I am a rain god. I’ve suspected it for many years – most of my hikes are in the wet, the Australian drought broke temporarily whenever I came home and it’s been raining half the time since I moved back. But I wasn’t really sure until it rained on my first day in the Sahara.
We had lunch at the family home of our guide, just south of M’Hamid under warm, blue skies. The afternoon walk to our campsite was only a couple of hours long, but during that time the sky grew dark. The first pass was just a light sprinkle, but when the wind turned, those same clouds dumped hail and a soaking rain on us for half an hour. The wind turned again, ready for a third pass, but that seemed to be all the Sahara could handle in one week and the clouds broke up.
I’m glad to say that the new camel hair Jalaha I bought for the safari valiently held off the worst of the wind and rain and quickly dried by the fire that night. It wasn’t enough, even with 2 blankets, to keep me warm enough to sleep as the sand released its moisture all night.