Hoggar Mountains
Sunday 25th December
We enjoyed our breakfast of fresh bread and home made jam on the terrace before heading into Tam to get what we needed for our next 10 day journey. After the bakery, grocery and butcher I went to the internet café where after half an hour I managed to load a few photos to the blogsite and then the communication lines failed. The mobile phone networks also failed. Our guide Sleaman, picked up someone else who we later found out was one of his 19 sons to accompany him on the trip. We headed north up towards In Salah, but not nearly that far. We took the turning towards Ideles before taking a dry river bed north east. The scenery had just began to get more spectacular and we set up camp for the night. John got the fire started for an evening by the camp fire and we all made calls home on the sat phone to
more traditional Christmases.
Monday 26th December
We continued driving up a dry river bed to a track that took us to Mertoutek. On the way our guide stopped to talk to a Tuareg. One of his camels had the typically Algerian seat which Claudia told us was more comfortable than that used for camels in other countries. We arrived at Mertoutek early afternoon and registered in with the National Park and took a guide to show us some rock paintings. There were lots of animals, but I quite like the ones of people dancing. The paintings were often in the roof of small caves formed in the rock so you had to li
e down on your back to see them. The wind and sand had created lots of holes and caves and George enjoyed wandering and exploring where no one else could. We climbed up the ridge behind the village of Mertoutek and continued to see more rock art.By the time we returned to our cars in the Oued the sun was nearly setting. We went back out through the village before turning east off the road and finding a space to camp. It was quite late and quite, but John got a fire going so we didn’t retreat to the warmth of the tent too early.
Tuesday 27th December
The mornings drive started with driving along a riverbed with rounded bo
ulders and this time with water in it. The guys thought this was spectacular. The scenery was but I guess putting the car in people’s water source isn’t too great, although it was mainly just the tyres rather that other car parts that were getting wet. John was learning from the guides and picking up dead firewood as we drove along. The guides were more prepared with an axe to break it up, and they particularly like the dense roots. We’ve only taken dead wood and currently both look pretty plentiful. At lunchtime the guides were joined by a girl and many goats and the later enjoyed taking refuge under the car.
After lunch we headed north to the peak of Garet et Djenoun, the tallest mountain along the ridge. We had the novel experience of seeing a plane travel miles overhead. Novel because you really don’t see many planes here – I think the last one we saw was in north Libya. After the Garet et Djenoun we headed east to the next ridge for an early camp spot and a cold beer for Kathy and Steve. John went off to climb the tallest peak, which he said was much further and much taller than it looked.
Wednesday 28th December
We headed further west to the valley of Amadror, a dried up lake which had left behind salt deposits. Sleaman picked up some salt for himself and for us. We stopped for some lunch by the remains of some old huts. I made the first soup. Amazing how much soup and pasta some dried powder rehydrates too! After lunch we headed south down the valley chasing mirages. Towards the end of the afternoon we saw the big mound of telertheba. Sleaman pointed it out but I couldn’t see it on the map. I later realized that it was further away than I thought when I looked at the map. Distances can be deceptive. We got stuck looking for a camp spot. We’d hoped it was suitable for the night, but Sleaman felt it was too near the main piste so we headed on to tuck in behind some more rocks.
Thursday 29th December
We headed along another dried up oued with some interesting plant life. Yellow flowers a bit like foxgloves submerged in sand until the flower. We began climbing on more rocky terrain and progress was slow, but the scenery looked fantastic behind in the distance with valleys of sand between the blue grey of the mountain ranges. It was a bit to far away to come out well in photos and showed us that there was plenty more to see in this area. We arrived at Ideles and got our passport stamped before taking on some fresh water and visiting the bakery for some freshly baked bread. The town looked odd with a road which hadn’t been surfaced and new street lighting. It looked like it had been started a few years ago and the modernization project abandoned. We headed south over some rocky but not so spectacular terrain, had some late lunch and continued climbing. After lunch the scenery got better and we were following the route A8 in the Chris Scott book. Sleaman spotted some gazelles, but none of us could Seaman. By the time we stopped to camp for the night we were at just over 2000m and unlike the rest of the trip the weather was cloudy, with just some mountains in the distance glowing red as the sun was setting.
Friday 30th December
The morning was cold and cloudy so it was good to start moving. The scenery was getting more spectacular and looked like boulders had been mechanically lifted and perched in precarious places. We then started a descent down a dry river bed to the village of Tahifet. We stopped for lunch in a spot which gave us the opportunity to scramble up to the top of some screed mound and realized if you could only get just a bit higher it would be more spectacular. After Tahifet we headed east south east before camping in a dried up oued. Although not always a good idea to camp in dry river beds this was quite a wide valley and would need quite some rainfall before it flowed. We‘d been told that the rain in this area was from June to September. Climbing up the valley sides got a better view of the sunset. John later returned there and was puzzled by what appeared to be a car with a searchlight in the distance. We stayed up until 9 around the campfire before retiring to bed. Only John climbed up the valley side and could still see the car driving around with the searchlight. John was getting worried and was sure we were going to be found soon. He went to get Steve who was already asleep, but after being prodded by Kathy and dressed in his own trousers on the second attempt he came out to have a look. John had seen the car lights stop just around the bend in the oued. John and Steve went to investigate taking Dillon as some protection. When they got around the bend they found the guides sleeping and woke them up. The conversation was confused but at least the guides had seen the car which had now gone and everything seemed OK to go to sleep.
Saturday 31st December
We continued south east along the dried up riverbed. It was amazing how high dead wood was piled up against the trees in the oued showing how high it did flow. By lunchtime we asked the guides again about the searchlight – John trying to work out if there were modern bandits driving around at night. Then our guides admitted that it had been them driving. Tha
t is why the car had stopped just around the bend in the oued – it had been them. Just before lunch we reached what the guides called the door to the Tassili n’Hoggar. The scenery was becoming rockier and after a slow climb and descent we reached a sandy valley and explored the rocks at the side where there was a water hole. Not tempting for a dip though. We had some lunch and then continued on where the scenery was full of spectacular volcanic plug shapes. The guides had a name for a few of them – like a camel. Some looked like fairytale castles or fortresses and it looked like Stonehenge was on one hillside. The guides took us to a rock arch with more carvings inside. We camped that night in-between some very tall rocks. One looked like the neck and head of a camel with no teeth. That night the guides cooked for us. Pain du sable made with semolina and water and cooked on and under hot ashes from the fire. After half an hour 
when it was cooked, the bread was washed and scraped and after a hot piece for us all to try it was broken up into a bowl where most of it began to look like couscous except the crusts. A stew was also boiling away on the fire with vegetables and the odd bit of mutton. This was added to the crumbed bread bowl and we were all given spoons to tuck in. It tasted delicious. The few bits of meat did not taste so good, especially to Kathy and Steve who are vegetarian, but the crunchy bread crusts and vegetables in the lightly spicy stew were great. We retreated back to our tents at 7 and John got the camp fire burning. Only five hours until midnight! I received a couple of phone calls on the sat phone which was great. We opened the bottle of red wine and finished off the whisky. We retired to bed at 11:15, without the urge to stay up another ¾ hour and see in the New Year. There was no champagne and fireworks here!
Sunday 1st January
Today we were heading to see what Sleaman had described as his favourite place in the desert. We stopped to see lots of rock carvings on the way. His favourite spot was still in the Tassili n Hoggar, the dark volcanic plug type rocky landscape with dunes adjacent to the rocks. We saw another rock arch and got stuck in the sand and had to let our tyres down before finding a camp spot for the night. There was another group of tourists around which was a novelty and hadn’t happened since we’d been in Algeria. It was quite windy, so we took shelter behind a large rock and realized we were also under it to. We hoped it could stay in position a bit longer. The fire was lit and danced around in all directions in the wind. The barbecue was also lit to cook our mutton chops.
Monday 2nd January
I got up just after sunrise at 7:15 and climbed a high dune which merged into some columns of volcanic plug. It was quite cold while the sun still didn’t have any power and felt good to be getting some exercise. We drove around some more of this landscape, saw another rock arch and I climbed another high dune trying to follow in the footsteps of the other group for an easier climb, but these were being blown away fast.
We started back on our journey back to Tam. That night Sleaman again surprised us with some couscous and vegetables which was great timing for me – just before I’d started to cook and our diminishing grocery store was looking less appetizing. Couscous cooked properly is a lot moister than what I’d managed to cook. We sat by a camp fire and used up our final wood supply.
Tuesday 3rd January
This was the last day of our guided tour around Algeria and we all desperately wanted a shower and with no cigarettes left, a few were in desperate need of a shop. It was also great to be back and sample Claudia’s cooking. We also needed a bit of a time to rest, so we decided we’d stay two nights to give us some time to relax. Claudia also had a German woman, Desiree staying with her who now spends her life in Agadez and Algeria. She’s written about and photographed the Tuareg. There was also a German guy staying there who had fallen off his camel on day one of his holiday so was spending the remainder of his holiday here recuperating.
Wednesday 4th JanuaryJohn had broken a filling and thought Tam maybe the best opportunity of going to the Dentist and use Claudia’s knowledge of a good dentist – assuming she didn’t fly back to Switzerland. Claudia actually needed to return to the dentist herself as she’d had a temporary filling last week. So John and Claudia headed off to the Dentist at 8:30, while the rest of us lazed around in the sunshine waiting for a late breakfast. When they returned Claudia looked in more pain, but John hadn’t been charged anything for his dental work. He’d also sat in the female waiting room – as waiting rooms in Algeria are not mixed. There were lots of police in town – the town is a military base and has more military than civilians. An elderly leader of the Tuareg had died the previous week so there had been a funeral and they may have expected trouble. We headed into town for lunch at the hotel. Hamburger, chips and beer – I was still pretty hungry after traveling 10 days in the Mountains it’s difficult to plan how much food you need. The hotel food wasn’t great and it was good to be returning to Claudia’s for the evening meal. I then went to the internet café where I spent 3 hours! The time went very quickly as it was great to be able to load photos to the blogsite – I still had photos from Libya that I hadn’t had a chance to load. I also had a book to read so I didn’t get to impatient with the speed of the internet which was probably the fastest since Tripoli. We enjoyed a final meal with all the family, including the youngest goat that had was born on Christmas Day and John had named Jesus.
We enjoyed our breakfast of fresh bread and home made jam on the terrace before heading into Tam to get what we needed for our next 10 day journey. After the bakery, grocery and butcher I went to the internet café where after half an hour I managed to load a few photos to the blogsite and then the communication lines failed. The mobile phone networks also failed. Our guide Sleaman, picked up someone else who we later found out was one of his 19 sons to accompany him on the trip. We headed north up towards In Salah, but not nearly that far. We took the turning towards Ideles before taking a dry river bed north east. The scenery had just began to get more spectacular and we set up camp for the night. John got the fire started for an evening by the camp fire and we all made calls home on the sat phone to
more traditional Christmases.Monday 26th December
We continued driving up a dry river bed to a track that took us to Mertoutek. On the way our guide stopped to talk to a Tuareg. One of his camels had the typically Algerian seat which Claudia told us was more comfortable than that used for camels in other countries. We arrived at Mertoutek early afternoon and registered in with the National Park and took a guide to show us some rock paintings. There were lots of animals, but I quite like the ones of people dancing. The paintings were often in the roof of small caves formed in the rock so you had to li
e down on your back to see them. The wind and sand had created lots of holes and caves and George enjoyed wandering and exploring where no one else could. We climbed up the ridge behind the village of Mertoutek and continued to see more rock art.By the time we returned to our cars in the Oued the sun was nearly setting. We went back out through the village before turning east off the road and finding a space to camp. It was quite late and quite, but John got a fire going so we didn’t retreat to the warmth of the tent too early.Tuesday 27th December
The mornings drive started with driving along a riverbed with rounded bo
ulders and this time with water in it. The guys thought this was spectacular. The scenery was but I guess putting the car in people’s water source isn’t too great, although it was mainly just the tyres rather that other car parts that were getting wet. John was learning from the guides and picking up dead firewood as we drove along. The guides were more prepared with an axe to break it up, and they particularly like the dense roots. We’ve only taken dead wood and currently both look pretty plentiful. At lunchtime the guides were joined by a girl and many goats and the later enjoyed taking refuge under the car.After lunch we headed north to the peak of Garet et Djenoun, the tallest mountain along the ridge. We had the novel experience of seeing a plane travel miles overhead. Novel because you really don’t see many planes here – I think the last one we saw was in north Libya. After the Garet et Djenoun we headed east to the next ridge for an early camp spot and a cold beer for Kathy and Steve. John went off to climb the tallest peak, which he said was much further and much taller than it looked.
Wednesday 28th December
We headed further west to the valley of Amadror, a dried up lake which had left behind salt deposits. Sleaman picked up some salt for himself and for us. We stopped for some lunch by the remains of some old huts. I made the first soup. Amazing how much soup and pasta some dried powder rehydrates too! After lunch we headed south down the valley chasing mirages. Towards the end of the afternoon we saw the big mound of telertheba. Sleaman pointed it out but I couldn’t see it on the map. I later realized that it was further away than I thought when I looked at the map. Distances can be deceptive. We got stuck looking for a camp spot. We’d hoped it was suitable for the night, but Sleaman felt it was too near the main piste so we headed on to tuck in behind some more rocks.
Thursday 29th December
We headed along another dried up oued with some interesting plant life. Yellow flowers a bit like foxgloves submerged in sand until the flower. We began climbing on more rocky terrain and progress was slow, but the scenery looked fantastic behind in the distance with valleys of sand between the blue grey of the mountain ranges. It was a bit to far away to come out well in photos and showed us that there was plenty more to see in this area. We arrived at Ideles and got our passport stamped before taking on some fresh water and visiting the bakery for some freshly baked bread. The town looked odd with a road which hadn’t been surfaced and new street lighting. It looked like it had been started a few years ago and the modernization project abandoned. We headed south over some rocky but not so spectacular terrain, had some late lunch and continued climbing. After lunch the scenery got better and we were following the route A8 in the Chris Scott book. Sleaman spotted some gazelles, but none of us could Seaman. By the time we stopped to camp for the night we were at just over 2000m and unlike the rest of the trip the weather was cloudy, with just some mountains in the distance glowing red as the sun was setting.
Friday 30th December
The morning was cold and cloudy so it was good to start moving. The scenery was getting more spectacular and looked like boulders had been mechanically lifted and perched in precarious places. We then started a descent down a dry river bed to the village of Tahifet. We stopped for lunch in a spot which gave us the opportunity to scramble up to the top of some screed mound and realized if you could only get just a bit higher it would be more spectacular. After Tahifet we headed east south east before camping in a dried up oued. Although not always a good idea to camp in dry river beds this was quite a wide valley and would need quite some rainfall before it flowed. We‘d been told that the rain in this area was from June to September. Climbing up the valley sides got a better view of the sunset. John later returned there and was puzzled by what appeared to be a car with a searchlight in the distance. We stayed up until 9 around the campfire before retiring to bed. Only John climbed up the valley side and could still see the car driving around with the searchlight. John was getting worried and was sure we were going to be found soon. He went to get Steve who was already asleep, but after being prodded by Kathy and dressed in his own trousers on the second attempt he came out to have a look. John had seen the car lights stop just around the bend in the oued. John and Steve went to investigate taking Dillon as some protection. When they got around the bend they found the guides sleeping and woke them up. The conversation was confused but at least the guides had seen the car which had now gone and everything seemed OK to go to sleep.
Saturday 31st December
We continued south east along the dried up riverbed. It was amazing how high dead wood was piled up against the trees in the oued showing how high it did flow. By lunchtime we asked the guides again about the searchlight – John trying to work out if there were modern bandits driving around at night. Then our guides admitted that it had been them driving. Tha
t is why the car had stopped just around the bend in the oued – it had been them. Just before lunch we reached what the guides called the door to the Tassili n’Hoggar. The scenery was becoming rockier and after a slow climb and descent we reached a sandy valley and explored the rocks at the side where there was a water hole. Not tempting for a dip though. We had some lunch and then continued on where the scenery was full of spectacular volcanic plug shapes. The guides had a name for a few of them – like a camel. Some looked like fairytale castles or fortresses and it looked like Stonehenge was on one hillside. The guides took us to a rock arch with more carvings inside. We camped that night in-between some very tall rocks. One looked like the neck and head of a camel with no teeth. That night the guides cooked for us. Pain du sable made with semolina and water and cooked on and under hot ashes from the fire. After half an hour 
when it was cooked, the bread was washed and scraped and after a hot piece for us all to try it was broken up into a bowl where most of it began to look like couscous except the crusts. A stew was also boiling away on the fire with vegetables and the odd bit of mutton. This was added to the crumbed bread bowl and we were all given spoons to tuck in. It tasted delicious. The few bits of meat did not taste so good, especially to Kathy and Steve who are vegetarian, but the crunchy bread crusts and vegetables in the lightly spicy stew were great. We retreated back to our tents at 7 and John got the camp fire burning. Only five hours until midnight! I received a couple of phone calls on the sat phone which was great. We opened the bottle of red wine and finished off the whisky. We retired to bed at 11:15, without the urge to stay up another ¾ hour and see in the New Year. There was no champagne and fireworks here!Sunday 1st January
Today we were heading to see what Sleaman had described as his favourite place in the desert. We stopped to see lots of rock carvings on the way. His favourite spot was still in the Tassili n Hoggar, the dark volcanic plug type rocky landscape with dunes adjacent to the rocks. We saw another rock arch and got stuck in the sand and had to let our tyres down before finding a camp spot for the night. There was another group of tourists around which was a novelty and hadn’t happened since we’d been in Algeria. It was quite windy, so we took shelter behind a large rock and realized we were also under it to. We hoped it could stay in position a bit longer. The fire was lit and danced around in all directions in the wind. The barbecue was also lit to cook our mutton chops.
Monday 2nd January
I got up just after sunrise at 7:15 and climbed a high dune which merged into some columns of volcanic plug. It was quite cold while the sun still didn’t have any power and felt good to be getting some exercise. We drove around some more of this landscape, saw another rock arch and I climbed another high dune trying to follow in the footsteps of the other group for an easier climb, but these were being blown away fast.
We started back on our journey back to Tam. That night Sleaman again surprised us with some couscous and vegetables which was great timing for me – just before I’d started to cook and our diminishing grocery store was looking less appetizing. Couscous cooked properly is a lot moister than what I’d managed to cook. We sat by a camp fire and used up our final wood supply.
Tuesday 3rd January
This was the last day of our guided tour around Algeria and we all desperately wanted a shower and with no cigarettes left, a few were in desperate need of a shop. It was also great to be back and sample Claudia’s cooking. We also needed a bit of a time to rest, so we decided we’d stay two nights to give us some time to relax. Claudia also had a German woman, Desiree staying with her who now spends her life in Agadez and Algeria. She’s written about and photographed the Tuareg. There was also a German guy staying there who had fallen off his camel on day one of his holiday so was spending the remainder of his holiday here recuperating.
Wednesday 4th JanuaryJohn had broken a filling and thought Tam maybe the best opportunity of going to the Dentist and use Claudia’s knowledge of a good dentist – assuming she didn’t fly back to Switzerland. Claudia actually needed to return to the dentist herself as she’d had a temporary filling last week. So John and Claudia headed off to the Dentist at 8:30, while the rest of us lazed around in the sunshine waiting for a late breakfast. When they returned Claudia looked in more pain, but John hadn’t been charged anything for his dental work. He’d also sat in the female waiting room – as waiting rooms in Algeria are not mixed. There were lots of police in town – the town is a military base and has more military than civilians. An elderly leader of the Tuareg had died the previous week so there had been a funeral and they may have expected trouble. We headed into town for lunch at the hotel. Hamburger, chips and beer – I was still pretty hungry after traveling 10 days in the Mountains it’s difficult to plan how much food you need. The hotel food wasn’t great and it was good to be returning to Claudia’s for the evening meal. I then went to the internet café where I spent 3 hours! The time went very quickly as it was great to be able to load photos to the blogsite – I still had photos from Libya that I hadn’t had a chance to load. I also had a book to read so I didn’t get to impatient with the speed of the internet which was probably the fastest since Tripoli. We enjoyed a final meal with all the family, including the youngest goat that had was born on Christmas Day and John had named Jesus.
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