Western Sahara

The drive down through western sahara was pretty bleak, there is nothing but sand and pylons for about three days. We used the 4 wheel drive to get off the main road and camped in the desert. The winch which the Suzuki came with has proved rather useful whenever the Micra which we are convoying with dug itself into the sand.   A german shepard came sniffing around the tents on our second night follow by a moroccan man who turned out to be a security guard who lived in a tent underneath one of the phone masts for - months a year. After a few swift halves he invited us into his tent and to show us where he lived and made us some food, giving us some much needed veg after living entirely on military rations and laughing cow cheese (vache) for the last 2 days. Possibly the most random person we have ever had a drink with.   We spent the next night sleeping in the car in a queue for the Mauritanian border, managing to fashion some makeshift curtains out of headscalves to block out the border post spotlights.

Mauritania

We entered the Mauritanian border at 0900 the drove across the 3km mined no-mans-land which separates the two borders. There is no obvious road between the two and you have to pick whichever set of tracks look like the best route though.

We parted with one or two euros on the Mauritanian end due to border guards wanting 'presents'. Thoughly unimpressed we drove the 500km to Nouakchott through still more desert to discover that there had been a military coup at 0930 and the president had been overthrown, the british foreign office are warning against any travel to or around Mauritanian unless completely nessecary.   We stayed in a hotel that night before making a break for mali the next day. There was quite a lot of evidence of the takeover on the streets of the capital with riot police parked up in the main squares. On driving out of the city we passed a couple of military jeeps armed with rocket launchers and what looked like anti-aircraft guns.   We camped in the desert again, there is now a fair spread of vegetation which helps shield the cars from the road. The mother of all storms rolled in during the night which began with a wind which pretty much flattened the tent, however, being british we decided to sit it out and refused to retreat to the car. It was only when the rain came and the water began flooding the tent that we decided to abandon ship, having to collapse the tent and park the car on it to prevent it blowing away.   While most of the population seem friendly enough there are a few which seem hostile.   We stopped short of the border and camped in the mountains.

Morocco

Our first night in africa was spent on a hillside just sort of fes which we managed to sort out following a conversation with a couple of local goat herders. Language unknown.   Fez was absolutly manic and is an absolutly crazy place to drive around, we are yet to figure out the ettiquette at roundabouts. After Fez we made for the High Atlas, dropped into 4x4 and headed into the todra gorge where we then decided to try the road which links the todra and dades gorges. We camped up in the mountains after getting caught in a storm and shared a brew with some goat herder chaps who turned up and later began dancing around and using our frizbee (the plate) as a drum. We donated our rally t-shirts to them as it was absolutely freezing up there.   We were starting to get mobbed by children in moroccan villages after handing out sweets so we have taken to doing drive-by sweet drops.   Police road blocks appear roughly every 5 miles armed with speed cameras.. unfortunatley the range of the speed cameras is quite a long way and the brakes on the SJ are relatively poor.   We stayed in a traditional Kasbah on the route to Marrakesh and got to watch the 2nd day of a 7 day wedding celebration from the rooftop. Only stopping off for a night in Marrakesh to regroup and get a good nights sleep we headed for the coast to crack on with the long drive south.