11. Shooting stars

It is one of life's enormous pleasures to sleep out under the sky and never more so than in the sand dunes on the edge of the saraha under a moon so bright you can see the colour of the sand, the sky an amazing blue - lying back and watching shooting stars.

Shooting stars are guaranteed to keep you awake because you seldom see one in your direct line of vision.  When you do see one out of the corner of your eye, by the time you've turned your head its gone.  So I lie flat on my back trying to keep the whole sky in my line of view at once and every so often - bingo!  Awesome!  And wide awake I just lie waiting for another - and another..............

My departure on this desert trip (3  nights) was delayed 24 hours by that old travellers' friend - a dose of the runs - oh forgotten joy!!  (I have been lucky for the last three trips and kept clear and was getting complacent!).  But again, I can revel in my good health and ability to shake it off and be ready to go the next day.    I couldn't have done that 6 months ago.   Thank you NHS. 

My camel is called Bob Marley, I kid you not - because he has a dark coat which, yes, is just like Bob Marley's hair.  I have to cofess that privately I call him  Gollum.  He's quite a small, spindley camel and from a distance as he slopes about grazing in the twilight, peering from side to side there is something slithery and Gollumesque about him.

His master, my guide is Hassan, 22 years old, a Tuareg nomad, resplendant in his gorgeous berber blue robe and cotton turban.  The robes are calf length, loose and flowing with yellowy-ochre embroidery on the front chest, and worn over jeans and t-shirt if you are a young man about town, or more traditinal loose trousers if you are a more traditional person.  The embroidered bit incorporates a perfect mobile phone pocket, in constant use of course.   There is no electricity in a tuareg nomad house but they charge their phones with ingenious little solar panel chargers.

I'd love to say that for 3 days I left all trappings of civilisation behind but was shocked to realise that the in thing to do is drive here in your 4X4, or hire one locally, and race around the dunes and all over the miles of open "black desert".  Oh I can see why its fun but, well, I won't start on the "buts" or this will turn into a rant.  I was heartily grateful that I only saw the many tyre tracks and no actual vehicles in the dunes themselves.

The desert was absolutely awesome - part 2 tomorrow..............