Drive of Nothingness

Sun 23 Mar 08

Day 22

Tripoli - Sabha

800km

We left the hotel at about 9am after a nice breakfast of egg and cheese sandwich and nice coffee. Andy and Noeleen needed to get some Euros so we relaxed at the cars while they went on an unsuccessful Euro hunt. While we were waiting I had a chat to Rob which was nice and then we hit the long, long road to Sabha. Not much more to report on today. A few fuel stops, dead camels, dead bat eared foxes, and burnt out road side tyres. We Even ran out of objects for 'eye spy with my little eye' after about 5 rounds! Arrived in Sabha at about 8pm and met up with Ali who we thought was our guide. Filled up the car and all 4 jerries with diesel, stopped for lamb rolls and went to the campsite just outside Sabha. This is a great place set in amongst palm trees. We enjoyed our lamb rolls and the first beer of Libya! Also spoke to an Italian guide for a bit about Landrovers etc. He had a group of bikers arriving from Italy and they were heading deep into the Sahara. He had driven to Italy, collected their bikes, and driven the bikes back to Libya while the Italian tourists flew out to the desert.

Going to meet Masud and Fathi tomorrow morning to discuss our route through the desert for the next few days.

AMAZING DESERTS, DUNES AND AKAKUS MOUNTAINS

Mon 24 Mar 08

Day 23

Sabha - Akakus Mountains

510km

Another long drive today but far more entertaining than yesterday. Agreed with the guides this morning that we would head from Sabha to the Akakus Mountains and then wind our way back through the desert to Wadi Metghandoush, the lakes and then finally finishing off back in Sabha. We left the camp at 9ish and made our first stop after about 50km to pick up some nice fresh bread. The road follows a really fertile valley with loads of irrigated crops but the only ones we could make out were onions and wheat. Our next stop was for Arab style head scarves which we thought might be good in the desert. Just before lunch the scenery changed from the fertile valley to flat pains of sand with mountains looming along the left hand side of the road. We saw what looked like a jackal sussing out a heard of goats, not sure what they call jackals here.

We stopped for lunch under a beautiful acacia tree and some guys popped out of the sand and set up shops next to us. They had some great silver carvings and jewellery. Se and I bought a bracelet each and a beautiful carving of a little bat eared fox. The rest of the drive was uneventful with the exception of Masud taking us down the side of a cutting to get back onto the road after a water stop. It felt like it was near vertical! Seems to have a sense of fun, this guy!

Just before we left the tar we made a stop for petrol and diesel. After an hour of searching, Masud couldn't find a drop and he now has to drive to Ghat (400km round trip) to get fuel. We left the road and headed into the Akakus, which included another very steep drop! We set up camp in some small sand dunes after getting very stuck in the sand trying to reach them. We let our tyres down and got out with a little digging. Se made a great pasta for dinner and we enjoyed a few cold beers after the long drive. Also had our first campfire of the trip!

Tues 25 Mar 08

Day 24

Akakus Mountains

140km

Whew! Well what an awesome day today, best day of the trip so far! We had an unexpected slow start to the day when we saw that Andy had a flat tyre, but they got it sorted pretty quickly and we were on our way. The scenery was awesome as we wound our way through the valleys. It is hard to describe but it was like a river had been replaced with sand and we wound our way between massive rock formations and mountains. It got a bit scary at one stage though when we had to climb a very steep section of flat rock. Got up in low 1st gear very slowly, and that seemed to meet with Masud's approval.

As we drove we stopped regularly and saw loads of rock art and stopped for lunch under a huge overhanging rock. After lunch we hit a long flat plain for about 40km before being back in the dunes in the late afternoon to find a campsite. We stopped in the shade of a huge rock and Se and I went exploring to take some photos. Got some great shots of the awesome scenery. Masud came flying up to us in his cruiser and reckoned that the flatish area we were on looked good for camping and he offered me a lift back down to the landy on the back of his cruiser. Crazy dude took me down a near vertical 100m dune and up the other side. Amazing how he controlled the vehicle and knew exactly what he was doing. Got the landy and drove it up to the top of the dune with my newfound confidence! Se and I agreed that this was an awesome campsite.

Masud then haired off over the dunes to get water from a well that he knew the location of. Later he showed me how to set a trap for a desert fox, they call it a Fennek. Had a great dinner of veggie curry, few beers and got the power sockets at the back working so all in all we had a good evening! Also moved some of my tools and stuff from the back to under my seat to make them more accessible. It was hard to describe the beauty around our campsite, can't wait to see the photos.

Wed 26 Mar 08

Day 25

Akakus Mountains

220km

I will never get tired of driving through the Akakus Mountains. They are so spectacular with such colour contrasts between the redish yellow sand and dark rocks with scattered shrubs. We watched the sun rise from our superb view, on top of the world, from our tent and then packed up camp. We all had a baby wipe wash, finding privacy over a dune.

Starting the day with a downhill run from our dune we saw some more rock art and had a 50 min walk up a ravine in what used to be a river bed. Finding the water source, now dried up. With some more spectacular driving and a cool lunch spot in the shade of a rock overhang we then had a punt of a drive over flatish plains to get out of the Akakus mountains back to the tar road. WE then travelled 50km up the road and then into some more dunes to camp just as the sun was setting at 7:30pm. The only problem was that we did not let our 2.5bar tyre pressure down on entering the 2nd set of dunes as the guide said it should be fine. We should have followed our instincts because after the 2nd small dune we got stuck. Masood then jumped into our car to get it unstuck but he got it even more stuck with sand up to the axle and spraying from the front tyres over the vehicle. My adrenalin was pumping and I was feeling very nervous smelling the burning clutch but after we let the tyre pressure down to 1bar all round and used the sand ladders we were unstuck and ready to camp. Shoh, what a start and these are just the baby dunes! The language barrier doesn't help either and Masood has to translate through Fathi. Having a quick pasta dinner, we saw a jerbal close by and earlier we saw a bat eared fox tearing across the sand. Another great day in Libya.