At the Carrefour I take a moment to crawl under phoca to check everything. damn it is not true, we lost a dust plate from the left rear brake disc. An email to the garage, okay you can continue driving with it, but check everything regularly. Phew… we do some more laundry and the next day the sister vehicle of Hansi and Jackie comes to drive up. We had already met them in Zagora. They ask if we feel like driving together in the desert. Well. Together? Ja waarom niet, is altijd leuk als je een backup hebt in the middel of nowhere. So no relaxing for 5 days
On the morning of day 3 in the Carrefour we leave for M’hamid where the road ends and the desert starts. The wind is blowing hard, actually it is not nice driving, sometimes it is a bit of blind trust in our GPS because the track is not visible. But we will continue. We decided to take the southern route, which would be nicer and quieter. In any case, it is quieter driving here, of course the wind still blows very hard. After 20 km there is a small dune that we cannot get over. Try again but still stuck. I would also have better lowered the tire pressure at the start of the track. Oh well, we can solve that with the shovel, but that does not work either, then let Phoca be pulled loose. And hops bakkie is free again
At km 30 it is slightly different there, the track can no longer be found. Numerous sand dunes block the route. With our vehicles this is not an option to go even further and we therefore make the difficult decision to drive the driven 30 km back The first large dune that we make in the opposite direction, is suddenly good to get stuck in the sand Wind has formed the dunes in a non positive way to go back, so we both suddenly get stuck It is digging and underlay road plates, but after 2 hours of work and sweating bakkie and co are back on route. We drive a little bit, it is enough for today and everyone is ready for a shower and some rest. We enjoy the decreasing wind and the beautiful sunset. Continue tomorrow.
That morning the weather announces a lot calmer, the wind is gone and I enjoy a beautiful sunrise. After breakfast we continue the way back to M’hamid where we do some shopping and then start the northern route towards Foum Zguid. That all goes much faster than yesterday and in the evening we set up camp in the world-famous dunes of Erg chigaga. We enjoy the sunset on a dune and in the morning the same sun but in the east
We take it easy today and drive through yet another breathtaking and varying landscape of dunes, oases and river beds. In the evening we set up camp on the edge of Lac Iriki. There is not much more lace because there is only a little water in October. Together with Hansi and Jackie we enjoy a fantastic campfire and the beautiful stars above us
The next day we drive over a very stony track out of the desert to Foum Zguid Where we spend the last evening with Hansi and jackie and then each go his way the next morning. They go to Marrakesh and bakkie goes to Agadir to get new dust plates in a MAN garage. We do not yet know whether we will be able to get the dust plates, but we will certainly tell you that in our next blog post.
