Desert de Lompoul

This weekend I had the pleasure of traveling to a near-by desert with a group of volunteers. About a three hour drive from St. Louis, we made the voyage in open air trucks. By that I mean pickup trucks with benches installed in the beds.

Though perhaps lacking in the safety department, our seats provided us a great view as the landscape changed from city to farmland and accompanying villages, and then finally to wild scrub. The farms we saw were primarily onion, a staple in many Senegalese dishes, and as we passed we could actually smell that very distinct odor.

To get to the desert we took a scenic drive along the beach, which may be the most direct way to get to our destination. This was more like a waterpark ride than anything else, as our driver recklessly swerved to avoid incoming water and uneven shores. Luckily we safely arrived at the desert having suffered only minor bumps and bruises.

As for the desert, it was unreal. I'm surrounded by sand here in St. Louis, so before going it was hard to say what would be so special about a desert. How misguided I was. The sand is so fine that it moves in the gentlest breeze. And when it moves it looks more like a liquid than a solid. I also got to ride a camel! They're really not attractive animals, and I'm convinced that George Lucas employed their noises in his Star Wars films. All in all it was a great trip, and a nice way to keep Africa feeling exotic.