Madama to Agadez

Wednesday 14th December
We headed back for the tarmac road and shortly reached the final Tumu checkpoint, at the Libyan border. The fuel station looked like it had stopped working a long time ago. The men were all disappointed as they all would have liked some final cheap Libyan fuel. There didn’t seem to be anyone there so we continued on heading east, but after a couple of lorries flashed us it looked like we were heading towards a quarry, so we turned back and this time we found some people at the checkpoint and took about 20 minutes for formalities before we headed on in the right direction, now in Niger. It was a couple of hours before we got to the entry checkpoint at Madama. This proved to be our best entry into an African country. The military were lined up in their uniforms waiting to politely stop up and take our passports. They needed to do quick searches of the car, asked if we had any newspapers for them, but were quite friendly and chatted away. Unfortunately we didn’t have any newspapers. French being the official language meant that it was a lot easier to understand than the previous Arabic. A guy came over to us who was just leaving for Libya in his truck. He recognized Barbara, Lucas and John from the telephone point in El Katrun, Libya. He obviously already done his business in Niger and was now on his way back. One of them who was off duty, so not in uniform spoke excellent English and came over for a chat. A lorry was also being checked – it looked full, but there were lots of baggages and people adjacent to it all waiting to go back on. All the procedures were done within the hour, and John and Karin took a couple of group photos with them before departing. It felt like a nice welcome to the country. We soon stopped for lunch near a couple of acacia trees where there turned out to be a well hidden in a tyre with water only about a metre deep which was quite amazing in the barren terrain. I reread a front page newspaper article from the Independent in August. It also featured an article on the Nigerien president stating that he had bought stability to the country but not wealth in a country rich in natural resources. This seemed a bit wrong as the only resources I’d read about was uranium which has declined in value since Chernobyl and the world was watching who they sold the uranium to. With the vast majority of Niger being desert it isn’t too easy to grow anything except in the south. I was glad I hadn’t given the article to the border guards. We continued south passing no other vehicles. We had the waypoint for the Marbrous well shown on the Mitchlen map but couldn’t find it. We drove a few kilometers from the piste to camp. It had now been quite a few days since a shower! We hadn’t passed any traffic in Niger today but that evening John climbed up to the top of the rocks near us and saw a few vehicles traveling by night.
Thursday 15th December
Today was very windy and the sand in Niger is much whiter and finer. The dust was blowing up ahead before we even got to it. We reached the Dao Timu checkpoint as it was particularly windy and after braving the weather for a few minutes I decided to leave the guys to it and retreated to the car. They all enjoyed the friendly chit chat before we each got another couple of stamps in our passport – at this rate they were filling up fast. After lunch we drove between a couple of outcrops with a couple on small conical hills ahead amongst the sand and tucked behind the outcrop was the village oasis of Seguidine. Here the police point was opposite the school which appeared to be shut for the siesta hours, but there were lots of children who soon gathered around us. They were all busy asking for cadeau, one girl showed me her school exercise book and we took a few photographs. They gathered around to look at their images in the small digital format. With the police stamps complete John decided we would give out the T Shirts that Rob had printed for us. He got Barbara to translate ad hand them over to a nearby woman. At this point the Dutchies, Micheel and Karin left us to explore the Djado village area to the north west. Unfortunately our schedule was getting a bit tight to arrive in Algeria by the dates booked with guides. We may meet the Dutch again in Agadez. We continued south for a little way before camping up for the night.
Friday 16th December
We drove south for a couple of hours towards Dirkou, following a ridge to the east of us and soon an oasis was present at the bottom of the ridge. We stopped outside Dirkou for Barbara to make a phone call to the Algerian Consulate in Agadez to try and arrange visas for Barbara and Lucus to join us in Algeria. The phone call didn’t go to well with the girl at the other end saying she didn’t like to receive phone calls. As they both speak excellent French it was not possible that this could have been a communication error. We hope to get to Agadez early so the visas can be arranged. A motorbike had driven past us and returned to us with another guy on the back. They said to follow them to Dirkou, but we pretty much followed our waypoint to the police station. Here there were the usual formalities that took time and the more formal registering the vehicle entry into Niger. And we got our 4th Nigerien stamp. This was completed in about an hour when we were told to go and see the Mayor next door. This took a lot longer. He insisted that we need a guide to take us to Agadez. This meant a lot more negotiation for us all done by Barbara. He did not look over comfortable talking to Barbara and didn’t look her in the eye. He said that the Minister for Tourism in Agadez insists on a guide, but when questioned if this is for our security he said this was not the case. We had the route and waypoints so we did not need the guide. There was also a matter of tax for the car. After some time he phoned the Minister of Tourism for Barbara to speak to and the guy on the other end of the sat phone insisted we need a guide. The guide would have to come in our vehicles otherwise it would cost a lot more and only Kathy and Steve had a spare seat. The guide that was recommended to us was the man that had appeared on the back of a motorbike outside the village. We’d changed money with a man in the Mayor’s office who’d stayed on to watch Barbara and the Mayor’s debate. The price for a guide came to 80,000 CFA and 20,000 CFA for tax for the vehicles – about 100 in total. We also got fuel through the Mayor – a 200 litre drum for the tree cars. This we’d worked out to be 90,000 CFA, but they wanted to charge 10,000 CFA for the work. John gave them 5,000 CFA where the older man refused to give any of this to the younger helper as we hadn’t given the full amount. They were also unhappy with one of the 10,000 CFA notes which had just been exchanged in front of them with their fellow banker so Barbara went back and got this changed. They were only turning the handle at the top of the drum – it was us that were lifting the jerry cans into the car. #10 for this work would have been lots of money to them. They would have made a nice profit on the fuel too which would have come from Libya and cost about 7 pence instead of the Niger rate of 45 pence per litre. We did find out that the time was an hour behind Libya. Time had become a bit irrelevant to us with sunrise and sunset being the important events, but it does sound worse, now getting up at about 6:30 instead of 7:30. This isn’t too difficult when 9:30 is a late night! The Mayor offered to organize our food shopping for us so we did not get hassle – but we realized this would be very expensive and prolonged! So we went to buy a few essential items which for the group turned out to be bread and cigarettes for some. We then headed to the well for water after picking up our guide and luggage. We then continued south along the ridge to Bilma. As we got near Bilma our guide warned us that the Mayor of Bilma was like the one in Dirkou and would want lots of money so we skirted around Bilma before finding a camping spot for the night.
Saturday 17th December
We awoke to the singing of our guide. Barbara and Lucas were woken more frequently as he seemed to pray most hours. We decided to head back to Bilma to see this famous spot at the centre of the salt caravan trade. Our guide thought we were crazy heading the 15km back and started explaining that he wanted more money as he had spent a cold night in the desert and this would take extra time. Barbara had agreed with the Mayor that the price for the guide was regardless of how long the journey took, so we weren’t happy with this. It also meant that continuing with the guide would mean continued negotiation along the route and in Agadez so we decided it would be best to leave him in Bilma. The guide showed us the way back to the salt mines, to the west of Bilma. One the way back we passed two new aid vehicles heading out of Bilma. As we arrived a small caravan of less than 50 camels was heading off towards Agadez. There were piles of salt cakes lined up in two shapes – most in the shape of a cake, but others in the shape of traffic cones. Mostly the salt was quite brown, although there were a few white cakes. I’d read that the salt here is only used for animal, not human consumption. There were lots of camels waiting around unloaded and some people stitching together loads for the camels to carry. A number of kids gathered around us and asked for cadeau. Some were quite cheeky. Ali in the Sjbchenko shirt loved having his picture taken by Lucas and took lots of different poses and delighted himself by seeing his digital image. Lucas must have a whole films worth of different poses. For this he took his sunglasses and his car keys – but he did give them back! Zara spoke excellent English as well as French. One guy said his csravan was heading to Zinder in the south. The scene was very picturesque against the backdrop of the camels, buildings and ridge to the east of Bilma. As we left we told our guide we were leaving him here in Bilma not Agadez. He immediately wanted more money. 10,000 CFA and then there was the matter of money for the Mayor of Bilma for seeing the salt mines – although no one from Bilma was asking for it. We left him with 10,000 CFA which must have been excellent news for him. Bilma is only 30km from his home in Dirkou, unlike Agadez which was 600km! We then headed straight out of Bilma, not going to the centre or police. The dune formations leaving Bilma are quite unique with rows of dunes running east to west creating corridors. We managed to drift off our GPS route and John and Steve both got stuck. It now was becoming quite difficult to read the soft and hard sand in the bright sunlight and we crossed back over some dunes to get back to our waypoints. Towards late afternoon the hills of Fachi were visible. I couldn’t really see Fachi – an oasis village, which was tucked in between the hills. We continued on, avoiding the south detour to the police checkpoint to just far enough away to set up camp, crossing a couple of dune corridors away from the piste. The distinctive hills of Fachi could still be seen in the distance. That evening Lucas spotted a spider which John thought was the harmful camel spider. I quickly found my shoes and searched my Collins gem SAS survival guide! John changed his verdict and it wasn’t a camel spider. We took lots of photos but didn’t know what it was.
Sunday 18th December
We continued on towards the Arbre de Tenere and Agadez. The piste was now marked with lots of balise, like the one pictured which had obviously been used for a camel stop. I called Nova, my sister to wish her a happy 30th and tried to convince her I was on my way to meet her. She was a bit unsure with all the other surprises she’d endured. Half an hour later and after following some big tyre tracks we saw a lorry and then behind it a construction camp. We stopped and were met by two guys who said the compound was run by a Chinese company looking for petroleum. Steve gave them the few requested paracetemol and we were on our way. We reached the Arbre de Tenere just after midday. The tree was knocked down by a truck in about 1973 and the tree now sits in Niamey museum. Instead they now have a strange monument – which can be climbed, and a more tree like balise. There was a sign marking the completion of a well in May 2005 that can be drawn by camel. Except that the headgear for the well was now broken. There were two wells here and with the water being at least 30-40m deep it wouldn’t be easy to get. The Michelin map notes eau tres mauvaise a 40 m – which didn’t sound too appealing. The arbre de tenere is where our route met the main piste from Dirkou to Agadez that the truck use avoiding some of the sand. From here the landscape changed and we passed individual acacia trees and we left the dunes behind for a stony dusty landscape. We also passed a couple of tourist toyotos. We camped about 150km from Agadez. I stayed up late choosing pictures for the internet site. Well to about 9:45, but everyone had been in bed long ago – Barbara had retired to her tent before 7:30! I didn’t sleep too well. I think I was excited about reaching Agadez and having my first shower for a week. It’s amazing that your hair doesn’t feel very greasy. With all the dust it’s impossible to feel anything but dry!

Monday 19th December
We left at 8:30 for Agadez. We’d passed 10 to 15 trucks within an hour which was lots more than we’d seen in the last few days. There was very soft feche feche type sand for a while which threw up lots of dust behind the vehicles like they were on fire. I was keen to get to Agadez quickly – firstly for a shower, but the scenery was surprisingly interesting. The blue grey silhouette of the Air mountains could be seen to our right and the route was covered with lots of rounded boulders. We stopped at a couple of waypoints we had for some petrified wood and rock carvings. Then we reached an area of rounded huts which were mostly deserted. We were wandering if this was the first signs of the famine. When I asked in Agadez about the huts I was told that these probably belonged to the Tuareg. We then saw lots of goats and donkeys and these looked very healthy. We passed several wells with many animals being fed at them.
We arrived at a police checkpoint, operating out of a car under a dead acacia tree. This was a bit alarming at first as unexpected, but turned out to be just a few routine questions. The arrival into Agadez was quite sudden. About 2.5 km from the Agadez waypoint there was no sign of a town, then suddenly we were there passing many children in the street and into a very lively town. It took us a while to negotiate the streets and find the mosque at the centre. After looking at a couple of hotels, one full we checked in at the Hotel Tidane. Very quickly we ordered our first beer – it had been many weeks since our last beer in Tunisia. Niger beer has a nice label with a couple of giraffe, but not a fantastic taste – or maybe I’d just lost the taste for it. The guys spent a bit of time sorting out the vehicles and arranging with the local Tuareg to change the oils. The Dutchies found us – they’d arrived the previous night after taking a faster route from Dirkou.
After enjoying showers, even though the water was cold, but it was great to be clean we headed out to an Italian restaurant where they did great fresh pasta.
Tuesday 20th December
We started with an early morning visit to the bank to get Euros and CFA. No cash machines, but various queues with Barbara as our interpreter. Barbara, Lucas and John then headed off to the Algerian Consulate to get Algerian visas for Lucas and Barbara. The internet café in town set a new record for being the slowest ever. It was half an hour gone before I’d managed to do anything. There was no icon to load photos onto my blogsite which was quit frustrating as I now have lots of photos to go on from both Libya and Niger and this is what takes the longest time. Barbara and Lucas had to find the Algerian police to arrange for a multiple entry visa to Niger as although they’d asked for it, they’d only been given a single entry visa in Tripoli. They also needed to find a fax machine for an invitation to be faxed from Algeria. Only the fax did not get through by the time the shop shut.
Kathy and I attempted to go up to the top of the mosque in the afternoon – but didn’t manage to find someone who would let us in. The minaret is not very tall, but above the Agadez skyline in a pyramid shape with lots of blocks of wood sticking out the side. Sudanic style apparently. Kathy and I did a spot of shopping – leaving the guys behind for a more relaxing venture. We both got some sandals. These are sold with both the soles sewn together so you can try on one at a time. Once bought, I asked for mine to be separated and was quite surprised when a guy gave them a big tug to split them and the soles were covered in the skin and hair of some animal. That evening John, Barbara and Lucas thought it would be a good idea to go and get some food in the marche de nuit. The Marche de nuit – like a mini version of Marrakesh’s Djemna el fna with stalls cooking hot food was just across the road from our hotel.
We bought some fresh bread, hot doughnuts, yams, potatoes and just what John was dreaming of – a leg of goat! This was expertly but scarily chopped up with a sharp knive. There were some very thin kids hanging around the market. We gave them some of the meat. We retreated to our hotel courtyard where we enjoyed the food. The others went back to the market to give the kids our leftovers and head to the internet café for John to print off Barbara and Lucas’s invite from the Algerian agency. John had phoned earlier hoping an email may be easier than a fax. Only John couldn’t access his email account so it wasn’t possible.

Dune Lakes to the Niger Border

Friday 9th December
This morning we headed to the dune lakes. The route started right outside the campsite with many tracks heading down from the dunes and speeding toyotos returning from a night out in the dunes. We got stuck on the first set of dunes outside the campsite. Fortunately Kathy and Steve had walked the dogs this far waving us off, so we were able to use Steve’s pushing power. The first dune lake we reached was dry and we continued until midday when we reached Mavo Lake. This one was a bright fluorescent lime green. This lake is know to change colour, can go blue and red when there are shrimps in it. There was also the customary Tuareg bijoux stall next to it which we were to find next to every dune lake. We then headed the short distance on to Lake Gabron which has a huge dune next to it. This is definitely only one way driving – impossible to drive up. This was a bluey green lake and had the Tuareg swimming in it – none of us made it in. All the lakes were salty – some as salty as the dead sea and there was a sulphurous smell coming from it. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and the Tuareg were offering around some of their cooked meat which smelled good. Of course John and he’s fellow meat eater Argentinean Lucus took some. There were the remains of a village settlement around this lake. The people that use to live here were known as worm eaters. We then headed off on a longer stretch to Um el Ma – Mother of the Waters. This took a bit longer, getting stuck a number of times and some tempers were getting a bit frayed and our tyres had to be let down to less than 1 bar, relying on the inner tube. It was 6 by the time we reached the more welcome steep descent next to the Lake. We camped away from the lake to avoid the mosquitoes.
Saturday 10th December
We headed straight for Um el Ma.which was beautiful fringed by reeds and palm trees. Unfortunately the water was a bit of a mosquito larvae soup and being at the water’s edge was enough to pick up a few bites. We all enjoyed a nice morning stroll around the lake. Even the dune side was an easy walk as the frequent footprints had created a ridge in the dune which was easy to walk in. The other side was less pleasant to walk in with bits of camping waste. After everyone had decided against a swim we headed back to the campsite with a bit of a boys competition to see who could drive the furthest up the side of the dune on the way and a roller coaster descent.
Sunday 11th December
We fuelled up and headed towards EL Katrun, in southern Libya the border town. Mhmod had handed over his four wheel drive car. In Libya it is difficult for the Libyans to drive four wheel drives as they get confiscated by the police possibly on suspicion of smuggling goods, even if they do not have any. This must get a bit expensive for guides! They are only safe in their car when they are with tourists. Ramadan and Mhmod were now traveling in a taxi. The last 150 km the road gets particularly bad and Mhmod advised us to let our tyres down a bit so they were not damaged by the potholes. The route follows a line of pylons and the sand as blown to nearly completely cover the road in places. It wasn’t long before we’d all decided to drive off the road to the east as it was better for the vehicles. The scenery wasn’t very spectacular, but by 4 we’d arrived at El Katrun and got to Mohammed who lives in the Italian fort. He is well known on the Sahara forum for helping tourists with the paperwork as they leave Libya. We visited the market to stock up on fruit and veg which looked quite impressive as it obviously wasn’t grown near here. We then had a quick walk round the town – a typical dusty border town – the goats looked quite healthy though. We then headed back to the fort for the evening meal. Very nice soup, salad and hot spicy chicken and couscous. Unfortunately there was no internet in EL Katrun. Mohammed explained that there is a problem with the phone connection and a lack of internet has badly affected his tourist trade this year. He hopes to get an internet connection in a month’s time. We asked Mohammed if there had been tourists pass through recently. He had heard some motorcyclists had gone through in the last week. John had
Monday 12th December.
Mohammed arranged for the money changer to visit the fort so we could get our final Libyan dinars to pay for our accommodation, border formalities and provisions. It took a bit of time to do all the formalities, but we just waited in Mohammed’s fort courtyard while he did this before doing our shopping for the next desert stretch. It was at least 1:30 by the time all the formalities were done and we headed for fuel. We were keen to get going on the long desert crossing. With a final police check we headed out of El Katrun and navigated by the GPS coordinates. The first points looked wrong driving through narrow village streets until we got out into the desert. We reached Tajarhi again navigating through narrow village streets to find our first police checkpoint without guide help. We saw the checkpoint, but realized we were driving around a field and heading for some barbed wire. Lucas found re-navigated us back to the checkpoint. There were 5-7 men here and none of them looked official. One piece of paper with details of the four cars proved to be what was required. We then continued on another half an hour until Steve and Kathy led us off piste to find a camping spot in a hollow next to some dunes. The sunset was great that evening and was mirrored behind by the moon rising which created a half sphere of fantastic sky, so we couldn't capture it all at once. With some fast traveling clouds changing the sunset from wispy flames to molten lava we took many photos as we’d all scrambled to the top of the dunes. A great son et lumiere. First picture is Lucas' taken using his newly made tripod. After passing hardly any vehicles during the day, at night it seemed like there was a lot more traveling. From the dune top you could see vehicle lights and the sound traveled a long way, especially as the sand was soft here and the engines were struggling. Before I went to bed I was sure a vehicle was traveling towards us and I peered from behind the dune until it finally started moving further away. The next day traveling back to the main piste we could see there were quite a few parallel paths.
Tuesday 13th December
At about 1:30 in the morning the wind became very strong rattling the tent and the car. We’d tied a light and some rubbish to the side of the car which repeatedly banged against the car until I finally decided that sleep was not going to be possible and I climbed down from the tent and removed them. There was a bit of a lull in the wind before it got up again. Then there was the sound of a vehicle right next to us. This just turned out to be the Dutchies turning their car to get a better angle for their tent to battle the wind, not intruders. Sunrise when it finally happened was quite cold and still very windy. Back on the piste John drove over some wire which caught on the rear drive shaft which he had to stop and cut trough, but then after a few 10s of metres later the engine cut out. The wire had created a hole in the sedimenter which allowed air in, so needed a temporary seal. This was all within view of our next checkpoint which was perched on a hilltop in what seemed the windiest location possible. The main guy inside in his military clothes started speaking in lots of Arabic and seemed to be indicating that there would be problems for us with our journey ahead and gesticulating with his taped up Kalashnikov. With further confused conversation from him in Arabic and drawing on plans we tried to ascertain if everything would be OK if we stuck to the main route. The GPS proved to be the magic answer and Micheeal showed him his and he seemed satisfied and we moved on to talk about Tripoli where he was from and his kids. He spent alternate months between here and Tripoli. I think he just wanted to talk to some people for a while. Speaking in Arabic only to begin with and trying to alarm us enabled him to draw out the process longer and he spoke more French as we progressed on. His assistant in a warm winter coat made us some tea. As we tried to leave the wind and sand blew up again creating a bit of a sandstorm and he invited us back for 10 minutes while it settled. Soon after we left the checkpoint we saw a colourful African lorry with many barrels – pictured. We then passed a camel train heading north. By the time we were nearing lunch and read the route description to find a scenic spot which wasn’t so scenic and just a gravelly valley. After lunch we managed to bottom out a few times in the deep ruts. The second location was a great spot next to another camel train and allowed some good photos. I got worried that we were drifting south east of the waypoints and seemed to be heading straight for the Niger border but not by the official checkpoints, although the piste seemed to be well used. It turned our to be just a wider route around some soft sand. It was getting towards the end of the afternoon when we reached another Libyan checkpoint. This was a much bigger place and looked more like a small construction site with a new straight road next to it. It was quite tricky working out who were the most senior official people here. There was one guy with a Kalashnikov that wanted lots of photos posed with various member of the group and with the dogs – which were kept in the car. He didn’t seem the brightest and thought I would offer to take a photo as didn’t want to encourage him to pose with his gun drawn across him. One of the guys looked very smart in his Nike shades and Jellobah over his sports clothes. There was still one Libyan checkpoint left, but this one wanted to charge us a one Libyan dinar each and said our paperwork in Libya was completed. This process had taken about an hour. We headed towards the new road which proved to be more of a metal grid runway with lots of bigger holes, so we quickly crossed this and headed towards a tarmac road. We decided it was time to camp and took a while to travel from the piste and hide from the checkpoints. The sun was quite low by the time we hid behind a group of rocks and Lucas and John climbed up the neighbouring rocks on look out duty. While initially thinking someone was heading towards us, we were really well hidden. This was a cold camp spot and an early night for all.

Ghat to Germa

Weds 30th Dec continued.
Ghat was a particularly dusty desert town. Especially as we seemed to arrive in a bit of a desert dust storm. We checked in at the campsite and Steve constructed a great long washing line for a record amount of washing to be done. The temperature had risen significantly changing from winter for our first night in the desert, to summer; it was just difficult to see how the locals could bear wearing so any clothes. That evening we headed to the local café for non alcoholic beers. It’s amazing how widespread non alcoholic beer is – and at 2 Libyan dinar it is one of our most expensive buys. We then headed next door to a restaurant run by an Algerian who spoke good English and did great soup, plate of rice, chicken and chips and coffee. The plate of rice which was nicely flavoured was a bit much on top of the rest of the full meal. John who now claims his stomach as shrunk from small meals was unable to eat much of his chicken. We then headed to the internet café where as usual we though it was the slowest internet. Kathy was hampered in her speed typing by the sticky keyboard.
Thursday 1st December
It took some time for the guides to get the necessary permits for the Akakus region and cars to get fueled up with a bit of confusion about how much fuel we needed. We all stocked up on food for our next remote stretch. Shopping around town it was obvious that not many people are Libyan here. One shop owner was from Senegal, the man in the vegetable shop was from Egypt, there were a few Taureg around, tall and elegant and a few others from Niger. Again the car mechanics spoke perfect English and were from Nigeria. We headed back to the Algerian restaurant for lunch. This was when we realized there was no electricity in town. This didn’t hamper the restaurant much but meant no more internet. We wandered around the old town of Ghat which sits just below the fort used by the Italians. This has partially been restored since it was partially washed out by a freak period of rain in the 1960s. There were many Taureg selling jewellery. John showed no patience for shopping and quickly escaped. Barbara bought a pair of earrings. It was then mid afternoon and it was time to leave. Ramadan was getting concerned that it was too late to leave. There was still no electricity so the petrol stations were closed. The final problem was that this meant there was no power for the water pumps so we didn’t have water, so we had to stay another night in Ghat. We checked into another campsite in Ghat which gave us some time to relax ready for an early start the next day. There was a cheer as the electricity went back on. But when we drove into town, the restaurant, bar and internet café still had no power.
Friday 2nd December
We filled up with water and headed south to the Akakus region. On entering Akakus, the scenery was immediately stunning with the craggy rock formations, dunes and surprising amount of vegetation. The photos have not done the area justice with the sun bleaching out some of the colours. We stopped for lunch and John went looking for scorpions. He found a small one. The area has lots of long side alleys and canyons for exploring which means navigation by GPS instead of a guide could be difficult – we just need to be the other side of the rock. The pace was slowed down and quite relaxing climbing to rock ledges and admiring the view. We saw a rock pool which looked to cold and cloudy to be inviting for a swim. Mohamed picked us a good camping spot in the shadow of some big rocks which Michael immediately took to climbing. Mohamed showed us a scorpion in a jam jar – we thought it was dead, but apparently just asleep. Unfortunately John missed the scorpion as he was in a bonding session with Dillon taking him for a long walk. He now thinks him and Dillon are best of mates.
Saturday 3rd December
We drove to a huge rock arch – pictured, but in the more scenic views without the tyre tracks it does not show its majestic height. We drove around the alleys looking at some of the rock art that the region is famous for, particularly the painting. This was really only discovered in the 1940’s and is up to 8000 years old. The paintings were mainly found under overhanging rocks, or flat lower faces. At lunchtime a Taureg joined us and helped our guide find more paintings and another rock pool. We set up camp early and enjoyed the late afternoon sun. Barbara was left abandoned with the picnic table while Lucas was off looking for the guides who were searching for firewood.
Sunday 4th December
We carried on further exploration of the valleys and paintings and another arch. The rocks have some great unusual shapes. At lunchtime we had just reached the top of a slope which John immediately recognized as the cover of the Chris Scott book – 2000 edition. Kathy and I agreed that the cover photo did not do this scenery much justice, and the vehicles in it only made it worse. Kathy and Steve made a much better picture. Meanwhile John and Lucas decided to climb one of the highest rocks for a better viewpoint I washed my hair in the warmer lunchtime heat – and unfortunately I’d let the hose drop on the water tank to empty a sufficient quantity of water in the front of the car. Fortunately John was high up on the rock at the time, when Barbara pointed this out to me. On John’s advice that the rock was easy to climb, I gave it a go, but had a bit of a fright as one of my hand holds slipped. The view from the top was great but a bit of a worry about how to get down. Just beyond this rock was a well which was fortunate and allowed us to replace the lost water. We then headed on to another arch formation – this one with columns like bones or elephant trunks. John decided to try a spot of rock climbing between some columns looking at caves. It looked more frightening working out how to get down. We then set up camp for the night. It was Kathy and Steves wedding anniversary so they opened up a box of red wine and shared it around. It had now been a couple of weeks since the Tunisian Chateau Mornag! It was also the eve of the Dutch Santa Claus and Karin and Michael sang a couple of Dutch songs. Karin is a particularly good singer. I think the rest of us could be in trouble in comparison. I think we’ll just have to resort to playing Steve’s Christmas CD. This turned out to be a really late night for us and we retired just after 10:30 – the latest for a Libyan camp spot!
Monday 5th December. As we got our of bed we found ginger and maple syrup biscuits in our shoes from the Dutch Santa Claus – very nice. We then left to set of towards Wadi Matkhandush, famous for its rock carvings within the area of Messak Settafet. The guide Mohamed was not keen on the drive and wanted to take a longer detour using some tarmac road, but we were keen to avoid the tarmac. Mohamed and Ramadan were also saying that stones on the road were like knifes. We explained that we could go very slowly and even pump some more air into Mohamed’s tyres. He never changed his tyre pressure. Later on in the trip I did see him blow up his tyres after the dune lakes. In the morning we saw a few giraffe paintings along the way and some motorcyclists playing in the dunes and headed back to the well which was a checkpoint where we needed to check out and Mohamed found useful for a shower. We then headed on towards Wadi Matkhandush. There wasn’t much evidence of the knives. The scenery was getting much less spectacular and we camped in a much colder, windier gravel area which meant there was no life around the campsite at 9:00.
Tuesday 6th December
The next day I was surprised that there was some interesting scenery with green patches against the backdrop of dunes as we crossed the Hamada when I glanced up from my book, the Zanzibar Chest and tore myself away from events in Somalia. The area is criss crossed by straight batches of gravel road from oil exploration. After lunch the tracks did become like knives in places and the pace slowed to walking, although I didn’t bother to get out and do this. We reached In Galguien at 4 and where the wadi was filled with a pond of water. On the north face of the wadi were big carvings of elephants and with the sun reflecting of the rocks it looked quite a good place for a swim. John kept throwing dried up gourds (like large tennis balls) into the water for George and Dillon to fetch but they didn’t want to get further than sticking their nose in the water. John decided to go in and carried George in who swam straight back to shore. Lucas also went swimming and diving off the rock face. Dillon was not keen on going in the water and was agitated by a rock in the water which he kept barking at. However that night, the guides and Steve heard a noise coming from the water which was enough to make Mhmod sleep in his car and not outside. Maybe it was Dillon that first identified the Wadi Matkhandush monster and John, Lucas and George had lucky escapes.
Wednesday 7th December
Today we abandoned the car for a few hours to walk a few kilometers up the dry wadi bed to Wadi Matkhandush. It was great to be doing some exercise instead of the passive shakings from sitting in the car. We saw a couple of carvings along the way before reaching the site, marked by a bar and souvenir stall in the distance. There was an impressive alligator, lots of giraffes and some strange fighting meirkat animals, and a number of Italian tourists. The walk back was more tiring in the heat of the day and we thought we’d look at the other side of the wadi which proved to be a lot sandier underfoot. Most of the carvings we saw were on a rock face back near where we camped – many cattle, giraffe and a giant hippopotamus. We then had some lunch before setting off to Germa. The guide Mohamed proved not to know this area quite as well and after a few changes of direction trying to find the right way, crossing a dry sandy wadi bed which gave more opportunities for digging and pushing cars, we reached the rocky Hamada where we stopped as we ran out of daylight. Not such an impressive campsite, but warmer and less windy than the gravel pit like place two nights ago. Mohamed was pleased as he got a call from his brother on his sat phone – he’d been let out of jail in Algeria. He also told him we were taking the wrong route so we’d have to retrace our route across the rocky Hamada and sandy wadi bed.

Thursday 8th December
We left the Hamada quite early and arrived at Germa and on to a camp site near the start of the route to the dune lakes. The guys were busy readjusting their vehicles, taking out some of the extra load for the more difficult driving in the dune lakes. Steve and Kathy were relaxing choosing to rest instead of coming on to the dune lakes. I retired to my bed with my first African migraine.