Sahara

After a long drive we came to Erg Chebbi.  It is in the southeast corner of Morocco and home to huge sand dunes from the Sahara desert.  We had to go.  It was the highlight of the trip for all of us. 

The kids had an absolute blast.  It was one giant playground for them.  They ran down the dunes, slid on their bums, climbed up, jumped...  Simon was right along with them when he wasn't taking pictures.  I would have as well, had I not been six months pregnant.

This next part of our trip we are pretty sure got us "parents of the year" in the eyes of our children.  We had read about these excursions where you take a camel ride in the dunes to a camp and spend the night in a tent.  Once we got there we decided to give it a try.  When you ask the kids about our trip, this is the first thing that they will tell you "we rode on camels!"  The kids are still talking about riding the camels.  Conley rode with Simon and Auburn rode with me.  This just happened to be our kids first camping trip as well.  Camping in the Sahara, doesn't get much better than that.

Conley and Simon were on the lead camel.  Conley thought this was great because he was "driving" us.  (Right now everything has to do with a car)
The guy in the front was our guide.  He was on a mission.  We passed a few other camel groups.  We couldn't believe how fast he could go, especially since he was quite old. 

Auburn was a little tentative at first and then loved it.  It really only got exciting when we were going downhill and getting on and off the camel.

Once we got to the camp the kids played on the drums.

Simon (and everyone else) climbed up a huge dune to get a view of the sunset from above.  It was a little more than the kids and I could do.  So we enjoyed the sunset from below and later on though the pictures Simon took.

At the top of the dune

That night we ate dinner with the others in our camp.  The next morning we were up early to ride back to the hotel for some breakfast and showers.  Here is Auburn with our camel.

This was a popular excursion.

Simon and Conley