I’ve always had this calling to go to the Sahara desert and gaze upon the stars. No light pollution for miles, nothing between you and the blanket of infinite white dots over you. Follow me on this journey where we traveled 10 hours across Morocco meeting strangers, Bedouins, merchants, and stumbling over beautiful landscapes.
“We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling, and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. ”
Our journey begins in Marrakech, we didn’t stay long, only for the night. What we did see were snake charmers in the medina, tight pathways that can get you lost, noises, and smells to confuse and delight your senses. We followed the smell into the medina square where we found ourselves on a rooftop looking over the medina. We ordered a traditional Moroccan dish called ‘tagine’. We ate our dinner as we watched the sunset. We called it a night, we had a mission ahead of us the following day: GET TO THE SAHARA
My weapon of choice: Canon Eos R and an assortment of lenses (15-35mm, 24-105mm and 50mm). The reason why I love the Eos R is because it’s light, versatile and the lenses are absolutely fantastic. The 50mm f1.2 is a beast of a lens. In the coming weeks I’ll be writing a review on this lens, so keep an eye out.
We mapped our journey through the Atlas Mountains and off we went. This is a journey done by traders, bedouins, travelers, and explorers alike and now we are doing this journey too. What you might or might not know is that the Atlas mountains are named after the ancient Greek titan Atlas who was condemned by Zeus to hold the skies from falling for eternity. Atlas was also known as a smart man and the founder of astronomy. There are many stories of Atlas, you might remember him in stories with Hercules and Perseus. If you want to learn more about Greek mythology, I highly recommend Stephen Fry’s Mythos and Heroes.
The roads were shaped like an anaconda swimming in the amazon. For 2hrs this did not stop and for 2hrs we put our stomachs in a battle against the road ahead. As we drove through the Atlas mountains we came across a caravan of travelers. They were all women going to the next village to sell their products. We parked our car on the side and had to say hello. Some were shy and some were extremely happy to talk to us. As we left our car to take their photos, my wife sat in the car to cover her self from the beating sun. A few of the women ran over to her and asked her to come out. They wanted to talk to her and get to know her, they asked her questions; where are you from? why are you here? We spent 30mins talking to these women. One of them even offered to marry me, but please don’t tell my wife that.
The road took us to our first stop: Aït Benhaddou. A marvel that sits almost 3 and a half hours outside Marrakech. Aït Benhaddou has been used as a filming location for some of the greatest movies and TV shows ever made; from the likes of Gladiator to Game of Thrones but before all that it was a famous caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech where merchants would rest, sell their products and move on to the next city. It was built around the 11th century but today people live around the old structure and mainly make their income from tourists. Saying that, this location is a tourist hot spot, but not far from here is a hidden gem very similar to Aït Benhaddou, which I won’t name, that literally has no tourists and is only known to people that live in the region. It’s a 30min drive from Aït Benhaddou.
As we walked through this castle we knew this was something special. We were only planning to spend around 30mins but ended spending at least an hour there. The architecture, the colours on the walls, the rooms underground, each corner taken felt like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. As photographers, film-makers, and explorers, we were not only in awe but at peace and for that reason, I shall never name this hidden treasure. I shall keep this place safe for others to find and experience what we experienced.
From the moment onwards, I knew this trip was going to be special.
We drove through the small city of Ouarzazate and parked our cars to have some late lunch. As we walked into the restaurant we heard drums and loud noises coming from outside. I popped my head out and on the street was a group of men in all white that looked like a small street party. Before I knew it, we were having a dance on the street corner. As they danced and sang, we were also dancing and singing. We were in the heart of it. They later invited us to a show they had that night in town but unfortunately, we had a mission: Get to the Sahara.
We kept ongoing.
The road we were traveling on is called the Road of 1000 castles, because, for obvious reasons, there are many castles. The roads turned from a dark brown color to a desert orange pretty quickly. As every hour passed, it felt as if we weren’t getting any closer to our destination. We were getting a little tired and just wanted to reach our destination, especially for sunset. As a photographer, all we really care about is golden hour and it felt like we were going to miss it.
From a distance, we saw a man with a dozen camels. Our driver wanted to buy some camel milk from him. He was traveling alone for miles and stopped to water his camels. His treasure travels with him to be sold in the market. We spoke about how he needs to make money for his family and that he needs to sell a few of his camels. We asked if we could take some images of him, he smiled and said yes.
The moon rises early across the equator. Darkness started to follow pretty quickly, we weren’t going to make it for sunset in the desert. We accepted our fate.
We arrived in Merzouga around 10 pm. Merzouga is the gateway to the Sahara and borders Algeria. We unpacked our bags and had a late dinner. As we ate with our host, he offered us (what I consider the best entrance ever) a camel ride into the desert in the middle of the night to our campsite OR stay the night in the hotel and travel into the Sahara the following morning. You know what we picked.
We put our bags on our camels, jumped on the backs of our trusty companions, and off we went into the night. As we traveled like Lawrence of Arabia, we felt what true travelers went through hundreds of years ago, silence, a destination, and stars taking over the horizon.
As I gazed upon the night sky I remembered a quote from one of my favourite books, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:
“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
I thanked God for getting us here safely and for blessing me to be able to live out my dreams. I set up my camera and got to work. The reason why we traveled across Morocco. To see the milky way and capture the following images.
Each of these images has played in my head for a while now. I pictured a young man crossing the Sahara with his camel under the night sky. The young man you see is the man that led us into the desert. Perfect images don't just happen by chance. They need to be planned long beforehand. There’s no such thing as luck, remember that: luck is where preparation meets opportunity. The stars aligned perfectly that night, the moon placed precisely in the sky to give us the right amount of light that we needed. We said yes to leaving instead of staying in, if we said no, we would have had a different person leading us into the desert - a matter of fact the following night was cloudy and with barely any visibility of stars. Again, the stars aligned and this was written for us.
We woke up at the break of dawn to see the sunrise over the desert. There’s something magical but also wild about the desert. Winds can come in out of nowhere and in an instant, it’s quiet. The sand battles our cameras, we need to use protective bags over lenses so we don’t ruin them. Sand might seem innocent but with a gust of wind, it can be deadly. We took our time, captured more images, and spent another night here.
I don’t know what it is about the desert, but there’s something unique and magical about it. Knowing this place was once a garden over 5000 years ago but now it’s barren. Who knows what it will become in the next 5000 years but what I do know is that I have left my footprints which have now, like everything else in life, has been wiped away with the sands of time.
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