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Carrefour apples for the Barbary apes and a speeding fine in the Sahara.......

9/22/2013

9 Comments

 
The offender with his parking fine
A little Barbary ape
Erg Chebbi Sahara
Sunday 22nd September

We decided to push on today and push on we did, driving 267 miles to the Sahara desert where I am currently writing this blog.I am amazed that you can get the internet in the Sahara desert, is that progress or not?

Last night was windy! Because we are in a roof tent we feel the wind, so I woke up in the night feeling like I was in a washing machine being rattled around! I soon dropped back off to sleep though and we got up early as we knew we had a long drive ahead. We bumped into a couple of Spanish lads who we were in the queue with for the trip over to Tanger from Spain.One speaks no English so I tried to explain to him about the wind last night using the power of acting.I blew very loudly a few times whilst shaking my head from side to side, to try and explain the sound of wind and how it blew the roof tent.I am not sure he understood and I think will be giving us a wide berth from now on!

We drove a few miles from the campsite into the Cedar Forest, famous for its Barbary apes.We then took an off road track through the forest which was brilliant, Gav was in his element driving off road.We saw loads of the apes.We were a bit nervous of them at first  as some were big but they were more nervous of us. All we had for them was our Carrefour apples so they dined in style, we cut up 4 of them and fed those who appeared from the trees.

My turn to drive and after driving through Midelt, we were in the anti Atlas mountains, driving on windy roads and gorges.Once I got used to it I loved it, it was really picturesque and not much traffic on the roads.We then swapped again and Gav drove us the rest of the way into the Sahara desert region towards Merzouga.With about an hour to go, we got pulled over by the police and Gav was told he was speeding! Apparently he was doing 69 kilomteres per hour in a 60 zone! Our old defender landy got done for speeding, we almost felt quite proud she had it in her!! Gav handed all his documents over to the stern faced policeman and got charged the tourist fine of 300 dirhams (about £25)The other policeman who stopped us couldn`t apologize enough, introduced himself and his colleague by first name, gave us 4 dates to eat and offered us a cigarette!

We arrived at our campsite which is on the edge of the dunes and is spectacular.There are camels a few metres away chilling and we have seen a few people heading out on camels to catch the sunset.It really feels like we are wild camping in the desert as there are dunes and sand all around us.It is now absolutely pitch back so our head torches are out and I have a scarf over my head to keep the pesky insects away.  The sky is incredible, inky black with sparkling stars.The dunes are called Erg Chebbi and they reach heights of up to 160 metres.They are a shade f rose gold in the sun, changing to orange when the sun goes down.This is meant to be the best area in Morocco for spotting desert birds including desert sparrows, Egyptian night jars, desert warblers, fulvous babblers and blue cheeked bee eaters! I will take my binoculars out tomorrow to try and spot some of them.

Tomorrow we have hired a guide to take us off road, a mixture of sand and dune driving and on the pistes, all around Erg Chebbi, we can`t wait.We will have to take some air out of our tyres to drive on the sand and have a compressor to do the job.
Time to sign off now as bats are circling my head!


Our disney campsite from last night
Driving through the cedar forest
Another Barbary ape
Ruby crossing the mid Atlas approaching the desert area
What a load!
Beautiful scenery along the way
A camel caravan
Ruby in the Sahara post speeding fine so going slowly!
Our first camels
Erg chebbi
Camping in the desert
desert camping
Set up for the night
Doing our vehicle checks Bob!
View from our tent
9 Comments
JIM HOPKINSON
9/23/2013 03:42:42 am

Checked in on your blog with the family over the weekend Jenny. Firstly congratulations on writing such a great blog. Its amazing how in the space of one week you can end up in a environment and culture so different from ours. The photos are fantastic. The bad news is that my kids are saying "we should do that dad...."

Ps - when I worked for Leicester probabtion I used to run the responsible road users course - specifically aimed at the sort of people who saw speeding as a joke...... will see if I can dig out the course material for your return.

Reply
Jen and Gav
9/23/2013 03:22:11 pm

Tell your kids they would love it Jim! Nearly ended up off roading to Algeria today, more about that later.....

Reply
Lucy link
9/23/2013 09:36:56 am

Wow wow wow the desert looks amazing and bet the stars are magical. That picture with the camels on looks incredible, they are such ancient looking animals just taking it all in there stride!
I thought the bribes were supposed to work the other way with you offering goods to the police !!!! Go Ruby and Gav racing through the desert !! Lucy X

Reply
Jen and Gav
9/23/2013 03:25:07 pm

Hi Luce, it`s amazing, although got hit by a small sand storm tonight which was something else! Sand is everywhere!
See you soon x

Reply
dale
9/23/2013 12:56:20 pm

Naughty Naughty Gavin x

Reply
Jen and Gav
9/23/2013 03:26:42 pm

We didn`t think Ruby had it in her!

Reply
Mum and Dad
9/23/2013 01:30:16 pm

Monday, 21st September 2013 After speaking to David on the phone, we've now realised that we've missed several days blogs. I've been thinking that each blog came independently. It all looks wonderful, even Dad is interested and tomorrow I'm going to read it all again and try to follow where you've been on the map. Take care.

Reply
Jen and speeding Gav
9/23/2013 03:30:22 pm

Yes, check it daily although we might not write one every day! It`s brilliant, heading North again tomorrow for the gorges as all deserted out! Tell David we will visit him on way home from Portsmouth with a Moroccan carpet in tow!!!

Reply
Lesley
9/24/2013 08:09:00 am

Pffft keeping up with Jones'! my fine was €50 though :( Sounds like a brilliant adventure so far!

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