Safari in the Sahara

As I have said before, I love deserts. I have experienced deserts in East Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. The Sahara is everything I could have dreamed of. Enormous, varied, beautiful. Hiding secrets at every turn. Dune fields, rocky outcrops, black fields of shale, oases of green - sometimes around a deep blue lake. Cave paintings older than the mind can fathom and seas of sand that stretch further than the eye can see.

Stunning.

And we are here for 5 full days. Words and photos cannot communicate all that is the Sahara, it begs to be experienced first hand, but here are some of the highlights from the first four days, in no particular order:

Some deep-rooted trees manage to survive here.

Varied rock formations about in the wadis.

Hooning across the Saharan sands.

Dragoman spelled out on the sand

Sunset over the dune fields of the War Qasr (Sea of Sand)

The Natural Rock Arch of the Jebel Acacus, vaulting more than 150m high. That speck in the bottom left is a land cruiser.

A photo of me for those who complain that I'm always behind the lens.

Sheer rock cliffs.

The Sahara is not all sand. However, this field of black shale was not deemed worthy of a name by the Tuaregs.

Magnificent cave paintings, the oldest are more than 100 centuries old.

Saving camels from dehydration

Tuareg with well endowed fertility cave carving in the background.

Sunset in the wadis

Mountains fading into the distance at sunset

The abandoned mud and brick city of Garama, once the capital of the Garamantian empire that controlled the Sahara and its trade routes in Roman times.