Week 17, Is it possible to cross the Sahara desert by bicycle? Part 3 TOTAL 7121 KM

The wind in the Sahara will make or break you and I had been dealt a bad hand as the weather gods decided to send headwinds so strong they halved my average speed, in the process doubling the time and stress loads on my supplies. With distances in excess of 170 km between water stops fighting headwinds makes it virtually impossible to cover the required distances on the amount of food and water supplies that you can physically carry as a one and half day ride becomes a three day ride.

I had to adopt a new tactic and find a way to cover the ground, the wind subsided after sunset so I started cycling through the nights, setting my alarm for 3 am in order to get in a few hours before sunrise of wind free conditions, perspiring less and conserving liquids and food stocks as the conditions were more favourable, this was the only way to cover the vast distances on my supplies as I navigated the Saharan desert by night with a small torch light strapped to the front of my bike. Still I ran short as I was forced to trade a tin of Zambuck ointment for two liters of water with a travelling nomad as I came up shy on a water hole a few hundred Km’s north of the Mauritanian frontier.

The rationing of food and water supplies has become part and parcel of the desert crossing as you become accustom to halving tomatoes and onions, quartering peppers and saving sections of eggplant for the next meal, a kind of spiritual cleansing and fasting if you will as the body and mind goes through intense pressures surrounded by an unforgiving immense beauty as you juggle the nutritional needs of your body with the distances and weight requirements of the journey.

I finally reached Dakmar, which is a petrol station 84 km north of the Mauritanian border and was again safely in the bosom of a running tap and small shop that sold Moroccan flat bread and those little triangular cheeses in aluminum foil, a train wreck on any other day of the week, but on this particular day a gleaming oasis of concrete and consumable goods albeit packaged.

The crossing into Mauritania is a rather intense one as there is a 4 km stretch between leaving “Morocco”, Western Sahara and entering Mauritania. This 4 km wasteland of burnt out cars and border dwelling opportunists is ” No Man’s Land ” you are officially stamped out of one country but not yet into the next as the tarmac stops, you are harassed by numerous people trying to charge you to show you the way across this baron stretch of waste land screaming bomb, bomb don’t go that way, as they compete with each other to change currencies with you and show you safe passage across to the border for a fee.

Entering Mauritania is a military affair and a lengthy one at that as your passport and documents are scrutenised by numerous factions of the army, finally getting through after a few hours on combined borders plus having to navigate the 4 km stretch of sand by foot as “No Man’s Land” is impassable by bike.

Once in the country of Mauritania, the military official wanted to know my average speed and itinerary through the country as he phoned through my details to all the military check points that were now expecting me as I rolled through them one at a time. I was being herded from one check post to the next instructed to sleep at the posts for my security as my details were again taken down and forwarded to the next post.

Mauritania is intensely poor and my first town of Bou Lanouar offered no more than onions, bread, tinned sardines and bottled water in the form of edible stocks, again shoving my panniers full as I set off along the 390 km stretch towards the capital of Nouakchott, scanning over my map there were no villages or towns present on this stretch and the distance was again too far to traverse on the stocks I could carry. I rolled forward in faith that somehow there would be a way to cover the required distance. As I left the town of Bou Lanour the Army official muttered “Bonne Chance” appose to the “Bonne Route” I had become accustom to in the north of Morocco, “Bon Chance” gets you thinking… is this possible?

To my delight there were a few nomadic villages and military check points over the 390 km stretch between Bou Lanouar and the capital of Nouakchott that made the crossing possible, my fresh stocks completely finished as I rolled into the capital with a can of sardines and some sugar in my bag of tricks, ready to restock my supplies.

 So I type this blog from Nouakchott the capital of Mauritania after covering 2181 km in 20 days which is 21 back to back Argus Cycle races in 20 days and the answer to the question is YES, the West coast of the Saharan desert can be crossed by bicycle, but not without a pound and a half of flesh, week’s of long days and nights in the saddle, a tin of Zambuck to trade a nomad with and the ability to intensely ration your food and water supplies.

Week 17, the most intense and demanding physically but more so mentally goes out to Tommy and Terry as they celebrate the birth of their beautiful daughter Emily, and my stunning God Daughter that will be nicknamed by her uncle Kayden “ Little Miss Sahara “ congratulations on the creation of your very own little tribe my thoughts are with you guys.

I will be continuing the arduous pace over the next few days in order to make it to Dakar, Senegal in time for the World Social Forum where I intend to fly the flag for Global Wheeling and South Africa.

Week 16, Is it possible to cross the Sahara desert by bicycle? PART 2, TOTAL 6308 KM

Tarfaya to Dakhla, As it stands it is possible to reach the town of Dakhla in the disputed region of Western Sahara which is currently occupied by Morocco, but not without numerous military and police checkpoints in the cities of Laayoune and Boujdour.

Leaving the small coastal town of Tarfaya heading towards the border town of Tah not knowing what to expect when I reached the frontier of Western Sahara, a military checkpoint and a scan over my passport and Moroccan entry stamp, a few questions about my destination and occupation and I was in. There is no official border control here as the region is “Moroccan” and in a sense you are still in the same country spending the same currency.

The region is home to the Saharawi people and out of respect to them and the Global Wheeling project and this blog I will be recognising the region as country number 7 on this trip. The city of Laayoune has a heavy military presence albeit rather relaxed I had to spend the day in town getting supplies of pens, writing paper, replacement spokes for my back wheel, salt and toilet paper. I made the most of the opportunity by tracking down a Hammam which is a shower shop in a sense, 10 Moroccan Dirham will get you a grubby cubicle with luke warm water and a mildew covered floor, after a week without a wash I was keen as mustard and jumped straight in only turning the taps off after half an hour feeling guilty wasting water in the Sahara Desert, had it been somewhere lush with heavy rainfall, I could have stood there all day.

The further south you venture through the Sahara the longer the distances become between places to find food and water, fresh fruit and vegetables become scarce as nothing grows here and everything needs to be trucked in so a lot of the time when and if you manage to find fresh produce it’s wilted and ageing as the village or town waits on the next truck to venture south with new supplies.

Laayoune to Boujdour is just over 200 km with not a lot between it but a small port town 20 km south of Laayoune. Boujdour which is a fairly decent sized town with a small market street, I stocked up on as much fresh fruit and vegetables as I could carry on the bike as this is the last spot for fresh stocks until reaching Dakhla which is roughly 350 km’s away. These stocks don’t last long as your body craves a huge amount of nutrition to help cover the mileage that is averaging in excess of 100 km’s a day and has seen me cover 1350 km, which is 13 back to back Argus cycle races in 12 days across the region trying to make up for lost time when I was forced to back track to Rabat to sort the Mauritanian visa.

From Boujdour to Dakhla the stretches become quite seriously long with a 140km and a 170 km stretches between water stops forcing you to overload the bike in case you have a mechanical problem and get stranded between them, these stops providing no more than nonperishable goods for sale from small desert petrol stations selling crisps, biscuits and canned tuna if you lucky, I managed to find one with eggs which I hastily grabbed off the counter before a trucker could roll in and take the only vaguely looking organic object for sale for miles. Unfortunately the packaged crap for sale at these small desert petrol stops don’t provide enough nutrition and by the time I was 150 km north of Dakhla I had exhausted my fresh stocks, my eggs were long gone and I was forced to live off yoghurt, stale bread and my dwindling olive oil supplies, leaving me fatigued and drained.

Runners have a fantastic phrase ” hitting the wall ” the day leading up to Dakhla i felt like i was ” hitting the wall ” tired drained not getting enough goodness out the packaged “food” I was forced to eat out of necessity, my odometer reading was gradually getting slower and slower as the slog became harder and harder as I was well aware of the need to reach my destination. So is it possible to cross the Sahara by bicycle? As far as Daklha it’s possible but it seems to be getting more and more difficult as the distances grow larger between towns and the quality of the available food seems to get worse.

Roughly 300 km north of the Mauritanian border, I have been forced to take an 80 km detour out to Dakhla which sits on a Peninsular in order to get this blog out which in a sense has added a day to the trip, so a special Saharan edition as I don’t know when the next available connection will be as I envisage being in Mauritania when the next blog is due and from what I’ve heard about Mauritania so far, well… it remains to be seen.

Tags: Is it possible to cross the Sahara Desert by bicycle? TOTAL 5643 KM

Week 15 , Is it possible to cross the Sahara Desert by bicycle? TOTAL 5643 KM

After all the drama of having to backtrack to Rabat to sort out my incorrectly dated Mauritanian visa I was eager to get back on the bike and try catch up lost time. If you are intending on travelling through the region be sure to be very clear and adamant on post dating your visa at the Mauritanian embassy or you will be issued with 30 days from date of application. I returned to Essaouira to grab my gear that had been stashed at a very accommodating fellow’s place by the name of Jawad, he offers day trips by horseback in the region and is based in the small village of Diabat, since wealthy investors have moved into the area due the increasing influx of tourists, a new 5 star hotel along with a spade full of quad bikes have moved into the once sleepy village of Diabat that none other than Jimi Hendrix himself use to frequent back in the day. The spin off has been near catastrophic fore Jawad and his small equestrian business, so if you happen to venture through the area, go for the old school, clean green, four legged option appose to the  four wheeled and support small local business when and if possible.

Heading down past Agadir roughly 175 km south of Essaouira, stopping only long enough to send a few postcards back to South Africa, something I thought quite pricey at Dh7-50 Moroccan Dirham($1) a stamp times two to get to South Africa, keen to reach Guelmim the gateway town to the infamous Sahara desert. The scenery leading up to Guelmim is nothing short of spectacular as you hug the Atlantic coastline  through undulating hills home to the magical Argan oil which till now has been more effective than most painkillers I have tried to keep the ever creaking knee pains at bay. Fancied by the local livestock as well as the they go to all lengths to reach the small nutted fruit that litters the cliff sides of the region.

Through the ancient town of Tiznit and finally reaching Guelmim and the gates to the most sparsely populated stretch of land on the planet, the great Sahara Desert. Heavily laden with extra water and supplies I left the town of Guelmim with a combined sense of awe and intrigue, wondering what conditions lay ahead. From Guelmim to Tan Tan is a 125 km stretch that you need to be self sustainable for my first night under Saharan skies was quite magical and not one I will forget for a long time, learning to be alone is a byproduct of long distance cycling in the solo form and it prepares you well for the desert and its silence.

Cycling in the Sahara is both intensely physically and mentally tiring as you fight winds in the physical form and battle the mind and what it serves up on long winding stretches of nothing, reaching Tan Tan to restock on water and fresh fruit and vegetables my panniers packed to the brim, I dug into the long hot climb out of town heading west towards the coast where I was hoping for cooler conditions as a result of a sea breeze, I was rewarded as I went straight for the Atlantic ocean, jumping straight in my first wash for days as I stood knee deep on the edge of Africa, my hemp soap in one hand as I slapped the ocean surface with the other.

From Tan Tan to Tarfaya is  roughly a 200 km stretch with the small village of Sidi Akhfennir sanwiched halfway between the two, sizeable enough to restock on water and a gift of Sardines from a local fisherman I continued through the desert flanked on both sides of the road by dunes snaking over and around them en route to Tarfaya. So as it stands at this poin t as I type this blog from solar power, yes it’s possible to traverse as far as Tarfaya, what lays ahead, only tomorrow will tell.

Tags: Is it possible to cross the Sahara Desert by bicycle? TOTAL 5643 KM, Is it possible to cycle across the sahara desert, Week 15

Week 14, Resting the knees before the Sahara crossing & backtracking to Rabat to extend an expiring Mauritanian visa.

The knees were in need of a well deserved rest and no better time to do so than before the crossing of the Sahara desert. I found myself sitting in a Moroccan tea den catching up on the journal going over my route south when I pulled out my passport to have a  gander at the Mauritanian visa.

Date of issue was December 29th 2010, a 30 day visa that seemed to be ticking away from the date of issue instead of the post dated date I had requested in order to have enough time to traverse the +- 2500 km from Rabat to the Mauritanian frontier.

Sure enough the visa would expire prior to my arrival at the border leaving me stranded in the middle of the Sahara desert with an invalid entry permit for Mauritania and an expiring Moroccan visa, not an optimum situation by any stretch of the imagination.

To continue and chance it?, or return to Rabat and go in the opposite direction and backwards, a mind twist to say the least knowing you have 35 000 km to cover going the other way. The toss of a coin coupled with a splash of common sense and I found myself scouring the town of Essouira for a safe place to stash my gear for a few days while I went through the painful process of backtracking hundreds of miles hitch hiking and using local night buses to go through the laborious process of trying to sort out my visa issues.

Well aware of the nightmare process that awaited me as I disembarked the night bus at 6 am at the Gare Routier in Rabat, I made quick tracks for the embassy only to get dismissed by the diplomat as he waved me to the door with a unique problem and told me to wait till everyone had finished applying for their first visa for Mauritania before they could tend to my issue.

10 hours on a pavement waiting, hoping , praying for a glimpse in the door I managed to get sorted with the help of a very handy Ghanain fellow that seemed to speak a myriad of languages and helped me to iron out my problems, eternally grateful I skipped out the embassy just after 4pm a few days out of pocket but with an extended visa that surely gave me enough time to reach the border in time and tackle the Sahara confident I would gain entry on arrival at the Mauritanian border.

Tags: Resting the knees before the Sahara crossing & backtracking to Rabat to extend an expiring Mauritanian visa, Week 14

Week 13, Mauritanian visa in hand, hugging the coast of Morocco and Sahara in my sights TOTAL 4927

Rolling out of Rabat with a Mauritanian visa in my passport was a victory on its own after all the hussling and tussling to get my hands on it. Time to hug the coast after traversing the Riff mountains, I was eager to lay my eyes on the ocean again as it seems less lonely when you have the sea for company. Covering the 95 km stretch from Rabat to Casablanca on New Year’s Eve was a rather flat and manageable day in the saddle, the last 15 km’s turned into an industrial zone indicative of the size of the concrete jungle that was shortly to follow. The metropolis of Casablanca, the money machine of Morocco, it’s as modern as any European city with a pace to rival a grand prix and not my personal pick of the litter when it comes to Moroccan cities but impressive in its stature none the less.

In and out of Casablanca in just enough time to see in the new year and back on the bike making tracks for El Jhadida and beyond, this stretch of coastline provided you stick to the smaller roads and stay off the national route and freeway is a great stretch for budding cyclo-adventureres that are keen to have a taste of bike travel, the road surface is rough but tarred and reasonably flat with the odd gradual climb here and there. The wind fluctuates hugely and can change several times in a day so I would recommend taking a good day’s distance covered and bad days get the average of the two and that’s your pace for this stretch of coast. Contrary to popular belief and rambles via the grapevine, water is very consumable in Morocco and can be used to fill up the bike water bottles without any adverse effects.

It’s quite possible to hug the coast most of the way down to Essaouira tacking inland slightly here and there but never too far to feel like you have left the comforts of the ocean, the route is mostly flat with some big climbs in and out of Safi and 25 km before Essaouira there’s a mini monster. Unfortunately the knee troubles that were causing so many hassles in the north of France seem to have reappeared after the crossing of the Riff Mountains and I am not 100% comfortable tackling the Sahara desert with dodgy knees. After exhausting my supplies of painkillers, I have decided to take a few days rest to see if the problem rectifies itself before cracking on through the desert, a decision I am not too keen on as I am already a few km’s off the pace I set for myself which is an average of 400 km a week, but I’m confident I can make it up through the Sahara desert provided I’m in tip top shape.

Usually carnivorous by nature my diet in Morocco has been predominantly vegetarian with fresh produce readily available directly from the farmers and the price of meat far out weighing that of fruit and vegetables, I have made a habit of cooking up vegetable soup accompanied by a Moroccan flat bread which is tasty, filling and affordable. For 10 Moroccan Dirham you can cook up a really filling vegetarian meal for one, which equates to about one Euro provided you haggle in the markets and are prepared to man the camp stove before eating. Otherwise Tagine or Cous Cous from a non-touristy spot will set you back anything from 20 – 30 Dirhams or 40 – 80 in a touristy spot depending on where it is you choose to nosh. The same applies to coffee and tea, Morocco famous and rightly so for its tea dens will offer a pot of “Moroccan Whiskey” (mint tea) from anywhere from 4 Dirham out in the sticks up to 8,9,10 in the big cities and touristy spots like Essaouira.

Ok that’s all the insider info on Morocco you are getting out of me, you will have to come and visit this vibrant corner of North Africa in person if you fancy any more, be prepared to haggle, brace yourself for the wind and have eyes in the back of your head when cycling on the roads because just because they are hooting at you and they have seen you does not mean they will be going around you.

Tags: hugging the coast of Morocco and Sahara in my sights TOTAL 4927, Mauritanian visa in hand, Week 13