David's Diary: Wednesday, December 4, 2002
Karalee's Birthday In the Dessert
A Very Cold Tent
We went to bed early last night, but none of us except Allen had a good night's sleep. The desert is incredibly cold at night. Ten of us were in the Bedouin tent the guides put up for us. The tent is closed on three sides, but completely open on the fourth so there is no way to keep the heat in. I found that as much heat was lost to the ground as through the blankets. I was awake once an hour through the night and I don't know if I ever remember being so cold. I even slept with all of my clothes on, including my coat.
There was some compensation. There was no wind and the desert was quiet. The stars were brilliant in the clear skies. Cold and tired after a poor night's sleep we all got up to start our second day in the desert. The guides had been up since before daylight. During Ramadan they have to have their morning meal before the sun comes up. They had baked us fresh desert bread and we ate that with butter and jam while drinking hot cups of coffee.
Karalee's Birthday
Today is Karalee's birthday -- one that she will likely remember. We spent it like yesterday, wandering around the desert, sometimes riding the camels and sometimes walking. The pace today was slower than yesterday making it easier for more of us to walk. We stopped for lunch in a little hollow. I lay down on the sand and before I knew it I had fallen asleep. It is warmer in the daytime, but we are all still wearing our coats during the day.
Singing
We traveled further in the afternoon before once again making camp around 4:00 PM. Tomorrow is the last day of Ramadan, something the guides will appreciate. Once again today they ate before us at the stroke of 5:20. We don't know how people manage to fast all day during the month of Ramadan. While fasting, nothing must pass your lips from sun up to sun down, including food, water, or cigarettes (all the guides smoke and immediately after finishing their evening meal they all light up).
After dinner and cleanup we again sat around the fire. The guides performed several desert songs. For centuries the Bedouin people have lived in the desert. They have their own oral history which is passed on in their songs. We are shown how to dance and as the embers slowly die down in the fire there is a red glow over us as we move and sway to the music. We manage to stay up past 9:00 tonight, but we are all settled into bed by 10:00. Everyone cuddles together, sharing bedding and blankets, so that we might be a little bit warmer than last night.
These diary pages only have a few of the pictures that we took in the desert. For more pictures, view our Sahara Desert pictures Web pages, then use your brower's back button to return here.
