Feeling hot hot hot!

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Well after finally managing to tear ourselves away from the pool, we picked a route to Merzouga in Erg Chebbi via Afroud in the Saharra. I plugged the co-ordinates for the dessert stop another overlander, Mac had given us and it recognised the route we had looked at on the map so off we went. The route to Afroud was really good as the views were different again with the road dipping down and across a river bed, where the river had erroded the sides to look like a mini grand canyon. At the end of the road it joined a main road which was interesting as we saw our first dunes, and Afroud was nothing special, just another town that has a main road run through it.

Just ouside of Merzouga the Sat nav didn't recognise the junction and said go straight on for 1.5 miles so I did, only to end up surrounded by big dunes. Being this was not what we wanted to be driving on just yet, we parked up and had a cuppa while being surrounded by the touts. After break we headed back down the road and down the correct junction and decided to take some photo's of some more impressive dunes, where someone happened to get stuck, twice. Once free we began heading south only to realise all the campsites from the book were behind us, so back we went.

Eventually we found the campsite La Tradition, which looked like nothing more than a house in the middle of the dunes, but the owner assured us that the camping area was in a shaded part around the back. Now his idea of shade and ours differ hugely as the shade he mentioned was nothing more than a gangly tree with a few leaves on. But we were surrounded by massive dunes and camels droppings so we stayed. Once parked up we were invited in to talk business over some berbere whisky, which is just mint tea, minus the peice of mint in the glass. Here he offered us camel rides into the sunset and off roading tours, all of which we didn't want and so he gave up and left us to finish our fiche's, something else we're all getting slightly fed up of filling in.

No need for a sleeping bag that night as it never got cold enough, and the sky was so clear we saw a satellite go across. As it gets dark early here it makes you want to go to bed sooner, so to use up the time I tried cycling across the dunes in the dark. It was great fun even though i lowered the front tyre way too much, it was better to keep pulling up on the front bars to lift the wheel out of the sand. But finding sand that would allow me to cycle was difficut as just when you thought you had it sussed, the sand would become too soft and you stopped dead. This happened quite alot, but I felt I had got really far. I then discovered another set of bike tracks going across the route i was going, only to realise they were mine, and I had some how circled this dune before, Doh!

The next morning we made an early start for a off road route which would take us to Zagoura. It was a 109 miles of mixed tracks from corrugated stoney tracks, to soft sand dunes, in a vast open space with mountains along the far edges. No dramas along the route but it did get bastard hot and dusty, plus we picked up a stranded French couple, who had driven there land rover down the same route but got confused in the dunes, so they tagged along with us until Zagora. 30 miles out of Zagora we came across a Moroccan mechanic driving a done up land rover, and by this time two of the trucks needed fixing so we followed him back to his garage at speed.

Once there the mechanics gave the guys the verdict and a price they liked so began fixing them. After and hour or so of waiting I got bord, so headed off to the campsite leaving the boys in good spirits. Once parked up and dinner cooked and eaten I began downloading the days photos, at which point the guys arrived. Though they were less than happy, as not only were they now tired from the days driving, but the mechanics had gone from being helpful to pushy, trying to force them in to having more work done and then to give them items for free, for them or for they're children, and while Mark and Alan waited outside the garage for Dave to finish, they were harassed constantly by children asking for everything. Unfortunately we must give the wrong impression on arrival, as so far, no-one wants to just have a friendly chat, it always ends in them trying to sell us what ever tat they are carrying. This has worn us down that we almost totally avoid contact with people here, which is a shame as I know people have visited this country and loved meeting the people.

Well another day and we have covered most of the country having driven over two and a half thousand miles to date and are quite far south. Now I believe the aim is to make our way north slowly heading back to Cueta over the last remaining 10 days in Morocco.

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