Conversation From The Sahara

Journal - November 6th
It’s strange to think that the world now knows who’s been elected as the next President of the USA – the news is out there, everywhere! But here, surrounded by a vast ocean of sand and only our two Berber guides, we know nothing!
 
And the desert, in all its majesty, doesn’t give a hoot. How wonderful. In fact, nothing ‘out there’ seems to matter while here. The Trumps of this world will come and go…
And the mountains in the far distance will remain, eternal. 
And the Sahara will go on expanding, as the world continues to heat up. 
And there will be wars and the threat of wars, and the desert will endure forever, to the end. And for human kind it will be a place of extremity, a place where the soul is humbled, a place of intrigue and wonder. 

Journal - November 8th
Last night was one of those endurance tests, which requires you to dig deeper than you wanted to. We were like fretful sardines – too hot, then too chilly, aching from head to toe and longing to be reunited with pillows. At several points in the night, we scrambled out of our one-man-woman tent for a nature-call, and gazed with dumb-exhaustion up at the exquisite heavens and the clear shape of the milky way, and felt very small. 
At around 7am we emerged out onto the cool sand, and while Trevor climbed to the top of a nearby dune, I rolled out our bed-blanket and did some sleepy yoga moves, while the sun rose over the rim of the earth. It was true Sun Salutations, and it was sublime!
 
Then we packed our tiny rucksacks, ate an orange and some dried bread and watched while Yunus and Issmail dismantled the cooking tent and loaded up our 4 camels with every single bit of equipment. With tired eyes we observed how kindly they did this, even though their animals were a tad tetchy at the thought of the long, burdened, 3-hour walk back to base camp and water. 
Repeatedly, over these 3 immersive desert-days we’d said to each other, “If it wasn’t for this tree we would have died”. We were referring to the tree, our tree, that we had sheltered under each day. The place where we sat all day; sitting, resting, lying, sheltering, on our little foam mattresses. It was the only tree we noticed the entire trip. And we had learnt to be SO thankful for that tree and for those two little mattresses and we became SO aware of what mattered most and the small things that made all the difference. We could live without running water or a toilet, but we couldn’t have survived without our precious tree or bottled water, or clothing to cover us from head to toe, to keep us from being tormented by flies or fried in the heat. 

The walk back under the midday sun, was challenging. I walked between the two groups of camels and tried to stay in the slight shadow they cast. I walked close to the mighty beasts and sensed their acceptance and inhaled their measured rhythmical stride, which was comforting and almost hypnotic.  
 
In her book, Untamed, Glennon Doyle says, ‘We can do hard things’….and we can. We can do so much more than we realise we can. We are built to survive. We are strong. And we know how to get through the challenges of life. 
 
We can breathe courage into our limbs, one step at a time.
 
On that long walk, on a couple of occasions the camels got skippy and reared up and brayed loudly, but the Berbers didn’t shy away, neither did they hit them, or yell. They made confident clicking sounds in camel language and went closer, with calming movements and reassuring gestures. One camel had his rope shortened and his neck pulled down for a while to steady him…. but then it was time to crack on, and we moved off to our destination. 
 
The desert slows you down. Try living at your normal pace here and you’ll soon see what happens. It’s impossible. From afar we watched Issmail and Yunus caring for us – making sure we stayed alive. They worked so hard, but then they rested. And they rested for long periods of time, doing nothing. They were not on their phones, not writing emails or blogs, not involved with social media, not racing here or there…..they were just RESTING!!! They just sank down into their skins; gazing out across the sand-dunes, sleeping, or just BEING.
 
Recovering after doing hard things. 
 
When we reached the base camp, we rested there for a day before the long drive back over the Atlas Mountains, towards Marrakesh and the hustle and bustle of that vibrant city. 
On the last night at the basecamp, after food, Yunus came and sat with us, squatting in the darkness and we exchanged a few words. It was a limited conversation, but I remember these three rich messages…. 

"When we wake in the morning, we say,
Thank you for the good "

and

“God is looking for us”

and,

“When we go, we leave it all behind…we take nothing”
 

Priceless!
Thank you