Hassi Labied to Erg Chebbi Camp
Hassan, one of the guys that works in the Kasbah took us for a walk through the small village of Hassi Labied this morning. Many of the houses washed away or crumbled recently due to the breaking of the drought and the town is in a dry river bed. So of course when the heavens finally opened up the river ran and the mud bricks used to build the houses returned to their original form, mud.
The gardens or crops the villages keep were interesting with each family having their own plot of land. They have a series of trenches for irrigation and by building little dams across the trenches the water flows to each of the gardens in turn. They grow everything dates,corn, mint, onions, carrots…..
In the village itself we went to one of the bake houses. They are small communal mud brick houses with an oven inside for baking bread. How the ladies stood staying in there for hours baking is beyond me as the small confines of the bakehouse was filled with smoke.
We also went to the cooperative after that and viewed all the locally made carpets, jewelry, clothes etc made by various members of the assorted nomad tribes. These guys were no where near as pushy and Lou went on a shopping spree.
We got back to the Kasbah just after lunch and basically relaxed after some soup listening to music until it was time to get ready for the camel trek. There were six of us heading out this afternoon, two others had reportedly left earlier in the day. In our little group were a British couple, Liz and Mike and a couple of American Ladies Joani and Dena. We all mounted up on our camels with a little assistance from our guides clutching at the handle bar at the front of the saddle as the camel lurched forward then back with one more forward lurch to finally stand. Its a little unsettling at first let me tell you as you end up at a steep angle and it feels like your either going to be thrown over the camels head or go tumbling off the back. There is another name for that little bar by the way but I will leave it up to your imagination to call it what you will!
We headed out from the Kasbah in the late afternoon, it was overcast and threatening to rain but thankfully was not really all that cold. We zig zaged through the dunes and soon the Kasbah was left behind and out of sight.
Riding a camel is kinda interesting. The saddle, with the little handle bars (aka ‘oh Jesus’ bars and other assorted names depending on you favourite expletive used when shocked as you are being thrown forward or backwards at angles and feel like your going to fall off) at the front to hold onto goes around the hump. They place a folded up blanket over the hump as extra padding with another blanket thrown over the top. Somehow it all stays in place, though the camel has an ungainly gait that takes a bit of getting used to. For the life of me I can not work out how you could race on a camel. Now one sits on the hump or just behind it, makes a whole different set of problems if you are a boy one would guess particularly if there is not enough padding.
We were in single file with our guide on foot out front each camel tied in turn to the one in front. As we zig zaged our way over and between the dunes it grew darker with shadows spreading and the colours around as changing every moment. The glimpses of the village of Hassi Labied as we twisted and turned became more distant with the the seemingly never ending expanse of sand dunes flowing out in every direction.
At first we saw others out in the dunes, a pair on motor bikes, some walking laboriously up a huge sand dune on foot but soon it was just us with the occasional impressions made by other camels that had come this way before us that the wind had not yet blown away. We took a break for ‘Berber whiskey’, mint tea, I think more for our benefit so we could stretch our legs than the camels who all looked fine.
We finally stopped in what our guide called the camel parking lot before grabbing our day packs and supplies walking up the dune to see our campsite below. We walked down the dune and into the campsite just as the light was dying from the sky.
There were five tents made from large woven rough blankets and a kitchen and toilet to one side of the little camp. We were ushered into the larger dining tent with candles on the table of light. The night disappeared faster than I really expected it to with talk on everything from politics to travel and good food consisting of soup, tanjine and fruit for desert all prepared by our guide.
Right at the end just before we all turned in for the night the moon peaked out through the clouds making a guest appearance and casting its light across the dunes.
