"official" cold sahara post

In the end there were 5 of us that went with: a spanish girl, a german, a mexican, a korean guy and a south african (me). Having chosen Libyan airlines to fly us there, we were delayed by almost 5 hours - almost as long as it would have taken to drive to Sebha. Luckily our guide was waiting and after dinner took us to our tents and brrrrrrrrrrrr, it really was cold at night!

BUT, this is what we woke up to: (we couldn't believe it)

Then after a delicious breakfast, we hopped into the 4x4s and drove..... and drove and drove - over dunes and more dunes, while the scenery continuously changed around us. The trip was full of scenery stops and tea breaks and exploring. Of course we got stuck a few times, but our guides were prepared for anything. We manouvered over the most technical dune sections. They even had their own method to defrost our new years eve chicken braai.

manic and insane scenery, we couldn't stop snapping pics!

yes, we stopped to dig for water AND FOUND SOME!

And after the most chilled and mind blowing new years eve next to the fire chatting and eating (and then the following morning, exploring the highest dunes we had ever seen), we headed to the Ubari Lakes. The oasis' in the Sahara.

the trip was completely out of this world with awe-inspiring silences between us.

sabratha - ancient city

Sabratha is an ancient Roman city about an hours drive outside of tripoli, towards tunisia. It was originally built around the first century BC and much of it destroyed around the 4th century AD due to an earthquake. Some parts were rebuilt. The 2 things that struck me was how one can still imagine this ancient city thriving and active in its hey-days and on the other hand how little has been done to restore and protect it.

Pieces of the trip was spent 'kindof just parking off' watching the sea and enjoying the fine weather and imaging what it was like 2000 years ago. Appreciating the priveledge of being able to see these things. There are also some old latrines (yes, all alongside each other) and some beautiful mosaics that are still mostly intact.

The theatre (below) is the most amazing, probably because it was restored by the italians in the 1920s. One really gets a feel of how the once majestic space could feel like with the 5000 people that it could aparently seat.

...and then on the way back it looked like someone enjoyed a baby camel on the braai! (note the green 'flag' in the background)