When we visit busy, crowded locations in Morocco, Rad uses a portable communication system so he can speak quietly and we can listen intently to the breadth and depth of his knowledge about Morocco. The device is called a "whisper", an orange power unit with blue earpieces. At Sandy Tents desert camp, a remote, comfortable destination that takes about half an hour by 4 wheel drive into the Sahara, the desert invites us to listen to its whisper and absorb a sense of the serenity, peace and timelessness surrounding us. We are a long distance from anywhere.
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When I say whisper, I don't mean I should make a sound. The desert whispers to me not the other way around. All aboard the local transport--dromedaries built for one for each of us. We looked at the sunset in our eyes sitting high atop the desert dunes at Erg Chenni. The sun set before us into a smudged haze while the moon rested on our shoulders behind us. Magic happens in the desert and it doesn't get more magical than this.
VIDEO Sand Dunes
360 degree Panoramic
The silence calms me. I have once again found my centre. The desert imparts a calmness deep within my "soul". We take photographs but the magic is in our eyes. We listen without the need to speak. We communicate to a place deep within ourselves.
Thank you, Maria, for bringing me to the place I belong.
Thank you, Rad, for inviting us to listen to the dunes.
Remote doesn't mean "roughing it". Our smiling, friendly hosts look spectacular in their traditional clothing. These are luxury tents with all the mod cons: air-conditioning, hot and cold showers, solar power and internet connection. Believe it. Australia could learn a lesson from Morocco when it comes to the internet, not just remotely, but in Canberra, the nation's capital.
I'm writing this at 5am. You heard me correctly. 5AM. What were you doing? Sleeping? The canopy of the Milky Way drapes across the sky above me. This is what I saw above me: the planets, stars, signs of the zodiac and constellations. This is some kind of magic. The morning saw us watching another dramatic sunrise above the dunes. At first, the sand haze obscured the sun until, hey presto, the orb of the sun unveiled itself. Stunning.
Hospitality from our Moroccan hosts, camels grazing under the supervision of their herder and friendly conversation from our travel family prepare to send us to our next caravanserai on the outskirts of the Sahara.
"Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind
Possessing and caressing me"
(for Kaye)
"Across the Universe" | The Beatles (Lennon-McCartney)
