Traveling the Sahara Desert

You wouldn’t believe what my brothers, my dad, and I did last Sunday.  We took a tour to the Sahara Desert.  Our tour guide was like a genius and knew everything there was to know about it.  He told us that the Sahara Desert recieved less than three inches of rainfall per year.  It could maybe rain twice a week but then not rain again for a few years.  He also said that the Sahara is one of the hottest places on the earth and can heat up to 136 degrees fahrenheit.  There are few places to stop at in the Sahara Desert which makes it near impossible to cross the entire thing.  The desert is extremely dry and can dehydrate you at rapid speeds.  There are approximately 2.5 million people living in the Sahara today, most of them being from Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria.  I knew it was going to be hard to spend a day in the Sahara Desert, but I had no idea that people can live in those conditions everyday of their lives.  It is not only hard for the people there but also the animals living their such as rattlesnakes, kangaroo rats, and kit foxes which don’t come out in the open unless it is night out.  Other animals include the desert hedgehog, barbary sheep, dorcas gazelle, spotted hyena, toads, frogs, lizards, and sand fox.  The Sahara Desert takes up about 19% of the world’s total land and 25% of the Sahara is covered in sand sheets and dunes.  The highest point is Mount Koussi which is 11,204 feet high and the lowest point is 436 feet high which is below sea level.  It was fun visiting the Sahara Desert, but next time I’ll be sure to bring extra water and a lot less to carry in my backpack.  I don’t know how the tours there can handle being their almost every day and do that for a job.