Morocco has diverse and spectacular landscapes, and at the top of the list are the Sahara Desert, Sand Dunes and Camels. I experienced the Sahara Desert near the Atlas Mountains. The Sahara has an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), and is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic. That's a lot of sand. I did get to spend a full 24 in the desert itself and it was quite the experience. Camel rides to watch the sunset, dinner under the stars and sleeping in tents made for a great experience. But it was the sand dunes that are truly magical. The shapes, sizes and vastness are sometimes so surreal that you wonder if you are on another planet. The winds of the desert continuously change the shape of the dunes.
After I left the Sahara Desert Camp, we continued our journey driving along the edge of the Sahara Desert. During the drive, I spotted a camel guide who was fighting against the strong winds and mini sand storm. This scene was so spectacular to me, a camel guide pulling three camels through a sand storm with large sand dunes in the distance behind him. He was really working hard to move his camels to another part of the desert. His outfit looked beautiful and his head scarf completely covered his face, leaving room only for his large sun glasses which were protecting his eyes from the sand.
However, his problem with the sand storm was my problem also. This scene was in the middle of a light sand storm, so the winds were howling which meant they were carrying lots of fine sand particles in the air - a nasty situation for expensive camera equipment. So I had to protect my gear with a wind break, jump out of our vehicle and quickly take multiple shots to capture this scene.
When I finished shooting, I jumped back into the car and carefully cleaned off the camera. Thankfully the camera and lens survived, and the image turned out great. The gold sand with the camels and the camel guide created a very colorful and stunning image that is now etched in my mind.
