once we got out of the city of chinguetti the dunes stretched so far there was nothing else to see. we mounted our camels, our two guides leading two separate lines. for three hours we rode up and down dune after dune. nothing but sand and the beating down of the saharan sun.


then one particularly tall one and we saw, as we descended, a grouping of trees in the crevice of two hills. an oasis. slowly our lines clopped towards the solitary greenness, the only living thing, besides a few shepherds and their flocks, we'd seen all morning. arriving near the trees we got off our camels then, to let them drink for a while. we drank some water and ate a pasta salad we had made the night before. lounging on the ground in the shade of the palms, we spent the rest of the afternoon napping, daydreaming, shooting the shit and drinking tea.

around 5pm, when it finally wasn't so ungodly hot, our guides went to find the camels that had been left to graze on the sparse grasses that grew in the sand. we were off again, heading back towards the city. an hour of riding and we stopped to set up camp. in what time was left the boys played wiffle ball as the sun set.

our guide made a heavy flatbread that he cooked in the sane under the fire he built, and dinner was vegetable sandwiches.

then we laid together on the ege of a dune, listening to 'explosions in the sky' on sam's little speakers.

we talked until the music ended.

and when it did the silence was incredible. no wind. no trees or bushes rustling. no animals, no babies, no people. no radios, no cars, even no bugs. if you held your breath the silence was so invasive it seemed to push on your eardrums. it was such a severe lack of sound, something i had never experienced before and probably never will again. the sound of nothing is shocking. a full moon above, bright enough to read by. the air becoming so cold that i shivered wearing a sweatshirt. and the silence, deafening. we went to bed, in sleeping bags and warm socks under the moon, blanketed in the quiet of the sahara desert.