The sealed road took us about 500 kms further to the town of Icht in southern Morocco. The last few 100 kms were dark already and the neck muscles started to ache due to the cold of the night. But that was compensated generously by the hospitality of Borj Biramane. Philippe is a typical Marseillais with a great attitude and sense of humour. He is running this lovely campsite together with his brother and they both got it quite well: for once we have clean toilets, hot showers, good food, drinks and an unbeatable atmosphere all -in-one! But the call for adventure is never far away.
I managed to convince Caroline to ride the 400 kms between Assa and S’mara, in the Western Sahara that is, over the piste. A little bit of sand every now and then again means this is hard work for Caroline, so we decided to spend the night on the piste. No hassle with pitching the tent this time, but a lovely night on our matrasses under a starry sky. Priceless!
Our bed under the stars
Thats when bread and mackerel came in handy. It tasted divine!
The next day, hard work and sweat is al ours again. Temperatures rise to over 30°C and it requires a little persuasion for Caroline every now and then to get her through the soft sandy riverbeds. But we made it to S’mara, before sunset this time!
Tom on the piste to Smara
Caroline on the piste
We again challenged our hygienic limits as we checked into what appeared to be a hotel without running water. It was cheap, for sure, but I don’t have to explain the very details of the sanitary installations without a single drop of water coming out of the tap. There was spotty WIFI though, but that never flushed a toilet now did it?
An unforeseen repair of a broken off bolt on the fuel tanks made us take off to Dakhla pretty
late in the morning. About 800 kms and plenty of police checkpoints later, we finally started our search for those lovely beach cabins with view over the lagoon in this kite-surf Walhalla. But due to the lack of light we passed them without even noticing it and finally ended up in a shitty campsite with prehistoric sanitary installations. Dirty french toilets below and a shower above? I don’t think so. In the series ‘showerless days’, this would be number 4 in a row already.
Shithole below, shower above… No thanks :-)
But we were glad to find the cabins the morning after. A regular bed for a day or two is just pure luxury these days. We enjoy the loose atmosphere among the kiters and the good food and we take advantage of the WIFI to work a bit.
Tomorrow we will be heading to Mauretania. According to Philippe, there is ‘RIEN-RIEN-RIEN du tout’ there. We’re thrilled!
Stay tuned…