Thursday 15 October

A pre-dawn start took us by 4x4 into the Sahara desert, after an hour or so the bitumen road disappeared at a town called M'Hamid el Ghizlane not far from the Algerian border, once a garrison town for the French Foreign Legion camel corp. Thereafter for the next 3 hours there is no road, only tyre marks, sand rocks and more rocks and sand. Our destination for the day is Erg Chigagga a spectacular vista of sand dunes stretching some 40km across the desert, the only way to get there is by 4x4 or camel.

It's a 50 day camel ride to Timbuctou from here

getting there is half the fun

and not so much fun

A camel filling station

Camel-cam big vista

Taureg blue men with tablet

Desert lunch stop

Cooling down waiting for lunch

The bread oven in action 

The end product, desert damper

with an 'eat my dust' finish