Day 13 to Khnifiss National Park

Today we will reach the most southerly point of Morocco, bordering Western Sahara; or according to Morocco, we will be about half way through Morocco.

According to the UN:

Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is considered a “non-self-governing territory” and has been fought over for five decades in one of Africa’s longest conflicts.
The UN has also consistently pushed for a solution to the dispute, including a referendum, but the indigenous people of the area have never been able to vote for their own future.

It sounds a bit like some companies I’ve worked in, where every major decision needs to be made by consensus with about 100 “key” stakeholders. 

However, I’m getting ahead of myself because before we hit the road, my cooking group had to make breakfast. While I stirred porridge, the driver complimented me on supper last night, of which he had four helpings. Thankfully I had a lot of help making this to get it done in time for a bush camping bed time which is generally not much past 8pm, given sunset is before 6pm.

It’s always nice to wake up and realise no one was violently ill in the night from what you’ve cooked for supper.

In fact it was lovely to wake up full stop this morning, to the sound of waves on this beach.

The availability of any cover to have a morning pee was less impressive given this is 100% of the ground cover before you meet cliffs in almost every direction.

Mark of course ran 5km in the time it took me to make porridge so he experienced his first shower from Janet’s water bottle as the only way to refresh after that. We all look at our clothes and think that the speck of dust they collect in the desert here means they are filthy. I think our definitions of “desert” and “filthy” are likely to change as we get further south.

Already the landscape looks and feels more barren and local villages are unpainted, few and far between.

We’re loving it.

What I’m loving less is the realisation that this is the $1 billion Donald J Trump Highway, named by the Moroccan king in July this year, to thank the president for recognising Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. It seems there is no escape from US presidential buffoonery even here.

After a brief stop at a sinkhole for photos,

including Mark’s photo that demonstrated the foolishness of some people’s choice of location from which to take their photos……..

we finally reached camp at 5pm.

As usual, completely unable to sit still for 2 minutes, we went for a walk along the edge of the national park, past the dunes as the sun set…..

The romanticism was soon lost all over again as we lit a fire to ward off the mosquitoes. It did however give us an opportunity to toast marshmallows before bed.