| Modern technology has allowed us to visit many | | | | Tuareg Salt Caravans promise quiet evenings of |
| places that were once off limits, but technology | | | | ancient stories told under the stars sipping mint |
| still hasn't totally beaten the desert. The desert | | | | tea, and days travelling the same un-marked |
| traps cars and trucks in its ever moving sands | | | | routes as a thousand years worth of forebears. |
| and travellers can easily lose their way with no | | | | Your saddled camel could take you to Ksar |
| roads or landmarks, so the best way to embark | | | | Ghilane, every desert adventurer's ideal oasis, a |
| on desert adventures is on the 'ships of the | | | | cluster of green palms surrounding a still pool. Or |
| desert' -camels - guided across the expanses of | | | | to the Oases of Zagora, travelling between deep |
| sand by both a GPS and the stars. That's what | | | | rocky gorges and the huge dunes, Cheggaga and |
| makes the desert one of the few places to | | | | Djebel Saghro; the settlements you pass between |
| embark on a journey with the gung ho attitude of | | | | here are like ornate red boxes and lives tick by |
| explorer heroes like Lawrence of Arabia. | | | | as they have done for thousands of years - for |
| Like Lawrence, some mad men are drawn to | | | | the old ways of life and ancient cultures are |
| desert adventures as they can be an unforgiving | | | | another of the deserts temptations. |
| challenge. The desert's ability to both fry and chill - | | | | Camels are an acquired taste; they have a |
| yet breathtakingly sensuous dune lines are often | | | | reputation for being docile work horses, but their |
| compared, by the poetically inclined, to a lover, | | | | gait rolls like the ocean, which may be how they |
| usually female, and usually difficult. The endless, | | | | got their nautical moniker, and if they don't like |
| shapely and ever changing sand dunes radiate the | | | | you or another camel they're not beyond biting. |
| romance of the desert adventure and the sun | | | | Some guides will lead you into the desert on foot, |
| beating against them creates enigmatic and | | | | where you'll have the feeling of wandering |
| confusing shapes to beguile those who dream of | | | | aimlessly into oblivion, your feet crushing nothing |
| conquering her. | | | | but sand and your vista repetitive. A desert |
| Some desert adventures are quests; Wadi Rum is | | | | adventure through the Moroccan Sahara is very |
| one of the most spectacular desert locations in | | | | different to a walk up a mountain, you have to |
| Jordan, hire a local Bedouin guide and go on a two | | | | be open to some serious self reflection; the |
| or three day trek by camel and sleep under the | | | | vista's stimulus is unchanging but relentless. |
| stars. But if your interest is more for the | | | | To capture all the sensuous majesty of the |
| archaeological, then the ancient city of Petra, an | | | | desert you need to see it from above, preferably |
| abandoned necropolis of temples and tombs cut | | | | from the cane basket of a balloon coasting silently |
| into towering cliffs of red sandstone will delight | | | | above it. Easily the most romantic desert |
| you. | | | | adventure around. |
| The desert festivals and historic journeys of the | | | | |