Mauritania to Western Sahara / Morocco

The penultimate blog of the trip as we head to Marrakech tomorrow where my journey ends…

We’ve covered a lot of ground since my last post from Mauritania, through the Western Sahara and now in Morocco. Leaving Mauritania, we drove through a few miles of a true no-mans land with no actual road and an area littered with unexploded land mines and abandoned rusting vehicles before we reached the official Western Sahara border. Controlled by the Moroccans, this was the most officious border we have crossed with the truck even being put through a scanner to check no one was concealed on board. A far cry from the piece of string across a dirt road and the hand written ledgers of earlier border crossings…

The Western Sahara provided us with some beautiful drive days and bush camps. For much of the journey, we followed the coastline with the turquoise blue ocean glistening beneath the jagged cliffs, stopping occasionally to take photos of the views or slow down for camels crossing the road. We stayed one night in a town out on the peninsular called Dakhla which seemed to be a mecca for kite surfers. Hundreds of kite surfers in the bay did look spectacular and so colourful after miles of empty desert landscapes. A highlight of our time in the Western Sahara was staying at a bedouin camp and hiking across the salt pans (which appear like snow), climbing rocky peaks and exploring sand dunes.

Eventually we reached Morocco, although without fanfare as there is no border crossing as such since the Moroccans unofficially control Western Sahara, albeit that this is not recognised internationally. We have visited a number of historic towns in Morocco - Tarfaya, Tafraoute, Tan-tan, Tiznit, Taroudante and are now in Essaouira (pronounced Essa-weera). Lots of exploring the medinas, the old towns contained within the city walls, and wandering through souks. North Africa could not be more different from West Africa. Very easy travelling now as hot water, electricity, wifi, etc are fairly standard. Tafraoute was a beautiful sleepy town in the Anti-Atlas mountains and we did a great day long hike there. Today will be spent exploring Essaouira which is on the coast and is known as the “windy city”. I am being slowly eased back into European climates as the last couple of weeks have been markedly colder as we’ve headed north. The final drive day tomorrow into Marrakech where I will be spending three nights before flying back to the UK!