Western Sahara Trip Report

[reggwensie]

Here are some pictures from a recent trip from Assa-Dakhla across 1000km of desert and mountains of Western Sahara.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1055265...eat=directlink

I'll post more details in a day or two.

[Maximus]

Great photo's thanks for sharing.

[palace15]

Enjoyed the photos, and look forward to more.

[reggwensie]

This was a bit of a fly drive trip for me. Gavin had 6 weeks, I had ten days. Just enough time for a quick jaunt down to Dakhla and back (to Marrakech airport).

Day 1 - Marrakech to Assa - easy to eat up the miles to Agadir thanks to a great motorway. Great little shortcut piste from 6km west of Bou-Izakarn down to Fask. Nice gorge and pools half way down. Then empty highway to Assa. Decent shops for bread and fruit/veg. The Police at checkpoint at the town entrance demanded that we stay in the towns hotel. We agreed, then drove out into the desert to camp (10km out the Guelmim road to be on the safe side).

Day 2 - Returning to town to start the run down to Smara using waypoints from Sahara Overland and the route description from Morocco Overland (don't ask!). This is a great route, full of variety and ever changing scenery. It looks looks it will soon be tar though. The earthworks are in place way past the village of Lebouirat. We camped in a nice fertile valley just 800 metres from the piste after a sandy section and Saharawi huts about 200km in.

Day 3 - Continuing varied terrain and challenging sandy sections, then a great run across the lake bed as far as the Spanish tarmac. Very rough from here. We soon picked up the new road for the last 100km to Smara.

If you want to do this excellent and varied route, this year may be your last chance!

Smara - Usual shops, but none of the stores on the main street sell fruit and veg. Nor does the market, it's mainly clothng, furniture etc. There are fruit and veg shops towards the south end of town, one street back from the main road (turn left when heading south).

The next part of our route was a 600km run down parallel to the berm, passing close to Galtat Zemmour, Bir Anzarane and onto Dakhla. We got out of town (telling the Police we were going to Dakhla via Layounne) and camped 15km down the piste in the shelter of a defensive berm.

Day 4 - Initially unpleasant stony desert ridges and barren landscape with corrugations, giving way to fast smooth sections, hamada and sand sheet with distant hills and small dunes. Many bands of acacia trees, giving a clue to the underground water perhaps in this area. Realising that we were only 15km from the Mauritanian border and with the knowledge that the berm runs well inside the Mauri border at this point, we plotted a course for the N12 W26 grid line. Judging by the tracks, we weren't the first. Easy, sometimes rocky with a dune crossing at the end and we were in Mauri for lunch.

Very pleasant driving in the afternoon with fast sections and an improbable mountain ridge crossing. We we soon crossed the N5 road 10km to the NW of Galtat Zemmour and continued SW for a few km to camp.

Day 5 - The morning saw us pick our way through frustrating low hills with no piste, eventually finding a huge white sheet of sand to the west of Sebaiera. Lovely driving, with banks of low dunes and the usual acacia to break things up. After a lunch stop at a dune we decided to head SE to pass through the mountain range - a real off-roaders delight. No discernable piste, just picking our way through never ending valleys, hills and sand banks. On plateaux and in valleys at times. Great driving and ever changing scenery. Soon werere back on the plain, the mountains parting.

At 4pm we came across a military checkpoint at N24.21849 W13.24884 and this is where the fun began......

[reggwensie]

Ok, now I've got the GPS and Google Earth bits sorted out: The pink line on the below image shows our route south to the checkpoint. the thick red line is the berm area.

Apologies for the length of this tale, but I feel it has to be told in full.

The guards made us tea and gave us a seat while they checked in with their boss. I was handed the walkie talkie and spoke to the boss in English. Told him we were going to Dakhla and that we were tourists.

30 minutes later we are told we must return to Galtat Zemmour, take the road to Laayoune and take the tar road to Dakhla! We must use the main piste and we must check in with each military post. We thanks the soldiers for the tea and leave, following their directions.

Over the next hour we follow the main piste north east, passing several checkpoints. The soldiers are expecting us. We stop to say hello, shake hands and then onto the next one. This is the green line on the map.

Several checkpoints later, we turn through some hills and emerge on the other side into a minefield and have sight of The Berm. We pass near a bigger base and onto the next checkpoint. My thoughts at this point are, "they obviously want us out of here as quickly as possible and are controlling our route north up a military piste".

Clearly I was wrong!

The commander at the next checkpoint was clearly surprised to see us - the 110 wedged between the berm, a minefield and his rocky outpost! He got on the radio, told us we couldn't continue and to return to the base we'd just passed. We had to report to the lieutenant there. Carefully, we turned the 110 around and headed back...

The Lieutenant was a bright young chap who spoke excellent English. He needed to speak with his boss - The Major. The Major was at another base. After 45 minutes we were invited into the base (on foot) for tea. It was now dark. The major was coming over from his base to collect us and escort us over to the main base. In the morning we could continue to Dakhla. Quote, "You should never have been sent this way", "It was a mistake". We chatted and drank more tea. It seems The lieutenant leaned his English whilst serving in Cote d'Ivoire on UN duties (there's irony for you).

One hour passes and the Major turns up in a Troopie with a load of soldiers. A further 30 minutes passes while they "chew the fat". The Major asks us, "What are you doing here? Are you lost?" We explain. He says, "You are lost then". Our passports are confiscated, Gavin goes to sit in the 'cruiser and a soldier is to ride with me in the 110 for the drive to the main base.

[reggwensie]

90 minutes of chasing a Land Cruiser through the desert night and we're at the base.

Looks like they got the Colonel out of his bed....and the Military Police Commander.

For three hours we're questioned in French & English Where have we been, where are we going? How many times in Morocco? Was I military? Was Gavin a petrochemical engineer? Why were we in the military zone at the berm (!) Etc etc they checked the camera, asked if we had GPS (but didn't check it). All standard stuff, just repetitive.

We're eventually presented with an A4 sheet written in arabic and asked to sign. Seemingly it said we got lost and ended up at the berm! We decide to sign as it's now 1am and we haven't eaten since noon.

Lot's of handshakes, the main man leaves. The MP commander summons his cook to make us some food and then we're shown to some spare quarters on the MP section of the base.

In the morning we are to be escorted to Dakhla, not via Bir Anzarane, but using a piste that heads NW and joins the Atlantic route 175km north of Dakhla at Echtoucan.

Day 6 - Morning comes all too soon. The cook feeds us eggs and bread for breakfast. Daylight reveals our surroundings to be the edge of a high plateau, looking north over the plains and distant Jebel we travelled through yesterday.

Eventually at 11am our escort arrives. 300km of rough featureless desert, via the odd fort and we're sitting at a petrol station on the Atlantic route awaiting the arrival of the soldiers from Dakhla who will accompany us on the final stage. On their arrival some 12 cases of Scotch Whisky are transferred from the Dakhla car to the one from the desert base!

175km later (it's now 5pm) and we're in Dakhla. Only thing is, the MP's have to hand us over to the local Police (Royal). Here, the local Police commander initially takes a heavy handed approach to the problem, "You were arrested at the Berm, why were you in a military zone? Are you spies?". Soon though, he softens as he hears our tale. "I'll have to make a report", he says. "It will take one hour".

9pm and he's almost finished. It took 4 hours to write a report (he already had a copy of the military one). Just before he's finished, the senior officer in the base pops into the office. He acknowledges in impeccible English that it's all been a huge error, but the report still has to be made.....which is in arabic and which we duly sign.....

We're given our passports back, handed a chocolate bar each and told, "Welcome to Morocco, welcome to Dakhla, enjoy your stay"!

Beer time!

[Tim Cullis]

So it's a route you'd recommend then...

Thanks for the write up. This is what memories are made of.

[reggwensie]

Nice one Tim!

Perhaps we cut it a bit fine with this one...Retrospectively I reckon if we'd stayed a couple of kms the the NW of the checkpoint we wouldn't have had any issues. It seems that perhaps the line of checkpoints on the piste that heads to the berm is the limit? We had planned our route to pass Bir Anzarane, so perhaps we would have still encountered trouble down there as it seemed clear they wanted to keep us away from this area.

There certainly is a lot more military infrastructure and presence in that area. There was a checkpoint every few km's a couple of large forts/bases and on the run over to the west coast we passed an airfield and a logistics depot. There was also an UN presence. Up north of the mountains there was nothing - just old berms and disused bases.

The trip was worthwhile. A real feeling of exploration(!) along with nice sand sheets, good "off-road" sections and the mountains. It was also a test for Gavins 300tdi 110, which I have to say is the best desert vehicle I have ever driven. Obviously I didn't have to drive it down 2000km of motorway to get there though!

Nice bit of country, I'd go again once the berm comes down.

Finally, it always pays to remian polite - these guys are only doing their job.

[Huskynose]

It's good to read that you've remained polite and wellbehaved during your encounters with the officials.
It once again shows that being decent gets you furthest !

[pera]

Interesting... I´ve some read for tonight. I love Western Sahara

[pera]

Congratulations! But I always encourage people of not goint out of the pistes or well marked tracks at Western Sahara. WS is plenty of mines and other explosives.

I´ve had several times similar "adventures" with the moroccan army and Gendarmerie Royal and escorted to the tarmac... It´s forbiden to aproach 20 km. of the berm and you were caught just in the berm. Two years ago I was intercepted by two land cruisers a little bit on South from you were, near Ausserd 2 km. of the berm, I lost the entire day. Last January the same, at Amgala zone. Another day loose. But I like this kind of meetings, I´ve made some friends on them.