The Serenity of the Sahara Desert

         Growing up I remember learning about the Sahara desert being the largest desert in the world.  It sounded enormous, remote and unreachable. I feel lucky to have been able to see a part of it during a recent visit to Morocco.
        Today, the Sahara can be visited by staying in one of the hotels along the dunes.  It is easy to walk to the dunes close by at sunset or sunrise.
        We took a more adventurous route, riding on a camel five kilometers into the depths of the desert.  We were charmed and impressed by our guide who led the camel on foot and spoke five languages.  He laughed at our GPS device by telling us that he had a GPS in his head and knew exactly where to go.  He certainly did!
         On arriving in the heart of the desert, we were left awestruck by the vastness of the landscape and the serenity of the atmosphere.  We could picture travelers struggling through the barren terrain taking days to reach their destination on a camel.   Dunes were visible as far as the eye could see and we knew they stretched well beyond that .
        Coming on camel to the desert seemed to be in harmony with the environment that surrounded us.  But also disturbing to see was the polluting effects of modernization - dune buggies racing through the dunes. Clearly, allowing these buggies to ride though the desert provide economic benefits to Morocco.  But they will have to evaluate if the  destruction to their treasured landscape as a result of it, is worth it.  This is another example of trying to achieve economic growth without damaging the environment in the process.
         Words cannot really describe the awesome scenes at sunset and sunrise and I am not sure my photographs can.  But I kept photographing till the light had died with the hope that I was recording at least some of what I saw, for the future.  As we reluctantly had to leave after sunrise, I still tried to keep capturing the scenes holding on to the camel with one hand and using my camera with the other!  I found that it is possible to get some steady shots with the camera if the lens is not too long and a fast shutter speed is used!  Enjoy my slide show of some of my Morocco images.
        This panoramic view of the desert was taken at sunrise.  Our lone host was walking through telling us it was going to be time to leave soon, looking like an inconsequential  speck in the grandiose landscape.  I feel by capturing a panorama of a scene I am doing more justice to conveying the expansive beauty of the landscape.