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.