The main piste started off the day, easy to ride and follow, then the GPX route veered off left, which turned into an hour of route finding amongst stones and soft patches of sand. Eventually, I just followed the line on the GPS and gave up looking for the track on the ground. This turned out to be a good choice as the track appeared about a mile later and was really good riding including some small sand dune sections.
I reached tarmac just before Arfoud, where I stopped for some coffee and to sit in the sun. Arfoud is one of the towns north of the main dunes of Erg Cheggi. It's a busy place with a nice atmosphere and clearly on the tourist bus route as campers and coaches were all over the place.
I'd planned a route to loop around some hills west of Arfoud, but found that the road to start it no longer exists. It is now a shallow sea of dunes and to cross it meant going against the grain of the windblown sand. I think, if I'd had others with me who were up for the challenge, I'd have given it a go, it was about 10 miles across, but it would have been hard going.
I returned back to Arfoud, had a think over more coffee and then set off for Merzouga. This is another place I've heard lots about and to be honest, its a shithole.
I chose to follow the old route across the desert and not the new tarmac road. This showed off the dune sea to perfection, first a hint in the distance of some big dunes, then to cress a small hill and have the whole lot laid out in front of me, with the palm trees running along its base, it really set the dunes off to perfection. Now introduce the influence of man and his need for money and you get to the shithole bit.
Several small towns and lots of exclusive hotels, built to look like old movie forts. Rubbish is everywhere. Moroccans chase you on mopeds and at cafes trying to get you to buy something from them, a tour, a bed for the night, their best mates superb '(insert your choice of item)'. I ran away as fast as I could once I'd gotten fuel.
The afternoon turned out to be one of the best rides on the trip so far. From Merzouga to M'cissi is around 80 miles. The first 5 are on tarmac, passing the huge dried up lake bed of Lake Dayet Srij. At Taouzint, you turn NW onto an old dirt road that slowly turns W. This winds past tiny mining families and eventually follows a valley, then heads across another dry lake bed to where I ended up camping, En route, the scenery is all windblown volcanic rock hills, small spiky trees and some vast spaces. I stopped to take off some layers as I was finally getting warm.
Two Defenders came past me, one Puma TDCi & one new shape, apparently, they were doing the Paris Dakar rally event that runs each year. They had glowing things to say about it. After checking I was OK, they shot off into the distance.
I waited until their dust cloud had dissipated before setting off. Later I saw a Humvee, obviously doing the same thing, but with much poorer navigation as they were all over the place.
My route veered off theirs a little later on and I wound on through the hills to find a sheltered tucked away valley to pitch my tent. Some food, a catch up on the notes and it was bed time again. Time for the tarp as an extra layer tonight!!
