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DAY 57. SUN 01/04. In Salah to Ghardaia.654 kms. Total 13169 kms. Camping/Hotel ? N32 27.865 E3 40.06
Swapped guides again this morning. Mohamed went back down south to meet the "others" coming up (Dennis, Claire and Leon & biker Haakon, whom earlier we had been planning on traveling through Algeria with to share cost of guide but it didn't work out as they were only now arriving in Algeria on 4th April) Our new guide had just come down from Ghardaia on an overnight bus after escorting a large bunch of Slovenians to Tunisia. Now the next day he had to go back again - shame! Said goodbye to Yves and then fuelled up for the long days drive to Ghardaia. Headed north through some good desert scenery, large red oasis towns with huge palmeraies and roads flanked by endless dunes/sand seas. Sometimes encroaching onto the road too. Good tarred roads all the way now - much better condition too now than between Tam and In Salah coming up which were terribly potholed in places and sometimes almost non existent. As it was such a long distance we shared the driving which meant Rob got to sit (i.e. lie) in the back for a change too! Eventually made it the camp just after dark, around 8pm, 3km outside Ghardaia, close to Beni Isguen. Our longest day on the road by some distance - over 650kms. Wasn't really a proper campsite - more of a hotel actually, but you can camp in the garden. Lovely place though, proper hot showers, nice bathroom with a tall palm tree growing right up into the air in the middle of the bathroom and beautiful gardens with jasmine blossoms and palm trees. Proper traditional Arabic architecture, thick mud walls, white washed paint, small doors and windows and traditional handmade wooden doors and locks. Reminded Inga of something out of "1001 Nights".
DAY 58. MON 02/04. Ghardaia/Beni Isguen. 0 kms. Total 13169 kms. Camping/Hotel ? N32 27.865 E3 40.061
Were meant to go to the souqs (daily market) in Ghardaia in the morning and then visit the town of Beni Isguen in the afternoon. But we were too lazy to get going in the morning and just lazed around the camp after breakfast in the sun reading until after 11am. By the time we were about to get ready our guide came over and told us the markets would be closed by the time we got there. I think they open early, close for the afternoon and then open again in the late afternoon/evening. So guess we had missed that one then! So we just continued with our lazing about. Reading, did some GPS info for Tunisia and even did some puzzles. Also tried for a bit of an afternoon nap but it was too hot to sleep in the tent in the sun, more of a doze! At about 4pm we walked to the city of Beni Isguen nearby, which is the religious centre of the valley. (Ghardaia is actually made up of a cluster of 5 adjoining towns in a river valley, each with their own large palmeraie.) It is home to a very conservative sect called the Morzabites, which broke from mainstream Muslim some 900 years ago. The women are covered head to toe in white robes, even their hands must remain covered. Married women have one eye covered too and only one eye exposed. Single women have both eyes uncovered. (Must be a bit hard to tell which one is your wife.) Kind of spooky too - like a whole bunch of white ghosts walking around the place. Men have little caps on their heads and wear pleated, baggy pants with a low crotch. (poo pants!) Foreigners are not allowed to enter the town without a local guide from the town and not at all on Friday. It is forbidden to smoke, were shorts or to take photos of people. Inga had to wear a local loose fitting shirt/robe over her clothes as her polo shirt was deemed too small and may cause offence. Or maybe it might distract the men too much from their religious musings? Wondered around the streets after we were done with the tour of the quaint, walled town with narrow streets. Also good views of the area from the guard towers along the walls which you can climb up. Caught a cab back to our camp in the evening.
DAY 59. TUES 03/04. Ghardaia to Tozeur, Tunisia. 554 kms. Total 13724. Camping Les Beau Reves. N33 54.804 E8 07.454
Decided this would be our last day in Algeria which meant another long day on the road to reach the border at Taleb L'Arbi. 1st a visit to the daily souq/market in Ghardaia but this didn't last long - all of about 10 minutes as they were nothing compared to those we had seen in Morocco etc. So went to a cafe' for coffee and croissants instead! After refueling we headed north from Ghardaia and then a secondary road, in surprisingly good condition, east via Touggourt, El-Oued to Taleb L'Arbi. Pretty similar scenery to 2 days before on the way up to Ghardaia. Lots of sand and dunes encroaching over the road. This route is about 100kms shorter than the "main" road. Still, it was after dark when we arrived at the border about, about 8pm. Didn't take too long to get through the Algerian border, pretty simple and straight forward anyway but we had our guide there with us to help. Customs gave the Land Rover a perfunctory search before stamping her out on my passport. (No carnet needed for Algeria - Douane is just stamped in vehicle owner's passport - no cost) Short drive to the Tunisian border where we had our passports stamped in, no visa required, and again vehicle douane is stamped in the passport at no cost. No carnet needed and again a token search of the vehicle. Unfortunately our green card insurance "valid" for Tunisia had expired on the 01/04, when our UK vehicle insurance expired which was up for renewal. Thus we had to buy temporary insurance at the border - about 32 dinar or 20 Euro. Probably only took about an hour to get through both borders and we were on our way in Tunisia. Decided to make for a camp in Tozeur, 2nd town in Tunisia, coming from the border, which was recommended by all accounts. This meant we still had about 60 kms to go and only reached camp around 10.30pm. Immediately noticed the difference being in Tunisia as the 1st small town we drove through, Nefta, had an ATM and we stopped to draw some Tunisian Dinars. Also had to drive though the Zone Touristique, (separate area with lots of larger hotels, mainly used by large package tour operators) in Tozeur to get to the camp and we were amazed by the number and shear size of these hotels, on the scale of Las Vegas! Camp site was pretty packed with European 4x4'ers, biker and campervans, a lot of children too as it was probably Easter holidays. Managed to squeeze in between 2 palm trees and straight to bed.
ALGERIA COST SUMMARY:
- Camping: 600 - 1000 dinars (for 2 people and vehicle)
- Diesel: 13.7 D/l - about 14 Euro cents a litre, or 9/10 pence. Unbelievable!
- Food: Small supermarkets in larger towns (e.g. In Tamanrasset, Ghardaia etc) where you can get basics e.g. bread, cheese wedges, jam, mayonnaise, pasta, yoghurt. We found it quite cheap. 200 or 300 dinars buys you quite a lot. E.g. 2 large baguettes is only 10 to 15 Dinar. Also markets for fresh produce. Meat more difficult and we didn't buy any except for good roast chicken. (350 Dinars = half chicken and chips) Cigarettes also very cheap - only a few dinars per packet.
- ATM's: None
- OVERALL: Excluding the guiding costs we found Algerian to be extremely cheap. This was mainly due to the cheap fuel and the amount of free camping in the desert - well over half the time bushcamping. In 2 weeks we only spent 120 Euro between the 2 of us. But then again there is not much to buy in the desert and we were pretty low on food after leaving the country.
WEATHER:
We were pleasantly surprised by how cool in general Algeria was being April, as we were expecting it to be really hot and were a bit worried about it in fact. Only the 1st 2 days down south before Tam which were still really hot. After that it was quite cool, due to the altitude at first, and then pleasant as we moved further north. Looks like we got the weather "window" right for Algeria!
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