Current location Camping La Tradition, Merzouga, at the foot of Erg Chebbi.
Our back wheels are parked as far onto the sand as we dare, and we can gaze (or walk) straight out into the spectacular dune system.
We've had a busy day!
We started off with a Landrover trip around to the southern and eastern side of the dunes, looking east into Algeria, visiting two tiny mines, a hill that seemed to be made of ammonite fossils, an abandoned mining village and the fringes of the sand.
The ammonite hill must have been deposited on the bed of a prehistoric ocean, and that ocean must have been absolutely swarming with ammonites.
The trip was very interesting, and we're glad we didn't attempt it in the van, but we came back with more fossils than we knew what to do with and had to leave some at the campsite.
This afternoon we took a short trip out into the dunes on camel back, along with Morag and Janice from Norfolk. Camels are strange, strange but very useful animals. Very grumpy while they're being saddled up, but perfectly well behaved when under way. They have fabulous feet and the most luscious, long eyelashes; perfectly evolved for the desert. We enjoyed the ride but wouldn't want to go to Timbuktu on one – an hour is enough to give you a slight John Wayne walk.
(Thanks to David Fossey for the photo)
www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Grey-haired-nomads/
And now it's dusk, time for some more prayers if you're that way inclined, another tagine and another display of brilliant stars.
(Blog entry written on 24th January, published a few days later due to understandably poor internet access)
Addendum
On our way east we'd hurried past rows of strange structures in the desert – hollow cones of mud like little volcanoes about four metres tall. After we left Merzouga we retraced our steps a few kilometres to have a closer look.
They turned out to be the visible bits of a 'khettara'. These are long horizontal tunnels which act as combined wells and pipelines, collecting groundwater and channelling it to the fields for irrigation. Every ten metres or so there's a vertical shaft to the surface to provide ventilation for people working on the tunnels and allow access to draw water. The shafts are topped with a cone of soil, presumably to prevent too much sand from blowing into the tunnel.
About half the khettaras in this area have dried up in recent decades, possibly due to changes to the local hydrology caused by a dam. In any case, these days it is much easier to sink a tube well and pump water through a pipeline. When they were built centuries ago they must have been a huge undertaking.
We ended up in a tent / shop / tearoom / hotel / visitors' centre (N31 31.449 E04 29.312) run by three brothers who have excavated a narrow set of stairs down through the rock into the old channels so visitors can see them from the inside (50 dirham, probably negotiable for groups). At this point the tunnel is probably six metres down and two or three metres in diameter, with a hard rock ceiling, bone dry with heaps of drifting sand.
They asked me to mention them and their business. They will also provide accommodation in a nomad tent, custom tours and entertainment by arrangement. They can speak Arabic, Berber, French, English and who knows what else? More detail at www.abdultours.com.
OK lads?
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