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Today we start our journey through the Sahara Desert to Cario to trade our salt and gold. I have never traveled through the desert before but I have heard some interesting stories. Many have gotten lost and some that go into the desert never return. Part of the route of the journey includes sailing the Mediterranean Sea which shouldn't be a problem since everyone says that there is barely any trouble sailing the highway but at least we are not going to travel the whole way through the desert.

It is almost nighttime and I know we have only been traveling for one day but it felt like we have been traveling for an eternity. The blazing heat and bright Sun were something I was definitely not prepared to face.  I also didn't even realize how long it would take us to reach our destination but I didn't expect our journey to last for months! The man in charge of our trip said that it would take at least 9-10 weeks to travel the Mediterranean Sea so I cannot imagine how long traveling the desert would take us. We have a long ways to go and I have a feeling we will have a very eventful journey through the desert.

The image that I took is of a group that we had also seen traveling while we were on our journey.

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We have only been traveling for almost three weeks now but I'm not sure we will be able to continue our journey. We have not been able to find a water source since we started our travels and I'm worried our camels won't be able to last given the rising temperature. We are traveling with a lot of valuable goods and if we aren't able to bring them to our merchants then I'm not sure I will be able to keep my job as a merchant if I'm not able to reach my destination. We have a long trip ahead of us and if finding water on this journey is going to be as hard it is right now, I'm not sure our camels will make it. There are about 10 of us traveling in a group with about 11 camels so we must have enough water for them and even for us.

We have just encountered another group of merchants that are also traveling along the desert to the same destination. They told us that they travel the desert often and they are helping us find a water source for our camels and their camels with the temperatures getting hotter. They told us that we are close to Tuat and they said that once we get there, we will be able to get water. They have about 5 camels themselves so I hope that they are right. They helped us set up our camp for the night and we will start our trip there in the morning.

The image is of the camp that our merchant friends had helped us set up.

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It has been a few months since we have started our journey and now we are getting ready to sail the Mediterranean Sea to get to Cairo. The group of merchants that we had encountered about three weeks into our trip is still traveling with us and they will keep traveling with us until we reach our destination. They were able to get us to Tuat and we were able to find a water source for our camels which was a lifesaver for all of us. Both of our groups have decided that we are going to bring our camels onto the boats with us because we decided that we would still need them once we get where we are going. It may sound difficult to do but we believe that we will make it work. My group and I believe that we have made great friends along our journey and we hope that our paths cross again once we part ways.

We have been out at sea for about a few hours and I can say that sailing the Mediterranean is a very different experience from traveling the desert on camels. It has been smooth sailing so far but I do have a few worries about a storm forming but the rest of the group is confident that we will get through a storm if one does form. At first, I thought that the Sun was blazing in the desert but the Sun has been even brighter while sailing. I assume that the Sun is reflecting off of the ocean and we have been trying to find ways to lessen the brightness for our eyes. We have tried a lot of different methods but none have worked so I just hope we will get used to the bright Sun. Along with encountering new merchant friends, we have also encountered new sea life that swims to the surface. We have seen what many say are dolphins and we have seen a few schools of fish swim by. So far, I have been very surprised by our journey and I can't wait for the new experiences that we will encounter on the rest of our trip.

This is an image of the boat that we are using to sail the Mediterranean Sea.