MATING SEASON WAS NOT HEAVEN SCENT
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“It played with your mind too. For days and days, even for weeks, we were across land that was so extraordinarily flat.
“It was almost apocalyptic. There was nothing else – apart from each other and the camels.”
The party would set off at a brisk pace, walking the equivalent of half a marathon a day.
Alice said: “The wind was very strong and noisy – it felt like you were walking at the top of Ben Nevis. Sometimes there were sandstorms.
“There were dangers like snakes and scorpions – which we saw but thankfully they never did us any harm. One day we hit quicksand, which was terrifying.
“We’d decided to save ourselves some time by cutting across a sabkha, a kind of sunken bowl, where you know there is
a great danger of quicksand – but the sand was reasonably pale, not the deep redwhichredwhich signifies danger, danger and it felt solid underfoot.
“We were walking in our usual formation – Lhou and Addi in front leading Callum, Alasdair and Sausage, and Brahim and I slightly behind with Hunter, Hamish and Hector.
“Addi suddenly screamed out and, when I looked up, Callum was up to his chest in sand, plunging and rearing, his eyes wide in panic. Behind him, Alasdair went down too, dragging the last camel Sausage in his wake.
“Then, in slow motion, we watched as first Hunter and then Hamish sank down screaming ahead of us.”
Alice and the guides needed every ounce of strength they had to pull them to safety.
Another danger came at the end of ththe walk when they spent a week crossing an area filled with unmaunmarked landmines.
AlicAlice, who studied Arabic at EdinbEdinburgh University, said: “We had nneeded permission in advanadvance to cross this area, which was a militarisedm zone, occupied by the Moroccan army.
“We knew to keep to the piste, the dirdirt road, but at night you have to camcamp off piste and we would have to let the camels off to graze.
“In tthe morning the men would have to go and bring them in – and I was alwaysa concerned – but we came through it safely.”
AlicAlice was grateful for the SahrawSahrawi’s hospitality.
ThThe Sa h r awi s haven’ t experienced a good rainfall since 2014 and the plants their camel herds graze on are vanishing at a worrying rate.
Alice said: “The women would spray me with perfume – probably because I smelled so bad – and give us hot sweet tea and camel milk. They would give us water and tell us the direction of the next well, which might be 10 days away.
“They all thought I was mad wanting to ‘walk’ the Sahara.”
Alice has written three books about her travels, including Adventures in Morocco: From the Souks to the Sahara, which has just been published.
She said: “Being an adventurer is a very Scottish trait. My parents were adventurers. When I was very young, they left Edinburgh and took jobs as teachers in the African bush.
“They had no fear and brought me up like that.
It’s in my DNA.”
Hector
He has the most beautiful eyes, with the longest lashes. When he looks at you with those eyes for a treat, you do give him something.
A good strong worker. The alpha male of the group.
The runt of the litter. He liked to nuzzle you to get extra food but would never bite.