Hobster
New member
Hi there...this is first post with some impressions of our Western Sahara Road Trip (Berlin -> Ad Dakhla) a couple of months ago.
I wanted to share those pictures with you to hopefully brighten up your day...and set you some new goals
Around in the beginning of 2019 we were both fed up with our jobs: she intended to quit for a long time while I pushed myself trough a small/depressing bournout while being still "fully functional" teamlead trapped in an hypergrowth startup here in Berlin. Soooo...we talked a lot how to solve our situations. Or lives felt like a black hole. No light, no fun anymore. Just gray and cold. We dicussed back and forth and found out "taking a certain time out would feel like a big relief". So we finally quit our jobs. Both at the same time and took a sabbatical of 3-4 months - for the very first time in our lives leaving the 9to5 stuff behin! "Getting our minds cleared" was priority #1 and as we are both into kite surfing she joined my idea to go to the western sahara ("Ad Dakhla - the Wind City").
"By car."
"Uhhhh...ok!?"
I'll spare you the Europe-Part and start with "Leaving the customs / harbour area" in northern Africa.
I feared the customs-guys rip appart up our whole truck but nothing happend.
"You have drugs?" -no
"You have drones?" -no
"You have weapons?" -no
"Okay, have fun."
Tanger between 1-2pm...things getting exited:
Still in Tanger, 4pm - western european, open-minded woman meets islamic world for the first time. Male Cafe's. Only men and no women on the streets.
White skin, jeans, no Nikab, no holding hands, men and women walking separated on the silde walk, MP with mashine guns, after hours searching for an "westernly cafe" to take a rest.
Folks didnt want to talk to us. Turned away, ignored us. Bam that hit.
8pm some hundred kilometers further in Rabbat (Capital), still the day of arrival. We "rich" europeans received first bad gestures "to go away" by some beardy, angry looking men freshly leaving a mosque. Our car was stuck in a stream of thousand of people leaving after their prayers. I started to panick as some guys stood in front of our hood, blocked our path and seemingly did not agree that we are here (thanks Navi, which took us "the shortest route"). I locked the doors, engaged differentials and prepared to create a mess in order to save our lives (still stuck in that stream of ppl).
As our VW Amarok outvalued everything driving around in that traffic which can compared to "cache-fighting" as closest, we skipped sketchy / dark public parking places and only went for hotels in urban areas with guard. So this is our "Ice Wulf" (=Amarok) with 5k€+ equiptment in a neighborhood surrounded by partly huge poverty. Average GDP pC is 3k€ p.a. The first police checkpoint we hit ripped us off - "we crossed a red light". But up to the horizon there was no traffic light.
2nd to 5th day. We left Agadir, the last big city, at 3am for a 1000kms+ trip south to our final destination.
We got ripped of at 4am at another check point - we crossed a stop sign. But, you guessed it....there wasnt any sign.
The police officer talked to me in french which I only understand.
My GF jumped in...but men in Morocco dont talk to woman. So the officer started to scream in the middle of night "Why I dont speak their language when I come and visit a foreign country?"
(GF translates to me. He got angrier.)
"You are germans, right?"
-yes
"You crossed a stop sign. This makes 1000 Dirham or you go to jail." (note: average income is like 300 Dirham a month).
-we dont have that money. we only have credit cards or debit cards.
He started laughing "Oooooh you are like the Senegales: they claim to be poor, too!"
After 45mins we gave him 300 Dirham..."without receipt".
Another (not kidding) 50 checkpoints later.
Cliffs in the morning mist. The first dunes of the Western Sahara in our back...
I wanted to share those pictures with you to hopefully brighten up your day...and set you some new goals
Around in the beginning of 2019 we were both fed up with our jobs: she intended to quit for a long time while I pushed myself trough a small/depressing bournout while being still "fully functional" teamlead trapped in an hypergrowth startup here in Berlin. Soooo...we talked a lot how to solve our situations. Or lives felt like a black hole. No light, no fun anymore. Just gray and cold. We dicussed back and forth and found out "taking a certain time out would feel like a big relief". So we finally quit our jobs. Both at the same time and took a sabbatical of 3-4 months - for the very first time in our lives leaving the 9to5 stuff behin! "Getting our minds cleared" was priority #1 and as we are both into kite surfing she joined my idea to go to the western sahara ("Ad Dakhla - the Wind City").
"By car."
"Uhhhh...ok!?"
I'll spare you the Europe-Part and start with "Leaving the customs / harbour area" in northern Africa.
I feared the customs-guys rip appart up our whole truck but nothing happend.
"You have drugs?" -no
"You have drones?" -no
"You have weapons?" -no
"Okay, have fun."
Tanger between 1-2pm...things getting exited:
Still in Tanger, 4pm - western european, open-minded woman meets islamic world for the first time. Male Cafe's. Only men and no women on the streets.
White skin, jeans, no Nikab, no holding hands, men and women walking separated on the silde walk, MP with mashine guns, after hours searching for an "westernly cafe" to take a rest.
Folks didnt want to talk to us. Turned away, ignored us. Bam that hit.
8pm some hundred kilometers further in Rabbat (Capital), still the day of arrival. We "rich" europeans received first bad gestures "to go away" by some beardy, angry looking men freshly leaving a mosque. Our car was stuck in a stream of thousand of people leaving after their prayers. I started to panick as some guys stood in front of our hood, blocked our path and seemingly did not agree that we are here (thanks Navi, which took us "the shortest route"). I locked the doors, engaged differentials and prepared to create a mess in order to save our lives (still stuck in that stream of ppl).
As our VW Amarok outvalued everything driving around in that traffic which can compared to "cache-fighting" as closest, we skipped sketchy / dark public parking places and only went for hotels in urban areas with guard. So this is our "Ice Wulf" (=Amarok) with 5k€+ equiptment in a neighborhood surrounded by partly huge poverty. Average GDP pC is 3k€ p.a. The first police checkpoint we hit ripped us off - "we crossed a red light". But up to the horizon there was no traffic light.
2nd to 5th day. We left Agadir, the last big city, at 3am for a 1000kms+ trip south to our final destination.
We got ripped of at 4am at another check point - we crossed a stop sign. But, you guessed it....there wasnt any sign.
The police officer talked to me in french which I only understand.
My GF jumped in...but men in Morocco dont talk to woman. So the officer started to scream in the middle of night "Why I dont speak their language when I come and visit a foreign country?"
(GF translates to me. He got angrier.)
"You are germans, right?"
-yes
"You crossed a stop sign. This makes 1000 Dirham or you go to jail." (note: average income is like 300 Dirham a month).
-we dont have that money. we only have credit cards or debit cards.
He started laughing "Oooooh you are like the Senegales: they claim to be poor, too!"
After 45mins we gave him 300 Dirham..."without receipt".
Another (not kidding) 50 checkpoints later.
Cliffs in the morning mist. The first dunes of the Western Sahara in our back...
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