A proper update from Dakhla

Ok, so today was cool we had a major vehicle malfunction, a taste of real desert settings, and a great relief.

Yesterday when we were driving down the highway I saw a bloated dead camel on the side of the road. It was so much bigger than the live ones we have seen grazing alongside the road. I pointed it out but Anthony was a bit slower and missed it. One of the other teams in our convoy actually stopped and took a picture so perhaps we can get a copy.

Then today as we were driving down the highway we had a tail wind and flat ground so we were traveling along at a whopping 100 kph (60mph). At this point Anthony noticed a bit of rumbling outside the front left corner of the car. He looked out the window and I saw glass and black stuff come flying over the hood of the car. I had thought he had hit something. So we pulled over and lucky we did.

It appears the bungee cord holding down the hood broke due to excess wear and caused the hood to shake up and down. Somehow, something came loose or maybe the hood smashed the front headlight which then caused a very sharp very thick piece of glass (the bit of the lamp attached to the power cables) to dangle in front of the front tire. This piece of glass then shredded all the tread off the tire. When we stopped we essentially were rolling on an inflated tube. So we changed out tires and were on our way the road again in 30 minutes.

The rest of the trip to Dakhla was more or less quiet apart from us needing to remove the headlamp housing sine it was deformed and rubbing against our new tire, The Sandbox Savants (the other American team and they are from boston) ran out of gas and had to pull their jerry cans to refill, and then on the approach to the peninsula where dakhla is there was wind storm like conditions.

The stretch of road going from the Gendarme post into the Dakhla peninsula was and open road that spanned between two hillsides. It led down to a beautiful bay where people were windsurfing and parasailing. But the winds from the hillsides that these people were enjoying were blastin our car with sand. We had to prop open our car doors while we were driving to roll up our windows (the roll cage blocks the window cranks so they can only go up and down with the doors open).

Fortunately for us the two other teams in our caravan arrived in Dakhla a few minutes before us and met a British couple. They gave us the names and contacts of some guides that can take us down the coastal route to Mauritania so we don't blow ourselves up in the mine fields. Looking forward to riding the tidal beaches!!!!!

Now we head back to our bungalows to enjoy some beers which have been three days in the making. Due to the strict Muslim culture here finding alcohol is extremely hard. A few frosty brews at mere cents a piece will be so glorious for our souls!!