midday
The Libyan Desert stretches from Cairo to Assuan , but on the western bank of the Nile . Michael 's desire was for the uninterrupted ocean of sand which stretches from the shores of the Atlantic to the cliffs which give the Nile its sunsets . Its infinity of space drew him to it . In the desert , where a traveller begins his day at dawn and ends it at sundown , where the slow tread of his camel is only interrupted by a short halt for the midday meal , and the days roll on and into each other as the sand-dunes roll on and into succeeding sand-dunes , the sense of hours and days becomes lost . With nothing in front of the eye but an infinity of sky and distance and nothing active in that distance but dazzling heat , moving over the desert , the mind becomes a part of the intense solitude . The traveller 's ego is comatized ; he takes his place with the elements . When the traveller 's long day 's march is done , the wonder of the starlit nights makes his past life seem still more unreal .