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. Niger Station!

Driving south to the boarder of Niger our truck got stuck in the sand several times. We all had to work very hard to help out. We had hundreds of miles of sand flats and sand dunes in all directions. Even today with all the technology, it's easy to get lost in this huge desert. Our driver discussed the directions with the local guide; even so, they made a 300 km mistake. We had to turn back and start a new route again. All you can see are car tracks, dead camels and hundreds of car racks in the sand.

In between boarders we had 30 km of no men's land when we finally arrived in Niger. We had arrived in black Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world. On every stop we were surrounded by hundreds of children begging and molesting us all the time. It's very difficult to handle this kind of situation because you cannot please all of them. I gave away lots of pens to a group of little children, other of our group gave clothing and money, but at one point one of them got mad and through a stone against our bus and broke a window. When big groups of people get mad, things can get out of control so we had to leave town immediately.

We arrived in Agadez, another important town where everything comes together in central Niger. A visit to a big camel market was of major interest to all of us. There were hundreds of camels being traded. A good camel goes for Euros 600 and a young strong working camel goes for Euros 1,000. Dunkies, goats and cattle with big horns, that I had never seen before, were also in the market to be sold. I could see dinosaurs' bones being smuggled all around. In Agadez one can see this very beautiful Mosque made out of mud and wooden sticks. There are only two mosques like this in Africa, one in Agadez, Niger and the other one Timbuktu, Mali. We walked around the small narrow paths in between the mud walls of the houses. It is an amazing sight.

Photos: Cortesia SVEN SABROWSKI

INEMA Team