Returning North Through The Western Sahara

 From my cliff top perch it was only a couple of hours up to Cap Boujdour where I was planning a couple of nights at Camping Sahara whose initial impression would be off putting to many as a few ancient and abandoned French campers and cars were rusting away just inside the entrance. There was no one in the office so I sat and read for a while after having checked out the facilities which were unexpectedly clean and modern. Eventually a very friendly young guy appeared - he'd just been in to town for new mops and buckets. He booked me in and I chose a spot well away from the couple of other vans in situ and against a wall to provide some shelter from the winds. Later on a British couple with two kids and three spaniels turned up - lovely people living a very different life and all based in a venerable Merc van. A quartet of offroaders with roof tents arrived - they too tucked away behind the wall as the high tents and long travel suspension made for a rocky night if too exposed. 

I walked up in to town for a look around and noticed that all the cafes were lining up rows of chairs in front of TV sets as Morocco had a crucial game against South Africa in the AFCON tournament. A combined mosque, petrol station, shop and cafe seemed  to cover all bases and I was intrigued by the sight of all the male employees facing east and kneeling in communal prayer. I also spotted a large fishing boat being built behind a metal door and wished I coud have seen more as the craftsmanship looked superb.

Back on the site I tucked away to enjoy one of the many paperbacks I have brought along and kept an eye on the soccer results : Morocco lost and the fanfare that arose in Nouadibhou failed to materialise.

Next day I noticed that the gardien had turned on a borehole pump to fill the rooftop tanks but had obviously forgotten about it whilst he went in to town - thus for several hours hundreds of gallons of water spilled over and ran across flat roofs, down walls on to terraces and down staircases. I was tempted to turn something off in the small hut he had been in earlier but the potential to do more harm than good persuaded me to leave well alone. Later I walked up in to the town again for some basic foodstuffs and got chatting to a nice young guy just keen to practice his English for half an hour or so, he dreams of working in Europe and claimed to only earn £4 for a 15 hour shift as a chef - this seems low even by Moroccan standards where the minimum wage is set at about £240/month.

I left after filling up the water tanks and emptying the loo and the gardien was delighted with one of my finished books as he too was keen to improve his English but also bought four 5l bottles of water as the site water was a little salty, possibly the over pumping yesterday had dropped the level to a saltier part of the aquifer.

Strong easterlies on the 100 mile drive to Layounne blew large amounts of sand across the road so I was glad to pull in at the parking at Foum El Oued where several 4x4 trucks were also in situ. The huge empty beach back in to town was deserted and again the long tiled and illuminated promenade was equally empty with the same guys posted every few hundred metres in small shacks for no obvious purpose. It was a quiet night and I had a lie-in the following morning as I had decided to stay two nights. Later on I cycled around the largely deserted town, found a shop for bread, milk and yoghurt, carried on out to the port and then turned back spotting a familiar van heading in to town. It was the Italian couple who had helped me out of the sand and I caught up with them as they pitched up in a large empty parking area. It was good to see them again and we provisionally arranged to go out for a bite to eat but they called later to say it was too cold to be heading out. I guess if you've lived in Cadiz for 20 years 15 degrees is a bit fresh! Kids were playing footie bare footed on the beach which alarmed me as there is so much broken glass around, the plastic is far worse but at least in the short term not a nasty hazard. Salvo and Sylvi dropped by the following morning as they were off to try and buy a solar panel as unless they drove daily their leisure batteries were struggling but we planned to meet up in a day or two at Naila on the cliffs.

 

After filling up with water from the gardien and paying the 20 MAD per night I headed up to Tarfaya with the strong winds again raising huge amounts of sand. As an HGV passed a stone or something flew up putting a ding in my passenger door and giving me quite a start, annoying as I'd just got the van paintwork in tip top condition last Autumn in Brecon. Anyway at least it wasn't the screen and I'll leave it for now as there are plenty more miles left for similar mishaps to occur. I turned off the N1 to a place I fancied staying at but  was told by the military guys that day time parking was fine but overnighting wasn't allowed. At Tarfaya the kids were as persistent and cheeky as ever and I recognised a couple - however they soon got bored and were very polite as they skipped off. Having walked in to town earlier and enjoyed a meat and veg wrap with fries I cycled the few miles back south to see the wrecked ferry at sunset which was well worth it. Two fishermen below me hooked the smallest of fish but were obviously delighted and took selfies of their prized sardine as I set off back to town. A port security guard wanted a chat - he has an uncle living and working in Edinburgh and again wanted to practice his English so as I left the following morning I dropped off a couple of my books to his delight. I called back at the LPG depot where my 907s were filled for 80p each - these will now sit in storage until we return to Europe and I will use the local cylinders.

The N1 was largely a good straight dual carriageway although at one point it reverted to two way as it dropped in to a dry riverbed where an army Toyota was being winched up from the creek. Being open topped I suspect the occupants had been badly injured at best but there was only the recovery truck present. Crossing another similar creek further on I was unable to pass an ancient aggregates lorry wheezing up the slope as it belched out remarkable quantities of black smoke. 

 

Turning off to Naila it was an absolute pleasure to be back in such a unique spot and I parked up perched on the cliff edge and waited for the dust laden winds to abate. They dropped by mid afternoon so I walked out along the shore heading north to the dunes that curved out to the coastline before returning to pay the gardien his 20 MAD, talk to the two soldiers who took passport and vehicle details and settle down to watch a striking sunset. After dark behind the dunes that separated the sea from the lagoon I could see numerous powerful searchlights sweeping the coast for people smugglers as the elusive Canary Islands are only 10 hours away by fast Zodiac RIB.

 

Next day SnS arrived mid morning having failed to get a panel so I offered to charge up various power banks and gizmos as my panel had topped all my toys up - I need to find a way of using this remarkable amount of wasted power (imagine the potential - which is in the process of being captured - on an industrial scale) and ideally would like to use it to heat water via the Truma so I guess an inverter powering the existing EHU would do it. The Eco Flow one is only 300w with a 600w max surge so wouldn't be up to the job although it would run the fridge but that actually uses very little gas anyway and is currently working better than ever after its good clean out and service last year. I walked out south to the viewpoint over a large curve in the delta but missed a call from SnS who had arranged to go out on a tour of the lagoon in the local fisherman's boat. The following morning we all went in to the simplest of shacks where the day's catch was being dealt with. Mostly monkfish and squid with a metre long conger eel to boot. Food hygiene would have had a fit as we stood in the shack, cats waiting patiently on the ancient car bonnet, buckets of heads and guts spilling over and the older guy nailing the tail of each fish to the doorframe prior to gutting them deftly. The roes were retained, the cats got the innards and the heads went over the cliff to feed the gulls. I bought a prepared monkfish for 30MAD, no doubt including the infidel tax, but still fine by me and I left totally absorbed by the scene that has probably changed little in a thousand years.

 

After another quiet night SnS left only to return an hour or two later with fresh bread for me as they had decided it was a beautiful spot to spend another night. They have travelled extensively, previously in a Nissan Patrol and roof tent and spoke highly of Turkey, Armenia and Georgia which whetted my appetite. The three of us walked right out to the coast passing some huge dunes and a solitary fisherman who is out all day long and lives in a shack of plastic sheeting with the boat fishermen bringing him out water and basic foodstuffs in exchange for whatever he has caught - an unbelievably hard and isolated existence. On our return I left him a couple of oranges and a bottle of water which he acknowledged with a hearty wave. Sadly even out there the plastic water bottles and other detritus were ever present and a salutary reminder of man's awful legacy. There were a few more vans dotted about that evening and a different soldier came for our details carrying a powerful searchlight, scoped rifle and radio set - they clearly mean business and apparently most of the migrants are from West and Central Africa so like those arriving on more distant European shores will have endured the harshest of journeys - time to count our blessings...

 

We went our separate ways after another night under starry skies, in the early hours a pickup full of soldiers passed by but otherwise there was absolute stillness. A couple of hours got me up to El Ouatia on the coast a few miles west of Tan Tan where Camp L'Atlantique has provided two nights to park up, get two loads of laundry done at £4 a pop, deal with the WC and on departure tomorrow fill up with good water for the next week or so. The facilities are very good and appeal to perhaps a hundred or so French vans who are obviously here for most of their 90 days and have very much settled in with awnings, gazebos, flooring and outdoor kitchens. It's good money for the owners who keep the site well and are improving the infrastructure whilst employing quite a few locals and the nearby cafes and shops also benefit but I guess once most people return to Europe in March or April things will go quiet for the hotter months. I chatted with a guy from London in a 10m van on his first trip to Morocco - he was enjoying it but of course in a very different way to me and was grateful for some tips as to options further south.

Anyway after a couple more days on the coast I will be heading inland towards Tafraoute before reaching Agadir in 10 days time to meet Mandy and her brother who will be arriving to begin a ten day tour of some of this amazing country's finest highlights. So until a report from the airport carpark enjoy a few pics

HERE