From the small village in the eastern part of the Atlas, I continued southwards to the famous dune field of Erg Chebbi. We all have seen dakar pilots, blazing over the dunes and carving trough the sands, dreaming of doing that ourselves. But I have to admit, I chickened out a bit here. With 210 kg of bike and sub par (or rather non-existent) skills of riding in deep sand I assumed any foray into the sand would end with me getting hopelessly stuck. So, I swallowed my pride and played the tourist for a moment.
I descended off my high Tenere and climbed on top of an even higher camel to spend a night in the desert. Spending a night in a Berber tent. The original Berber head-cloth I have is by far the best thing to have in case of a sandstorm.
Speaking of sandstorms, that’s what we got in the evening, so no sunset in the evening. Except for nose, ears and mouth (thanks to the ingenious Berber head-wrap technique) the sand got everywhere, pockets, clothes and so on. I still find grains of Sahara sand every now and then.
But, continuing with the theme, the best was the night. Luckily, after sunset the clouds disappeared and I had a clear night sky. I climbed the dunes at night and took some pictures of the milky way before moonrise.
I was about to finish and go to sleep, when I saw the sand illuminated by the moon. Creating this illusion of a dune at daylight under the night sky. This is the first of my two night time favourites I got during this trip.
Sunrise in the next morning, after the return from the desert, I continued towards Tinghir and the Toudra gorge.
Tinghir, I did not take any pictures during the ride from Erg Chebbi to Tinghir, since it was just too cold and I was rather exhausted from taking pictures last night until almost midnight.
While stopping for a tea, I met this guy. He introduced me to his two camels named Jimmy Hendrix and Jonny Cash. He also wanted to trade his camels for my Tenere. But since it has 48hp (and due to the lack of horses) I would have accepted 48 camels not just 2 (not even rockstar camels).
Tinghir, looking north towards the Todra gorges.
In the Todra gorge, it’s a tourist hot spot (with good reason). While the tourist usually see the entrance and then turn around, I continued to the village of Tamtetouchte
Some ice on the road. Climbing the valley, it got seriously cold.
In the village of Tamtetouchte
While rolling through the village, I saw many villagers, mainly elders, wrapped in blankets huddled in the last rays of the setting sun. I found accommodation here, but I have no night sky picture here, it was just to cold.
