Update from the Sahara

We are now in Dakhla, Western Sahara, having had a nice long 2000km drive down through the Atlas mountains and the northern Sahara. Good roads all the way, well except for the "scenic" mountain pass I chose.

The pass was truly spectacular, but very frightening for LUda, who doesn't like sheer drops, so she spent the best bits sat cross legged on the floor of the van, below window level, clutching a packet of cigarettes and a whisky bottle.

Soon we were down on the plain again, and the heavens opened leaving the roads awash with torrents of brown water. Interesting day.

Eventually we reached Dakhla, where I have some friends from my last visit here two years ago.

I was looking forward to arriving in Dakhla for a maintenance stop.

Dakhla is a good place to get work done and spend money on maintenance, as long as you are prepared to supervise closely. The front end of the van has been wobbling around quite alarmingly, with gaps starting to appear, and the inevitable leaks. Can hardly blame the van, it's taken a right pounding over the years! I am really appreciating how solid this van is, considering it was originally designed to take germans on their annual holidays!

Anyway, the plan was to re-build the front end, by taking out the dashboard, thus exposing the structure, and strengthening it by whatever means possible.

We went to a local guy who was recommended. He took one look at it and proposed an entirely different solution to what I had in mind, ie fabricating a whole new dashboard from galvanised sheet steel, and completely replacing the wooden one. This would then act as a structural member.

Well I was up for that, until I saw that all he had for tools was a pair of pliers and an angle grinder.

I won't bore you with the details, but 5 traumatic hours later, he had made and fitted the whole thing by hand. Over the next few dyas I tidied up his work, and was lucky enough to blag some hi-tec engine room insulation from the engineer of the only luxury yacht in the harbour. Talk about right place at right time!

The result is outstanding. The van drives like new and is quiter than before, and when you have had a vehicle as long as I have had this ....you are used to it gradually rattling itself to the scrap yard over many years. It is a true pleasure to end up with a quieter vehicle than before!!

The next job was Luda's birthday present! All she wanted was new curtains and a lobster. Fair enough!

I had been meaning to replace the van curtains for years, and a couple years ago I bought some lovely Peruvian hand stitched pieces, that I thought would make nice curtians. As soon as Luda saw them, she wanted them up! But they are too small, so needed incorporating into proper curtains. So we threw caution to the wind and went material shopping. We had no problem on settling on purple velvet!

We found a lovely woman in a tiny shop with a sewing machine and babies crawling around the floor....and a week later we are sat in what we fondly refer to as our "Ganesha Spaceship purple pussy parlour......" I kid you not.

It just seems to be happening naturally and organically.....we are making a home together. I look after the technical stuff, and she looks after the aesthetic and karma side of things!

And the lobster? I'd like to say that I personally dived off a cliff and wrestled the most succulent lobster from under a huge stone amongst crashing waves ....... but we went to a restaurant instead.

It's the only place in town, and is run by an elegant french lady with a cigarette holder and one of those fluffy lap dogs. She must have a story to tell. I wonder how she ended up with the only european restaurant for a thousand kilometres - in every direction! An oasis of "gourmandise" in a desert of camel burgers and lamb testicles!

Talking about lamb testicles ...... I nearly had to do it again last week, but just avoided it in the nick of time. Call me a soft tourist all you like.....AFTER you eat one, as I did last time I was here two years ago.

So a few days ago we were at the head wetting party of the new born son of my retired army friend. Over here the tradition is to celebrate the birth 7 days after the actual event.......probably a tradition harking back to high infant mortality.

But it's a sheep slaughtering situation. Any bloody excuse to slaughter a sheep! My last experience made me more prepared this time. And especially since Luda wouldn't particularly like it. She respects animal eaters everywhere, but wouldn't choose a ringside seat in the abbatoir, and neither would I.

So I bugged out of the slaughter, and we turned up fashionably late, but clutching gifts.

When the muslim world slaughters a sheep - nothing is wasted.

First dish of the day is Offal Tajine, a tasty concoction of nice vegetables and spices, with all the tasty bits of intestine, lung ....... well you name it, it was all in there.....and some really interesting shapes too! The men eat this for lunch while the women prepare the evening feast


So I knew the balls where in there somewhere, and I knew I was honoured guest, so I knew they were coming my way!

Well forewarned is forearmed, and I had prepared a no-thankyou speech that would have put the US ambassador to North Korea to shame. Diplomacy wasn't the word!

So by the time the chicken came, we were starving! And it was delicious.

After all that activity we needed a break from the dusty town, and we also needed visa extensions, so we set off to the very southern tip of Morocco to the Mauritanian border, 400km further south, and probably the furthest south I will ever go in this van.

The paperwork was a formality, which makes a change! We had been told to "ask for Ali", and give him 20 euros, which we did, and we were in and out in half an hour, clutching our passports, ready for another 3 months! If only the British Embassy was so easy!

We then drove back slowly, enjoying some stunning desolate desert scenery on the way.

Next week is the Dakhla International Music Festival ............ more on that later.

I made a youtube video!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAEWK0fHnII

I can't caption the photos, so you can work out the captions yourself!

Colour co-ordinated van in the desert......

Luda incognito......

Ron takes a hot sulphurous desert shower......

New curtains!.......