The treasure hidden in Sahara

by Camelia Muresan (Netherlands)

I didn't expect to find Morocco

“Wow, a New Year in Sahara desert! How would that feel like?", I thought when I accidentally saw that Facebook post. Such a trip could definitely fix a terrible bad year as 2016 has been to me. It brought too many non-sense events and disappointments. But seeing the last sunset of the year in the desert would definitely reconcile the unsolved business I still had with 2016 for being so tough on me. “I am going to this trip even if I’ll have to go alone”, I said. “Nothing can stop me.” I reassured myself. .... 10 minutes after the departure of my flight from Madrid to Rabat, I was still standing in front of the gate. Crying. My plan to spend 2 days in Madrid visiting my sister and then continuing my trip to Sahara failed. One important thing I disregarded in that plan was the anguish my family felt when they heard it. So the day of my flight to Rabat, while preparing to say goodbye to my sister, I realized how guilty I felt. “I am not going anywhere. I will stay here with you”, I heard myself saying. When I hear the voice announcing the closure of the gates, the tears started rolling down slowly on my cheeks. It felt like I just gave up on my dream because I didn't have enough courage to go for it. We spent that sunny day together, walking around Madrid. Yet, the day after, at 10pm I was ready to hit the road again. The only thing separating me from my destination was a 7hours BlaBla car to the South of Spain, 1h bus to the port of Tarifa, 30 minutes ferry trip to Tanger and from there 789 km trip to the desert. I still had 2 days left before the end of the year. The distance between Europe and Africa I measured it in numbers of holes felt in my stomach each time the boat was hitting a big wave. Gibraltar strait was very windy that day and the waves were restless. On the 31st of December, I onboard the bus to Merzouga, the place where Sahara desert starts. The bus was running slowly on the empty roads for many hours. It was getting less and less likely to arrive on time for the sunset. Will that year still end differently than I wanted it, despite of all my effort to fix that? As soon as the bus stopped, I started running desperately to the dune with the best view. I made it right few minutes before the sunset. As I was lying down there, I felt so grateful for that special moment that I could even call 2016 my best year so far. The desert was quiet. That kind of quietness one can only feel, not explain. I asked the guy sitting next to me to take me a picture with the last sunshine of 2016. After the short NYE party, I decided to stay awake the whole night waiting for the first sunrise of 2017. Diae, the guy who took the picture for me, joined the mission. We spent the night staring at the sky full of stars and chatting. If it wouldn’t have been for the cold that plundered my body I could have easily thought that the sky, the desert and the charming guy were just the product of my rich imagination. … The first morning hours off 2017 brought me quickly back to earth. The bag with my documents and my jacket have disappeared from my tent. The bus was leaving the desert without me. Diae decided to stay. In the time of driving along the desert roads between 3 different police stations the bag was found on a dune. My passport was still in the bag. This story could have finish here. But this is actually where the real story begins. In spite of all the odds of the events which followed the recovery of the passport, then the bank card being blocked by the ATM, the nervousness of spending the next 2 days in Casablanca with the family of this guy which I just met, the story still has a happy ending. 2017, 2018 and 2019 were neither better nor worse years for. Since the end of 2016, no matter what each new year brought, I could always count on a loving life partner, as he did in that first day of 2017 when he remained in the desert with me to sort things out together. .