MOOR SAHARA: Days 29-35 of 273, 11-17DEC15, 848km to total 4,979km, Nouadhibou MAURITANIA (Country 2) to Saint-Louis SENEGAL (Country 3)

PLACES VISITED: 1) Nouadhibou, 2) Azefal Akchar Desert, 3) Parc National du Banc d’Alguln, 4) Mumgar (Village & Beach), 5) Nouakchott (Capital), 6) Rosso MAURITANIA, 1) Rosso SENEGAL, 2) Mouit SENEGAL.

OVERNIGHTS (All Bush Camps except where noted): 48km south-east of Al-Gargara in the "Azefal Akchar Desert”, 35km south-west of "Parc National du Banc d’Alguln", El Mhaijrat, Nouakchott (Auberge Menata, x2), Rosso (Camping back of Hotel Chamara) MAURITANIA, Mouit, 25km south of Saint-Louis (Camping Zebra Bar) SENEGAL.

MILESTONE MOMENT: This post comes to you at the end of my first 4 weeks and in this post I pass the first calendar month in Africa. It feels like 1 year because of all the tenting and un-tenting, clothes packing and un-packing, hot days and cold nights, dry chapped hands, wild hair and all the logistics and rules of bush camp living… but it IS speeding up. We are all getting used to it and the days now seem to be passing quicker.

BLOG TRAILER: This post is all about our journey through Mauritania. We drove through and slept in the Azefal Akchar Desert (part of the Sahara) and the Parc National du Banc d’Alguln (UNESCO protected and one of the largest bird watching sites in the world). We visit the seaside port of Nouadhibou (bustling but ugly) and the hot sandy, capital Nouakchott. We even ate camel and slept under the stars. Mauritania is very different from Morocco - much poorer and rougher and no real architecture or food to speak of. It can also be dangerous since there are still tensions between the local “Black Moors” of black African descent versus those of Arab decent (“White Moors”). The country has also suffered from unstable government and many military coupes. Refer PS below for more on Mauritania. The upside is that it has a huge coast along a pristine blue-green coloured Atlantic with no waves and easily ready for tourism unless beach sand pollution gets the better of it - it is here that I stepped on glass and cut my foot. Fish is plentiful and cheap. We saw the longest iron-ore train i the world at 2.3k and 168 wagons! I ate a praying mantic and kissed a gecko. In this blog I also sustain my first injury stepping on glass on the beach and cutting my foot. It managed to heal in just 3 days in time for my first run in Senegal!

DAY 29, Fri 11DEC15, 99km, Nouadhibou to Al-Gargara+48kmSE "Azefal Akchar Desert” MAURITANIA. Nouadhibou (Pop 100,000) reminded me of India. Abject poverty but everyone manages to dress beautifully without an ounce of dirt on their clothes. This is a port city with nothing touristy to see. At the centre of town is the main market with lots of fruit and veg but the meat and fish are covered in flies. There are old busted merc taxis everywhere carting people in and out. I spent 2.5hrs walking everywhere including into the residential areas where I saw people living in very sub-standard conditions. But this is good compared to the huge tin slums some 5km out of town. Walking in the markets is exciting - filled with the sites and sounds of vendors, goods and yelling. The range and quality was heaps better than Laayoune in MOROCCO where we shopped.

At 1pm we departed for the desert but went out of town to a fresh well to fill all our water jerry cans (twenty of them holding 20L each). On our way a whole bunch of local kids chased the truck with some of us throwing them lollies. One grabbed hold of the ladder at the back of the truck, hung off it, broke the cable tie and brought the ladder crashing down - lucky it did not hit him on the head! We were very lucky to see the famous iron ore train which is the longest in the world at 3 locos pulling 168 carriages totalling 2.3km in length!!! Then we turned off the sealed road and drove straight into the Azefal Akchar Desert under the watchful eye of our local guide Ahmed, a tiny, thin, dark little old man in his late seventies of Arab descent. He knows this desert back to front and we did not use GPS.

I turned my watch GPS on so I could track our journey and store it. Once I get on the internet I would download it onto my running website and it will show up in google maps just like all my runs - I could then trace it into my atlas. My watch also recorded all my runs, no matter where - no internet required to record - just the GPS! Our campsite was amongst the dunes and the evening was warm with no wind - we sat on top of the dune watching the sunset whilst sipping a French liqueur called Pistes. Magic. We had travelled 48km in 2.5hrs to get here with no road or tracks - just desert and a little old man. Dinner was minced camel on top of mashed potato! Tastes like salty beef and very chewy - it was great to eat something local. Tonight another first - I slept in a “mozzie pop-up tent” - it is in a circular bag, you remove it and throw it in the air and “pop”, it opens up into a cradle shaped tent covered in a thin, fine anti-mozzie mesh. There is no rain cover or walls so it is like sleeping in the open air with the stars above you. I set it up on top of the dune so I could see the desert beyond and the stars above. More Mauritanian magic!

DAY 30, Sat 12DEC15, 169km, Al-Gargara+48kmSE "Azefal Akchar Desert” to Chami+35kmSW “Parc National du Banc d’Alguln” MAURITANIA (Run 2). The light of the sun woke me up today instead of my alarm - my iPhone had run out of charge due to the cold. Luckily, the pop up tent takes seconds to pack so I made the end of brekkie and our departure of 8am. More desert but this time with wild camels and Acacia trees. It happened!

58km into the trip we got stuck in the sand! Even with the tyres deflated by 20% of their bitumen pressure, you can still get stuck. Everyone took turns digging the sand away from the front of each set of tyres and then placing specially made iron mats with round holes in front of the tyres - one for each back tyre and two for each front tyre. Then Grant drives the truck out over these boards. It took three goes before the truck was on firmer sand. Everyone enjoyed the experience but I suspect this enthusiasm will quickly disappear if we have to keep doing this! For lunch I ate a “Praying Mantice” and kissed a “Mauritanian Gecko”! All on film. We also saw many many wild camels just roaming the flat plains. What the heck did they eat and where did they drink? We got stuck again at the 70km mark and came out first try. Our campsite was in the National Park but it is still desert with smaller dunes. We arrived early so Roberto decided to go for a run with me. He started lagging behind and I wondered why. Before I had a chance to ask him he revealed to me at the 5km mark that he was desperate for a poo. I stopped the clock but kept running in circles while he did his business. He did not use a sock. He ripped out the netting of his shorts and used that! He swore me to secrecy. Did not say anything about the blog though. I had to write something because it reminded me of similar stories in Australia. We had grilled chicken for the first time and very early - it was still light. I decided to watch the ozzie horror movie “Lemon Tree Passage”. Not that great but the sleep was my best to date - it was so good that when I woke I thought I was at home in my own bed!

DAY 31, Sun 13DEC15, 136km, Chami+35kmSW “Parc National du Banc d’Alguln” to El Mhaijrat via Mumgar MAURITANIA (Run 3, Swim 1). Another beautiful desert morning with a routine that felt very easy for the first time. Is this whole thing getting easier? Maybe. I will let you know in another month. It was not long until we could see the Atlantic again. Beaut green blue colour but lots of rubbish left over by local fishermen. We reached the town of Mumgar (Pop 100). It was really a bunch of makeshift huts with whale bones around the main meeting hall (council). I then went off to get closer to the huts in the distance when all of a sudden a bunch of kids dressed in every colour imaginable run towards me singing - here was a film ready in the making. I brought them back to the truck and we all went crazy taking photos and film. Naturally the main act was the “dag dance” with all the kids - fantastic - some caught on very quickly!

Just a tad out of the town we got into too much sand and had to get out and push! Yes, push the truck along! Did not need to use the metal mats but dropped down the tyre pressure dramatically. What a sight but it worked! Just outside Mumgar we hit the beach for lunch. We would stay here 2.5hrs to wait for the tide to go down so we could drive on the beach itself. It was 77km to here from last camp. I went for a run along the beach and then a 1.2km swim - my first open water in Africa. Water on the cool side (guess 19C) but lap-able. The water was clean but the beaches polluted. Many locals had shacks on the beach and you could see them in the distance fishing. The my second drama of the trip. Just 2 metres from getting back on the truck with my cozzies on and shoes in hand I stepped on something sharp (probably broken glass) and put a nasty 15mm cut into the bottom of my left foot - bugger. Blood everywhere.

Alex and Bref came to my rescue and helped me wash it in the ocean and Alex put some antiseptic and one of his own swabs and tape on it. Tight and painful but no more visible blood. Just made it short of 3pm when the truck used the metal mats to get on the beach and off we went. Blue-green ocean right outside one side and yellow beach dunes at the other. We drove another 40km along the beach and then camped by the beach near El Mhaijrat. For me, dinner was the best to date with 7 fresh fish purchased from Mumgar that day cooking in foil on the fire, stuffed with onion and tomatoes. Delicious and heaps of fish per person - first time we had fish for dinner. Discussion was also very animated tonight. I put Betadyne on my foot with a light band-aid to help it breath and went to sleep.

DAY 32, Mon 14DEC15, 126km, El Mhaijrat to Nouakchott (Capital) MAURITANIA. I checked my foot first thing and the cut was still open but no bleeding. It was tender and soar to walk on. I put on more Betadyne and a loose band-aid and a new sock which I took off in the truck to try and dry out the wound. Today was a rest day and cook group which was well-timed to keep me from running on it. I need to somehow close the cut so it can heal. Chris suggested super glue, having used it himself. Dave had some but I decided to wait until we got to Nouakchott today to see if I could find those suture strips - if not then I would use the super glue. Nouakchott (Pop 1m) is only 50yrs old and grew haphazardly with crooked streets everywhere. It has one the busiest fishing ports and market in West Africa. When we arrived around 11:30am it was already 34C with dusty, chaotic main roads and traffic that did whatever it wanted. Once again, every second car was a beat-up old diesel merc and there was not a new car in sight.

This city is worse than Nouadhibou and takes it over as the worse to date. There is not much to see or do here. I set off with Riza and Roberto to see the main “Grande Mosquee" and in front of it were all the markets. Could not take many photos, even of buildings, since many people in the background objected. The eateries were very dirty and people sold everything everywhere, even in the middle of foot paths. Every second person hassles you to change money and they DO offer far better rates than the banks. Given the heat, we decided to visit the National Museum which was not much. We sneaked into the Pre-historic section because no one saw us and cooled off. Mauritania was mainly occupied by Phoenicians before-Christ then the Spanish Moors and France after-Christ. By this time it was coming on 2pm and the truck was coming back to pick us up from the city centre to take us to our hostel nearby. Bliss. Hot showers and the option to upgrade to a bed for 10AUD per person per night. Deal! Roberto and I shared as usual. I then discovered a laundry nearby and dropped off a bag of clothes to be washed and dried - more luxury at just 15AUD. I was on cook group that night and Chris led with hickory chicken pieces and cabbage salad pita rolls - really good and a hit with everyone - some said it was the favourite to date. I also cooked some falafel balls for the vegos and they said it was the best they’d had and were so good and plentiful that the meat eaters polished them all off with a new attitude towards felafel!!! Many had not had them before. By this stage I felt the sun had got me and retired early given that I was doing brekkie the next day and gulped down some hydrolyte instead of wine - it helped.

DAY 33, Tue 15DEC15, 0km, Nouakchott MAURITANIA. Today was wash day, supplies day and rest day. Nothing more to see or do in the city so I simply planned to shop for some medical supplies for my foot and fill up on olives, cheese and juice. My foot was going well. The wound was starting to close up. I would not run on it today to give it a chance to heal further - also it was too hot. Instead I did some blog corrections using the hostel internet and some banking. At around 1pm, Riza, Roberto and I decided to go for a leisurely lunch to sample some of the local fresh fish. We found “Le Prince” from the Lonely Planet guide.

 

It was good. Plenty of locals including suits. Huge portions. We had grilled fish from the crazy local markets (5km away) and they put a cheese sauce on top. It was good and only 10AUD. From here we decided to visit another Lonely Planet establishment called “Cafe Tunisie” just across the road for coffee. It is here that we had a long chat about “the group” and despite the diversity of cultural backgrounds, personalities and ages, how we managed to get along! We also talked a lot about our background, circumstance and what we intended to do when we got back. Laughed a lot about possible outcomes of our trip. It was a short walk back to the hostel - picked up my clothes along the way and then had a shower and re-packed. I skipped dinner since our lunch was so big and so late and because I had plans to buy a tub of ice-cream with the last of my local currency and watch a movie with Roberto. We did this at 9:30pm and watched the life story of "Saul of Tarsus" who later became St Paul. Not a great film but the ice-cream was delicious - it was a 0.6L tub that almost cost as much as the fish - goes to show you how expensive it is for the locals to import stuff they do not have.

DAY 34, Wed 16DEC15, 210km, Nouakchott to Rosso MAURITANIA. What a great sleep-in we had. The wound under my foot had now completely closed but was still a little tender and bruised. Put on runners and ran a little with not much pain but decided not to risk it and give it one more day to dry out. Up at 9am and spent the last of our local currency on juice. Did some banking and called mum. By 1pm we were “on the road again”. It had felt like ages but it was a good feeling. We were clean, well rested and well-fed but low on booze! We set out for the border with Senegal. The desert returned with no dunes but plenty of rock and heat and very flat. Passed many small villages comprising multi-coloured, box-shaped homes and kids running after the truck. The journey from the capital to our campsite at the border town of Rosso took 4.5hrs. As we neared the border the landscape definitely changed to a very even ochre sandy dirt with no rocks but many many umbrella-style trees. Lots of herders out here. What had not changed was the hot, dry conditions. We got to the border check at Rosso and were told that the ferry here was broken - to get across the boarder you need to pit truck and people on a ferry to cross the Senegal River. There are two rival towns for this purpose and the guy who told us the ferry was broke was from the other town! So we decided to stay in Rosso at the back of the fenced-off Hotel Chemama since the police did not want us to camp out in the open for fear of our security. We still pitched tents but had access to a toilet and the lobby lounge inside the hotel. Basic stuff but good enough for a wine and blog. I was down to my last bottle with the possibility of re-stock tomorrow in Senegal before our camp. I decided not to take the risk and buy a bottle of Dan who had stacks and even made a little profit - surprising for an American who hates America!

DAY 35, Thu 17DEC15, 108km, Rosso MAURITANIA to Mouit via Saint-Louis SENEGAL. Simple morning. Slept in mozzie tent (small, light-weight tent with no rain cover that just fits one person’s body - easy to erect). Our drive to the border was only 10min down the main road of Rosso. The border itself is actually the Senegal River. We arrived close to 7:45am and the wait started. By 9:30am we were on the ramshackle ferry crossing the river. Many of us walked onto the ferry behind the truck. Photos are strictly prohibited at all border crossings (that is why there are no photos in the blog) but with this one I found a loophole. I asked our border guide if we could take photos from the ferry in the middle of the river and much to my delight he said “YES”!!! Even Andi was snapping away when we got to the middle. I took some clips for the movie. At 11:30am we were on our way to the capital Saint-Louis, 93km away from the border. Landscape changed again to a flat brownish sand and hay-like dry grass with low trees with course green bristles. Lunch was by the roadside and we arrived into Saint-Louis one hour later at around 2pm. Then it was a mad scramble to change money and buy booze! We made it by 5min back to the truck before it left at 4pm! We walked over the old Gustaph Eiffel bridge that you will learn about in the next post. I got local currency at at ATM but Roberto and Riza needed a bank, which cost us 20min. I improvised and asked the bank employee where the nearest booze shop was located and SUCCESS, I found it and Andi inside it! We stocked up like a caravan coming out of the Sahara! I detected our lateness and asked the wine shop owner to order us a taxi to take us back to the truck. We made it by 5min! Our campsite was another hour away and by the river. Fabulous. I dressed to run on the way and launched. Fell back to Earth! Pain. My wound was not ready. I had the shits but collected my ego, set up my tent, washed some clothes and sat down to drown my sorrows in my new found wine! What a lovely evening. Under the pines. Under a clear sky. We ate our last stocks of chicken and sat down at the literal “Zebra Bar” for a few beers before a lovely sleep-in...

PS: A LITTLE ABOUT MAURITANIA:

Mauritania (Pop 3.5m) is famous for the true Sahara dunes and old oasis, caravan / camel towns of the movies (in the “Adrar” region), silverware, military coups, iron ore mining, old diesel Mercs and even bird watching. It is twice the size of France and the highest mountain is “Kediet Liill” at 915m. It also has the world’s second largest monolith (rock) after Uluru called “Ben Amira”. Mauritania was first settled in the 3rd Century AD by Arab Berbers (same as Morocco). It was part of the Empire of Ghana before the Berbers finally took it over and made it Muslim in 1674. By 1904 the French had moved in and preferred that the Spanish Moors (whites) take it over to prevent Morocco (also Berber) from assuming it so they gave it up to the Moors in 1960. This country is all about coups and trouble. Cannot understand why. It is hot, dry and inhospitable with no agriculture or precious resources. The seventies was bereft of democracy with mainly military rule and lots of conflict over the Western Sahara. After Morocco took it over the attention turned internal to conflcts between the “Bidan” (White Moors) and “Haratin” (Black Moors) and continues still with one general ousting the other. Finally in 2007 the constitution was re-written and democratic elections for the President put in place. How would I summarise or characterise Mauritania: dusty, hot, dry, lots of roadside Police checks, lots of busted up cars especially mercs, long flowing royal blue gowns with golden highlights, no booze anywhere, lots of very cheap fish, long blue-green Atlantic beaches with no waves.

PPS: DUST:

There was so much dust in the truck cabin crossing the Sahara in Southern MOROCCO, WESTERN SAHARA and MAURITANIA that I had to transfer all my on-board electronics into a water-dust-proof “dry bag” and had to wrap my MacBook Air in cling-wrap to prevent it from shorting. You can see this in the photo. 

PPPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA (and Mauritania): 

If African slavery had not existed, the population of Africa at the end of the 18th Century (which was 25m) would have been DOUBLE! Mauritania was notorious for slavery and only abolished it in 1980! Despite this, the UN reckons that there are still 350,000 slaves in the country, which is 10% of the population!!!

DESERT STORM: Days 24-28 of 273, 6-10DEC15, 1,766km to total 4,131km, Essaouira MOROCCO to Nouadhibou MAURITANIA (Country 2) via WESTERN SAHARA (Disputed Territory claimed by Morocco)

PLACES VISITED: 16) Agadir, 17) Tan Tan MOROCCO, 1) Laayoune (Capital), 2) Al-Gargara (Sand Dunes) WESTERN SAHARA, 1) Nouadhibou MAURITANIA.

OVERNIGHTS (All Bush Camps except where noted): 25km south of Tiznit, 15km east of Tarfaya (Camping Villabens) MOROCCO, 100km south of Boujdour, 110km north of Al-Gargara WESTERN SAHARA, Nouadhibou (Camping La Baie Ou Levrier) MAURITANIA.

BLOG TRAILER (Summary of what is in this post for those with limited time - to be included from now on before the daily details): This post covers the last of Morocco, our journey across the disputed territory of Western Sahara, currently claimed by Morocco and our entry into the country of Mauritania. Western Sahara is genuine desert - where the Sahara meets the Atlantic - starts off flat and rocky and then the dunes start. There are very few towns and they are all very remote and poorer than in Morocco. Read all about: our crossing of the Tropic of Cancer, goats that climb trees, Eurovision in the desert, my first “UNGOWA speedo” run around four Saharan sand dunes, our first taste of Moroccan wine, our six hour entry into Mauritania and the night the police ask us to move camp. At the bottom of this post is the usual “interesting fact about Africa” and more details on the territory of Western Sahara. At the bottom there is also a special feature on my daily routine of bush camping in the desert - just how do we manage life on a truck and in a tent. (That’s me with Sahara sand all over my already crazy hair!)

DAY 24, Sun 6DEC15, 329km, Essaouira to Tiznit via Agadir MOROCCO. Terrific sleep but the extreme damp in the morning finally got to me with a cough and phlegmy chest. Our drive to Agadir on the Moroccan coast, 175km south of Essaouira featured a special stop by Andi and Grant, who spotted two goats high up in an "Arcon Tree" eating leaves! This was covered by the STOP PRESS in the last post. Agadir (Pop 1m) is a bustling Atlantic sea port with oil refinery and what looks like many manufacturing plants. It does not have that Andalusian or Moorish or Medina look like the other cities - instead a big two lane boulevard straight through town and lots of hotels - some quite posh. We all did our final shopping and many visited McDonalds - the last before South Africa, almost 4 months away - you think I am bad with wine, you should have seen the Maccas fans scoff it down with tears in their eyes. Even I had a Sundae! The Maccas WiFi did not work, so I found a nearby hotel. Sweet talked the lady behind check-in and got my last blog up before the next 10-14 days of blackout across the desert storm. Our campsite, 25km south of Tiznit and at an elevation of 1003m was definitely at the start of the desert - two type of cacti, red dirt, salt scrubs but still quite hilly. No dunes and no run today due to the busy road and constant trucks. Roberto celebrated the start of our desert sojourn with a stash of white wine and the Sahara clock was ticking...

DAY 25, Mon 7DEC15, 411km, Tiznit to Tarfaya  MOROCCO (Run 4). I felt something touch my feet. I jumped up thinking that the two locals who had visited us the night before were looking to take stuff from our tents. It was only the wind. It was 3:15am. I settled back to sleep aided by the sound of a flapping tent. Morning was overcast and still windy. We are now quite proficient at packing up our tents. We left early and stopped in Tan Tan to pick up hot local bread for lunch and managed to find a great cafe with WiFi! It was great - posted some blog corrections and downloaded statements to do some book work as we drive through the desert - need to keep occupied! Lunch was against a cliff close to Tan Tan beach - looked much like the Great Australian Bight - sandy flat desert ending against Atlantic with high cliffs and wild surf. Along the cliffs was a huge blow hole and when the tide is high, the surf wooshes in and spurts up like a volcano.

We got to our bush camp site at 5pm, later than usual but we were further south so I figured sunset would be later so off I went for a run. What a beauty. The Atlantic on one side and the desert on the other. The truck was 1.4km from the road along a dirt road that blended into the surrounds so I had to follow the truck tracks. What a great feeling running alone. This is why I do it. I reckon that isolation brings out the magic in a place. Got back just in time to pitch my tent - now I know I can run at 5pm! Dinner was great not just because of the terrific eggplant dish that Riza cooked but because the night was short sleeve stuff with no wind and this place is known for its wind. You can see from the dunes in the desert. Just as we sat down to dinner, we could see headlights in the distance and behold, a car pulls up and two cops jump out. They wanted us to move, sighting security reasons - whatever that meant? I reckon they just wanted money! Andi and Grant tried to talk them out of it without success. So off we went to pack up our tents - bummer - just as we were settling in to wine and conversation. As we sat in a darkened truck, we all wondered where we would go but I knew. I had run past a camping site with hot showers and even the option of rooms - I even mentioned it at dinner! My bet was on that and I was right! In we went and what a place. Only two showers but they were made of rock and decorated. There was a separate, very large covered laundry and guess where I slept? There. I was not going to put up a tent a second time. Great shower (after three days of wipes) and washed all my clothes. I was clean again. Every cloud has a silver lining...

 

DAY 26, Tue 8DEC15, 442km, Tarfaya MOROCCO to Boujdour+100km via Laayoune WESTERN SAHARA. I slept in because I had no tent to pack and was not on cook duty! Luxury. Given the constant wind here, all the clothes were dry, even the running socks which always take 2-3 nights. Today was Western Sahara day. The border was only 25km away. There was a police check point and we stopped very briefly - did not have to show passports. Morocco also has a check point in Tan Tan which stopped us and looked at our passports yesterday BUT the United Nations and National Geographic both show the west-east border some 100km further south of Tan Tan. The landscape on today’s drive became flatter with all salt bush, no trees, rocky and no more Atlantic as we moved slightly inland. Western Sahara is very isolated with only 6 main towns, one of them almost on the Tropic of Cancer.

The capital “Laayoune” (Pop 200,000) has an airport with a boat service to the Canary Islands which start only 150km to the west. It is a city full of Moroccan flags just to remind everyone who claimed the Western Sahara. My cook group went shopping but it was slim pickings and only two butchers, one grocer and two dry goods. Crap choice and crap quality. Had to settle for Mortadella instead of mince since the beef and lamb were too expensive for our budget - not surprising - everything has to be trucked here. Lunch was in the middle of the desert. Completely flat and tree-less. We had to prepare lunch right up close to the truck since the high Sahara winds blew that sand around like a sand blaster.

For the rest of the day we just drove. The scenery unchanged. Passed by two main towns, both with military stations, checkpoints and plenty of Moroccan flags, buildings are bland blocks of concrete. The road through town expands into a 6 lane boulevard so it can double up as a runway if the military need to get soldiers there in a hurry. Saw few civilians. Still find it amazing how you can have a desert next to a blue-green ocean with waves - at least the locals have something to cool down with in summer! Tonight’s bush camp was amongst some rocky dunes and we were doing dinner. Dan led with a lentil soup containing carrots, potatoes, tomato, capsicum and zucchini. We were also doing brekkie the next day so we all slept in the truck to save time packing a tent (refer to “A DAY IN THE SAHARA LIFE” below). Tonight was lively so I exposed the group to Eurovision! The truck has a sound system with speakers inside and outside that you can plug your iPhone into. Denise from Switzerland immediately loved it, the English were divided and the Americans did not have a clue what Eurovision was. Imagine, Eurovision in the Sahara!!!'

DAY 27, Wed 9DEC15, 409km, Boujdour+100km to Al-Gargara-110km WESTERN SAHARA via THE TROPIC OF CANCER (Run 1). This morning as I was taking a poo in the dark and the cold desert air, my head light revealed a tiny moth like insect sucking on a delicate tiny desert flower. I thought to myself - even here there is life - you just have to take the time to look for it. Even after I am gone, this little moth and flower will still be here with thousands of others, in the heat of the day and the cold of the night, doing exactly what they were programmed to do. There is so much that passes us by and we take for granted. It is moments like these that reset our senses. Our drive today took us further south with a short pee and photo stop outside Skaymat which is about the half-way point along the coastal length of Western Sahara. This evening, I will be running my only day in this disputed territory since we cross the border into Mauritania tomorrow. Lunch stop was at the Tropic of Cancer around 11:30am.

Two signs on the road in French “TROPIC DE CONCER” and Arabic mark where it crosses and suffice to say many pictures (and in my case, filming) took place there. The closest town to the Tropic in Western Sahara is Dakhla. At one point on our drive, we had to divert onto a sand road due to road works and the entire cab filled with red dust to the point we looked like icing sugar dusted sweets. We do not want many of those diversions! The further south we go the drier, hotter and more desolate it gets. At one stage the sand was almost white, stretching flat as far as the eye can see and even blending into a hazy white sky. We stopped for 200L of diesel (1AUD per litre) at a town that had the only petrol station with a cafe attached and what looked like every male in the town inside - all ages. They asked us in French who we were and where we were going and offered us alcohol in exchange for our laptops and watches (we took them in just in case there was wee-fee). The place was completely desolate - I left thinking, what do these guys do out here? What quality of life do they have? It was not long after this stop that we were surrounded by huge sand dunes. What an amazing landscape. We then turned off the main sealed road and travelled along a makeshift track for about 10km until we stopped at the wall of a giant dune. Wow. This was to be our camp for tonight. It did not take long for a bunch of people to start climbing the dune.

I elected to go for my first run in speedos only. It was 3:30pm, blue sky and 30C. Love these conditions. I made immediate plans to run AROUND the base of this dune. Much to my surprise it was only 1.6km around so I ran to 3 more dunes nearby. They were 0.8km and 0.5km around so I headed to a much larger one which was 2.3km around. On my run, I stepped close to a palm-size scorpion! It was ugly. Black with translucent grey edges. Further on I saw a white lizard, about 10cm tall running on its hind legs like a lightening rod - boy was it fast and swervey. That explained the little tracks I kept seeing beforehand. Finally I saw snake tracks but I did not see a live one. After my run I set up my tent to dry-off in the sun and then ascended our dune along its entire ridge line - up one end down the other. I did this at sunset to catch our camp with dune under the soft glow of the sun. Wonderful.

To save time I took my shovel with me and left a piece of me at the top of the dune. I blame the lentil soup we cooked up the other night. Drinking wine around a bush fire with a wall of sand behind you was amazing. Rita and I drank Moroccan wine made in Meknes. I provided Pinot Gris (kept on skins to give it a light red orange colour) and Riza supplied a Grenache. Both were OK. We both agreed that the conditions in some of the higher spots along the Atlas ranges are ideal for vines. The lack of a wine industry here may come down to religion or a lack of investment. It did not take long to get to sleep. Wine was one reason and the other was the calming sound of the wind blowing sand against the tent at night.

DAY 28, Thu 10DEC15, 175km, Al-Gargara-110km WESTERN SAHARA to Nouadhibou MAURITANIA (Run 1). Today was Mauritania day. We set off early at 7:30am since we could be at the border for many hours, even all day. Al-Gargara is the Western Sahara border town.

We arrived at the border crossing at 9:30am. It took 2hrs to exit the Moroccan side. This is considered fast! Passed trips have had to sleep at border! We then drove approx 2km through what is called “no mans land” which belongs to no one except abandoned cars and TVs! There are even leftover land mines from past conflicts with Morocco. We had a pee break here and prepared our 120 euros for the Mauritania VISA. By 12:30pm we were being processed at the Mauritanian border post. The army inspected the inside of our truck and even sent in a sniffer dog. Luckily for me the dog couldn’t smell the Grenache or Shiraz grape so my stash was safe! It took 20min to process each person so we pitched lunch while we were waiting. It was hot. By the time we got our VISAs it was 3:30pm - a total of 3hrs and another record according to Andi and Grant. Since we finished up so early we had time to drive to a camping ground with water and power - yippee!!!

On the way the differences of Mauritania unfolded. Much poorer, plain concrete box type buildings for some and tin shanties for most. Lots of black Africans (Black Moors) and very dark Arab origin (White Moors) dressed in long white gowns. The desert is much the same, flat, dusty and rocky. Reminds me more of Dubai, Bahrain or Abu Dhabi than Africa. Lots of camels and goats, many in wooden pens by the roadside - their smell more than compensating for ours! Our camping ground was very small and more like a large private yard with a wall and gate around it. The Atlantic town of Nouadhibou is a dump. My run revealed miles of container ports, concrete manufacturers, iron ore storage depots and tons of rubbish around them. What surprised me was that despite all of this people dress so well - long flowing cotton garments (“Moretan”) and not one inch of dirt. Like India. It was great to shower after three days in the bush and the wine flowed that night in celebration.

PS: ABOUT WESTERN SAHARA:

“Western Sahara” is not a country but currently what the United Nations and International Law call a “disputed territory”. Morocco claimed it in 1975 with a 350,000 strong army settling the huge area (two thirds the size of original Morocco) to exploit its phosphorus which was in huge demand in the early seventies. The indigenous “Sahrawi” peoples were in no position to resist. They are simple nomads with alleged Phoenician origins. The UN brokered a cease fire in 1991 with the promise of a referendum for the Sahrawi to choose independence or co-existance with Morocco - they govern but Morocco officially owns the land and pays for infrastructure. The referendum has yet to be held so tensions continue in the area. Maybe this is why the police asked us to leave our bush camp and use a fenced-off camping site.

I noticed on my run and later in the truck that most homes and apartment buildings near Western Sahara are part of a walled compound. After the phosphorus boom the Moroccan government, declared the area, tax free to encourage Moroccans to settle there. As a result there is a thriving “duty free” industry where goods are shipped there from Morocco for Mauritanians to buy since they import everything. The population is now steady at 350,000 and not growing - despite the tax free status it is still a desolate place with hot summers and windy winters and nothing but sand and rocks! Our mission was to simply drive through it to get to Mauritania and to observe the edge of the Sahara and some incredible sunrises and sunsets!

PPS: A DAY IN THE SAHARA LIFE:

This summarises our typical routine as we drove 10 days across the Sahara through the disputed territory of Western Sahara and country of Mauritania. Cook group people wake up at 6am and non-cook group people wake up at 6:30am. Brekkie is at 7am and departure is at 8am. We drive until around noon with a pee stop around half-way. We could only shop for food at the start of our crossing. Everything else comes from canned and package food already in the truck for desert camping. Lunch is in the desert around noon. Then it is more driving until 5pm. This means about 8hrs driving at an average of 50km/hr covering 400km on sealed roads. Cook group usually starts cooking at 5:45pm and dinner is usually ready between 7-7:30pm depending on what is being cooked and the fire. Most non-cook people will sit around the fire and drink beer and wine during the cooking. By 8pm dinner is packed away and people will continue drinking and talking around the fire until 9-10pm.

PERSONAL POSSESSIONS ORGANISATION: I travelled to Africa with a main 80L backpack and a 40L daypack. The main backpack holds all my clothes (two of everything and all nylon/spandex), toiletry bag, medical bag, sunblock/insect repellant mix, water bladder and sleeping bag. The daypack holds all my electronics and is carry-on. When bush camping we only take what we need to sleep and dress the next day. So to fulfil this requirement in the most efficient way, I bought a big, rectangular, tough plastic, zippable, stripey bag that people usually stuff clothes into (lets call it the “stripey bag”). This bag has in it all other leather or plastic bags: my sleeping bag, toiletry bag, clothes bag, running bag, laundry bag and kitchen bag. The clothes bag only has what I will wear the next day, my head torch, my shovel/paper/wipes (separate bag) and my towel. The kitchen bag has my wine, cheese, olives, muesli, nuts and a glass (that Riza gave me). The laundry bag has wash liquid, rope and pegs. The running bag has my runners, socks, iPhone holder, ear plugs and sweat bands. Each two seated travellers have a huge storage area under their two person seat bench to share and store everything including backpacks, daypacks, snacks and booze. You have to remove your twin seat bench to get to the storage which is a pain when many people are doing it at the same time. The space next to mine holds everyones beers (shock - I share with booze!) so this is why I bought the big stripey bag to hold all my other bags so that all I need to do is remove it each arvo after my run and I have everything else I need so I do not need to keep lifting the seat bench. I then place the stripey bag back into the storage each morning before we leave.

PERSONAL DAILY ROUTINE: I wake up to the sound of my iPhone at 6:30am (non cook group) or 6am (cook group). Roberto and I have agreed a failsafe just in case we forget to set our alarms or our phones run out of power if it is very cold. If we do not see each other at 7am then we wake each other up manually. When I unzip my bag, I baby wipe my face and armpits, spray armpits, put on running singlet, shirt and wind jacket with only undies below so that I can bush poo next. I come back to tent, put on my UNGOWA cozzies (if running in desert) or the UNGOWA tights (if running in town). On go the pants and then I pack up all interior gear ready for truck. I can start running the minute we get to our bush camp at 5pm since I have light until 6:30pm and need 70min to run and 20min to pitch my tent afterwards. I then go to brekkie at 7am - if I am running that arvo I will eat Weetbix and muesli soaked in cold milk (made from powder) and instant coffee. Around 7:20am I return to my tent brush my teeth, swallow my vitamin and malaria pill and put all my gear inside the tent into the truck. I return to the tent around 7:30am to pack it up by about 7:45am with 15min of contingency before we leave at 8am.

We usually arrive at our campsite around 5pm. As we arrive I will remove my day clothes (nylon shirt and shorts), put on my runners (positioned in a bag in the morning inside the cabin) and go running immediately. Once I get back at around 5:50pm I will pitch my tent (this dries the sweat) and remove the big plastic zip bag from my storage and leave it on the truck. I take from it my toiletry bag and clothes bag into the tent, climb inside, strip down and baby wipe face, armpits, bum and feet and finishing off with spray deodorant (allowed before animals) before changing into my night clothes (second pair of nylon shirt and shorts). We are not allowed to use any of our drinking water to clean ourselves or our clothes when on bush camp, especially when crossing deserts.

I then take my toiletry bag and clothes bag back to the truck and put them inside the big zip bag since another rule of bush camping is no possessions inside tent until you sleep and even then you only take your sleeping bag, toiletry bag and clothes for next day. Finally it is now time to remove my kitchen bag from the big zip bag and sit around the fire with different people to drink wine and eat olives and cheese. Most of my time is spent with Roberto from San Paolo in Brazil - we are “brothers” now since we share wine, cheese and olives. If it is too cold or damp to sit around the fire, I will blog or watch a movie in my tent (rare). I typically sleep around 10pm, sometimes earlier or later depending on what everyone is doing. When I am ready to sleep I take from the big zip bag to the tent, my sleeping, clothes and toiletry bags. The big zip bag stays on the truck with all other bags in it. There is also an “electronics bag” which contains my laptop, all cameras and cables that I need to charge everything from one of eight truck cigarette lighters. This bag is always on the truck. I always charge on the truck. On cook group days I have no time to go for a run.

Up at 6am to start brekkie at 6:30am for 7am serving and we start dinner prep at 5:45pm. Then in the morning, it starts all over again…

PPPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA:

“Timbuktu” or “Tombouctou” in Arabic, was an Islamic city (part of the Songhai Empire from 1000AD to 1591AD) in modern-day Mali specialising in education and trading salt for gold, on a one for one value basis, since salt was the only thing to preserve food in or West Africa before fridges! There is not much there now and the town is highly dangerous. In 2012, 3 people were kidnapped from an overland truck exactly like ours by rebel soldiers. One was shot because he refused to organise ransom and the other two are still being held, even today!!! Relax. We are not going to Mali.

ATLAS MEETS ATLANTIC - PART 2: Days 22-23 of 273, 4-5DEC15, 226km to total 2,376km, Essaouira MOROCCO

PLACES VISITED: Essaouira MOROCCO.

OVERNIGHTS: Essaouira - Bush Camp (1) MOROCCO.

DAY 22, Fri 4DEC15, 195km, Marrakesh to Essaouira MOROCCO. Terrific sleep. A lot warmer than the Gorge. I woke at 6am under the gaze of Jupiter, Mars and a waning moon and set out for my first morning run in the darkness but wearing my trusty head torch (thanks Rozy!) - there was a blue glow of the rising sun behind the huge silhouette of the Atlas mountains. By 8:45am we were off to do our booze shopping - a very important mission! The road from Marrakesh to Essaouira is almost dead straight. Reason being that Essaouira was set up in the late 18th Century as the port of Marrakesh to compete with Agadir and Rabat for trade with Europe and it had to be as close as possible. After stocking up with 12L of wine, Dan and I had a half-pound Fuddruckers Burger with the works plus chilli fries (chips with mince and melted cheese on top).

I did this to remember the first time I met Paris in LA and because this would be the last fast Food for many many weeks… It was around 4pm when we found an adequate spot in a bushy, sandy area around 15km short of Essaouira. I learned a valuable lesson that night. Bush camp rules dictate that you keep your tent empty until you go to sleep and you take only what you need for sleep and to dress the next day - no money, no electronics. There have been cases with other travel companies where locals have walked passed or spied on a tent site and taken things, even whole tents with everything inside! I planned to watch a movie in my tent after dinner and left my laptop and sleeping bag in the tent for this purpose. When I returned to my tent after some length of time, my laptop was gone!!! I searched the truck up and down. No luck. I then “suspected”, only for a second, that one of my fellow travellers or even Andi/Grant may have passed by my tent and picked it up. Before I pressed the panic button, behold, Grant steps forward with my laptop in hand. What a lesson.

DAY 23, Sat 5DEC15, 31km, Essaouira MOROCCO. Essaouira was first occupied in the 5th Century BC but the existing city was founded much much later in the late 1500’s by a Muslim Priest named Mogador so this was the original name of the town until the sultans built the existing medina in the late 1700’s and renamed it to mean “beautiful city”. This town has a strange charm to it - looks a classic “Arabian nights” town that you would expect to find in the desert except it is against the ocean!

This look inspired Orson Welles to film parts of his 1952 movie “Othello” here. This place also attracted hippies during the 70’s and 80’s because of the good quality and very cheap hashish and attracted regular holiday goers like Jimi Hendrix and Cat Stevens - almost like a “Moroccan Byron Bay”! Keith and I entered the Medina at the gate “Bab es-Sebaa” and spent the next 90min wandering the much wider but less colourful alleys.

This medina is definitely more relaxed with much less hassling by the vendors. We passed the “Sidi Ahmed ou Mohammed” mosque on our way to the “Skala de la Ville”, a citadel with canons overlooking the Atlantic. From here it was a walk through the oldest part of the medina with well-worn dirt-like brick buildings down to the “Port de la Marine” where all the fishing boats come in with their catch for fresh sales and several cooking stalls that absolutely swamp you for their business. The “Skala du Port” is another citadel that sits next to the port from which all the famous photos of the town are taken, including mine… We then walked back to the large main plaza of “Place Moulay Hassan” where we sat down to a cafe au lait and wifi. Around the corner was the “Place Orson Welles” complete with a graffitied stone bust of the man - looks like he has blue eye shadow on.

Since our stay in the town was 9am-4pm and the day was warming up, I decided to go for a run along the main beach followed by a swim to clean-up since there are no showers at camp for next 6-10 days! The beach run was terrific. Huge long, open beach with brownish sand. No big surf since there are two offshore islands that block the swells. This place hosts many windsurfing world championships because of the high winds and lack of surf. The water was cold so I only spent 5min in it. Only two women and two kids were in the water with me and some families on the sand. The run and in particular the swim opened my appetite and this is the best place to satisfy it - heaps of fresh grilled fish. I scoffed down a 400g Black Bream and 4 smaller fish that looked like large Yellow Tail. Delicious. The only downside was the absence of wine or beer - not allowed. Instead I had to settle for coke.

Everyone was talking about Essaouira on our way back to the bush. It got the vote for favourite town to date because of its easy going seaside style and delicious fish. Camp was particularly good. Nice spot with plenty of wood making it a long evening of conversation. We also had our first soup (potato and leek) and even chocolate cake (with chocolate sauce) made in iron pots covered in hot coals - risky stuff but it turned out light and fluffy and delicious. This great town and cake made up for what would be a very damp night before tomorrow’s drive to Agadir.

STOP PRESS: “GOATS IN A TREE”: it is true! We saw them! On our way to Agadir, the next day, we actually saw two goats in an “Arcan Tree” eating the leaves, watched by a bunch of shepard kids. Here we are thinking that the photos we have been seeing of goats in Arcan trees (fruit makes the most popular Moroccan oil) are a result of PhotoShop but they are not. Go billy. Not billy tea but “billy tree” ha ha ha….