We went to Morocco to ride camels in the Sahara at Christmas. We also wanted to see other sights, birds, and prehistoric rock art.

We visited the seaside village of Moulay Bousselham and the enormous tidal lagoon Merdja Zerga (the Blue Lagoon) and saw thousands of Flamingos with our local guide Hassan Dalil. Spectacular!

We spent a day exploring Marrakech. The highlights were fresh orange juice in the morning and a hot bath in the neighborhood Hammam in the evening.

After Marrakech, we traveled with Sahara Services. Hammid drove us over the Atlas Mountains to the Dades Gorge, we toured a kasbah, walked in the Jebel Sagrho and around the oasis village of N'Kob, visited the rock art at Ait Ouazek, bought souvenirs and dates, laughed and told jokes, and saw nomads, camels and donkeys.

When we reached the end of the road at M'hammid, we transferred from 4- wheel drive to camels. With Mohammed (BoBo) and Akmed, we walked and rode camels through the dunes and flats of the Sahara Desert for three days to the tall dunes at Erg Chigaga. Where else can you photograph square miles of dunes with no footprints on them?? The weather was pleasant and sunny. The food was great, the company was superb: we laughed at all the riddles. Only the camels moaned and complained. Songs around the campfire gave way to nights of galaxies and shooting stars in a sky of velvet.

We reached Sahara Services' permanent bivouac at Erg Chigaga on New Years Eve in time to hike to the top of the dunes and shower before the party: food, music, dancing on Berber rugs laid on the sand.

Abdul, who runs Sahara Services is great, and speaks fluent English. I planned the whole trip by email (saharaservice@aol.com). The guides took our family where we wanted to go. We were glad some of us spoke French. They provided vegetarian and vegan food for our kids, and baked the best bread we have ever had right in the sand. Getting to know the guides was a great joy. We will go back, and travel more with Sahara Services.