Destination Dakar: Foum Zguid

 "What are you doing here, can I help?" asked Useff, a local man, resplendent in purple and blue dress, standing in the dunes at the entrance to his camp.  

"I'm a little lost" I said.

"Come and have tea with me then" he replied. 

..and who could refuse? It was 38degrees in the shade. If you could actually find any!

Last night at dinner we discussed the route and a few were concerned about the distance. Understandably, given it was supposed to be approx 470KM and some had taken all day to complete the 300KM today. Punctures, repairs and lost teammates factoring into the delays.

Agreement reached and three routes were prepared; Adventure Light, Rally and Original (MS8 from the Morocco Overland book)

Getting the truck trailer out of the Riad meant we set of later then normal and the team departed in different groups. No sooner had I set off and my GPS lost power.  

At first i travelled with Hard as Nails Andy and Gentlemen Justin, but soon we lost contact.

For most of the day I used the GPS every 20 or so KM (briefly on remaining battery) to get a compass heading and used the Sun to track my general direction. This is why I ended up the company of Useff at 'El Gouera Camp' at 'Erg Chegaga' (the massive Dunes)

During tea I showed Useff my general direction (following MS8 to the south of Erg Chegaga') and he suggested that I don't do that, instead he motioned in the direction of the Rally route to the north. 

Below, Useff's dog, Siria. 

After the respite found at the camp, courtesy of saintly Useff, I set off following MS8, totally ignoring his advice like a cheeky child, and rode towards the tallest dunes. Confronting my fears I tackled the largest dunes Id ever come across.  Rather than riding up and down, i noted that it's mostly possible to plot a path along the tops.  

Still, I won't paint myself as a Dakar riding hero, tempting as it may be. No, instead I'll be honest and admit that picking your bike up atop a dune, after a lone somersault and with limited experience, is as scary as it is exciting. Thankfully, life preservation is stronger than gleeful excitement and I plotted a path out from the top of a tall dune. (Good scouting skills again)

Emerging from the tall dunes I came across the 'Gazell Rallye',an all girl rally in 4x4's, and parked behind two Toyota's hoping to steal some shade

At exactly that point Justin appeared, like a mirage, from the Dunes. He'd lost Andy, and after waiting in the strength sapping heat, thought it best to move on. Little did we know at the time, but Andy had stumbled upon another camp and had been invited for lunch! 

The two girls above were going to the hospital, the two below were, erm, signalling Victory or perhaps telling us to F off?! Haha Who knows? 

Justin and I continued along MS8, which being frank, was flipping difficult in the scorching heat.  The choice was either 1 - 2m high dune's for as far as you could see, or cracked and pitted dry lake bed between dunes... for as far as the eye could see. Both taking your strength and making you pant under the unforgiving inferno in the sky. 

Neither of us wanting to end up as headline in news paper 'Tourists vanish / perish / death by misadventure'.  We stopped to ensure we were making the right choices. How much fuel do we both have? How much water have we got between us? Go back or go forward?  

Onward was the decision, picking our way between dunes, following the broken and cracked earth we picked our way out.  Occasionally finding a 4x4 track was an uplifting moment , not so much when you see it U-turn and go back though!! 

Eventually, and with a sigh of relief, ending up on the edge of vast expanse of open land. It was so large you could not see the other side through the heat haze, the location of what was once a massive lake.  I wonder what it looked like in its hay day? Certainly hadn't seen water recently. 

Life got easier, only 50KM to go, so we hit the gas heading for home, wherever that was going to be this night. 

...slumming it, again! 😉 It's a hard life.