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Tunisia

Saying goodbye to our hosts for lunch. Another great experience in Tunisia

I was dressed up as the royalty for the luncheon. Lucky me.

Looking down where we had lunch and toured part of the kitchen and sitting area. I walked up to the roof area to take the photo as we walked to the bus.

In the distance is our tent camp we will be enjoying the night in the Sahara Desert. Once we reached Douz, a town were all roads end at the edge of the Great Eastern Erg, the Great Eastern Sand Sea we switched to 4 X 4 Toyota's in the early afternoon.. This immense expanse of the Sahara extends hundreds of miles to the south.

After driving several hours we took a rest stop before our over sand dunes adventure the next few hours. It was definitely an e coupon ride over every sand dune we conquered.

At last we arrived at the tented camp. We had electricity from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. The general area we are staying the night in tents is called Kebili Governorate, one of 24 provinces in Tunisia. It is situated in south western Tunisia along the Algerian border. .

Winds over time will sweep desert sand into heaps which, given enough sand, form into a series of hills. Here the air currents form sand dunes parallel to the prevailing direction of the wind. These dunes have long, sharp ridge lines.

Vegetation does not survive in such spreads of hot dry sand. Only in rar

This is the camp not long before sunset. The shadows on the sand make for spectacular photos. You can see how the wind changes the landscape almost hourly.

Sunset on the Sahara is incredible. The shadowing on the dunes, the sky, and the stillness make for beautiful sunset. We took several bottles of wine, glasses and a few munches to enjoy the sunset. I bit of a hard climb on the dunes to find a higher dune to celebrate the sunset.

During the night after the moon had set, I went outside and just starred up at the stars, galaxies and nature. It was an awesome sight. There is no light pollution in the Sahara. The Milky Way is so spectacular. The stars are bright, millions of them. I saw a falling star race across the sky. I really did not want to go back inside the tent even though the temperature had chilled down into the night. I must have spent 45 minutes just taking the heavens in. Then at the first crack of dawn I was back outside again to catch the first rays of the sun casting the early morning rays of light across the sprawling sand dunes.

Tent number 10 was home with bathroom and a shower. Cement floor. On my phone I have the Sky Map App which helped me identify what stars I was looking at last night. I have tented in other parts of the world with dirt floors, no bathrooms or showers, no electricity. Just bare bones. After sunrise we all headed to the dining room and had a hearty breakfast before the day started.

About an hour into our drive we find a group of camels alongside the highway

To our surprise the camels and the camel drivers were waiting for us to arrive. I have ridden camels in different parts of the Sahara and other areas of the world. It is always a fun adventure to be the camel rider.

We were walking over the sand dunes to meet the camel drivers.

Camels are among the most iconic animals of the desert. The word 'camel' comes from an Arabic word that means beauty. Camels are working animals especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo.

They asked who wanted to be first? I was at that camel in seconds and climbing up for another adventure. This was the driver and camel I climbed up on.

The one-humped dromedary makes up 94% of the world's camel population, and the two-humped Bactrian camel makes up 6%. The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years

Nothing like a came and his driver.. best friends. They each trust each other.

A camel can drink as seldom as once every 10 days even under very hot conditions. The camel's thick coat insulates it from the intense heat radiated from desert sand.

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