If someone asked me what was the thing I was looking forward to the most during the Dakar trip - I wouldn't answer right away, and I wouldn't give just one answer. There were several such things, and Western Sahara is certainly one of them.
The morning, lazy and relaxed. I imagined this journey dozens of times, each time I saw endless wastelands and fast rides through hamada. I mean real wastelands, hundreds kilometers in every direction, and everywhere, there are no roads, cities, or water.
Well, let's go and see! I'm alone. Today we left the bivuac separately, each at our own time, this is something new in our already established day-pattern.
Will we be able to cross the Sahara fast enough, will we have enough water and fuel, will we be pushed back to the main road along the coast, what will be our pace? I'm so curious! I feel genuine travel thrill of exploring the unknown. I only pause my thoughts to negotiate passages through soft and technically difficult dry river beds, they are filled with fesh fesh, otherwise I am staying at sixth gear all the time. The remoteness of this place grows with every passing kilometer, there are not even that many wheel marks on the surface.
The heat is starting to build. So far, in the last days, I have never even thought that it was hot or so. Now we are looking for an acacia trees to rest for a moment in its shade, refill tanks from fuel bladder and talk.
Next kilometers we ride the canyon track, mainly in the riverbed, sometimes on its edge. More or less at the length of Smara, just before reaching the Rn17 road, we approach a dry lake. Seen from above, it is impressive, but once you go down, the view is majestic. Flat surface, bottom as clear as white. And a mirage. I am grateful that there are still such wonderful travel destinations in the world. Looking at pictures of my bike, I could say that I see one of the famous pioneers who were here on motorbikes 50 years ago. We fool around a bit, taking a lot of photos that later will turn out to be fantastic.
We are fed up with stones, so we decide to take a simpler variant of the track to Smara. It's getting late, the low sun is shining directly into our eyes, the visor doesn't help. Another flat tire, quick patching, checkpoint and here we go, welcome Smara! We split tasks, someone gets water, someone else supplies, I order something warm for everyone to eat, someone is already refueling, because as usual there is only one dispenser. Everything is super quick, so after just a moment we are heading towards the desert for the bivuac. Masterpiece, we are a complete team at this point. However, I feel sorry for Smara because I wanted to see what the city, that hides so many secrets and is the arena of such big events in Western Sahara looks like. But hey, I'll have to come back here next time :-) We spend the night about a small mosque, the place is flat and nice. The wind blows heavily. We are all feeling relaxed and discussing everything that happened this day. Suddenly, the wind blows away Kuba's empty tent. I don't know how many points of fortune it cost him, but his tent flies just over the barbed wire and nothing happens. The rest of the evening goes as usual, we are just happy that we are here - in Western Sahara.
The morning, we leave early, nothing extraordinary. We ride the old road. Suddenly I see the first of them - a sea-green Land Rover. A thought strikes me - perhaps he is a hero of the Polisario Front skirmishes with Moroccan army. Must be at least 60 years old. A beautiful beast but also a living witness to history. From now on, we pass a lot of them on our way.
We are loaded up to the roof, water, 40 liters of fuel, everything. We are entering the emptiness of Sahara. I feel incredible thrill. I've been waiting for this for a long time. We are now riding along a lane marked by two rows of mounds, about a kilometer wide. These mounds are our only guarantee for safety. They mark an area theoretically free from landmines. Every year, dozens of people are killed by mines in Western Sahara, in a country where there is almost no people at all. Also countless animals are victims. The wall between the land occupied by Morocco and the eastern part of the Sahara is the largest minefield in the world. It happens that mines move along carried with the floating dunes.
Everything is new now, I ride with a high care. I have never experienced such emptiness, such vastness. I'm slowly getting into the rhythm, it's flat and you can ride fast, but beware, there are many large bumps and hidden stones. The vastness screams with all its might and encourages you to cut the line. The temptation is super strong, but common sense wins. We do not leave the zone marked by mounds. Over time, riding becomes smoother, instinctive, and still very fast. We keep a long distance from each other, this way we are just little dots on horizon. All around us, literally in every direction, there are amazing mirages. They are large, clear, and separate approaching bikes from the surface completely. Air vibrates. The world around us has become a fairy-tale, we travel through islands of sand floating gently above the ordinary world. This moment lasts all day.
But before it ends, we have to take a big decision. We have a ready to go track following the border, close to it, but this means extending the section without fuel to almost 600 km. No jokes here. We didn't meet anyone all day. At the end of this track, in theory, we will reach the town of Aousserd, but there is a significant chance that there will be no fuel. So we decide to jump to the more western part of the desert and head towards Bir Anzerane. Now we ride an obvious "Dakar highway", clear traces stretch across the full width between the mounds. We reach Bir Anzerane with no offort, before the city there are several hills that make the ride more adventerous, I imagine Dakar competitors who probably rode here with speeds twice as fast as mine, and I don't ride that slowly. We refuel and move on without delay. I've seen several reports of people being pushed back from here towards the coast, so we don't want to be conspicuous. Moreover, the city itself is a bit off to the side and looks more like a military facility than an ordinary civilian town. So we set off for a desert and it's completely flat again. We simply stop in some random place. We set up tents and experience a spectacular sunset. After dark, in the red light of headlamps, we do a service, put new filters, do adjustments, refills, tensions, etc. We covered almost 550 km today, the Dakar spirit is strong :-)
The next day promises to be similar, but hey... At first we ride together, but after a breakfast, Tomek set off first, we follow him after a couple of minutes. And here we go, Piter has a flat tire. Actually, it's not a problem, just that the tire levers are with Tomek :-) We immediately realize what this means, Kuba climbs on the bike to increase the range and try to call Tomek on the radio. Nothing. Tomek is probably around 20 minutes ahead of us now, it's too much. Quick decision - Kuba is going to chase Tomek and I stay with Piter. It's nice and steady at first, we calculate that Kuba should gain on Tomek within about an hour, so he'll be back in two... A nap, some photos. At some point, a Sahrawi man arrives, driving legendary Land Rover of course. The first man we met in the desert for 3 days. Again, photos, conversation, he asks several times if we are sure we don't need any help. This is completely natural among the locals, there are really no jokes here. The desert's heat is slowly building up, Kuba doesn't come back. Suddenly, a thought comes awkwardly to my head. We take out the toolbox, support the motorcycle sideways and gut the tube using three open-end wrenches. A patch and it's ready! It wasn't simple, but it was a good move. We count the time - Tomek should be returning, alerted by Kuba, but if we set off immediately, we will save a lot of kilometers and fuel, because they would count twice. We catch him after 40 km.
We keep going, it's getting seriously hot. The shadow is sporadic, and when we found it somehow, it is about 2 square meters at most. We reach a sea of dunes, some of them very high. Then visible track ends, suddenly. From time to time I see some tracks but they disappear as quick as they have appeared. We are making circles, getting lost several times. I definitely want to follow the track because of the landmines. Finally, we decide not to take the risk. We don't event think of turning back either. There is only one track south visible on the map. We search for it for a quite long time and finally find it. The old Dakar pista. We are happy, with no time we are bombing along it, the sun is already low, no surprise. And puff, there it is, a wall, a military base, observation towers, armoured vehicles, rifles, tents, soldiers. Maybe this is one of those famous places where Berm was dug up for the rally? We are standing still, we have no idea what to do yet. I consider scenarios in my head. We can't go back as we don't have fuel. But we have a full range of talents on the team! :-) All of a sudden, Tomek states that he is going to go straight to the military base and ride through like never before. We just agree that we will do it slowly so not to surprise guys inside. Tomek sets off, I follow him a moment later. Tomek rides through the whole thing, but they are already running towards me waving and shouting. I stop, turn off the engine, and point the camera down, giving hand signals to Kuba and Piter to join me. Fun begins. The soldiers ask us where to, how, why? Once some of them find out, some higher in ranking come and ask about the same thing. Finally, the boss comes from the very top in a jeep, he is well shaved, sleek, everyone bows to him, and yes, he has the same questions. We stand there, it's nice, and we talk. Finally, I ask if we can go now, because it's about to get dark and we still have to get for our bivuac. Sure, no problem, bon voyage!
Later that day we reach the main road and ride directly to the border zone. There is no other way. Tomorrow is Mauritania, a big change! It was another good day. 470km, I'm tired, but we talk until late, love it. If you think about it, we did Western Sahara in two days, how nice!
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