A path lined by ghost towns, yet all filled with life.
After 2 nights in Layounne we hit the road for Dakhla City at 9am.
We stopped briefly at the one hour mark for large herd of wild camels to pass us:
And about 3 hours into the drive we took a quick one hour tour of Boujdour. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you come upon their very extra welcome arch.
Boujdour otherwise seems to be another ghost town like Laayoune (at least during the daytime).
Don’t miss its famous lighthouse if you’re driving through here: Built by the Portuguese in the 18th century, this structure is visible from miles around and currently occupied as a military site by the Moroccan army.
We also swung by for a stroll through Boujdour Port, where we said hello to the hundreds of fishing boats and fishermen going on with their busy day. Photography is strictly forbidden here.
With all this fish being caught and sold nearby, it would be a shame not to sample some for lunch.
This man’s work is a labor of love.
And so is my eating:
At 1:30pm after lunch we set out for another 2 hour drive with a few occasional stops here and there to stretch our legs:
And by 6pm we arrived into Dakhla just in time for dinner and a glorious cotton candy vanilla sky:
We enjoyed a lazy late morning the next day.
And at 10am we set off in our 4x4s for an off-road bumpy excursion to see Dune Blanche.
If you’re lucky, this enormous sand dune perched in the middle of a lagoon can be a hotspot for flamingos.
Or humans.
After an hour at the dune and having some tea, we drove onwards for a cleaning at the natural hot underground spring where you can take a jet shower massage (or some would call it a waterboarding) from a high pressure hose:
So the next time you go get a hydromassage, ask for the real thing. Everything else is an imitation.
Hold your ground here because you might actually fly away when it’s your turn:
The 38ºC sulfur-smelling water from the underground spring is said to contain many health benefits — rightly so because I felt like Iron Man!
After our 10 minute glorious wash-down, we then visited the local Ostrich Farm where we proved our bravery by letting an ostrich bite our finger:
We then returned to Dakhla for a camel meat lunch:
…and then with nothing else to do we enjoyed a whole free afternoon (during which I spent dealing with a cancelled return flight unfortunately), before meeting up again for dinner and our last easy-to-find drinks at at the fantastic Villa Dakhla, one of the best restaurants on the main strip.
Tomorrow we cross into Mauritania to do this:
- At time of posting in Dakhla, it was 21 °C - Humidity: 50% | Wind Speed: 35km/hr | Cloud Cover: clear