The allure of the Western Sahara Desert is lost on pretty much
everyone. It's flat, full of sand, windy and isolated. At least that's
what those who've passed through saw from their car windows. On a
bike, it's a different story altogether. Our experience in the desert
is certainly one of wind and sand, but also one of rolling hills and
vanishing points, ancient sea beds and tidal flats, blowing white sand
and petrified reefs, smashing surf and crumbling sea cliffs. A desert
created from the remains of long-dead sea creatures and inhabited by
small bushes, birds, gophers, foxes, lizards and a hardy bunch of people
known as the Sahawaris. It's a country within a country, occupied
for over 50 years by the Moroccans with parts partitioned off to
Mauritania, Algeria and Sahawaris supported Polisario. It's divided by a
500km berm separating Moroccan financial interests (mainly the
phosphorus mines) from the Polisario held land. The isolation in the
area is unmistakable and unexplainable. During the day the sun scorches
the land and the wind howls, at night the wind dies off, a heavy dew
sets down to nourish all that lives and the silence is total.
By the numbers:
ODO Start: 3340
ODO Finish: 4192
Total Km: 852
Days with a head wind: 1
Days with a tail wind: 2
Days utterly hammered with a cross wind: 4
Nights in hotel: 2
Nights camped out: 6
Nights in the back room of a gas station on the sketchy advice of two Italians: 1
Km ridden with nothing holding my back wheel on: 16 (broken skewer)
Km hitchhiked to find a new one: 78
Hours waiting for a ride: 2
Total Checkpoints en-route: 13
Litres of water on the bikes: 22
Flats: 0
Hub rebuilds: 1
Crashes: 0
Km spent in no-mans-land surrounded by landmines: 3.5
Camels seen stepping on a landmine: 0 :(
Dirhams left in pocket at the border: 1 (about 8 cents)
Days without health coverage (due to travel warning) - 9
Mauritania is another country in the same desert. Rolling into the first big city, Nouadhibou, the difference was obvious. Mauritania is poor. I thought Morocco was poor, but by comparison, Morocco was Bel-Air and Mauritania was the Bronx. Even the desert seemed less rich in life. Half-built cinder block buildings were the norm, encroaching sand dunes typical. The garbage collection was left to the herds of roaming goats and cattle - they had their work cut out for them. The place was ramshackle and total disorder was the order of things. We never felt so comfortable in our lives. We were, after-all, in a country with nomadic roots... which perhaps explained the semi-permanent appearance to the place. This was a place where we were happy to just hang out. As dirty and run-down as the place was, the food was delicious, the stores well stocked and the people seemed as happy as could be. Conversations were happenstance - a refreshing difference from elsewhere in Africa. The country as a whole has such a bad reputation that even our health insurance was invalid here. We were on our own, left to the whims of all who passed us. The ride to Nouakchott proved to be the most physically and mentally challenging thing either of us had ever done. We spent long days in the saddle, the first day battling a fierce headwind for 9 hours, toddling along at 10km/hr, the second sailing along with the wind for 8 hours at over 20km/hr. All the while we tried to keep the Gendarmes happy by complying with their system. Easier said than done. (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2142607)
The numbers:
Odo Start: 4192
ODO Finish: 4972
Total Km: 778
Most Km in a day: 161
Wild camping: 1
Campground nights:5
Number of hotel nights: 2
Number of hotel nights spent in a tent: 2
Nights with the Gendarmes: 1
Number of checkpoints: 16
Number of gendarmes who searched for us all night: 4
Hours searching: 13 (They were very impressed with how well we had hidden!)
Km ridden with a very wobbly back wheel: 65
Hub replacements: 1
Packages of cookies eaten in one day as we ran out of food in the middle of nowhere: 4
Rides refused when the going was tough: 5
Rides taken: 1
Km in the back of a gendarmes truck: 50
Gendarms disappointed to find out Elaine wasn't 'available': 3
By the numbers:
ODO Start: 3340
ODO Finish: 4192
Total Km: 852
Days with a head wind: 1
Days with a tail wind: 2
Days utterly hammered with a cross wind: 4
Nights in hotel: 2
Nights camped out: 6
Nights in the back room of a gas station on the sketchy advice of two Italians: 1
Km ridden with nothing holding my back wheel on: 16 (broken skewer)
Km hitchhiked to find a new one: 78
Hours waiting for a ride: 2
Total Checkpoints en-route: 13
Litres of water on the bikes: 22
Flats: 0
Hub rebuilds: 1
Crashes: 0
Km spent in no-mans-land surrounded by landmines: 3.5
Camels seen stepping on a landmine: 0 :(
Dirhams left in pocket at the border: 1 (about 8 cents)
Days without health coverage (due to travel warning) - 9
Mauritania is another country in the same desert. Rolling into the first big city, Nouadhibou, the difference was obvious. Mauritania is poor. I thought Morocco was poor, but by comparison, Morocco was Bel-Air and Mauritania was the Bronx. Even the desert seemed less rich in life. Half-built cinder block buildings were the norm, encroaching sand dunes typical. The garbage collection was left to the herds of roaming goats and cattle - they had their work cut out for them. The place was ramshackle and total disorder was the order of things. We never felt so comfortable in our lives. We were, after-all, in a country with nomadic roots... which perhaps explained the semi-permanent appearance to the place. This was a place where we were happy to just hang out. As dirty and run-down as the place was, the food was delicious, the stores well stocked and the people seemed as happy as could be. Conversations were happenstance - a refreshing difference from elsewhere in Africa. The country as a whole has such a bad reputation that even our health insurance was invalid here. We were on our own, left to the whims of all who passed us. The ride to Nouakchott proved to be the most physically and mentally challenging thing either of us had ever done. We spent long days in the saddle, the first day battling a fierce headwind for 9 hours, toddling along at 10km/hr, the second sailing along with the wind for 8 hours at over 20km/hr. All the while we tried to keep the Gendarmes happy by complying with their system. Easier said than done. (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2142607)
The numbers:
Odo Start: 4192
ODO Finish: 4972
Total Km: 778
Most Km in a day: 161
Wild camping: 1
Campground nights:5
Number of hotel nights: 2
Number of hotel nights spent in a tent: 2
Nights with the Gendarmes: 1
Number of checkpoints: 16
Number of gendarmes who searched for us all night: 4
Hours searching: 13 (They were very impressed with how well we had hidden!)
Km ridden with a very wobbly back wheel: 65
Hub replacements: 1
Packages of cookies eaten in one day as we ran out of food in the middle of nowhere: 4
Rides refused when the going was tough: 5
Rides taken: 1
Km in the back of a gendarmes truck: 50
Gendarms disappointed to find out Elaine wasn't 'available': 3
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