Liz and Andy left to return the UK for a general election, brexit, bad weather and xmas. With Lars and Inge in their Landrover, we set off out into the desert again. This time for a slightly longer and more involved trip.
Mhamid used to be a bit of a tricky place to visit because of its proximity (24km) to the Algerian border. These days, things are a bit more relaxed although the border is still closed and there is a strong military presence. The town has always been a starting point for traveling nomads and caravans. Today it is tourist camel treks and 4×4 excursions. We had already stocked up at Tagounite, a very nice town further up the road. Along with fruit and vegetables, we also invested in a tagine and some charcoal. A tagine is a traditional Moroccan cooking pot made of terracotta. We breezed straight through Mhamid and headed for the dunes of Erg Chigaga.
For the first few hours, we saw quite a few vehicles carrying tourists from Mhamid. Also herds of camels grazing on some fertile areas of what looked like wild rocket (arugula). By evening, we had moved beyond the range of the day-trippers. We settled down for a peaceful night of vegetable stew on the tagine. Next day we arrived at the dunes of Erg Chigaga. This is the largest of the Saharan ergs in Morocco and relatively untouched. The northern edge is fringed with tourist camps. The southern part is, for the most part, deserted. Time for some full fat, no nonsense desert driving.
My poor bike is so dusty 
Tagine cooking action 
First job was to deflate the tyres. The spreads the weight out so the wheels do not sink in so far. Baloo has a neat tyres inflation system that allows us to change the pressure of all six tyres at the same time. At sand pressure the tyres bulge at the bottom and almost look flat. We also needed the full off-road capability of Baloo. Diff-locks to prevent the wheels spinning. Transfer box engage to gear down the engine and give us plenty of power.
It all worked beautifully. Route finding was the biggest problem. We needed to ensure we did not drop off the steep side of a dune or end up leaning dangerously sideways. Lars was a great help scouting ahead in the Landrover. There was also a lot of walking, looking and thinking. Progress was slow but we managed to keep it safe and steady. As evening fell, we emerged from the dunes happy and triumphant. We settled in a cosy spot between two dunes, basked in the evening sun and fired up the tagines. Now, in all honestly, we could have driven round and it would have only taken an hour or so. That was not the point. As Lars said, repeatedly, “Why did we do it? Because we can”.
Cent of the desert 
Fantastic!