You’ve been on the road for days. Stretching as far as you can see is the endless copper of the dunes, filling your entire vision. And the winds make sure that its very grains fill into the far corners of your eyes, mouth and clothes.
The irritation lasts only a fleeting moment before you hear something ahead.
Faintly, ever so faintly, something is looming within the whistling winds. Collective chanting. Fuzzy guitars. And drums that seem to capture the rise of your heartbeat as excitement fills your body.
Cutting through the waves of sands, dots of bright blue scatter the horizon. Blue, reminiscent of the waters that crash the shores of home you left behind. But it’s something even better. It’s people.
The wind that once pushed sand into bloodshot eyes now pushes you forward towards connection and something bigger than your self.
Image: The Blue Mountains (Izouzaouene) located 300–350 km northeast of Agadez, ‘Gateway to the Desert’ and the ‘City of the Blue People’.