Chris S
Member
February 2011. Not an expedition, more of a tour with local guides, but that's the only way to do it out there these days, and even then it has its difficulties as you can read here.
http://www.sahara-overland.com/Sfiles/algeria2011/index.htm
There's a big map, a small gallery and an short movie in there too.
Adrar Ahnet is actually a small massif but for me 'Ahnet' region has come to mean the area west of the Trans-Sahara Highway (TSH) between N27 and N22 and as far west as the Tanezrouft piste - around 80,000 square miles (< 8% of Algeria) that in the south part is wide open, devoid of settlements and largely safe for the moment.
Apart from nomad wells the only perennial open body of water I know of is In Ziza guelta, accessed up a 6km gorge (visible in the link and see this fendercam vid: youtube.com/watch?v=hRmJYPqwwK8) and fed by the run-off of its own isolated mountain-massif.
North of here some of us were very lucky to see the endangered mouflon or Barbary Sheep - a heavy horned mountain goat that never drinks, getting all its water from grazing. I've only ever seen them one at a time while walking in places like Jebel Uweinat mountain (Sudan/Egypt) or camel trekking in the remote Immidir (Alg - east of the TSH), but they're usually very far away and running away even faster. This time as we drove up a oued (creek) we saw four of them just 100 yards away on a low cliff. Two shot 20 feet straight up the cliffside like a cat - the rest ran along ledges. See the report for some pics.
Some of you may know of Ahnet from the great photos in Tom Sheppard's QFAT book. At best it's about as pure and pristine as the desert gets, off-white sand sheets of coarse quartz ringed by distant conical spires or domes, like some sci-fi poster. No a speck of vegetation in places with isolated strings of dunes scattered across the plains which make good places for sheltered camps.
The driving here is serene and liberating (we carried 700 miles of fuel); just look point and if you can see a way you can go there. But a good local guide will know of secret passes through the occasional escarpments and ranges which make the driving more varied and therefore more engaging. In fact driving out here is technically easy, as it is in most of the Sahara, primarily because pushing your loaded 4x4 to the limits as you might do on a weekend in the Rockies gets complicated when it goes wrong. For this reason my routes avoid extended crossings of sand dunes wherever possible; they're nicer as a backdrop than to drive and can be hard on the vehicle and the nerves. You can see more and go further by keeping things simple because wherever you go the desert rarely disappoints. But sometimes it traumatises.
As we left the shelter of In Ziza gorge we emerged into a howling dust storm blown up from the south which blew all day. Lunch was a 15-minute affair, snacks in a cab (not a film with Samuel L. Jackson) but our 69-year old guide was able to predict hill after hill emerging from the sandy fog - the vital landmarks he'd memorised to find his way, not even relying on the sporadic tracks on the ground, let alone my GPS. And he knew just about every feature in the 80k miles of Ahnet.
Scissors, Paper, Stone
Yes, but which was the best car for desert driving you're wondering? If there was a clear winner in the desert it was probably the local Hilux (Tacoma) as it barely carried 200 kilos and 3 of us. I was very impressed with how well the aspirated 2.8 managed without wringing itself into a frenzy while sounding like a Cessna when sat by the snorkel head. But Hilux living; chucking it in the back, cooking off an acacia fire, sleeping on the ground while relying on well water and goats bought off nomads - that's is not for everyone.
Getting to the Ahnet and Assekrem involved a 2000 mile drive from northern Europe where a Discovery 1 or an 80VX beats a droning Hilux or cramped Defender. All the European cars were turbo diesels and the Discovery 1 owners (one an automatic) seemed to talk themselves into thinking it was not a good car for the piste - too much back overhang on the 100-inch wheelbase they said, limited room for bigger tyres and a bit small too. But so much nicer to sit in than any of the others, even the lardy 80s. Of those two Toyotas one was an early 12-valve six with a lot of weight and tyres, the other a late 24v, and as with motorcycles (in my experience) 4-valve heads often add up to more revs and power but usually at the cost of low end which makes modulating traction difficult in deep sand or over rubble - in much the same way low range gives more control. Looking back at the vids the Defender 'kitchen car' seemed to manage it all without fuss, but probably because the driver was a rally racer and the Td5 had been chipped up to 200hp and then brought back down to more transmission-preserving levels. You can't do that so easily with a pre-electronic engine. Of course by the time he got back home he 'd need removing from the cab with a fork lift with months in physio rehab.
There's more on the cars at the end of the linked report
Chris S
http://www.sahara-overland.com/Sfiles/algeria2011/index.htm
There's a big map, a small gallery and an short movie in there too.
Adrar Ahnet is actually a small massif but for me 'Ahnet' region has come to mean the area west of the Trans-Sahara Highway (TSH) between N27 and N22 and as far west as the Tanezrouft piste - around 80,000 square miles (< 8% of Algeria) that in the south part is wide open, devoid of settlements and largely safe for the moment.
Apart from nomad wells the only perennial open body of water I know of is In Ziza guelta, accessed up a 6km gorge (visible in the link and see this fendercam vid: youtube.com/watch?v=hRmJYPqwwK8) and fed by the run-off of its own isolated mountain-massif.
North of here some of us were very lucky to see the endangered mouflon or Barbary Sheep - a heavy horned mountain goat that never drinks, getting all its water from grazing. I've only ever seen them one at a time while walking in places like Jebel Uweinat mountain (Sudan/Egypt) or camel trekking in the remote Immidir (Alg - east of the TSH), but they're usually very far away and running away even faster. This time as we drove up a oued (creek) we saw four of them just 100 yards away on a low cliff. Two shot 20 feet straight up the cliffside like a cat - the rest ran along ledges. See the report for some pics.
Some of you may know of Ahnet from the great photos in Tom Sheppard's QFAT book. At best it's about as pure and pristine as the desert gets, off-white sand sheets of coarse quartz ringed by distant conical spires or domes, like some sci-fi poster. No a speck of vegetation in places with isolated strings of dunes scattered across the plains which make good places for sheltered camps.
The driving here is serene and liberating (we carried 700 miles of fuel); just look point and if you can see a way you can go there. But a good local guide will know of secret passes through the occasional escarpments and ranges which make the driving more varied and therefore more engaging. In fact driving out here is technically easy, as it is in most of the Sahara, primarily because pushing your loaded 4x4 to the limits as you might do on a weekend in the Rockies gets complicated when it goes wrong. For this reason my routes avoid extended crossings of sand dunes wherever possible; they're nicer as a backdrop than to drive and can be hard on the vehicle and the nerves. You can see more and go further by keeping things simple because wherever you go the desert rarely disappoints. But sometimes it traumatises.
As we left the shelter of In Ziza gorge we emerged into a howling dust storm blown up from the south which blew all day. Lunch was a 15-minute affair, snacks in a cab (not a film with Samuel L. Jackson) but our 69-year old guide was able to predict hill after hill emerging from the sandy fog - the vital landmarks he'd memorised to find his way, not even relying on the sporadic tracks on the ground, let alone my GPS. And he knew just about every feature in the 80k miles of Ahnet.
Scissors, Paper, Stone
Yes, but which was the best car for desert driving you're wondering? If there was a clear winner in the desert it was probably the local Hilux (Tacoma) as it barely carried 200 kilos and 3 of us. I was very impressed with how well the aspirated 2.8 managed without wringing itself into a frenzy while sounding like a Cessna when sat by the snorkel head. But Hilux living; chucking it in the back, cooking off an acacia fire, sleeping on the ground while relying on well water and goats bought off nomads - that's is not for everyone.
Getting to the Ahnet and Assekrem involved a 2000 mile drive from northern Europe where a Discovery 1 or an 80VX beats a droning Hilux or cramped Defender. All the European cars were turbo diesels and the Discovery 1 owners (one an automatic) seemed to talk themselves into thinking it was not a good car for the piste - too much back overhang on the 100-inch wheelbase they said, limited room for bigger tyres and a bit small too. But so much nicer to sit in than any of the others, even the lardy 80s. Of those two Toyotas one was an early 12-valve six with a lot of weight and tyres, the other a late 24v, and as with motorcycles (in my experience) 4-valve heads often add up to more revs and power but usually at the cost of low end which makes modulating traction difficult in deep sand or over rubble - in much the same way low range gives more control. Looking back at the vids the Defender 'kitchen car' seemed to manage it all without fuss, but probably because the driver was a rally racer and the Td5 had been chipped up to 200hp and then brought back down to more transmission-preserving levels. You can't do that so easily with a pre-electronic engine. Of course by the time he got back home he 'd need removing from the cab with a fork lift with months in physio rehab.
There's more on the cars at the end of the linked report
Chris S
Last edited:
