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.
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