Across the Sahara by Land Rover to West and Central Africa (Part 1)

[Music] [Music] this is a story about the extraordinary experiences of some New Zealand friends who in the search for challenges and Adventures decided to journey into Africa we were not explorers or experienced an expeditions to distant parts of the world but we loved challenges and we were looking for new ones to many our experiences and driving through the central Sahara and battling across central Africa may not seem very adventurous for us though and perhaps for ordinary people they were extraordinary experiences of a lifetime our journey into Africa was in two stages the first stage over nearly 4 months was into Morocco down through through the central Sahara Desert and then into black Africa niia bikina Faso Mali and then into the Ivory Coast storing the vehicles there for our return 9 months later for the second stage across central Africa and into Kenya and Tanzania a journey which very nearly cost us our lives on more than one occasion the six friends on the first stage were Murray goof and her son Cameron Lloyd pal and his wife Julie I'm Peter Travis and my son [Music] HH we spent 12 months planning every conceivable detail we purchased new Land Rovers in England provisioning to cope for every eventuality we could think of and we called ourselves New Zealand expeditions to give us best security we had roof tents specially made for us New Zealand and we tested everything even our cooko which could boil water in what seemed like a matter of seconds only and then finally with a great deal of anticipation and apprehension we set off from England heading south down through France briefly experiencing the wonders of Paris and the French Countryside and then attending to some final Pro iing we happily found our water containers had a much more important function into the kingdom of Morocco from Tangier a route was to take us South down through cassablanca and agadia before turning East up through the hus mountains to the Algerian border at [Music] fige unloading from crossing the straights of jalta and finally onto the continent of Africa the Land Rovers were the latest turbo diesel models strong and powerful for what lay ahead we had special long range fuel tanks fitted and we carried more than 300 additional lers in our jurry cans we had no desire to run out of fuel in the middle of the desert or in the depths of the jungles in central Africa down through the Alleyways and into the extraordinary marketplaces because same size they have same price there is no different of designs you know full of Aromas color and rockus noise while we originally believed the only available route South was down through the Western desert we found that the aluan Border had just reopened and while the risks were greater from Islamic terrorists and the desert Bandits the challenge of the central Sahara was just too great for us to resist and so we headed eastwards into the high atas mountains towards the Algerian border [Music] a memorable experience in itself encountering the bigger children in this desolate part of the world running Barefoot over the rocks and shouting card card or give me a gift give me a [Music] gift and a Berber shepherd with his sheep and goats and who had a touch of panach [Music] himself navigation was becoming an issue for us willing to S of five or 6:00 just to get back to T here again there were very few detailed maps available and we had to constantly check our direction as best we [Music] could there were early signs the weather was going to deteriorate in a big way and this is just what happened the worst rainstorm in North Africa for 25 years but our land robers were excellent and they took the conditions in their [Music] stride [Music] although the resulting mud Plaines gave us some early practice in digging ourselves out of difficulty something we were to encounter often in the time [Music] ahead [Music] into Algeria now and a route that would take us down through the Sahara Desert to its geographic center at tamaras to then head east towards the Libyan border to reach the prehistoric Oasis of Janette before turning South into nir and then at last heading into the Sahara to Ben abis an oasis reminiscent of the Foreign Legion we're in the early hours of the morning we took to the massive and seemingly endless sand Junes of the Sahara Desert to get our first experience with soft sand H up to curse and swear and then get serious with the sand ladders this practice stood Us in good stead as we headed deeper into the desert for periods on hard past the hard baked desert surface where we could travel at speed although always with a watchful eye for soft sand drifts which can cause Havoc to time and tempers the past is quite flat and totally featureless for what seemed like hundreds of miles where tracks didn't exist and we have to rely totally on our compasses for direction to get the direction even slightly wrong would lead us into a desert Wilderness with little hope of return it was hot and dirty work and we took every opportunity to cool down and to clean off heading now for Tamar asset some 658 kilm to go to reach the geographical center of the Sahara Desert to reach the tomb of mulle Hassan a Muslim holy man who died here last century while under a pilgrimage to Mecca and where it is accustom for all vehicles to drive around the tomb three times as a mark of respect and to ensure your own continuing safe passage there are stories of those who didn't and who did not survive needless to say we circled the three [Music] times from Tamar asset we headed Northeast towards the Libyan border and the ancient Oasis Settlement of Janette although only some 750 km distant and seemingly a comfortable two-day drive this was far from the case the terrain was difficult to say the least tracks where they existed were stwn with Boulders and washouts a real challenge was some interesting interludes including sharing our matches with a berber and his camels in exchange for a photograph or two [Music] it was hard to imagine it could rain like this in the middle of the Sahara desert but there was much worse to come at the Village of hopo beside what was now a raging torrent and getting worse as we watched but next morning to our surprise and Delight the torrent had almost disappeared although leaving a lot of soft sand and mud behind as we would have find out [Music] okay [Music] baby come on get up get up but with much cursing and swearing and some help from some friends we're on our way again stopping at the Village of zort a meeting with Ibraham chief of the TG Nomads in the region who made us very [Music] welcome with Abraham's blessing and confirmation that we were heading in the right direction we raced across the past again towards Janet pausing to share some of our water with some tanker drivers and encountering an array of rock formations that made you wonder as to the indeterminable age of the [Music] desert meeting with laid AIG tribesman who shared with us some prehistoric Rock carvings reputedly more than 10,000 years old and this pre-islamic rock tomb which has stayed like this for more than 15 centuries and then to understand something of their way of life we spent time with him and his friends in the [Music] desert the Twigs live in encampments in the desert using their camels to carry Goods often over vast [Applause] distances they are very distinctive people very proud of their great influence in the desert sadly much diminished now after Tribal wars and terrible droughts we climbed the high rock out crops surrounding our camp to Marvel at the panoramic fuse and the Magnificent sunrises now Into The Ravines and canyons of the vast and elevated Plateau it was tough going but well worth the effort to share in the Rock carvings and paintings which are said to be tens of thousands of years old returning now to Tamar asset 3 or 4 days across the desert with only our Compass to guide us the way we had plotted satellite points coming to Janette so with a bit of luck we could track these on the way back or at least that was [Music] ethereum we had some interesting inets some rough patches Sub-Zero temperatures in the early morning and some golf practice in the biggest sand bunker you could ever imagine to pause at the skeletons of other vehicles that didn't make it and on route now into the hogga mountains with the shafts of rock making for the most impressive and inspiring [Music] sunrises and then on again finding our way as best we could down the river valleys and over some very rough [Music] terrain where at time some physical effort was required to keep us [Music] going back into the desert again and making good progress past tamber asset and navigating by Compass heading directly south for the Algerian ni baa at as Mar

Channel: xtr717346

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Keywords: Sahara;, desert;, four, wheel, drive;, 4WD;, Land, Rover;, Morocco;, Algeria;, North, Africa;, Atlas, Mountains;, Djanet;, Tassili;, Tamanrasset;, Hoggar;, tuareg;, camel, trek;, adventure;, remote;, expedition, nature, tourism, outdoors;, 4x4, mud, offroad, truck

Id: 2v5OuyIwkNE

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 05 2010