It was a long night with the heavy rain persisting and me getting wet. The thunder cracked right through the night and I didn’t get much sleep. Cooked myself some noodles for breakfast whilst still in my sleeping bag. Thank God the sun came out so I managed to at least part dry my gear before moving on.
Made it through Erfoud into Merzouga very quickly and with no problems. The sun has come out and it’s boiling hot at last. The dunes of Erg Chebbi look superb. Have now checked into a small family run auberge made of mud/straw which is only about £13 a night with breakfast. At this price camping isn’t worth the effort especially as I want to get away quickly tomorrow to attempt my super long off-road journey to Zagora, or at least somewhere in between.
Bike has been rattling along with no problems so far, although the rear sub-frame looks bent through over-loading (no cracks yet though). Want to dump my entire luggage and have a play in the sand dunes now…….
Had a go on the sand dunes of Erg Chebbi – very, very hard work as you need to gun it all the time or you sink. That said you need to know how to ‘read’ the hardness of the different bits of sand, which I can’t, as the really soft stuff will stop you no matter what. Was a bit worried about crashing and falling down particularly the smaller dunes and breaking a collar-bone or something. As a result I took it slow over the dune crests and got stuck a lot – to get the bike out and moving again is exhausting. The hotel owner’s friend is now telling me not to do the Zagora piste on my own, it’s 280km with no fuel en-route – will be tight.
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