Part 4: Sahara
The road down to southern Morocco has improved considerably. It's a long road that follows the coast. The entire Sahara coast is an area guarded by the military. They are stationed every 500m along the beaches and cliffs.
Some are very welcoming, allowing us to sleep on the spot and even offering to come and drink tea, while others forbid us to access the coast. In some places, we are allowed to spend the night and then 30 minutes later we have to leave...
We met a young fisherman and his girlfriend/cousin, who invited us to have tea in their little hut on the beach. We spend several hours together discussing the conflicts between Morocco and the Sahara.
We continue southwards and arrive at a lagoon. The scenery is magnificent.
It is possible to park there for the night. Here we meet a couple of retired people.
They have already travelled in Mauritania and Senegal and are giving us lots of advice. Adjacent to this lagoon, huge sand dunes are taking shape.
We take the opportunity to go for a walk.
In the late afternoon, the fishermen return from fishing with their boats. It's the perfect time to go and buy them something to eat for the evening, an incredible monkfish. The quantity of fish is impressive in southern Morocco.
The next day, we visit the lagoon on board a fishermen's boat. A unique opportunity to see the birds up close.
The further south we go, the less housing there is. We drive along almost deserted roads in the middle of sand dunes.
As far as the waves are concerned, it's pretty much a dream, with long, mostly untouched point breaks.
When we're not fishing, fishermen offer us whole tuna.
So close to the Mauritanian border and our goal, the news is not very good. We learned that the Moroccan army had carried out an air strike on the border and killed 6 civilians.
Two days later, Mauritania raised taxes by around 180% on lorries coming from Morocco. We even pass tanks on the way to the border.
Despite this risk, we decided to continue our journey and cross the border into Mauritania. We had no idea that it would take us 8 hours to get through the Moroccan controls.
