October 30, 2009
The sight of dead dogs and cats on the side of the road is nothing new, but a dead camel… that’s a first!
Old tires litter the side of the road. I think about those tires and the stories they must hold about how they came to rest here in the middle of nowhere. As far as the eye can see there’s nothing but sand. Every now and again I see a silhouette of a camel on the horizon. The desert heat today was intense, it felt like someone was putting a hair dryer in my face. Driving through the Sahara desert with out A/C was definitely a bad idea. I feel like god must be listening to my thoughts, as a big grey cloud has just moved in and is now giving us some relief from the suns rays.
Crossing the border from Morocco to Mauritanian proved to be an interesting 5 hour adventure. Morocco and Mauritania have all but recently been at war, so the border is filled with landmines. If driving across the 2km stretch of rocky dirt road wasn’t bad enough, the thought of landmines loomed in the back of my head. Fortunately the only major problem we had was getting stuck in the sugar sand and having to push our cars out and also beating the shit out of our cars. The actual border process was much easier on our nerves, it just ate away at our time. It took us 5 hours to get our lovely Mauritanian visas. I wont go into detail as I have no real explanation why it takes so long… but lets just say things in Africa take forever. As Leonardo Dicaprio says in the move Blood Diamond…. “TIA”….. This is Africa!
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October 28, 2009
I feel like im stuck in the movie Ground Hog Day, where everyday is the same. The Sahara desert seems to go on forever!
These sand duns, camel signs and dead patches of desert grass all look the same, the smell of stinky dried fish and even the police check points (which are every 50km) seem the same. The policemen’s faces look the same… maybe it’s the malaria pills or maybe I’m just losing my mind.
The only major thing that has happened today that made it different from yesterday, was blowing 3 tires and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and forced to camp without food. At least we were able to light a fire. It’s amazing how burning things can lift your spirits. I spent most of the night burning every dry bush I could uproot. I guess I am a little bit of a pyro.
The road ahead keeps unfolding like a never-ending book with a billion pages. I guess the same goes for my life… I’m just following the road in front of me, hoping it never ends… like the sun that just set off to my right.
My best investment in the past few months has been this 50-cent note pad so I can write in the back of the car. The group has been pretty quite, not a lot of talking going on. I guess after spending a week driving together for 12 hours a day… what’s really left to talk about? I am loving the free time to let my mind wonder, it brings me back to when I was a boy and had no real problems or responsibilities and I would just sit and daydream about far off distant lands. For some reason I was always fascinated about time, and how if it was 8pm in Florida and it was getting dark that somewhere else in the world some kid was just waking up for school. But with all that daydreaming I still never ever dreamed that I would make it to all those places.
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October 26, 2009
It’s been months since I have been able to get inside my head. The constant distractions and lack of free time “me time” have left me at odds with myself. I have neglected my best friend in the world… me!
The vast African continent and its never ending dirt roads have given me back the most precious thing in the world… the time to get inside my head and think and look at this crazy world from the outside. It’s easy to get sucked into the chaos we call “life”.
We have all been taking malaria pills for the last 2 weeks, and I think they are making us all crazy! One of the common side effects is wild dreams… my dreams have not necessarily been wild, but just recurring ones centered around Barcelona. They feel more like visions of the future rather then dreams… I now only wish I could see the winning lottery numbers.
My days have been filled with endless driving, hunger, lack of water and the constant search for directions, food and a place to sleep. We haven’t been making too many stops, as there is just too much freaking ground to cover in such a short period.
About the cars… well I guess you could call us “African Overlanders”. The term pretty much means someone that drives long distances overland. It’s funny when you see other overlanders in their big Land Cruisers/Land Rovers with their fancy GPS units, massive tires and extra gas tanks on the roof. It’s hard not to laugh at how under prepared and ill equipped we are.
Two things are either going to happen.
1) We breakdown or get to a place where we cant go any further because our cars were just not built for it.
Or
2) We make it all the way and realize in the end you don’t always need the biggest and most expensive toys to have fun!
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October 24, 2009
It’s been over 4 years since I last set foot on the African continent. Last time I was here I did the east coast route from Cape Town to Egypt, this time around it’s down the west coast from Morocco to Cape Town… or I should say, as far as these cars will take us.
I now find myself at a place I never would have guessed I would be, at the edge of the Sahara desert. It’s going to take us 4 to 6 days to drive through the Sahara. No guesthouses or hotels, so we will be camping in the sand.
Driving in Morocco is very similar to India, people, goats, cows, camels, motorcycles, trucks, cars, dogs, cats and pretty much anything else that you can think of, jump out in front of you every other second. At this point I’m glad I haven’t hit anyone, although the site of dead dogs on the side of the road is getting old fast… I have always hated the sight of dead animals.
The cars seem to be holding up, other then a few things that have fallen off, but it was nothing important. It is taking us a lot longer then planned, the roads are packed with slow trucks and sheep crossing the roads that have cut our time in half. The Malaria pills have been messing with my stomach or maybe it’s all the street food we have been eating.
Well I need to go get my hair cut…. here are some photos of Morocco!
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October 21, 2009
Waiting to the last minute is my middle name, it’s pretty much the way I live my life. This Africa trip is no different, but it feels good to be with people that operate the same way.
After pissing away our 2 week “getting prepared” time, we left Barcelona like a band of gypsies in two piece of crap cars that would be lucky if they made it to the Spanish border. The only useful thing we had in our cars other then our stinky clothes was some cheap tents and sleeping bags that already have busted zippers. For some reason we thought it was a good idea to leave Barcelona at midnight and drive through the night hoping to get the ferry port early in the morning. Unfortunately we under estimated the time it would take to drive through Spain. 18 hours later we limped into Algiers looking like a bunch of beat dogs lacking food, sleep and a shower. It’s for sure the wrong way to start such a crazy trip.
Crossing the border into Morocco was full of adventure and chaos and cost us 3 hours. I think we have now learned how greasing a palm can get you to the front of the line and save hours waiting like retards. So after spending some quality time in sketch-ville we finally made it to the beach where we planned to camp. We pulled into a town called Asilah on a Saturday night, which was full of colorful sketchy dudes standing on the streets. We decided to drive a bit outside of town, which we thought would be safer. We found a dark dusty road that looked like it might lead down towards the beach. It for sure lead to the beach but also lead of right into the arms of 2 crazy looking guys with machine guns. We either drove onto a military test range or some sort of national park. I was just glad we didn’t already pitch the tents and have to repack them. It was now 1am, which was over 24 hours since we left Barcelona. We finally found a quite area on the beach, so we popped the tents and got some much needed rest. I only woke up once during the night wondering where the hell I was, the sounds of the ocean through me off. So I guess you can say that my trip is officially underway. Here are some pictures from the last 2 weeks.
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