:: Planned Route (engl.)
[Die Deutsche Version findest du hier.]
The plan
Six people (5 men, 1 woman) and I will go with a little convoi of three cars from Vienna/Austria to Agadez/Niger. Our guide is Christoph Gretzmacher.
The route
Vienna - Genua - Tunis - Border Algerie - Ghardaia - Tamanrasset - In Guezzam - Boarder Niger - Assamak - Agadez.
The duration
Two weeks or 14 days through the Desert from Nord to the South.
For what reason I go
To visit my friend Eva and to do something just for me!:)
Planned departure: 21st ocotober, 2005
1st day / 21st october 2005: Vienna - Genua, about 1.000 km highway, we drive the whole night to reach Genua at the morning.
2nd day / 22nd october, 2005: Around 3.00 pm we have to wait in a cue, to go on the ferry. We move into our cabins an hope to have a silent journey to Tunis. It will take 24 hours.
3rd day / 23rd october, 2005: We reach Tunis at 7.00 pm. We have to manage a lot of formality, then we go on the highway. Our first stop will be a highway-stationery to take our first "café au lait". We like to reach the algerian border at daybreak. We have to drive again the whole night. The streets are empty. We pass a few little villages, where we enjoy delicious tunesian food.
4th day / 24th october, 2005: It's dawn...straight forward is the algerian border. The first morning on the african continent. Reached on the border, we have to wait for our duty-guide. In the meantime, we do formality again. Crossing borders are always arduous. After a few hours we can pass the algerian boarder. El-Qued is the first city after the boarder. It was a long day and of course a sleepless night. We are all hungry and after a little walk we finish our day with a hot shower and a nice and comfortable bed at the Hotel Louss.
5th day / 25th october, 2005: Our goal for today is Ghardaia, 450 km. We have to reach it before sunset. Ghardaia, where above the labyrinth of houses and little streets the simple loamsteeple of the mosce towers. Daily life happens on the roof-tops and the backyards of the desert-city and normally hidden for visitors.
6th day / 26th october, 2005: To explore the oasis and a big shopping on the market for our next days is on the schedule. There are many motieves for pictures! We leave Ghadaia at lunchtime. Always straight to the south. Our next goal is El Menia, 237 km. We still have to pass policecontroll-stations. The best is, to accept this stopps, installed "for our safety". Since the hostage crisis in 2003 the security-person here are really try hard to be friendly. We can see the first dunes on the horizon. Sahara to tackle.... We reach El Menia at sunset and move in in our hotelrooms.
7th day / 27th october, 2005: Unfortunately we don't have much time in El Menia. We have to be at the barriere of the city-exit at 8.00 am. It exists convoi-duty behind the police. Our next stopp ist Salah, 396 km. Behind every roundet hilltop a new landscape. we leave the plateau and know, far behind the horizon, there we have to go..... The coarse road will give our tyres pretty trouble. Ragged tyres pave our road....but we are not in a hurry. In Salah, a little oasis place, surrounded with dunes, we look forward to drink a cool beer at the hotelbar.
8th day / 28th october, 2005: We leave Salah at 7.00 am. Our next goal is Tamanrasset, 658 km. We will spend our first night in the open air in the desert. We leave the last foothill of the "Grand Erg Oriental" and approach the ravine of Arak. The street gets considerable worser, and some passages we are taking very carefully. We start to look for a good place for the night. We find it 200 km before Tamanrasset.
9th day / 29th october, 2005: We tidy up our camp and start again. the street is full of potholes and alternatives are not possible. orrespondingly the 200 km go on a while. Tamanrasset is situated at 1.400 m. It is more or less the most known oasis in south-algeria and a favorite destination for sahara-touristst. Normally they start here for organised expeditions to the Hoggar-Mountain. We check our cars here, and at the time the cars at the mechanics, we pack for a short expedition to Assekrem next day.
10th day / 30th october, 2005: Bizarr volcanic mountains, domes in the form of candles, conical former volcans, basaltic columns as well as hughe lavafields are characteristic for these rocky landscape. We climb up the Assekrem until 2.585 meters on a steep and rocky drive. We walk the last few meters to the "roof of the algerian sahara", 2.725 m within 30 minutes. We have a unforgettable experience and enjoy the view.
11th day / 31st october, 2005: It is a fresh morning. We visit the Eremitage of the "white patres" and enjoy the fantastic panoramaview above the volcanic prehistoric mountainlanscape and the silentnes and seclusion of this mountains. We go back to Tamanrasset. At the Afilal-Guelta we dare a jump into the cold water....there are many waterbasins along a little brook. At Tamanrasset we have to prepare for the next stage. To pack the cars, to fill up the watercans and to provide us with food for the next days.
12th day / 1st november, 2005: We leave Tamanrasset early in the morning, and hope to stay over night at the border to Niger, it is In Guezzam, 400 km to go. But before we stay one more night in the desert an reach In Guezzam in the morning.
13th day / 2nd november, 2005: At our last kilometers in Algerie we have to pass deep sanddunes. Everyone, who doesn't cross this part with high limit, could have bad cards and has to shovel! At the border Algerie-Niger, Assamaka, friendly and speedy check-in. In Niger there works all more african. But we have cool beer und time. Our next stopp is Arlit, 200 km Offroad!! Partly very good, means fast circuit changes with difficult, sandy passages. We can reach 100 km/h at the plateau. As far as we see the uranium-mine of Arlit, we know that we have done it! We have passed the Sahara. We stay one's more over night in the desert and in the morning we start to our last stage.
14ht day / 3rd november, 2005: We are on the road again. There is a bizarr scene. Suddenly there is Arlit, the minecity, a city of about 50.000 inhabitants. The colour of the houses is the colour of the sand, where they have been built. The only colour-spots are the people, who live here and the few cars. Our goal is Agadez, 245 km to go. Another half day on the street. Agadez, the bit desertcity, was built in the 14th century because of the caravans and is situated between the Sahara and the Sudan. Close to the volcanmountain, the Air. The north of the westafrican state Niger is one of the less regions of our planet, where people are nomads. In the city of Agadez you can meet many different ethnic people, like Haussa, Arabic, Peul, Fulbe, Bororo, Germa and Tuareg. It is a fascinating "world of simultaneousity".
The plan
Six people (5 men, 1 woman) and I will go with a little convoi of three cars from Vienna/Austria to Agadez/Niger. Our guide is Christoph Gretzmacher.
The route
Vienna - Genua - Tunis - Border Algerie - Ghardaia - Tamanrasset - In Guezzam - Boarder Niger - Assamak - Agadez.
The duration
Two weeks or 14 days through the Desert from Nord to the South.
For what reason I go
To visit my friend Eva and to do something just for me!:)
Planned departure: 21st ocotober, 2005
1st day / 21st october 2005: Vienna - Genua, about 1.000 km highway, we drive the whole night to reach Genua at the morning.
2nd day / 22nd october, 2005: Around 3.00 pm we have to wait in a cue, to go on the ferry. We move into our cabins an hope to have a silent journey to Tunis. It will take 24 hours.
3rd day / 23rd october, 2005: We reach Tunis at 7.00 pm. We have to manage a lot of formality, then we go on the highway. Our first stop will be a highway-stationery to take our first "café au lait". We like to reach the algerian border at daybreak. We have to drive again the whole night. The streets are empty. We pass a few little villages, where we enjoy delicious tunesian food.
4th day / 24th october, 2005: It's dawn...straight forward is the algerian border. The first morning on the african continent. Reached on the border, we have to wait for our duty-guide. In the meantime, we do formality again. Crossing borders are always arduous. After a few hours we can pass the algerian boarder. El-Qued is the first city after the boarder. It was a long day and of course a sleepless night. We are all hungry and after a little walk we finish our day with a hot shower and a nice and comfortable bed at the Hotel Louss.
5th day / 25th october, 2005: Our goal for today is Ghardaia, 450 km. We have to reach it before sunset. Ghardaia, where above the labyrinth of houses and little streets the simple loamsteeple of the mosce towers. Daily life happens on the roof-tops and the backyards of the desert-city and normally hidden for visitors.
6th day / 26th october, 2005: To explore the oasis and a big shopping on the market for our next days is on the schedule. There are many motieves for pictures! We leave Ghadaia at lunchtime. Always straight to the south. Our next goal is El Menia, 237 km. We still have to pass policecontroll-stations. The best is, to accept this stopps, installed "for our safety". Since the hostage crisis in 2003 the security-person here are really try hard to be friendly. We can see the first dunes on the horizon. Sahara to tackle.... We reach El Menia at sunset and move in in our hotelrooms.
7th day / 27th october, 2005: Unfortunately we don't have much time in El Menia. We have to be at the barriere of the city-exit at 8.00 am. It exists convoi-duty behind the police. Our next stopp ist Salah, 396 km. Behind every roundet hilltop a new landscape. we leave the plateau and know, far behind the horizon, there we have to go..... The coarse road will give our tyres pretty trouble. Ragged tyres pave our road....but we are not in a hurry. In Salah, a little oasis place, surrounded with dunes, we look forward to drink a cool beer at the hotelbar.
8th day / 28th october, 2005: We leave Salah at 7.00 am. Our next goal is Tamanrasset, 658 km. We will spend our first night in the open air in the desert. We leave the last foothill of the "Grand Erg Oriental" and approach the ravine of Arak. The street gets considerable worser, and some passages we are taking very carefully. We start to look for a good place for the night. We find it 200 km before Tamanrasset.
9th day / 29th october, 2005: We tidy up our camp and start again. the street is full of potholes and alternatives are not possible. orrespondingly the 200 km go on a while. Tamanrasset is situated at 1.400 m. It is more or less the most known oasis in south-algeria and a favorite destination for sahara-touristst. Normally they start here for organised expeditions to the Hoggar-Mountain. We check our cars here, and at the time the cars at the mechanics, we pack for a short expedition to Assekrem next day.
10th day / 30th october, 2005: Bizarr volcanic mountains, domes in the form of candles, conical former volcans, basaltic columns as well as hughe lavafields are characteristic for these rocky landscape. We climb up the Assekrem until 2.585 meters on a steep and rocky drive. We walk the last few meters to the "roof of the algerian sahara", 2.725 m within 30 minutes. We have a unforgettable experience and enjoy the view.
11th day / 31st october, 2005: It is a fresh morning. We visit the Eremitage of the "white patres" and enjoy the fantastic panoramaview above the volcanic prehistoric mountainlanscape and the silentnes and seclusion of this mountains. We go back to Tamanrasset. At the Afilal-Guelta we dare a jump into the cold water....there are many waterbasins along a little brook. At Tamanrasset we have to prepare for the next stage. To pack the cars, to fill up the watercans and to provide us with food for the next days.
12th day / 1st november, 2005: We leave Tamanrasset early in the morning, and hope to stay over night at the border to Niger, it is In Guezzam, 400 km to go. But before we stay one more night in the desert an reach In Guezzam in the morning.
13th day / 2nd november, 2005: At our last kilometers in Algerie we have to pass deep sanddunes. Everyone, who doesn't cross this part with high limit, could have bad cards and has to shovel! At the border Algerie-Niger, Assamaka, friendly and speedy check-in. In Niger there works all more african. But we have cool beer und time. Our next stopp is Arlit, 200 km Offroad!! Partly very good, means fast circuit changes with difficult, sandy passages. We can reach 100 km/h at the plateau. As far as we see the uranium-mine of Arlit, we know that we have done it! We have passed the Sahara. We stay one's more over night in the desert and in the morning we start to our last stage.
14ht day / 3rd november, 2005: We are on the road again. There is a bizarr scene. Suddenly there is Arlit, the minecity, a city of about 50.000 inhabitants. The colour of the houses is the colour of the sand, where they have been built. The only colour-spots are the people, who live here and the few cars. Our goal is Agadez, 245 km to go. Another half day on the street. Agadez, the bit desertcity, was built in the 14th century because of the caravans and is situated between the Sahara and the Sudan. Close to the volcanmountain, the Air. The north of the westafrican state Niger is one of the less regions of our planet, where people are nomads. In the city of Agadez you can meet many different ethnic people, like Haussa, Arabic, Peul, Fulbe, Bororo, Germa and Tuareg. It is a fascinating "world of simultaneousity".
karola - 16. Okt, 17:10
Trackback URL:
http://karolainafrica.twoday.net/stories/1063448/modTrackback