I got on at 4.45pm – just after my camel poo-ed – and got a bit scared when it got up really really suddenly, the man helping us on was wearing a long blue robe, the smell of poo was stunning, some people on quadbikes whizzed past, lots of grunting went on from the camels, and everyone in the group was rather concerned about the bumpiness once moving. Then it got extremely bumpy, and I couldn’t write anything until we stopped (and had been saying ‘oh my god’ almost constantly while on the camel due to nervousness) – but almost everyone had been naming their camels: M called his Justin, G called hers Mikey, and J called hers Alan; and then Aziz told me he doesn’t ride camels because it hurts the boys ‘area’ and he prefers to exercise by walking. Then we got off and were asked by him if we wanted to climb the sand dune, and almost everyone did – so we set off, got to the half way point at 5.40pm and took lots of pictures, kept going, made it to the top just after 6pm, sat down in the sand – and got a lot of it blown in our faces (which I would describe as ‘uncomfortable’).

An enquiry was made about my notepad (I said I don’t really trust my memory because I can completely make things up), the wind increased while stood there, someone made some odd facial expressions (which I filmed) and then we all came back down and were sliding everywhere because of the sand, so Aziz told us to dig our heels in so we didn’t twist our ankles or fall over (and I was saying ‘oh shit’ a lot of the way).

The camp had been set up, everyone said it was lovely, we all got our own tent, and were presented with olives, walnuts and tea; Aziz got asked – once we’d all sat down – who the best and worst groups he’d had were, and then everyone began thinking of games to play, and M said ‘if we do, we’ll need Becky to document it’ (which I took as a compliment). K asked Aziz to tell a story (which he did), the wine came out at 7.45pm, and Aziz said to be careful about scorpions in showers, M asked a bit more about my notepads and memory issues, and then we came into a tent for dinner; a man called D in a long blue robe and turban posed with me, B, K and J, and all of us said ‘tagine’ before the photo was taken. Then we ate the food, K talked a bit more about her teaching, we all talked about snow, and K described a relative licking a plate and working at Vancouver aquarium; some bananas and chopped up oranges were given to us, and at that point – 8.45pm – the man in the blue robe and turban was about to light a fire in a big metal bowl outside. I took my shoes off and emptied an enormous amount of sand out of them, the conversation got on to poems, I talked about Burns Nights, K talked about her grandmother; and at 9pm, we went outside, sat by a little fire, Aziz, the man in the long blue robe and turban and a man called H in a multi coloured robe began doing some bongo drumming, which I filmed.

Then H got going with some castanet type things as well, B wiggled a bit, I filmed and continued to film, the wine came out at 9.30pm – when A took over the castanets, T was doing a bit of rhythmic drumming by that point and M got going with the other drum, I filmed more, A asked to have a look at my photos from earlier and complimented the 1 of everyone jumping on the sand dune, T was still going at 9.50pm, and by then, A was under a blanket, and the bongo drumming was still going at 10pm – when the stars were amazing. Then I went to the loo, lost another pen, T was talking to me in a really affectionate way while trying to help me find it, which I did, B let me try out what she termed her ‘cheap shitty Amazon tripod’, and was being lovely and holding a torch up for me, A told us what we’d be doing tomorrow, and said there are 35 spices in a burber omelette; K talked a bit about star formations, then asked about my memory and the encephalitis, and she said she thought it was really brave of me to do this, and the chatting continued until 11.15pm, when I noticed G heading for bed, so I went back in too, and got into my sleeping bag 5 minutes later. And lots more sand, camels, and a bit of quadbiking were to be included in the next 5 days of this trip.