THE TRANS - SAHARA EXPEDITION, 6300 Km of pure sand and adrenaline. Looking for new adventures, Gunnar followed an old dream: knowing Sahara trough an incredible trip. Feel free, since now, in the desert with him, following each moment closely. Algeria Station!

We drove south through El Oued, Touggourt with thousands of Palm trees around and further south we reached Hassi Messaound. All day long we had beautiful yellowish and reddish sand dunes around us. Some of the sand dunes were more than 200 meters high. I tried to climb one at noon time, but the sun and the heat would not let me move very far. The Rotel truck would stop always in a special location so we could enjoy the scenery around us.

Ain Amenas, is the capital of the oil business in central Sahara for Algeria. We could see refineries and oil pumping stations all around and new small settlements for the workers. Algeria is an Arabic country, a ex French colony. There are Mosques every where. Camels and dunkies are used for local transportation. To our disappointment we could not buy beer to refresh our dry throats. The Arabs were very friendly. They speak French and Arabic. I loved walking around the local markets. Camel and goat meat were found every where. They use dunkies (mules) for transportation of almost everything one can carry on a small cart.

We arrived at the famous town of Djanet, a beautiful oasis at the cross roads of the camel routes coming from all directions in Algeria. Djanet means paradise, and it certainly was. Dates Palm trees were all over, and we also enjoyed buying quantities of them and eating them. This is the town of the Tuareg people, the Bedouins of the desert, tough, strong nomads that inhabit this whole area. Close to Djanet you can find the Tassili Mountains that are surrounded by fantastic sand dunes. It's a very beautiful landscape. There are many daily jeep excursions and walking tours in this area. We spent 2 days in Djanet where I also had time to make my first laundry, a good shower and make a phone call to Buenos Aires.

From Djanet to Ideles and Tamanrasset there were no paved roads. The route was right through the desert. We had sand dunes all around us and the only way to find the direction was using the GPS constantly. We had a local guide with us driving his own 4 wheel drive jeep, but he was also constantly lost. You can see hundreds of cars that broke down along the way and were abandoned to become steel skeletons in the Sahara. Tamanrasset is a big town. It's the gate way to the Hoggar mountains the most visited place in Central Sahara. The Hoggar Mountains are old volcanos, the highest point is 2800 meters where the famous Pastor Foucauld lies buried. We climbed to the top of the mountain and saw the most incredible sunset in the Sahara along with 30 French tourists that evening. We slept in huts made out of pure rock after having an Arabic dinner and tea with the local jeep drivers.

Photo: Cortesia Sven Sabrowski

INEMA Team