Half of the day was on tarmac. The old dirt roads run alongside the shiny new tarmac versions, but with crater holes in them and mounds of excess stone piled up. The new road is rough tarmac, but its better for the general traffic all around. Plus there are now bridges over the huge wadi's which is safer than the old style fords, just less fun for the likes of me!
The morning consisted of driving down one valley, crossing a low pass into the next valley. Doesn't sound much, except that the first valley was around 50km wide and I rode 150km before going into the next. The second one was maybe 40km wide and I never got to its end. To the south rests the Algerian border then the wilds of the true Sahara, and in the second valley, there was an increased military presence because of this.
It didn't affect me at all, in fact tourists get a dispensation at the police and army checkpoints for the most part and are waved through, especially on motorbikes. Old campers and converted vans might be Moroccans, so they usually get stopped.
All morning I'd been riding with a really cold cross wind blowing out of the desert. I couldn't get my hands warm, even with heated grips on full and winter gloves on.
One thing that was very obvious was the amount of agricultural irrigation that is going on in the area. Huge bore holes are being drilled to provide water to these systems and olive and date trees are being planted everywhere. Huge swathes of the land adjacent to the road is being dug up and cultivated, with the irrigation systems buried just below the surface. The electricity power lines are being upgraded alongside of this. There is clearly a lot of investment going into this area for the future.
Meanwhile, the towns are the same, run down mud buildings with rubbish everywhere and folk wandering up and down the roads. In Talsint, it was market day and the town was crowded. I stopped at a cafe to look at maps and see whether to stick to my plans to head around to Bouarfa, another 150km east, but decided to head south to Boudnib and pick up the Arfoud road.
Talsint was definitely a thriving hub, whereas Bni Tadjite and Boudnib were down the pecking order, both in terms of the market and the whole town. Both seemed poorer and lacking in any kind of uumph to change that.
From Boudnib, there is a dirt road heading SW to Arfoud. Once I found it, I started to follow it along and found a group of Czech lads, who I'd passed a couple of days ago. They weren't very chatty, probably due to language difficulties, and one of them was having an issue with his bike. The rest were just stood about chatting.
After a brief stop, I carried on and out into the desert proper. The huge expanse hit me when I was off track and trying to re-locate to the piste. I crossed about 20 mins of open stony desert before I found a track. I followed this for awhile and it then started to head off to one side, but still in the general direction, so I carried on for about 10 miles until I came across a really wide dirt track. It was basically two tyre tracks heading across the desert to god knows where.
Once back on a big piste, it was easy to follow and as it was getting closer to 5pm, I started looking for a camp spot. I turned off the piste at a shallow wadi, followed this for a mile and found a spot behind some thorny trees. Once camp was set up, it was time to eat the dates I'd bought and catch up on menial chores. Plus just enjoy the sunshine and the warm desert.
