Climbing the sand dunes

Another adventure that we went on while on vacation in Hombori was climbing the sand dunes. Right on the edge of town, a 40 minute walk the desert starts with these incredibly high sand dunes. Paul told us to were good shoes for the hike and also we would want them for the sand. Well all I had was a good pair of hiking sandals (Keens) I thought that would be good enough.

The 40 minute walk was relatively painless despite all of the prickers that stabbed me. Once we got to the sand, which is when it got hard. Your feet just sink and my sandals filled with sand making it so that every time I lifted my leg, I felt like I was lifting half the dune with me. I finally took off my sandals and enjoyed the scolding hot sand between my toes. We played in the sand for a long time, but the sun was rising and the day was getting too hot to stick around.

The walk back felt like a million years. By 10:30 it was most likely 115 degrees and not to mention we were almost all out of water with a 40 minute walk ahead of us. Needless to say, it was the longest walk of my life. So hot, so far, so dehydrated! Some how or another we all made it back to civilization, i.e. the bar to find cold pop and warm water waiting for us. In the first 15 minutes back, between the five of us, we drank 8 liters of water and 6 Cokes. For the rest of the day we sat at the bar, drinking water and pop until the sun went down enough to walk back the 1/8 of a mile back to the hotel.