That's the moon rising!

(continued from previous post)
We arrived at Omar's (our guide) house around 11AM. One of his assistants asked me, "Are you only one Euro or are you salad people?" I assumed that he meant to say "Are ya'll from only one country or do you represent more than one nation?" Naturally, as we had people from 6 different countries, we began to refer to ourselves as the 'Salad People.'
After a much needed siesta and a quick visit to a beautiful oasis we found ourselves being led once more to the massive off-road vehicle. However, this time, we had the choice of riding on top. Naturally, 7 of 11 of us chose to hop on the roof and sit on the luggage rack. As we sped into the Sahara we held on for dear life. In retrospect, the entirely uncomfortable ride was a blessing in disguise because it made riding camels a lot more bearable.
We were dropped off in a small settlement of tents and told to wait. After a few minutes, we saw a herd of camels walking toward us. About 40 of them walked right up to us and started to eat from little bags of grain. I hadn't realized how massive camels are until that are standing right in front of you. At first, I was worried that one of them would spit on me. I quickly warmed up to them because are gentle giants for the most part.
The Camel Trekking personnel saddled them up for us and instructed us to hop on.
After everybody safely got on their camel we set off towards the massive dunes about 2 km in front of us. The ride was not exactly smooth as we walked across the arid land but it got significantly better as the camels stepped onto the golden Sahara sand. The sun was at a perfect angle to take those typical man on camel shadow pictures. Around 5 PM we stopped at a particularly high mountain of sand. We climbed up with our sandboards (sandboards are actually just snowboards) and took in the fantastic view.
The sandboarding was somewhat of a disappointment as the boards aren't quite that copacetic with the sand.
However, Lyall and I each had one really good run where we picked up a lot of speed and hurtled down the slope until we fell over or ran into the brush that inhabits the bottom of the dunes.
As the sun started to set, we hopped back on the camels. I named mine Nils. ( in honor of the E Street Band guitarist and also because he liked to Kneel.)
After an hour of riding through the dunes the sun set and it immediately got intensely cold. We finally reached our sleeping arrangements which were a small chain of tents.
That night, in Tent City, I enjoyed one of the best meals that I have had in the past month.
For the rest of the night, we made up constellations, drank a lot of tea and played in a Bedouin drum circle.
As it got later, we saw a bright light coming from the East. It was a white light and, at first, we thought it was a car driving over the distant dunes. However, the light came over the hill and we realized that we were watching the moon rising.
(To Be Continued...)

sorry for not having one continuous post. I am crazy busy these days.