Sahara Desert

The Sahara Desert trip is the pinnacle experience for students studying at IES Abroad Rabat. This experience was what swayed me to chose this study abroad program in the first place, and it certainly was worth it.

When we finally arrived in the desert after our 12 hour journey, I was faintly able to see the outline of a massive dune. Thanks to the winds that day, the visibility was quite poor. It was so faint and so large I simply doubted my eyes, but when we went passed it again, the air had cleared. I had no idea that some of the desert dunes were so massive!

After we reached the camp, we joined our camels and headed out into the desert. I truly felt like a traveler crossing the desert. I was reminded of the thousands of journeys people took along the silk road, journeys I merely read about in history textbooks. My experience was in truth far removed from those arduous journeys, we had a luxury camp with three blankets on each bed just a twenty minute camel ride away. Nevertheless, with the wind and sand blasting my face, I got a tiny taste of the lives of ancient traders.

Being in the Sahara Desert, I was amazed by the fact that people have chosen for thousands of years to live in such harsh conditions. In earlier times, this was less of a choice, there were not highways that could take you to major cities or airports that could take you to foreign countries in hours. But to know that today, people still live in such inhospitable conditions is truly amazing. Among many factors, I am sure the sheer beauty of the desert keeps them there.

But above all, the most amazing part of our trip came after the sun set, and the starry heavens opened up to us. There was one hour of the night where the full moon had yet emerged from the horizon. In the complete darkness, the milky way was faintly visible, and thousands of stars were scattered from every point of the horizon. Living in New Jersey, I usually do not get a night sky, which made this experience all the more special. My friend Sean and I laid in the dunes and stargazed well into the night, an experience I will never forget.