It’s four o’clock in the afternoon, the port of Alicante is overflowing with cars that have the same objective as us, Algeria. The group that Territori 4×4 has gathered to visit this immense country and cross the Sahara in 4×4 reunites with old friends and meets new adventure companions, everything is ready and only fate knows what will happen to us in this third expedition to the largest country in North Africa.
We have dinner on board and all the conversations revolve around what each one expects from the trip, we are looking forward to arriving in Oran and seeing how our Algerian journey will begin.
Punctually the Tassili 2 arrives at port and after more than two hours of impatient waiting, we are authorized to leave the port facilities, the police tell us that we will be escorted until we leave the most inhabited centers and be able to access the south more quickly, in this way we start the trip.
We put fuel about 15 km from Oran, the price is so cheap that it allows us to fill the more than 200 liters of fuel with less than 30 euros, impressive.
When night came, we arrived in El Bayadh and decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, but everything is closed or about to do so, we find out that the next day is the Id al Adha, or the great festival of Islam of the sacrifice of the lamb. Luckily we were able to eat something in a small local restaurant, thanks to the intercession of the chief of police who welcomed us to his city and wished us a safe trip.
After the first dinner in Algeria, we make our first camp, in a small “oued” with sand that gives us the unmistakable sign that the adventure has already begun.
CROSSING THE GREAT WESTERN ERG
Dawn breaks and the group gets up very excited to start the journey to the Great Western Erg, less than 24 hours ago we have arrived and we are about to step on sand and tracks. With no other company than that of our Algerian guides, we pass some small villages and observe that their inhabitants, mostly men, are dressed in the best clothes, dressed in white.
Around ten o’clock in the morning we leave the asphalt and take a track that is the beginning of our Trans-Saharan through Algeria, about two hours away we stop to greet some nomads who live in tents, they all wear white and offer us excellent sweet and sour goat’s milk and the livers of the lamb they have slaughtered. It was a very beautiful experience since those humble shepherds entertained us with the best they had, we said goodbye kissing as a sign of peace and fraternity.
From that moment on, our contact with other humans was to be null until the end of the crossing of the Great Desert of northern Algeria. The sun begins to say goodbye and we camp at the foot of the first dunes of the Erg, we have done almost 400 km and in front of us stands in our way a sea of 200 km of dunes that we hope to be able to cross in the next two days.
The next morning, we dismantle the camp under the watchful eye of Venus and with the Sun removing the rhea from our eyes, it is early, it is cold and the morale of the group is overflowing.
We start the passage of the dunes, with the emotion that this always represents and much more here, since we do not know of any European who has crossed the Great Western Erg through this part that we are doing it. With hardly any meetings in the sand, without mechanical problems, we advance and jump over the ridges of small dunes that transform the initial excitement into fun for everyone. After passing three water wells, we camp under the shelter of a red sand dune that allows us to spend a good night.
The next day, it takes us more than an hour to find the right way through the sea of dunes, in the end a channel between cords seems to us to be the right one and we begin the attack of the last 80 km of the Great Erg. In this part of the Erg the dunes are greater, but the experience of all the participants means that this does not represent any obstacle and the advance towards the end of the crossing is a matter of hours.
Around four in the afternoon we overcome the last dunes and inflate tires with track pressure, after an hour of walking we see in the distance an antenna that tells us that civilization is near, it is the city of El Golea, a large Oasis, rich in water and that will introduce us to the very simple and rudimentary hotel network of the Algerian Sahara.
THE GREAT EASTERN ERG
After sleeping in the hostel, buying some bread and filling up the fuel tanks, we took the road south. About 100 km away, we leave the asphalt to enter an immense hamada on tracks and sand that is the prelude to the Great Eastern Erg, a gigantic sea of dunes, very rich in oil, shared by Algeria and Tunisia.
After several attempts to cross the large ranges of dunes, we are forced to give up because the ridges are against our course, which makes it impossible to cross them, in this way we can only advance through the channels between ridges, much simpler and surrounded by mountain ranges as beautiful as impressive of red sand.
On the journey, we drove through the immense estates and hamadas of the Great Eastern Erg, we had fun taking pictures of each other at high speed, they were like highways with 300 lanes but with two particularities: they were free and only we enjoyed them, if we add to these moments of fun, the magnificent evenings we had in the camps, always warmed and illuminated by the gratifying fire of the great “Mare”, the passage through this great Algerian Erg was a most pleasant and fun experience.
In the confines of the sea of dunes, we had to climb a plateau along a sandy track that became a “tulé-ondulé” of about 40 km., which forced us to slow down a lot, preventing us from reaching the road that day.
During the camp, our Algerian companions and friends made us dinner, an exquisite soup of bread and chickpeas, with the classic spicy touch and lamb roasted on the grill of the campfire, culminating as every night with an exquisite and well-made tea with mint.
We walked the end of the dusty track during the first hour of the next day, until we reached the small service station of Hassi Bel Guelbur, where we refueled the tanks. We took a road that took us to In Amenas, where we took the opportunity to weld some elements that had broken in the almost 2000 km of track and “off road” that we had done there.
We continue by road to Illizi, very close to the border with Libya, where we have dinner in a local restaurant and stay in the modest hotel in the town.
TASSILI N’AJJER
After leaving Illizi, we continue along a road that is getting worse and worse in terms of its asphalt but is giving us better and better landscapes, we are entering the unique Tassili N’Ajjer, a gigantic National Park in the South of Algeria, of great scenic beauty and unsurpassed cultural richness due to the large number of paintings and rock engravings that are treasured inside.
This vast territory of sand and stones, barren and extremely hard, was thousands of years ago a fertile region, with lakes, rivers and valleys, where a varied fauna was found: fish, crocodiles, giraffes, hippos, lions or elephants, which its inhabitants portrayed in beautiful paintings and magnificent engravings on the rocks. Currently nomadic Tuareg tribes inhabit these inhospitable lands, exploiting the scarce existing vegetation with their herds.
Tassili in Arabic means rocky plateau, and defines exactly the place where we are, a plain of mountains and rocks, with arbitrary formations that give the sensation of being in another world, where tranquility and solitude are only surpassed by the findings of prehistoric remains such as those of the “Weeping Cow”. A wonderful work of art near Djanet, capital of the Tuaregs very close to the Libyan Ghat.
The whole region shows us past climatic changes that our planet suffered, desertification, it is not only a thing of the present, 8000 years ago, this area of the Algerian southeast was rich in fauna, vegetation and water, its inhabitants had everything they needed to live comfortably but the climate changed and the orchard became desert, Only a few acacias and the more than 15000 drawings and engravings made by the humans who lived there, survive that time of splendor.
TASSILI HOGGAR
After leaving Djanet, and the Tassili N’Ajjer, we take the track again until we reach the small Erg d’Admer, where we have fun crossing dunes until we reach a large plain that allows us to ride at high speed.
Through wide hammocks, beds of large dry rivers and small groups of rocks we enter the Tassili Hoggar, the beauty of the place is incredible.
We drive through a narrow and beautiful canyon, where we see two Tuareg women with a girl herding a small herd of goats, without saying a word and respectfully offering some treats to the calf, who takes them happily before the serious gaze of the women, minutes later on the radio we hear that one of the 4x4s has fallen the auxiliary tank, We met at that point and decided to look for a nearby place to camp and be able to repair it. The place is the bed of an oued, which allows us to comfortably shovel the sand and build a hole that serves as a pit to relocate the tank. Before dinner, everything is solved and guaranteed at least until Alicante.
We are in one of the most beautiful places in the Sahara, at 1000 meters above sea level, it is a bit cold, but it is well tolerated. After breakfast we start one of the most impressive tours that can be done in this desert and without a doubt on the entire Planet Earth: The Tassili Hoggar.
Right at the confluence of two oueds, we change our course to the south, in the distance we can see some unique rock formations in the shape of needles that are reminiscent of Montserrat. Through rivers of sand we pass through Youf Ahakit and Youf Aghlal, two of the most emblematic places of the trip, where in addition to several natural arches, large stone mushrooms, we discover a spectacular formation in the shape of an elephant with a fine trunk. Near which we see paintings and rock engravings where elephants and giraffes appear, as well as remains of ancient Tuareg writings.
We are still surrounded by landscapes full of solitude and unlimited beauty, we are in the heart of the Tassili Hoggar, we are enjoying something that we know we will not be able to describe when asked, what we see is so sublime and infinite that even at that moment we cannot retain it for our future memory.
An immense carpet of sand opens before us, it is the Tagrera tanéré, we cross it very quickly until we reach In Akacheker, another area of magical rock formations standing in the middle of the sand, of which we highlight the rock castle.
The sand we find forces us to deflate the tires and be able to drive more calmly in order to admire the extraordinary landscape that we are discovering meter by meter.
Among rocks, arches, mushrooms, engravings, always with the only company than ours, we are living in this wonderful dream that is the Tassili, the disappearance of the sun is approaching and to say goodbye to this indescribable beauty we do it in which we all agree is the most beautiful place of the trip, a large rocky area with archaeological wealth and “gueltas” of stagnant water called the Ghesour, In this place of unsurpassed beauty, sheltered by high spires and stone towers, we spent an unforgettable camping trip.
Slowly we are moving away from the Tassili and approaching the mythical Tuareg capital of Tamanrasset, we have not stepped on asphalt for almost 1000 km, surrounded by landscapes of amazing beauty. Upon arrival in the city, the group splits up to go to the Asekrem or stay and rest in one of the town’s well-kept campsites.
Those who stay in the city take the opportunity to fine-tune the 4x4s, finish off the repairs made en route and visit the old Fort Laperrine of the French, where Father Charles de Foucauld settled in 1905.
The rest of the adventurers follow the route of the French hermit, climbing the 80 kilometers that separate Tamanrasset from Asekrem, there we meet Father Ventura, an endearing and talkative man of God who has decided to live in those places of incredible beauty, solitude and hardness.
The sunset and the sunrise are two magical spectacles that make those hours spent at the Asekrem forever remain in our memory.
At noon the next day they meet again with the rest of the colleagues who remained in Tamanrasset, spending the rest of the afternoon shopping, walking and eating in one of the local restaurants. We slept in the rooms of an excellent and clean campsite on the outskirts of the city.
TAMANRASSET – ORAN: THE END OF THE ADVENTURE
The driving on tracks and sand is over, now it’s time to return to Spain, there are 2000 km ahead of us that we have to do in the 4 days that we have left.
The first planned stage is to reach In Sallah, a town located 650 km from Tamanrasset, but the road has a pleasant surprise in store for us, the road is recently paved and this will allow us to return through the area of the beautiful oases of the Great Western Erg instead of using the shorter and more monotonous path of Gardhaia.
We eat at the restaurant in Arak, where we also take the opportunity to fill up the fuel tanks.
We arrive in In Sallah at 4 pm, refuel and take the road that goes to Adrar, pass Aoulef and camp next to some dunes about 5 kilometers from Reganne, gateway to the mythical track of the Can V, our Algerian guides have warned the police of our intentions and decide that for our safety they will spend the night with us and in an almost imperceptible way for the group, a checkpoint of gendarmes. We think it’s a good idea.
We get up and after breakfast, we leave by road to Reganne and Adrar, in this city we wait about 2 hours to be granted the authorization to travel without an escort. With all the permits in hand, we return to the road towards Bechar.
In Kerzaa, we see the dunes of the Great Western Erg and we decide to leave the asphalt and enter the Erg without getting into trouble, after a good time enjoying small dunes we come across a mighty river between palm trees and dunes, really spectacular. We decided to spend the night in this idyllic place, the problem was how to cross the river.
The guide suggests that we look for a pass that we find after half an hour following parallel to the course of the water. On the other side an inhabited Oasis welcomes us, we continue between the dunes and the river until we find a place to spend the night, it will be our last camping trip of the trip, the stocks of alcohol are nil and the food is practically a sample of “lubias” (word that the Arabs call beans) in their different regional preparations, The last “whiskey-breefing”, without whisky and with “almost all the fish sold”, is merely a shadow of what they have been for the rest of the trip, we go to bed at 10 pm.
The next day, we continued along the track through the foothills of the Erg until we reached Taghit, a beautiful oasis with large dunes that Mare and Iñaki, very eager for sand, go up and down for almost an hour. The rest of the group resignedly drink mint tea at a local bar.
We arrive in Bechar at noon and go to eat at a local restaurant, sorba (soup), chicken and couscous. It is what they offer us and of course we eat.
There are already indications on the road that mark the distance that separates us from Oran, 350 Km., we arrive at Mecheria where we stay in an almost full hotel of workers and that the word tourism sounds very little to them, during the time we have dinner in a local restaurant, they prepare the rooms and repair the shower with hot water.
After breakfast, we leave for Tlemcen and Oran where we arrive at lunchtime, a restaurant in the port offers us a good assortment of fish fresh from the sea, prawns and squid, an excellent meal that seems strange to be able to taste in Algeria, so used to camel, lamb or chicken.
We pass the dune, say goodbye to our Algerian guides who will surely be again very soon and we embark for Alicante, a city that we arrived the next day in the morning.
In the port of Alicante, one last scare, Mare’s car runs out of oil pump and has to be towed home. Before saying goodbye since people have come from all over Spain, we hug each other, smile and wish each other a good trip and a very heartfelt see you soon, it has been a hard trip, with many kilometers that we have enjoyed incredible landscapes, we have had the satisfaction of making a real Trans-Saharan through tracks and dunes, crossing the Great Western and Eastern Erg, Tour the Tassili N’Ajjer, the Erg Admer and the wonderful Tassili Hoggar, Djanet and Tamanrasset, Tuareg cities, discover the magic of the Asekrem and conclude with the beautiful oases of the Great Western Erg. All this in freedom to travel alone with our Algerian guides. A trip that any lover of the desert and adventure has to do at least once in their life, because it has really been worth the effort.
