Dear Pandas,

We’re not doing so well…you see, we happen to be standing in the middle of the Sahara desert at the moment. All alone!

Start at the beginning, Ella.

Well okay. Max simply had to go to the desert…

I thought the Sahara was like the biggest sandbox in the world. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much fun it would be to build sand castles, so I packed up my shovel and pail and headed out…

…for the Sahara. Sand everywhere, but guess what? You can’t build sand castles without water and there is none to be seen here.

It still looks cool: giant, yellow sand dunes as far as the eye can see. Someone mentioned to us that it would be too dangerous to go to the Sahara alone and that we needed to join a tourist group, so we did. We were a pretty big group and everyone got a camel to ride. Ella and I wanted to ride a camel together, but it had to be with two humps! We got a big sheet to wear and wrapped ourselves inside so sand wouldn’t get in our faces and also so we wouldn’t get a bad sun burn. As we were riding through the desert, a giant sand storm suddenly headed our way. Sand was everywhere and you couldn’t even see your own hand in front of your face. As suddenly as it came, it left us again. But then we noticed we were all alone! The people, the camels, nobody was there! What direction should we even go now? We had no idea, so we’ve just been walking in the direction of the sun for the past couple of days. Our water is running out and the camel is totally exhausted. We are too for that matter.

Wait a sec…Max, I see something over there!

Where?

Behind us! I think it’s an oasis. I don’t believe it! It’s Carl Caruso! He’s waving at us!

What? I don’t see anything.

Yes! CARL!!!! I’m sure he will rescue us! Quickly, Max, we’ve got to go!

Be good Pandas,

Max and Ella