we've always done it by the former, well, on the way to somewhere else so then it does seem pretty boring. I guess one day I'll have to try and do it the second way and see what else is there!

Assa - Smara piste is a bit sandy in places and remote, you could do the whole piste without seeing anyone else, which is fantastic.

Pictures to give you an idea of conditions.

I was positively surprised of how much there was to see actually after hearing only negative opinions about the drive before. Whenever we got bored we just took one of the pistes to the cliffs and were amazed time and time again by the breathtaking views. Also the landscape varied a fair bit at least in comparison to what we had expected.
Might be a bit different in a 4x4 with some decent music playing and eating cookies compared to a motorcycle but I enjoyed the drive and certainly took too little photos.

Just a few more pictures for you Gallery Western Sahara

Cheers Fabian

You've travelled with me then:D

Of course everybody sees things differently and the ability to find interesting things varies a lot. According to your photos you are quite a good observer. :thumbup1:

But it's true, while the coastal road could be interesting, its spectacularity surely fades when you compare it with desert landscapes hiding in the inside, often just over the eastern horizon.

True, we did it after doing Tiz n Test on the way south through Morocco, hard to compete with that!bier

I will strongly recommend that you make a information sheet - a "fiche" - where you write down your name, address, home country , place of birth, passport number, occupation etc and make at least 30 copies to bring with you. You will guaranteed meet a lot of police roadblocks on your route. By giving them a copy, you´ll save a lot of time at those roadblocks. If you don´t have that, you´ll have to write down all this info every time. We did this driving through Mauritania and Western Sahara two years ago, and our stops at the roadblock were only a couple of minutes. And I do agree with the others, there is not much to see between Tan Tan and Dakhla.

The pre prepared fiche is probably a good idea but mostly I quite enjoyed stopping and chatting with the people at the roadblocks. Not much of a conversation sometimes I admit but it's a chance to get off the bike and after a couple of sessions you know the drill.