Desert Rose

The magical Desert Rose, an oasis on the slope of holy Mount Meru, is built from only natural materials found around the building site. Everything is open and artistically created with bent pieces of wood that seems to transform into something different every time you look. Stone tables, wooden bathtubs, wooden couches with massive cushions, a pool, and wall-less bathrooms overlooking the holy mountains; Desert Rose is unlike anything I have ever seen before.

The day after arriving we took off with the camels and our guides - believe this if you can - 10 camels and five porter-guides! We were expecting a camel each and a guide/cook to help us. It was with somewhat confused and hesitant steps that we started off our safari. Had they not mistaken us for somebody else? That risk we soon deducted was not very big considering that there was nobody else in sight for miles. We were both giggling about how we should have brought our mahogany writing desk, and as we finally set out we felt like discoverers from the last century.

We were spoiled rotten for three nights and four days. We chose not to use the tent in itself but only the net, an easy choice the first night as we saw the star sprinkled sky, less so the following nights; The late night hours brought a few surprises.

Did you ever hear a camel at night? Did you ever smell the absolutely enormous outbursts of gas (we mistook them more than once for a lion roaring - a connotation that may also be explained by the huge tracks we had seen earlier in the day, and the fact that it was pitch dark and only a mosquito net separated us from this illusionary threat.)? I will bet you a beer that there is no other animal on this earth that can harbor such incredible amounts of gas. As a matter of fact, it is a wonder that they don’t rise like huge blimps in the evening sky.

The villages we stumbled upon once in a while were all deserted as the local nomadic Samburu were herding their cattle elsewhere at the time (any Samburu visiting our home will undoubtedly wonder why we have a broken donkey pack on our wall). We had a constant companion who spoke both English, Samburu and where that was not enough, had a rifle that acted as last resort. It was with his help a curious warrior we met on the top of a mountain communicated that he would like to try chocolate for the first time in his life. He liked it, but not as much as the blood and milk he was reared on. However, the aluminum foil it was wrapped in was a treasure to revere.

On the last day, after walking for hours and hours in this dry, arid land, sometimes accompanied by loud baboons and beautiful hornbills, a fantastic thing happened. Through the low bushes, a family of cheetahs burst out. Right in front of our little troop they sprang, and for a second it seemed like time was standing still. I have never seen anything so beautiful. Their wild gracefulness is forever etched into my mind.