Plymouth to Dakar Challenge : Team Spitting Llamas

Day 12 - Dakhla(MA) to Middle of nowhere(MA)

Posted by Aaron on January 14, 2008 10:54 AM

Over the next two days, there was very little distance to cover heading to the Mauritanian boarder, so when people woke with the idea of going to the ocean for a swim, I decided that the extra hour sleep would be more then worth it. Corde did some sight seeing along the coast looking at some of the locals "holiday houses" on the beach. Packing up we drove into the town of Dakhla having camped just outside of it. The seaside town was quite modern, and we took to opportunity to stock up, and grab a bite to eat. Looking for something local – we joined some other teams in a road side stall of camel kebab. It is pretty tough meat, which explains why it is not more common the world over.

It was at this point, Ruth discovered she had lost her passport. First thought was to reach for my own – as better her than me flashed across my mind. But we all helped in pulling her car apart looking for it. The search was in vain, and we took her to both the local and federal police to see if one of the numerous police check points might still have the passport. Although they all had walkie talkies it seemed they had a limited range requiring a chineess whispers approach of communication. Back tracking the Aussies and girls went to where Corde & Sally had got stuck in the sand the night before, and low and behold, sitting in the sand, on the side of the road, along a 100 mile stretch of road with no real markings – there it was the passport.
Still to this day "some" believe the passport may have been accidentally hiding in one of their pockets all the time and told the "story" of it being lost in the sand to cover it up, we shall never know.

Reorganized and regrouped, dodging the amazing large amount of wild camels we headed towards the boarder. Knowing it wasn’t far and not knowing if there was anywhere to stay, the group pulled off the road and simply went inland for a few hundred meters to set up camp for the night. The group consisting of about 12 teams quick set up in a surprisingly strong wind. Using the cars for shelter, the Ozzies and Girls pulled out the tagine, and food we had bought a few days before and cranked up a fire. Soon we had the making of real local dish – – but alas Corde and I feel asleep and missed out on the feed however to Ed and Dimitri's delight turning up to the camp after midnight spending all day on repairs to their Rover they had a lovely dinner waiting for them.

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