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It is very difficult to explain the fascination of the desert to someone who has never been there. “What is actually to see there?”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry would say “I would only need to explain the rules of my desert to you for them to fill you with such power, that it would play no role whether you were bow-legged, egoistic, melancholic or sceptical, whether you came from the suburbs of my hometown or the streets of my oasis. I would only once need to send you on a journey through the desert in order to let the real man in you burst out, just like a grain springing from its husk, and you would fulfil yourself completely in heart and spirit.“
The desert has many faces:
Of course there are deserts with golden coloured sands and dunes that are sometimes several hundred metres high, something that every person who has never been to the desert imagines they will see there. The palette of colours of these gently curved, but sometimes steep rising dunes, stretches from white and yellow, to gold and ochre, all the way to intensive red tones. But these deserts only make up around 20% of the Sahara.
Besides this there are black “varnished deserts” with coated stone areas of desert, and flat pebble areas that endlessly stretch all the way to the horizon, something that we seldom see on our tours as such sights only exist at the very edge of the desert.
And then there is of course areas where sand and stone come together in extraordinarily interesting and impressive ways. Stone lizards, giant mushrooms, groups of people, complete fortresses and cathedrals with domes and towers, appearing as though the works of famous artists, but actually rising up from the soft multi-coloured sands.
The huge mountains either stack up to over 2000 meters high in strange shapes that simply can’t be found in Europe, or they form giant plateaus into which deep, almost right-angled, American style city “Streets” have been cut between the boulders. Here, in weather proof grottos, you can find the legendary thousand year old drawings and engravings, which often tell us of perished species and cultures, on the highest of artistic levels.
There are also gorges with lush vegetation and crystal clear reservoirs. The plants and animals we see everywhere, is another story in itself. In any case, we take you into this distant place with particular care, and paying particular attention to your “Survival capabilities.”
Which is the most beautiful form of the desert then? This is a pointless question to which everyone must find their own answer. One thing is for sure in this answer however: He who experiences the desert once, will always be drawn back. He is bitten by the Sahara bug.
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