Journey Summary

We leave on November 8th for a journey that takes us through France to the Italian port of Genoa. From there the ferry takes us to Tunis, Tunisia, where we visit the first of the Roman sites at Carthage and try some desert driving in the south. We then cross the border to Libya, on to the capital, Tripoli. From here we visit the Roman sites of Leptis Magna and Sabratha before heading to the desert oasis town of Ghadames, close to the Algerian border. We then head south across the Awbari sand sea to Ghat (a town built of mud which collapsed following a downpour in the 1960s and Jebel (mountain) Akakus and across to 11 dune salt water lakes near Germa. From here we travel south to the border town of Al Katrun. From here it is at least 200km of sand driving to the border town of Madama, Niger. We head south on the caravan route to the salt town of Bilma. From here we continue across the tenere, past the tree of tenere (knocked down by a truck and replaced with a monument) to Agadez and hopefully a nice hotel! We'll try and explore the Air massif (yep driving through air) before heading up to the Assamakka/In Guezam border to Algeria where we meet our guide and head up to Tam. Over Christmas and New Year we see Jebel Assekrem, the Hoggar (pictured) and Tassili N'ajjerMassif famous for its rock paintings. We head back the same route out of Algeria to Niger, travelling through to the capital Niamey, more Sahel than Sahara, where we meet and follow the river Niger and head up to Mali. This is where there are the famous Dogon mud buildings then to the mosque at Djenne - the largest mud building in the World, and then up to Timbuktu - the place that was so famously difficult to European explorers to reach less than 200 years ago. From Timbuktu we will head west to Mauritania where we take an old caravan pist to Oulata, Tichit, Tidjija & Chinguetti. From Atar we head north towards the border with Western Sahara where we follow the iron ore railway to Nouadhibou. From Nouadhibou we head north to Western Sahara where John hopes to do a spot of fishing. In Morocco we will visit Marakesh and head up the west coast before taking the ferry to Spain and drive the length of Spain and France to Calais and home.