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23.03.2021

ca. 100 km offroad through the Sahara from Camp 2 to Chinguetti

To no surprise, I was up by 06:45. I had slept well, but still would have to adjust the air mattress next time … Already I had a sort of morning desert routine … a bush potty with a view and brushing my teeth on the way back to camp … then pack and 07:15 I was ready for breakfast.

For breakfast we had the desert bread Sahar made last night. It was actually quite good. I had some salami with. I liked it … Packing up the camp was a routine for Ely and Sahar as well … Quickly it was done and by 08:30 we were off … today into the Adrar. The LP guide book from 2017 – the only guide book for Mauritania I found at all – had all of 12 lines dedicated to this vast region – “The Adrar is the undoubted jewel in Mauritania’s crown, but sadly it remains firmly off-limits for security reasons – all Western governments currently advise their nationals against travelling to the Adrar. When it again becomes safe to visit, it’s epic Saharan country, and shows the great desert in all its variety: the ancient Saharan towns of Chinguetti and Ouadâne, mighty sand dunes that look sculpted by an artist, vast rocky plateaus and mellow oases fringed with date palms.”

In 2007, the assassination of 4 French people near Aleg, in the south of the country – claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb – and then the attack on the French Embassy in Nouakchott by a suicide bomber in 2009 pushed the French Foreign Ministry to register a large part of the Mauritanian Sahara in the red zone – formally not recommended for travelers. The world trusted France … most governments copied the travel warning … But by March 2017, France had reduced its recommendations … The region was now “discouraged unless there is a compelling reason” – a less alarmist status that has paved the way for the resumption of flights between Paris and Atar, the regional capital. The arrival of the first plane in December 2017, raised hope among the Adrarois, whose income had declined for 10 years … At a time when most of the major Saharan destinations like Algeria, Mali, Libya, Niger … remained inaccessible for security reasons, Mauritania was recovering its dream of a revived tourism scene … The Ministery of Foreign Affairs of Germany today only stated areas of the Adrar east and northeast of Chinguetti and Ouadâne as unsafe. German tour agencies were running trips here … and Idoumou had also assured me it was safe. I was not worried … Lonelyplanet had not even updated its online file …

Once we left the camp site it was a short offroad hop back to the gravel road leading north. The light was strange today … it was really hazy … gloomy almost … The road was a well maintained gravel track and while we did not meet any other cars, there were quite a few people walking along. They probably walked from Oasis Terjit to Mhaïreth – an even bigger oasis. Just over 20 km apart, it was for many locals within walking distance … I learnt that during this voyage.

The road was climbing the plateau and as we reached the top, Sahar pulled over and Ely motioned me to get off … he wanted to show me something … Unfortunately, due to the hazy weather … the view was not as spectacular as it could have been … even Ely seemed a little disappointed. But deep below in the valley was the oasis Mhaïreth … I could only imagine its dimensions …

We got back in the car and Sahar navigated down the steep hill into the oasis. Since this was an actual road … other than being really precipitous … the going was easy … and I wished the haze would have lifted … I could sense the sun being above trying to burn of the murk …

As we reached the village, we turned off the main road … actually it ended there abruptly … Mhaïreth was indeed one of the largest oases of Adrar – it was said to have approx 4500 date palm trees. It stretched for nearly 7 km and was located between the oasis of Tergit and the Zarga Mountains – a relatively small sandstone masssif northeast towards Chinguetti. Mhaïreth was less set up for tourists and very different from Terjit – it was located in a much more extensive and cultivated wadi. There were relatively … comparably … many people around … it was still early in the day and not too hot yet.

We drove into the village and somewhere in the center we stopped. Ely told me to get out for a walk, he wanted to show me his Mother’s palm grove. He said they would come here every year during summer season. It was a relatively large palm yard – I forgot how many palm trees he said were within the walls of the grove – with usually a good harvest … but there had not been any rain within the last 2 years … normally it would rain in July and August … so this year the harvest would be very meager if any … it was just too dry …

Phoenix Dactylifera – commonly known as Date or Date Palm – was widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle East and South Asia for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The tree typically reached about 21-23 m in height, growing singly or forming a clump with several stems from a single root system. Date fruits were oval-cylindrical, 3-7 cm long and about 2.5 cm in diameter with the colour ranging from bright red to bright yellow, depending on the variety. Containing 61-68 % sugar by mass when dried, dates are very sweet and are enjoyed as desserts on their own or within confections.

Dates have been cultivated in the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years. There was archaeological evidence of Date cultivation in Arabia from the 6th millennium BC. The total annual world production of Dates amounts to 8.5 mio metric tons – countries of the Middle East and North Africa being the largest producers and consumers.

The palm tree was a means of survival – Mauritanians eat its dates, they make mats, beds and chairs from palms, the leaves are also used to make baskets and to feed livestock. A palm plantation was the most precious investment. Ely’s family maintained it carefully – water was regularly pumped from the ground within the grove.

The harvest output depended heavily on rainfall and on successfully fighting off the attention of locusts, birds and other animals. Mauritania had over 10000 productive hectares of Date Palms – taking into account mature, productive palms as well as young trees that have not yet begun to bear fruit and male palms – essential for pollination. The Date Palm is dioecious – having separate male and female plants. They can be easily grown from seed, but only 50% of seedlings will be female and hence fruit bearing. Most commercial plantations thus use cuttings of heavily cropping cultivars. Plants grown from cuttings will fruit 2-3 years earlier than seedling plants. The trees were planted in rows and spaced from each other by several meters so that they do not shade each other too much.

Mauritania’s estimated annual production of Dates was approx 60000 tonnes – to which was added a small amount of imports – some 1000 tonnes from Algeria and 500 tonnes from Tunisia. Around 60 % of Dates were eaten between June and August, during the Guetna – the Arabic name for the season when Dates were harvested. The rest was dried for consumption throughout the year.

Leaving the family palm grove, Sahar drove through the village. Apparently Mhaïreth also stood out for its good examples of popular Mauritanian architecture. The desert climate was harsh with little or no natural shelter. In order to survive, people needed to create their own shelter and the ksour – Maghrebi Arabic and the North African term for fortified village – of Mauritania were elegantly adapted to the desert climate. Around the 16th and 17th centuries, the ksour started to decline – today, only small villages remain that continuously fight for existence. Mhaïreth had been built in a similar stlye like the ancient villages … the streets were narrow with houses closely packed together and in this way houses protected each other from the sun, wind and dust of the Sahara.

Ely knew many people around here. As we drove along, we stopped several times so he could shout a hello … shake a hand … have a quick chat … we passed a general store … people were going about their business … There were palm groves all over the village. Nearly 20000 people across the entire country depended on Dates for their livelihood in 5 oasis regions – Adrar in the north, Tagant in the Centre and Assaba plus the 2 Hodhs in the southeast.

We had not reached the end of the oasis village, when Sahar turned west and crossed a sandy ravine … a dried up riverbed. Now the track climbed out of the wadi and very steep up the cliff side to the plateau to approx 400 m above sea level … it was another rodeo ride … and it was so steep!

For a long time we followed the gravel track across the Plateau de Adrar. It seemed to be an actual official road … there were even road signs … but I could not find it on google maps … the track was barely visible on google satellite as well … but it had a speed limit!

The Adrar – Berber for mountain – was a highland natural and historical region of the Sahara Desert. It was an arid plateau, known for its gorges, regs – stony deserts – and sand dunes. Structurally the Adrar was a low central massif which rose to over 700 m above sea level in its northern and western expansion, then lost elevation and became subsumed by dunes to the south and east. We were crossing the north-western side of it … a flat rocky area … there were no camels … no donkeys … no goats … no people around … nothing but rocks and sand …

Maybe 30 km Sahar was driving north until he turned to the east off the main track towards the Zarga Mountains which we could only just make out in the hazy distance. The contrast between rocky peaks and sand dunes that invaded them had earned them the nickname of two-tone mountain.

It was obvious we were going offroad again … yeah … the rocky plain turned more and more sandy now. Often there were not even tire tracks visible ahead … but Sahar held a steady northeasterly course … he did not have a compass, though … there was no map … I guess he used the good old navigation technique of using fixed points of reference ahead … and drove from one to the next … only that there were not many points of reference that seemed suitable … the trees looked all the same to me … hmm …

Well, we are not in the middle of nowhere,
but we can see it from here.
Thelma & Louise

All of a sudden … there was a Donkey in the middle of nowhere … right by the side of the sandy track we followed bow … and then a lonesome nomads’ camp appeared in the haze a little further on. The great droughts of the 1970s and 1990s, by decimating the herds, sounded also the death bell for nomadism – were 75% of the Mauritanian population living a nomadic livestyle in 1965, only 1.9% –  but 6.5% in the Adrar region – were still nomadic according to the last census of 2013. The regrouping policies carried out by successive governments to facilitate residents’ access to basic services like schools, clinics, universities etc have also accelerated this process, however.

The light was really strange today … the haze was still persistently hanging over the vast expanse of the desert … Few places in the world were as otherworldly and untravelled by outsiders as the Mauritanian Sahara, I imagined … it was definitely otherworldly today … almost gloomy at times …

Around 11:45 we stopped next to a red sand dune for our lunch break. Ely and Sahar had found one of the few trees that had a large enough treetop to provide enough shade for our siesta … there were not really many trees around … It was a spectacular setting, though … In search of the designated ladies bush I found a viewpoint which opened up breathtaking vistas over those red dunes. The light took on the red-orange tint of the sand as the midday sun tried to burn through the haze …

On the far side of the dune I spotted something moving … curiously I put the long lens on the camera … and in fact … there was a man ushering 4 Camels and 2 Donkey along – one of them laden with bags and a water canister … in the middle of nowhere … It had been a long time since we had passed the last sign of civilization … but there he was with his animals … He was moving in the general direction of the tracks we had been following. But he was still far away from where we were.

In the meantime Ely had prepared lunch and they had set up the table and chair in the shade. Despite the haze it was really hot. Lunch was pasta salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and olives. It was good as usual. Lunch with a view today …

While Ely cleaned up the lunch dishes, Sahar went to collect some acacia seed pods … I followed him, because I saw him throwing a stick into a tree … The Umbrella Thorn Acacia was widespread in Africa and the Sahel – it tended to grow in areas where temperatures vary from 0°C to 50°C and rainfall anywhere from between 100-1000 mm per year. The seeds were produced in pods which were flat and coiled into a springlike structure. They fell out of the tree when Sahar used his stick to shake the branches. He collected them and stored them in an empty water bottle to take home, because Acacia Nilotica had a wealth of medicinal uses for desert dwellers. It was used for stomach upset and pain, the bark could be chewed to protect against scurvy, an infusion could be taken for dysentery and diarrhoea. It had also been used to eliminate stomach worms, as an antiseptic for open wounds and as an expectorant for treating coughs.

Today we did not have siesta time in the desert. Since we were going to Chingetti, I had asked Ely this morning, if we could stop for lunch somewhere, where I could charged my gadgets … we did not have to stay there, but I could use a shower as well … He had just said – Pas de problème! We will stay in an auberge!

The last 15 km or so to Chinguetti were offroad across the sand, of course. The closer we got, there were more civilization signs as well. At one point a woman in a bright blue traditional dress – in Mauritania called Melahfa – walked through the sand … an amazing sight …

Around 13:30 we reached Chinguetti and with it civilisation! Throughout history, the Sahara had been a barrier that nomadic traders had to cross when traveling between West Africa and the Mediterranean. In the 11th and 12th centuries, prosperous towns – known as Ksour – arose in the desert regions of Mauritania in order to facilitate these caravans. Since 1996, 4 of these towns are now listed as a joint UNESCO World Heritage Site – Ouadâne, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata. The town of Chinguetti was split in 2 by a wadi – on one side there was the old sector and on the other the new one.

We were first headed to the new town – to Maison d’hôte Ouarane. As we arrived the gate was locked … but Ely made a phone call and somebody came running to unlock. It was a simple auberge – but most importantly … there was electricity! And there was mobile reception in town! Even 3G internet! … I was happy.

It was a house in the traditional style made of field stones. I got one of the 4 available rooms – it was large with 2 beds, a table and chair and an en suite bathroom. The first thing I did was put all the gadgets on the charger … hoping the overload would not pop the fuse of the entire house …

Then I checked out the premises and climbed up to the rooftop. The haze still hung over the desert, but the sun was almost winning the fight and it was really hot. The town was widespread with broad streets … none was paved … fieldstone houses were grouped around large courtyards. But in the afternoon heat most people were having their afternoon break, I supposed … all all seemed deserted …

For me it now was shower time! The en suite bathroom in my room even had hot water! Unbelievable! I even got it running! … The rest of the afternoon was for siesta … I had the room door open – it was leading into the courtyard – but I stayed mostly inside …. it was just too hot outside … but I did not take a nap today … I had plenty catching up to do online! I posted some photos of the last few days and finally the Polarsteps tracker synchronized … so messages from home arrived … even though I had told them I would be offline in the Sahara … they had been wondering …

At 17:00 we drove across town and through the wadi to the old town. Occupied for thousands of years, the Chinguetti region had once been a broad savannah – quite different from the sand dunes of the desert found in the region today. The city was founded in 777 and by the 11th century had become a trading center for a confederation of Berber tribes known as the Sanhaja. It had been located at the crossroads of several trade routes.

The population of Chinguetti today was only a fraction of what it used to be – this was once a prosperous city of 20 000 people … now there were less than 4500 – and yet Chinguetti was still more alive than the more remote Ouadâne, where the old town was largely in ruins. The nomadic traders were gone – they had been replaced by a few tourists, but the last few decades had seen a big drop in tourism in Mauritania which made it difficult for the locals to earn a living. Desertification and expanding sand dunes were another major challenge nowadays … In the old town Ely – who had donned his traditional dress since we were back in civilization – walked with me through the narrow alleyways.

Soon after settling Chinguetti, the Sanhaja first interacted with and eventually melded with the Almoravids, who would eventually control an empire stretching from present-day Senegal to southern Spain. The city’s stark unadorned architecture reflected the strict religious beliefs of the Almoravids, who spread the Malikite rite of Sunni Islam throughout the Western Maghreb. Then … after 2 centuries of decline, the city was effectively re-founded in 1267 as a fortified cross-Saharan caravan trading center connecting the Mediterranean with Sub-Saharan Africa. The oldest part of the ancient town and the walls of the original fortification had disappeared under layers and layers of Sahara sand over the centuries …What was the old town now was mostly from the 13th century – Ely told me that this part of town had also been hidden under sand until 2003.

Over the centuries, Mauritania’s ksour developed a characteristic stone architecture with styles varying from town to town. Stones came to be the main building material because they were plentiful in the desert, while wood for example was hard to come by. The stones were fitted well together so that little or no clay mortar was needed. Massive stone walls kept indoor temperatures relatively stable and comfortable during the hot days and cool nights of the desert. The houses had little or no windows and were closed towards the streets in order to provide privacy and protection from dust and heat. Instead, the houses would open towards interior courtyards.

We passed the Chinguetti Mosque just as afternoon prayers were finished … considerably many men flooded the alleys. It was an ancient center of worship created in the 13th or 14teenth century. The minaret of this timeworn structure was capped with 5 ostrich egg finials and was supposed to be the second oldest in continuous use anywhere in the Muslim world. Architecturally, the mosque featured among its most distinctive characteristics a spare, unmortared, split stone masonry and a conscious lack of adornment. It had been restored through an UNESCO effort, but it – along with the city itself – continued to be threatened by intense desertification. Still it was popularly considered the national emblem of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

The old quarter of Chinguetti had 5 important manuscript libraries of scientific and Qur’anic texts without peer in West Africa – many dating from the later Middle Ages and we were going to visit one of them. These exceptionally calligraphic documents were used by the scholars who studied and taught here, others accompanied the faithful all the way to Mecca. It was estimated that 3000 mainly religious works were once divided into different collections. Fondation Al Ahmed Mahmoud was where Ely led me … but we obviously were too early … the heavy door was locked … so Ely had to make a couple of phone calls yet again …

While we waited more tourists arrived … earlier we had already seen a group of Westerners walking across the wadi … and I had this notion … this might have been the diamir group I had originally planned on joining and had met at Istanbul airport … and sure enough … it was them … I recognized the tour leader who had spoken with me back then and waved a fairly friendly Hello! … I chatted to one of them for a few minutes … they were 7 … and some of them never took their facemasks off … even in the vastness of the Sahara … Well, everybody as they wanted … but I was really happy I had chosen to do this trip on my own! … Oh, so you speak French? We do not and therefore we booked with diamir. We have a German groupleader – Well, yeah, I speak French! I answered with great confidence … even though most of the time I was just pretending …

You see, I work for a German tour agency cruising the French rivers. When I first got assigned to France, nobody really asked me if I really spoke French. They did know that I had taken lessons a while ago … but nobody ever checked … and during the 5 seasons I worked there now, I got along quite well … but my French did not get much better. I work with German tourists and all my local agency contacts spoke either English or German … I did not tell them that, however … none of their business …

Yet even another tourist arrived … I was not sure, but he might have been American or Italian … He came with a guide only and hey spoke English. All of a sudden there were way more people around than I had expected … Maybe I was going to dig my facemask out after all … in the end I did not  … I did step back when flying souvenir selling ladies came down the alley and a couple of the Germans started haggling, though …

Finally the heavy wooden door opened and we all had to watch our head when piling down steep and narrow stairs into the courtyard of the house which seemed to be a museum full of century old utensils. The Al-Ahmed Mahmoud Foundation proudly displayed its motto – Knowledge is the only wealth that can be distributed without the risk of going broke! The place was sure prepared for tourists … a few amphitheaterlike stone stairs were obviously used as seats to follow the owner of the house passionately describe the objects gathered here – there were millstones, mortars, pot, pans, a special well …

The old man explained everything in French, of course. I did not ask Ely to translate anything … the German groupleader was trying to translate for her group … I very quickly figured out that her French was even worse than mine … maybe I should apply with diamir to lead their groups next ime? … Hmm .. might be an idea … The guide of the other tourist was translating to English … only he kept saying – I did tell you this already before … I will tell you this later … so I decided to really concentrate on the French of the local and I understood surprisingly well! Yeah! … little details I checked back with Ely later on …

However, we had come here for the ancient books and writings … and eventually the keeper of the treasure unveiled some of his gold on paper … he brought it out from a dark room where it was stored in a dusty piece of furniture … we would not have fit all into that tiny room … it was off limits … He did not forget to put on gloves before handling the most priceless beauties … and beautiful those books were! … all of them!

He pulled out an ancient writing set and showed us, because all those books and manuscripts here had been hand written. The area around the Rue des Savants here was once famous as a gathering place for scholars to debate the finer points of Islamic law … however, there were not only writings about Islam …

Here were ancient books and manuscripts about astronomy, mathematics, medicine and poetry. All written by hand … a medieval archive of Quranic lore and civic documents preserved and little changed for centuries. There were civil records including contracts, bills of sale and legal judgments. The dry desert air and dedication of generations of custodians had helped preserve the fragile parchments …

For centuries the city had been a principal gathering place for pilgrims of the Maghreb to gather on the way to Mecca. It became known as a holy city in its own right – especially for pilgrims unable to make the long journey to the Arab Peninsula … With the steady traffic of holy people through the city, small libraries were founded to contain the growing number of religious texts left behind. Preserving the tradition of trading and passing down such holy writings, most of the original Chinguetti libraries existed in largely the same state as when they were set up. It so became a center of Islamic religious and scientific scholarship in West Africa. In addition to religious training, the schools of Chinguetti taught students rhetoric, law, astronomy, mathematics and medicine. Here they even had a book about astronomie of pre-Galileo times …

For many centuries all of Mauritania was popularly known in the Arab world as Bilad Shinqit – the land of Chinguetti. Chinguetti was locally said to be the 7th-most holy city of Islam – but there was still no recognition of this claim outside of West Africa … The city remained one of the world’s most important historical sites both in terms of the history of Islam and the history of West Africa, however. On occasion, the crumbling texts were gingerly inspected by scholars who still visit the site to study Islamic Law. Preservationists had attempted to relocate the collections or set up restoration programs locally … but the libraries’ private owners still resisted.

There was this tiny book … stored in a pouch of gazelle skin. The man handled it with utmost care. It was apparently from the 17th century. I forgot what it was all about, though … but it was an absolute gem … and so beautiful … and very impressive …

The oldest book he showed us was a handwritten poem collection and some 800 years old. The man was clearly excited about this book himself … and he enthusiastically recited a love poem out of the book … well, he knew it by heart … Everybody was totally delighted by it and he had to repeat it so we could make a video of it …

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person,
perhaps someone dead for 1000 years.
To read is to voyage through time.
Carl Sagan

After the presentation of those magnificent books and having taken countless photos, we were allowed to climb up to the rooftop of the house. Very narrow and probably very ancient stairs led up … people must have been much shorter in ancient times … But the view from the top was stunning. Still the haze hung over the sand dunes in the distance, but the ostrich egg finials on the minaret of the Mosque were clearly visible from this perspective.

Soon Ely waved me to get going … I was happy enough to get away from so many people … I was not used to this kind of crowd anymore after a few days in the solitary desert … We walked through the alleyways. Although largely abandoned to the desert, the quiet city still offered the urban and religious architecture of the Moorish empire as it existed in the Middle Ages.

Ely showed me up a narrow alley where an indicator stick was set to display the level of the sand before the old town had been dug out of the Sahara sand in 2003 by French archeologists. It was quite impressive how much sand had once covered those buildings … a layer of approx 2.80 m of sand …

Sahar was waiting for us in the car and we drove back to the auberge. This late in the afternoon the heat of the day was subsiding and the town awoke from the afternoon slumber. A lot of people were around. A bunch of kids was having a soccer game in the wadi, women sat in front of houses chatting, men dressed in sky-blue long traditional robes billowing in the ever-present wind, their eyes peering from beneath turbans, were walking along or watching life go by at the center of town …

Toto, I’ve a feeling, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
The Wizard from Oz – 1939

Once founded as the center of several trans-Saharan trade routes, this small town continued to attract a handful of visitors who admired its spare architecture, scenery and ancient libraries … but was seriously threatened by the encroaching desert – several houses had been already abandoned to the sand.

Back at the auberge I had plenty of photos to sort … and to answer messages on the internet … what had we ever done before there was internet? … I remember hitchhiking through Canada and Alaska in … 1993 and 1994 … I had a AT&T phone card and had to phone every 2 weeks … give or take a day depending on the availability of a suitable public card phone … and send a postcard from every place I stopped in between … nowadays … they got nerous if there were no photos online every night … if the GPS tracker did not synchronize for 3 days because I was in the middle of the Sahara Desert … even though they knew I would be offline … So I had to do the deed of assuring everybody I was fine …

Dinner we had in the courtyard. I think it might have been cooked by the auberge keeper … Ely ate with me, but Sahar had disappeared … probably visiting friends or family … Dinner was good – Chicken Paprikash I called it, because it looked and tasted similar to the Hungarian dish I knew from cruising the River Danube …

After dinner I retired to my room soon … but I did not sleep yet … more internetting … updating the journal … sorting photos … checking that all batteries and powerbanks had charged properly … I was not sure when I would have the chance to do it next time … However, soon sleep got the better of me and I turned off the light …

 

24.03.2021

ca. 110 km offroad from Chinguetti to Ouadâne

I had not slept too well tonight … but still I was up early. Breakfast was at 07:45 in the courtyard. They had real filter coffee here! Awesome!

After I had packed I climbed up on the rooftop once more to check out the visibility. The haze had lifted somewhat and the sun was strong already this early in the morning … It looked as if it would be clearer today …

While Ely and Sahar tried to fill up our water canisters, I checked out the flowers in the courtyard. There were some Roselle – Hibiscus Sabdariffa – a species of flowering plant native to Africa. The stems were used for the production of bast fibre and the dried flowers were commonly steeped to make a popular infusion known as carcade. I though it were the flowers I saw, but in fact those were the fruits – fleshy and a deep crimson red as it matured.

Ely and Sahar were getting nervous … the water from the tap in the courtyards was running very very slow … it would take forever to fill up our 2 canisters … Discussing with the keeper of the auberge they did not look happy … gesturing they decided they would go somewhere else to fill up the supplies. It would not take long, they assured me … I should wait here …

Outside the auberge souvenir selling women had set up shop … word had gotten around that there were tourists in town … but I still did not need anything … Non, merci! Je suis désoleé! … No, thank you! I am sorry, I do not need anything …

I walked around a little bit. There were typical desert plants growing at the street corner. Calotropis Procera – commonly known as Apple of Sodom, Dead Sea Apple, King’s Crown or Rubber Bush – native known to occur throughout the tropical belt in deserts and extreme deserts. The name Apple of Sodom and Dead Sea Apple derived from the fact that the ancient authors Josephus and Tacitus described it as growing in the area of biblical Sodom. It was a shrub or small tree that reached heights of  up to 6 m. The leaves arranged opposite decusssate on the branches were simple, felt-haired. The leaf blade could be 70-205 mm long and 55-150 mm wide. The branched inflorescences had a complicated structure. The flower stalk was 20-32 mm long – the hermaphrodite, radially symmetrical flowers with 5 petals – outside cream-colored or white and inside purple and only fused at the base. The flowering period extended all year round.

Coming back with our water supplies replenished, they still had to pack up the car. We finally left by 09:15 … later than usual … but Ely reassured me it was no problem, we had only some 110 km to go to Ouadâne … Pas de problème! … Water in the desert was a precious commodity and filling up the supplies had been the most important task this morning …

On the way out of town we stopped at a minimarket and Ely bought some more supplies. I spotted a sign for as post office … but I had not written my postcards yet … and I was not sure if this remote town would be the best place to mail them anyway … maybe it was indeed better to wait until Nouakchott …

Next stop was the gas station … there was a proper gas station in town! … Sahar had to fill up the car. Always be prepared! Never go into the desert without a full tank! … a jeep was next to us filling up as well … obviously it was some sort of public transport … It was pretty certain that there existed no public busses around here … jeeps and pick-up trucks were the only motorized transport around here … The passengers eyed me as curiously as I did them …

Leaving Chinguetti we turned northeast and followed the sandy wadi that separated the new and old parts of town. In the beginning there were many … many tire tracks … To reach Ouadâne from Chinguetti using the proper roads, we would have had to follow the main road out of town to the north-northwest for almost 20 km to the Chinguetti-Ouadâne intersection and then turn onto the Ouadâne Road and go for some 110 km on that. Since we had time and … after all I was here to enjoy the Sahara … we went offroad … and cut a few kilometers of the trip … but faster it would have been along the main road … I liked offroad better …

The going was slow and we were still in the vicinity of town, so we passed a couple of Goat herds on the way … Patterns of herd ownership had changed with the great droughts and the impoverishment of the rural sector. Increasingly, herds belonged to urban investors – mostly government officials and traders – and were cared for by hired personnel – drawn from the pool of destitute pastoralists who had lost their herds.

Camels were around as well … they were roaming the sand dunes all by themselves. For centuries, the camel had been the most important and sought after animal for its source of food and transportation in the desert. They were often considered more valuable than money, especially to those who live in rural areas. Most of them roamed free in the desert during the day and were milked as camels always have been – by hand – at dawn and dusk. When camels fed on wild plants and walked all day, the milk was much better, was the saying.

There are very few places on Earth that compared to the incredible landscapes of the Sahara Desert. It conjured up images of isolation, oases, camel trains and arid sand dunes stretching as far as the eye can see … and that might even be true … The best time to visit was said to be from October to April when the temperatures were comfortable … sand storms would start to occur during February and March … I was lucky … no sandstorms while I was here!

Somewhere en route we stopped and Sahar collected more firewood. There was a huge dead-looking tree – most of the wood could be obtained by just breaking the dead branches off it and down into smaller pieces. But some were a little bigger around than could be comfortably broken by hand, so he climbed up to chop them off.

I think, just philosophically, we’re made to explore.
Peggy Whitson

We had left the barely visible track und were going across the sand now. Having covered approx half of today’s stage already, they were looking for a suitable lunch spot. It was very windy today. But they found a depression with lots of trees and bushes. Ely tried to put up the mats as a wind breaker … but it was not really working well …

Lunch camp was next to an interesting flowering bush … it was a Maerua Crassifolia – an evergreen tree with a spreading, much-branched crown growing up to 10 m tall. Native to Africa and tropical Arabia in deciduous bushland, thickets and sandy soils, its foliage was often used as fodder for animals – especially camels – during the dry season. Its flowers had many stamens but no petals. It looked very pretty.

In no time Sahar had made a charcoal fireplace and Ely had put the pressure cooker on the hot coals … the wind was keeping the embers burning … lunch was cooking! And according to Ely it would not take long …

Indeed, lunch was ready in no time … it was simply camel meat with onions and bread … and it tasted surprisingly good … Ely and Sahar ate traditionally with the right hand … Hand-to-mouth eating was a time-honored tradition in many cultures across the world and it was often a reflection of a community’s hospitality and cultural identity. In the Middle East and North Africa, people eat from communal dishes, while in India it was customary to share food from each other’s plate … But they gave me a spoon … I did prefer that, but would not have minded if there had not been one …

When a few days later I posted the photo Dr D – who had been Sneaking away to Uganda with me a few weeks ago – mentioned that I finally got to eat real local food instead of tourist food … I had always been complaining that in the lodges in Uganda we got international food and never got to taste real local dishes … Well, I was not sure … but camel meat with onions was probably not an every-day-dish around here … but it was very exotic for sure …

On my second bite however I chomped on something hard … not one of the bones, though … I spat it out and inspected it … it looked like a piece of glass … or crystal … questioningly I presented it to the others … Ça, c’est quoi? What is that!? … They both shrugged their shoulders … Du sel! Salt! – Quoi? Sel? – Mais oui, cristal de sel! … A salt crystal! … I was puzzled … unbelievable … I had never seen such a big salt crystal in my food before … it was a good centimeter in diameter … Oui oui! Sel! Yes yes, salt! … I must have looked very doubting … because Sahar hurried to the car and dug out a fist size lump of salt to prove it! … Vous pouvez le garder! You can keep it! … I was flabbergasted …

Apparently this salt originated from the Idjil Sebkha – a sandflat in which evaporite-saline minerals accumulated – located roughly 240 km northwest of Ouadâne, to the west of the town of Fderîck near Zouérat. Salt has been produced in the Sahara for at least 2500 years and, despite the lack of archaeological evidence to substantiate the claim, salt production was thought to significantly predate this. It had also always been widespread across the Sahara and centers of production could be found from Mauritania to Sudan. The date when salt was first extracted from Idjil was however unknown. It was usually assumed that exploitation of the Idjil mines began after the mid 11th century. The major methods of production were mining and evaporation, which tended to occur in mutual exclusivity of one another. The widespread availability of salt across the Sahara had meant that since the demand existed – initially from the forests and savanna to the south where it was not readily available – there had been a need to produce it. The importance of salt in the history of the Sahara could not be overestimated. It had been variously responsible for the growth of cities and the rise and fall of more than one empire – and a central component in the gold and slave trades as well as a vital element in the spread of Islam south and west across the continent.

Man can live without gold but not without salt.
E.W. Bovil in Caravans of the Old Sahara – 1933 citing Cassiodorus

After lunch I sat and chatted in very funny Frenglish with Ely about all kinds of stuff and life in general … sometimes half English half French … sometimes more English from my side and more French from his side … in general it was a very hilarious but efficient enough mumbo jumbo … but we chatted and mostly understood each other and I had fun.

Meanwhile Sahar was doing his thing … I have come to the conclusion, he was a real desert man … this time he cut twigs of that bush I had noticed before. Maerua Crassifolia Forssk. was an evergreen tree widely used as traditional medicine throughout its distributional range in the Sahel region and West Africa. For example a bark, fruit, leaf and twig infusion and/or decoction was mainly used as ethnoveterinary medicine and traditional medicine for cephalalgia, headache, fever, malaria, wounds, skin infections, toothache and gastro-intestinal problems. The roots, shoots and stems were used as toothbrushes in the Sahel region … Sahar was cutting sticks for just that purpose and it reminded me of the Nimtree sticks I had frequently encountered in India …

Had I thought we were in the middle of Nowhere Sahara? … I should have learnt better in the last few days … all of a sudden a lone camel rider appeared … Sahar went to greet him and chat … That was one of those typical encounters – almost clichés – I had associated with the Sahara Desert … nomads on camels in the middle of endless sanddunes … Traders and nomads had traditionally used camels because of their ability to work even in extreme temperatures and arid conditions.

The camel caravans which crossed the great dunes of the Sahara began in antiquity, but reached their golden period from the 9th century CE onwards. In their heyday caravans consisted of thousands of camels travelling from North Africa, across the desert to the savannah region in the south and back again, in a hazardous journey that could take several months. Stopping along the way at vital oases, the caravans were largely controlled by the Berbers who acted as middlemen in the exchange of such desired commodities as salt, gold, copper, hides, horses, slaves and luxury goods.

A typical caravan could have 500 camels – but some of the annual ones had up to 12000 camels in them. These great caravans usually travelled in winter – the journey across the Sahara could take at least from 40-60 days and was brutal and hazardous. Nevertheless, there were established trans-Saharan trade routes mapped by Arab medieval writers. What exactly was worth all the bother of transporting over large distances, very much depended on the particular rich elites in the north and south of the desert, something which changed not only because of tastes and fashion but also the rise and fall of states and their access to goods which could be exchanged. Salt was a major commodity going south which was exchanged for gold, ivory, hides and slaves – acquired from African tribes conquered by the sub-Saharan empires. Goods were gathered up from across the entire West African region and channeled along the Niger and Senegal Rivers to trading stations like Timbuktu. Travelling across the desert then was certainly a challenge and guiding camels loaded down with slabs of rock salt must have been a voyage of attrition for everyone.

Our visitor had no caravan behind him nor was his camel loaded with goods. Maybe he was on the way to Ouadâne as well and just stopped by for a chat … or he was going home to one of the camps we had passed … I would not know. Ely asked me, if I wanted to get on the camel and ride a bit … Ah non, merci! … I had been on a camel 2011 on my visit to India … we had participated in the Bikaner Camel Festival and there was a free camel race … We had been an entire day on the back of camels and my bum still hurt only thinking about it … but it had been great fun! … Today I was content with watching …

Sahar made a deal with the nomad … he got an empty water bottle and the man filled something that looked like camel milk in it for him. Traditionally camel’s milk was believed to have therapeutic properties and was formerly used to treat metabolic and autoimmune disease, diabetes, tuberculosis and several other conditions. It had been used – both fresh and fermented – for centuries. Ferments were most akin to kefir, buttermilk and koumiss – a traditional mare’s milk ferment. In other words, camel’s milk ferments were drinkable, tangy, often bubbly and slightly alcoholic … On my grand tour of Mongolia in 2008 I had not only ridden camels a few times through the Gobi Desert, but also tried that fermented camel milk … Today I just watched as Sahar stored it away in the truck … shall he enjoy it later …

Business done, the man got back on his mount … I was not sure if the camel agreed … at least it vociferous tried to make something known … Highly social, camels usually lived in herds and to communicate made many sounds, including moaning and groaning sounds, high-pitched bleats, loud bellows and rumbling roars … Did you know that the sound of a camel was used to voice the character of Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies? Believe it!

Now it was time for siesta … but it was really windy and even with the make shift windbreak wall of mats … it was not very comfortable … neither sitting in the chair nor sprawled on one of the mats in the shade … it was not long until I had enough … So … I went in search of a suitable ladies’ bush … That should not have been a problem, because there were plenty bushes around … only it was a bit complicated … I could not decide which bush was the one … too close to camp … too small … so I kept walking for some 100 m or so … in one direction … trying to keep the camp sort of in visibility … and I found a suitable potty … finally …

For a moment I lost eye contact with the glimpse of the car I had seen all along … and then … I was lost … I thought I had squatted down looking in the direction of the car … but when I finished … DAMN … no car and no camp in sight … Well … I had not gone too far … but there were many bushes … and all of a sudden they looked all the same … I could always scream … I am sure they would have heard me … but I did not want to embarrass  myself … I could find my way back! … it was a mere 100 m … where was this car? …

The sun did not help … it was high up in the sky … the bushes and trees all looked the same … I started walking in what I thought was the right direction … but after 20 m or so I still had no point of reference I recognized … So I decided to follow my own footsteps back to the potty first … Good! Done! … now I tried to follow my footsteps back to camp … it turned out I had headed out into the wrong direction when I left the potty the first time … and I had only gone around one wrong bush … after only a few meters I saw the sparkle of the hood of the white car in the close distance! … RELIEVE! … I indeed had not been far away … only I had looked into the complete wrong direction when starting to head back …

To relax after this adventure I tried to have a nap … only that wind was blowing the sand everywhere and it was just no fun … I think the others had the same notion, because they soon started to pack up camp. Looking around I spotted a bird in the bush. It was a White-Crowned Wheatear – Oenanthe Leucopyga – a small passerine bird that was generally considered to be an Old World Flycatcher. This 17-18 cm long Wheatear bred in stony deserts from the Sahara and Arabia across to Iraq. It was largely resident and nested in crevices in rocks or walls. Adults were black except for a white crown, white rump and mainly white tail. It was a pretty bird and one of the very few I had spotted in the Sahara so far …

By approx 14:30 we left lunch camp and were on our way to Ouadâne. The second stage was basically offroad across deep golden Sahara sand … I had this morning finally remembered that I had this fancy GoPro Hero 9 bought especially for this trip … but it had been packed away until this morning … so I put it on the stick and filmed a few video clips … I was still trying to figure out the thing, but going offroad in the Sahara was a grateful subject …

Again I was absolutely amazed on Sahar finding the way without a visible track … there were absolutely no tracks sometimes … at all … and even if there had been tracks the wind would have blown them away today … it was not a sand storm yet … but it felt like a baby storm to me … I asked Ely how Sahar was finding the way and he just said – Il le sait! Il le connait! …. He knows! …

Besides the stars and the smell of the sand and vegetation, a desert Berber in history used many indicators of direction such as the height of the sun and moon, the lay of the land, mountains on the horizon, the shadows of the dunes, wind direction, the spray of sand blown from the peaks of dunes, ancient eroded gullies, the distribution of rocks and pebbles, the presence of mirages and the position of camel dung, which was pointed in shape with the point always in the direction of the next water source … 4×4 vehicles and satellite phones may be of enormous value to modern desert travellers, but Sahar did not have a GPS or satellite phone … he had only a regular mobile phone … neither was it mounted as a GPS nor was he ever consulting it for information … I like to believe he was just following his instinct … it probably was not the first time he had driven this way … I was impressed …

Not much later we made out an oasis in the distance. It was Oasis de Tanouchert. Oases – spots of lush land in the middle of an otherwise dry desert – were made fertile when sources of freshwater, such as underground rivers or aquifers, irrigate the surface naturally or via man-made wells – continuous human work and know-how were essential to maintain such ecosystems.

The location of oases had been of critical importance for trade and transportation routes in the Sahara – caravans had to travel via oases so that supplies of water and food can be replenished. Thus, political or military control of an oasis had in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. I could not be sure if Oasis de Tanouchert ever was of any importance during the grand age of the historic trans-Saharan trade … but it was an interesting village.

People who lived in an oasis had to manage land and water use carefully. The most important plant in an oasis was the Date Palm. The oasis was integrated into its desert environment through an often close association with nomadic transhumant livestock farming. Here were several palm groves and of course the everpresent camels were roaming the alleys of the settlement. We drove right through the village to have a closer look … they even had a school … The village did not look abandoned, but there were no people around …

Leaving the oasis we were back in endless sand … sand dunes cover approx 25 % of the Sahara’s surface – most of the landscape had been shaped over time by wind and the colours were more dramatic than I could have expected. The array of golden-orange that painted the sand was both impressive and ever-changing.

Not all those who wander are lost.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Sahar was doing his thing … driving across the sand like the pro he was … We never got stuck … albeit I more than once thought we would when the care screamed uop a steep sand dune slope … We did not get lost … even though I thought we would when there were no tracks and no tree as far as I could see … most of the time there was nothing around us besides 360° of sand …

Around 17:00 Ouadâne appeared on the horizon. Ouadane was a small town situated on the southern edge of the Adrar Plateau and used to be a staging post in the trans-Saharan trade and for caravans transporting slabs of salt from the mines at Idjil near Zouérat to the south. The old town of Ouadâne was part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the ancient Ksour of Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata since 1996. But we did not visit the town now … it was time to find a suitable campsite outside the town …

Secretly I had been hoping to get a glimpse of the famous Richat Structure – also called Guelb er Richât – the Eye of the Sahara – a prominent circular geological feature – a massive circular landmark visible even from space … I had asked to include it into my itinerary, but Idoumou had told me … maybe … maybe not … it was so huge, you would not know that you were there … In the local dialect, Richat meant feather and it also was known locally in Arabic as tagense – refering to the circular opening of the leather pouch used to draw water from local wells. It was an eroded geological dome 40 km in diameter, exposing sedimentary rock in layers which appeared as concentric rings. It could be spotted from the airplane when flying in or out of Nouakchott … only when I flew in, it was still night and when I flew out, the plane would first go south to Senegal … I missed it … But I pretended I could see the rim of if opposite the camp …

But we were not really as close as I had hoped to get … it was a good 30 km as the crow flew to the center of it … meaning probably double that to drive … and we had to make camp … In the Sahara driving after dark was dangerous and unnecessary and strictly reserved to life or death emergencies. So as usual, we made camp early and well before sunset. It was really windy here – Ely and Sahar circled around several times to find a suitable spot … when they finally decided to stop it was quite hard going to set up the tents. I helped a little with holding the sticks which would fall all the time because the wind ripped at the tent constantly … They managed eventually … having even tied the back side of the tents to the car …

Later, after sunset – which was soon – the wind fortunately died almost completely. That made it much more pleasant. Desert camps had always a somewhat subtle beauty and a dreamy quality to them … but not with too much wind … the view was good anyway …

With nightfall we had our bonfire again. I forgot what was for dinner tonight … but it was good … it was always good … We had no visitors tonight, despite the proximity to civilization … we were less than 5 km outside of town …

After dinner was tea as usual … Sahar had his nightly rituals as well … collecting firewood … making a bonfire … brewing tea ceremoniously … did I mention that he always … always … slept outside with his mat and blanket?

In hindsight I thought I should have slept one night outside under the stars in the Sahara Desert as well … That reminded me of my great tour of India in 2011 again … we went into the Thar Desert there and slept under those stars … we had a bonfire and all as well … an beer …

Well, there was no beer here … or mobile reception … so I retreated to my tent early after dinner … wiggled about to make the sand under the mattress comfortablen… I had foregone the air mattress once more and rather shuffled the sand under the local mattress to make it fit … I sorted some photos and prepared them for posting tomorrow. I was sure there would be mobile net in town in the morning … Then I fell asleep early … It had been an amazing day in the Sahara Desert!

If you spend enough time in the desert, you will hear it speak.
Nnedi Okorafor