began to ease, we set off again, rocking along the bump of the camel’s back (only one-humped camels…apparently the two-humped kinds are further north) until we found our campsite for the night. A spot with nothing but sand in sight, we sand-boarded and drank wine we had painstakingly lugged through hours of taxi rides from Senegal.

We learned several things on the trip. There can be a thirty degree difference between the sun and shade in the desert, camels have an air circulation system in their heads that keep their brains from overheating, and most importantly, six hours of camel riding is enough.