We reached an area called Erg Chebbi. The word “erg” is of Arabic origin and means “sand sea” or “dune field.” For this reason, there are high dunes here that begin directly beside the town of Merzouga. Don’t be confused by the first picture: that is an abandoned village, not the town itself. Despite its small size, this erg gave us an idea of what a real desert might look like. We spent a few days on the edge of the erg and walked across the dunes, which was impressive. Our last host recommended this place to us and gave us advice on where to go in the Atlas region. For now, however, we have decided to take “la piste” to reach another erg. We plan to visit the places he recommended on our way back north, though.
The track took us through an area that must be very dry most of the year. We crossed a variety of landscapes. From stony, shaky passages to perfectly flat, kilometer-long riverbeds, with at least some traces of sand everywhere. We drove most of those kilometers through a wide valley, one slope of which forms the Algerian border. We spent the night in this lonely place and found active mines nearby, though we didn’t know what they were mining. Even in such a remote area, there was trash, too. Unfortunately. But a graveyard of cows and sheep was much more touching.
After leaving “la piste,” we headed toward a larger city. We planned to visit a well-known mechanic recommended by European travelers, even though we had received two other serious recommendations in the area. As we approached the city, different motorcyclists rode alongside us. They talked to us while we were still driving and gave us business cards for other workshops. Weird. Ideally, we would prefer to have the upcoming work done at home, but we were curious to see if we could get advice about other problem areas of the car. Since preventive checks don’t seem to be part of the culture in Morocco, we let them weld a spot on our car’s frame that we had found. We spent half a day in the workshop and then left the city having gotten some minor services, such as a car wash, included. We continued on our way to the next erg and found a place to sleep on top of a hill overlooking the valley where the city was located. The rough path up to that point was just one unforeseen factor in a miscalculated test. However, we will discuss this further in our next post, as it will affect what happens in the coming days.