A night in Erg Chegaga with no tent

There were eleven of us and four tents. The camp at Erg Chegaga had overbooked by a group of students from Rabat, and the solution offered by our guide, Hassan, was simple and slightly alarming: sleep on the sand.

Making a bed out of a dune

You dig a shallow hollow where the sand is still warm from the afternoon, lay a blanket down, and put your bag where your head goes. The sand holds heat for hours. The wind, if there is any, arrives around two in the morning.

“In the desert you do not need a roof. You need to know which way the wind will turn.”

The sky, then

Around eleven the last lamp went out and the Milky Way appeared the way it does only in the Sahara — a band of dust and light so dense it casts a shadow of itself on the sand. Hassan pointed out the direction of Timbuktu, which apparently you can navigate by at night with two stars and patience.

We slept badly and woke up cold and completely happy. Breakfast was bread, honey, and tea made on a fire of dry palm roots.

Not recommended for everyone. Recommended for anyone who asks.