La mer de sable

Salem Aleikum! Finaly, I am in the desert! I left Rabat with a feeling that I didn't want to enter any big stressy cities anymore for a while and this is exactly what happened. Hitchhiking was great again. Mister X took me to his second home for christmas. Just a coincidence as for the Muslims I met this day is nothing special. We still ate a wonderful tajine with his second wife, while his real wife with kids were staying at their first home in Y. The next morning he gave me a little tour around the reservoir he was building with his colleagues. This year Marocco seems to get more water than the last 30 years together, which is a real bless especially for the interior parts of the country. Passing the Ouzoud waterfalls and sleeping with the semi comercial semi hospitable berbers I hitched three days with the french Philippe. His aim was to deliver some old computers in Senegal, but he didn't pass the border to Mauritania because visa these days are only given in Rabat. This gave him the time to escort me through the Atlas, from Ouarzazate via de Vallee de Draa to the border of the desert (the beginning of the Sahara I suppose) in Mhamid. Here I started a little solo-expedition with 5 breads and 5 liter water for 200 km of sand. Of course, next day I was already picked up by a 4x4 and freely enjoyed an organized tour to Foum Zguid at the other side of the piste. I am now heading to the real Western Sahara to enter Mauritania before the 20th of January before my visa expires. Happy new year to you all and speak to you soon! Beslema, G