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29st May 2002 - 21.12
GMT
Magreb 1989
After
first bike experience in europe and a short visit by bus/train
to marocco the year before, it was time to face a real adventure
by bike
in africa. To calm down my parents I had to look for a compangion,
over
an ad I found a guy named Uwe. As he was the only one, who
responded my
ad ther were no big options. Well, there was always the possibility
to
drop the guy and this was exactlly, what happened.
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Algeria
- Between El Oued and Ghardaia
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The
inicial idea was to fly to South Tunisia, get into Algeria
and head
for In Salah or Tamanrasset.
As we both were pretty unexperienced, a lot went wrong or
at least not
as expected.
Right on the first day we felt the huge gap in our daily milage;
he had
a overweighted MTB, packed with every imaginable gear and
spare parts
and I was on a light weight racing bike with not much more
than a sleeping
bag, water, food and a few tools.
After 2 days we separated, but I caught him again after one
week short
before the algerian border.
The whole tour was no big success, in some aspects even a
disappointment.
So
I put in the frame of my bike (which was rather complicated
to extract later), others put it into their sleepbag and,
well, the german put it into his rectum, considered a secure
place. But the problems started, when we left Marocco and
had to cycle a kilometer or so to the algerian border post,
as our friend became some strange feelings in his stomach.
And when it was his turn to be checked, he had a attack of
diarerha.
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Algeria
- Between El Oued and Ghardaia
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The
leg from El Oued to Ghardaia and further on to El Golea, a
total of over 400 km, has besides some nice spots near El
Oued and El Golea only the horizon and a lot of wind to offer.
So after almost a week in virtually the same landscape and
fighting constantly against the wind I was anoyied of more
400 km until In Salah.
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Tunesia:
Without a clue near Touzeur
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Algeria:
The impressive "nothingness" of the Plateau
de Tademait
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Wide open spaces
To
ride from Hassi Messaoud to Ghardaia and further on to El
Golea isn't very exciting at all, only open space and strong
winds. South of El Golea is a short climb up to the Plateau
de Tademait- the biggest parking lot in the world (400 km)
until you reach In Salah.
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In
the evening light the dunes near El Oued appeared to be
pink, had a lot of fun to "swim" them down
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