rory + stephs travels: Western Sahara

Leaving Nouadhibo we were now headed for Morocco. Once we had crossed the Mauritanian border we were officially in "Nomansland" - an area between the Mauritanian and Moroccan border, that due to an age-old and ongoing debate about who owns Western Sahara is completely neglected. It's a rocky over pass littered with tires and old, wrecked out cars. Another scene out of Mad Max ;-)

Once officially on Moroccan soil we were back on paved roads and had one of the most relaxing and enjoyable days of the trip on the bikes. The route is hugging the coast all the way with amazing views of the ocean and impressive cliffs. The landscape is otherwise very dry, flat, a mix of rock and sand, with the occasional bit of green dotted here and there. A beauty only Connemara can compete with :)

We had best intentions to find a nice, sheltered spot to pitch our tent and enjoy the surroundings. But as we rode on we didn't see anything that would have offered enough shelter and the winds were just too strong. Our tent would have probably blown into the ocean (with or without us).

Having a look at the map we thought we might have more luck if we got to the next village of Imily which turned out to be like a newly developed housing estate in Ireland - empty! The community of Imily is fully developed with houses, shops, street lighting, paths even Moroccon flags on top of the government buildings. Yet, no one lives there - except for a bunch of wild dogs that appeared out of nowhere (they looked hungry too). It gave us an eery feeling and we quickly abandoned our plan of camping there and decided to keep going to next village on the map - El Argoub.

In the meantime we were distracted with one of the most majestic sunsets we both have ever seen. Breathtaking!

The first estate we encountered in El Argoub looked exactly like Imily, only this time we saw 2 guys in military uniform outside a house busy with detangling the line of a fishing rod. We pulled in and asked politely if it was ok if we camped in the near vicinity. We were ignored at first so we asked again thinking they mightn't have any English and than one of the guys said in perfect English "no, not here" and not a word more. It was about 8 pm already and getting dark quickly.

We didn't waste any time lingering around and moved on. The next settlement - still part of El Argoub - looked friendlier but also here we were told we wouldn't be able to camp as the whole area is a military zone. That at least explaines Imily - we presume it's all built for military personnel.

At little disheartened we trucked on. It was dark by now. A few kilometres outside of El Argoub and the last building for another 40 km we saw a petrol station. As a last resort we stopped. The owner and a bunch of men where watching soccer (Dortmund kicked AC Milano's arse). A little confused but more than willing to help out the owner showed us around the back of the building where we could camp. He must have felt sorry for us having to pitch a tent so late and with the wind blowing so high - or this was an epic example of Moroccan hospitality as he went on to show Rory a simple room with 2 mattresses and insisted we should rather sleep there. He wouldn't accept any money and our suspicion that he had given up his own room was confirmed the next morning when we saw him coming out of an office, with a small sofa inside that he must have slept on.

Next thing a truck delivering bread stops and when the driver spots Rory he immediately hands him 2 loafs of fresh bread for free. What amazing gestures and what a great country!