Location: Dakhla, Western Sahara

Date: July 29, 2008 (around 7:30 am)

Local Temperature: 68 degrees Fahrenheit

Total Journey Mileage: 2785

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Hello all from lovely Ougadougou, Burkina Faso.  Since arriving in Africa, we drove through Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Mali to get here, and yet we’ve only so far managed to tell you about our first few days in Morocco!  Egads!

This is me trying to catch us up just a little bit - 5 days in one post.  Are you ready?

25 July - We left Marrakech in the late afternoon, deciding to head out to Essaouira and then as far south as possible before finding a place to stay.   The road south was beautiful, and we caught an amazing sunset after almost running over a pack of dogs and a camel who all burst onto the road as if out of thin air.   

We stayed at a lovely beachside camground, where we experienced only a small misfortune.  But we don’t have time to dawdle over small misfortunes on this journey, and we soldier on.

26 July - After eating breakfast with some of the Berbers who worked at the campgrounds, which involved some bread and incredibly tasty almond oil laced with honey, we drove down to Agadir.  It was all work and no play for us in Agadir, as we had to find a replacement gas cap (that story will come soon) and find someone to patch up our tent.  Luckily for us, we met Goudachi Abderrafia, an absolute sweetheart of a mechanic/car parts salesman, who managed to modify an existing gas cap to fit our car and get our tent patched up by a friend of his in under two hours.  He also donated two wooden planks to the cause, just in case we beached ourselves in the Sahara. As I’ve mentioned before in my emails, we have been meeting some really great people on the road and they’ve made our trip that much better.

Later that day we meet up with a bunch of other ralliers, and everyone makes camp at a campsite outside Guelmim.

27 July - We crossed into Western Sahara!  This is markedly different from Morocco, and we felt a little bit like pioneers entering a new frontier.  The scenery was amazing, as we drove through a lot of mountains and desert.  There wasn’t much along the way, but the towns we did see were all very pretty beach towns catering to adventure sport tourists. 

Our destination was Laayoune, but on the way we stopped in Tarfaya and had lunch with Team Deathwish, where I ate fish that had been fried whole.  Yes, you read that right. I, Aparna, ate from a fish that still had its head and eyeballs (granted, they were fried) while I was eating it.

[PICS TO COME]

We made it to Laayoune that night, an incredibly windy coastal town that also hosts a number of UN offices, where we camped with Deathwish, the Sandbox Warriors (from this point forward, known as Kirin) and If It Don’t Work, Hit It (Tom and Steve).

28 July - Next stop, Dakhla, a veritable treasure chest for the windsurfing enthusiasts out there.  This was another beautiful beach town we reached only after driving through what appeared to be endless sand.  We manage to get into town early enough to have a relaxing dinner while we look out on the water, and later bond while having a few beers (which are not easy to find in this highly regulated region) before going to bed.

29 July - We hit the road at 7:30 AM.  Next stop, Mauritania!  That one is coming soon.