0415 A Day in the Sahara

6^th Feb 2016

Janet returns, fossil hunting, and 4 WDing in the sand dunes

The sky last night had so many stars in it that I can hardly believe they can all stay up there.  It is SO dark out here on the edge of the Sahara, with virtually no lights anywhere, that the sky is almost illuminated by the stars above.  So great to see. I then got up at 6 am, not just to try to get a photo of the dawn over the sand dunes, but also to make sure I was up when Janet came back in from her night with the Bedouins in the desert !  Mission accomplished on all fronts !

Dawn was beautiful, just before the sun came over the horizon, with the moon and even (I think) Mars visible.  Shortly afterwards= Janet and the other 9 overnighters (and Hassan their Tuareg guide and camel herder!) appeared over the dunes on their camels – Not actually looking too much the worse for wear.  After the had dismounted and done whatever they had to do, a breakfast was put on for them by Mubarek the campsite and camel owner, to which I was invited.  Janet confirmed my feelings last night that this adventure wasn’t really for me – She enjoyed it, but knew it would have been a rough night for me !

Not an hour later, we were off again – This time out into the Sahara in Troopie, but accompanied by a guide (Ali, Mubarek’s brother) in a Land Rover who had two Italians (Antonio and Therese) and their dog who wanted to go out into the desert fossil hunting.  So we were a tag along, and I felt much more comfortable with the second car there, not just in case we had problems in the sand, but more here because there are SO many tracks and trails out there in the desert that if you do not have a good GPS and instructions, it is too easy to get lost – And here even end up in Algeria which is only about 15 kms away, and it is NOT a good idea to stray too close to the border !

We followed the other vehicle all day, and initially Ali took us through some pretty soft dunes, but high range 4WD was enough to get us through as long as we maintained our speed and engine revs – 2^nd gear is the best way to get through.  Erg Chebbi and the range of dunes are probably about 20 kms long, and to start with we went a long way down to the south, soon leaving the sand behind and getting into pretty rocky desert.  We went up a couple of high hills where we stopped and enjoyed the view for miles out over the desert – and, as always seems to happen in Morocco, as soon as we stopped, a local would appear from behind a rock or a sand dune and try to sell you something !  A bit like flies in the Aussie bush – Where do they suddenly appear from as soon as you stop !  In this case they were trying to sell us fossils, but after a few polite No’s and a chat and couple of dates, we moved on., everyone satisfied.

We wandered on through the rocky desert, past donkeys grazing on seemingly nothing, past graveyards marked only by stones set upright amongst the others, and even past a seemingly deserted pisé (mud brick) village that in fact was quite occupied !  We passed waterwells, and then came across some very black frock where men were actually mining for fossils – And they were as black as the rock from all the dust.  They hand dig these holes maybe 30 – 40 ft deep, and then ditches as they follow a seam, and they use a primitive donkey winch to raise buckets of ore up to the surface.  We drove past several older digs just down the road – They did not look too safe, with no shoring on the sides or anything !  Hmmmm.

Not far from there, we drove off to the side of the track (piste) and parked, and slowly set off up the nearby hill.  Within just a few minutes we were finding all sorts of fossils – The biggest were these ones that looked like tortoises, with stones held together by a black webbing that was obviously the result of volcanic activity from long, long ago.  You hit these with a hammer and they fall apart very easily.  Other than that, long thin things that Ali said were fish, and curly shell ones (hey, I’m no geologist !), and it was actually quite exciting, wandering over the hills.

The views were just amazing in every direction – east towards Algeria which wasn;t very far away at all – Maybe 10-15 kms from where we were.  After the rock hunting, we headed further south and drove up a really steep hill, to find the most incredible 360 degree views over the desert.  As usual, the photos do not even start to come close to what it was like in real life !

We then turned north and started to travel up the eastern side of Erg Chebbi, with the big dunes on our left.  The colour variations not only between the black rockier desert to the sand, but also the incredible variations in hues between the sand dunes – Red, ochre, almost white sometimes – The changes were endless as we drove along.  We passed a mum camel with a baby she was still feeding,  and then we drove right through the middle of a Bedouin village (how the people live out there I really don’t know, especially in summer). And then up a couple of other smaller rises where we stopped to enjoy the amazing scenery. 

After that it was about a 40 minute drive around the northern end of Erg Chebbi, and then down the western side, passing Bedouin camps, buildings that looked like they had been swallowed up by the dunes, but were either active houses or hotels out in the desert !  And we found camels wandering in the desert, and followed dunes and dry concrete waterways across the sand, until finally we came back to our starting point at the campsite at about 1.30 pm. 

We decided to stay  at this great desert camp site one more night, so we set up again and had some lunch, before having a lazy evening just enjoying the desert right beside us, with camels and Berbers and Tuaregs coming and going past us.  By now most of them knew us, so there was always a “Salaam Aleikum” or a “Bonjour” as they passed.  Very pleasant indeed.

Photos here https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0415IntoTheSandDunes?authkey=Gv1sRgCLiX0uO1ioWOdw