Tenere Troubles
Richard Washington
Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso
December 2000 - January 2001
Land rover Series 2A 4 cyl. petrol
Tunis
We left Marseille on 10
December ferry to Tunis. The ferry was only about 1/3 full making the loading
in Marseille uneventful compared with our trip a week closer to Christmas in
1999. The ship docked in Tunis at noon with clearance through Tunisian
immigration and customs taking a mere 30 minutes (compared to 5 hours in 1999)
allowing us to reach the salt pan of Chott El Jerid near Nefta (Algerian
frontier) shortly after dark. We camped on the salt pan, leaving early for the
border crossing the next morning.
Algeria
Clearance out of Tunisia took
about 30 minutes but entry into Algeria just over 4 hours. In that time the
officials processed only 3 cars, two of which were Algerian. The officials
were nevertheless friendly. Two German bikers were crossing into Tunisia as we
were leaving. They had ridden a loop from El Oued to Djanet then onto Tam and
back along main route through In Salah (which included a convoy).
The Algerian border
formalities correspond exactly with those described elsewhere on the STI site
(immigration, customs, compulsory money change and car insurance). The only
problem we had was with customs insisting on us filling in the form to reflect
'Landrover' as the type of car but 'Toyota' as the make. I guess this finally
signifies the death of the British automotive legend, in this part of North
Africa at least. [It was the same story with one of the LRs on my tour, too -
but caused no probs. CS]
From the Algerian border we
headed on towards El Oued. There seemed to be few camping possibilities along
this stretch given the awkward hummocky dunes lining the road and the
proximity of villages. About 20 or 30km from El Oued, while entering one of
the small villages, a group of youngsters aged less than 10, stoned the
Landrover. No windows were broken but a bit more topography was added to the
body work - never a serious issue in a 30 year old vehicle with an aluminium
body. We were welcomed into El Oued by the police and local businessmen alike.
El Oued was calm and the streets clean and quite empty. We changed money at
one of the banks.
That night we slept on the
south side of the road 60km short of Hassi Messaoud. A strong north easterly
was drifting sand in a conveyor about 1m deep so we were looking for shelter
behind south facing hills. There is a small escarpment out of view of the road
(N32° 10' 37'' E5° 52' 23'') which served the purpose on a stretch that
offered few alternatives. We arrived in Hassi shortly after 8am the next day.
Here the military checkpoint issued our laissez passer in about 20 minutes. It
was valid for a month. We were waved through the south side of Hassi en route
to Hassi Bel Guebbour. The next check point was at Gassi [Gassi Touil, I
think]. Here the military spoke very little French, but seemed to want us to
return 3km and wait at the side of the road. We went back, found nothing at
the road side and so returned to the checkpoint. After a bit of discussion
amongst themselves we were eventually waved through. We now know that a convoy
operates on this stretch and may entail a delay of several hours until the
convoy leaves.
If you have ever looked out
of the window of a 747 on a night time trans Africa flight and seen two tiny
pin pricks of light in the insanely massive blackness of the Sahara, the
chances are that you are looking at somewhere like Hassi Bel Guebbour - with
the two lights shared between the fuel station and the shop, this being the
first fuel after Hassi M. It has a great sense of isolation and the interdune
corridor that the tarmac follows south from Gassi is stunning.
Some 50km east of Bel
Guebbour (28 36' 10''N, 7 5' 27''E) we passed large pools of water in an
otherwise dry river bed. Although it was fairly early in the day we couldn't
pass the opportunity by and so set up a pleasant camp a fewkms clear of the
road out of the still strong north easterly. A piste runs south to Bordj Omar
Driss which starts parallel to the road [I have been told to avoid this piste
- plenty of oilfield security].
The next day we called in at
In Amenas (the bakery was selling awesome custard slices) and headed south
through the huge dune field which seems to be the far western limb of the
Ubari sand sea, eventually camping off the road in a sand field in the lee of
a shady glade of trees (N26° 56' 23" E8° 41' 54"). Firewood was
plentiful. From our campsite we drove early the next day to Illizi for fuel
and then on across the Fadnoun Plateau. The new road is a bonus but twists
sharply without warning. It is rather like a pub video game where a blind rise
could be followed by a sharp left, u-turn or a stranded truck jack-knifed
across the road. The whole route from Illizi to Djanet is beautiful. We camped
about 100km short of Djanet in a large dry river bed (N24° 54' 56", E8°
45' 87î"). It was a stunning setting and well worth a few weeks stay. In
Djanet we had a pleasant stay at Hotel Zeribas, camping in the far corner
under the reed shelters. Djanet offered a great selection of fresh veggies,
telephones which work given a bit of patience and pleasant temperatures. South
of Djanet the daily temperatures were well over 30 degrees.
Whilst settling down for a
quiet brew of tea in our campsite at Hotel Zeribas, Andy Pag drew up in a
blast of diesel from the old Datsun he had brought down from Belgium. By this
stage he was travelling alone and therefore keen to join us across the
Northern Tenere to Chirfa and Dirkou. This was the planned next leg of the
trip. We were glad for his company because the piste from Djanet to Dirkou is
a lonely 850km stretch (we passed no traffic on this entire route).
Although our time in Algeria
was much shorter than planned (for reasons explained later), we found the
country calm and enjoyable to travel in. The only military checks we passed
through were at Hassi M {Gassi Touil} and Hassi Bel Guebbour. Apart from this
stretch we were free to come and go as we pleased. Whenever we encountered
police we found them very helpful and accommodating. From a tourist
perspective, everything is in place for Algeria's recovery - all that is
missing is the tourists. We saw none between the Tunisian border and Agadez
(about 5000km) except for Andy in Djanet.
After some time to rest and
check out Djanet we took off for Niger, leaving by the piste to Libya (a
left turn off the new airport road past the old aerodrome). We turned off
this mildly corrugated piste about 35km from Djanet, taking tracks through a
gap in the mountains towards Mount Tiska. Once the tracks join, the piste is
surprisingly well formed. After about an hour (roughly 40km) the piste
turned east of Mount Tiska. The area is very beautiful with just about every
spot a perfect campsite. We spent the night here with Andy cooking up a
great vege stew. During the night we saw three vehicles approaching the
Mount Tiska foothills some 10km to the south. They stopped when in view of
our fire although we couldn't be sure they saw us. They set off again well
after midnight once the moon was up, passing within a few kilometres of us
with their lights off. This all seemed to point to smugglers taking Marlboro
into Algeria possibly via a piste through the Djado plateau.
We continued on the well
formed piste the next day. Within an hour it was obvious that the piste
would pass well east of the Adrar Mariaou mountains. The piste is not marked
on the Michelin or the TPC maps. Since we wanted to hook up with the balise
line across the northern Tenere (which lies west of Adrar Mariaou) we left
what seems to be a smugglers piste, taking a drainage line out onto the flat
northern Tenere. The surface was better than any tarmac we had driven since
France. While the route sounds complicated, the desert is very open with the
Mount Tiska and Adrar Mariaou mountains clearly visible all the time. All
the driving was easy. Within an hour we had gained the Tenere and found the
first balise. There we several old (and a little indistinct) tracks along
the balise line. Our GPS position showed us to be on the eastern most of the
two pistes entering the Tenere which are marked on the TPC J 3B map. As the
balise line piste appeared to be the western most piste on this map, we
seemed to be on the wrong line, and so headed south west to see if we
intersected any other piste (although we were sure that there was only one
balise line across the Tenere and that the TPC marked piste was wrong - but
the check was easy to make and the surface pretty hard). It turned out that
the piste marked on the TPC is wrong.
After about half an hour
four Toyota Land Cruiser pick-ups could be seen driving straight at us from
the northern base of the Adrar Mariaou mountains. They were travelling at
speeds up to 160km/hr. The group turned out to be the Algerian police. After
making their AK-47s clear to us and checking our papers (carte de grise,
visas, insurance etc) they waved us on cheerfully. We should point out that
it is not possible to leave Algeria officially along the northern Tenere
route south of Djanet. While the police don't mind, the Algerian customs do
not permit official exit.
The northern Tenere is
simply awesome. It is difficult to put words to the vastness of the place.
It is impossible at times to tell whether you can see 50m, 500m or 50km off
the piste. There are three wrecks (above right) on the balise line, 2 from
the 1988 Paris-Dakar race. The shot blasted dark silver chassis gleaming in
the bleached light. For the most part the Northern Tenere is very easy
driving. The first few hundred kilometres out of Djanet were softer, the
Landrover not being powerful enough to plane over the surface. Immediately
south of Berliet balise 21 the sand is deep and powdery. It was the only
time between Djanet and Agadez that we needed low range. The soft sand
persists for 40km south of Berliet Balise 21. In a newish Toyota the
northern Tenere could probably be crossed in a day. We took two days of
driving, but three days altogether.
Niger
The exit from the Northern
Tenere to Chirfa is clearly marked - nearly all the balises are in place
across the Northern Tenere. On arrival in Chirfa we drove directly to the
military checkpoint. They stamped our passports while looking over the
vehicles, asking if we had any sat phones, short wave transmitters as so on.
We helped the commander with his GPS as he had no manual for it. We left our
passports with the military
overnight, thinking that
this was routine practice in Niger. We drove through the village and checked
out the impressive Djado ruins (above). The next day we returned to the
military post for our passports. By then the mood had changed and we were
ordered to drive directly to Dirkou, not to leave the piste and to arrive
there no later than 4pm. As it was already getting on to 10 am it was a tall
ask in our old vehicles. We assumed Dirkou was the first official border
post (as marked on the Michelin map) on this route and hence the requirement
that we shouldn't linger on the piste. We found the piste south of Seguedine
very sandy. Again it would be very difficult to get lost on this route - in
fact we hardly bothered with the GPS. We arrived in Dirkou a little after
4pm, handed over our passports (which were again kept overnight), met with
Jerome and drove off to town for the night. The military checkpoint was
pretty chaotic as several 10 wheel drive Merc trucks loaded to the hilt were
about to leave for Libya.
We returned to the military
post early the next day, waited around before asking for and being given
back our passports (they now had stamps from both Dirkou and Chirfa). From
there we headed up the hill to refuel (we had used about 220 L of petrol
since Djanet) at Jerome's fuel dump. Make sure you take your own pipe / 12V
pump as Jerome's assistants seem to have sucked too much fuel through their
brains over the years. They are several sandwiches short of a picnic!
Whilst we were refueling
the military drove up in a Landcruiser and took back our passports and
vehicle papers. Once we had finished refueling the military impounded our
vehicles. We now had no passports, no vehicles and no vehicle papers. Things
weren't looking good. No explanation was given but we were told to wait
until 3:30pm. We waited in a barbed wire area between the passport shack and
the military base. This is a stinking hot, dusty, shadeless area surrounded
by feche feche that we grew to hate over the next few days. At 5pm were we
told that there was a problem and that we would have to wait until 9am the
next morning. We later found out that the Minister of Defence in Niamey had
already phoned the French Ambassador in Niamey to say that European
nationals were being held in the north. The French Embassy in Niger deals
with all European nationals in Niger.
The next morning we were
told to wait until 3:30 pm as the commander of the military base in Dirkou
was waiting for instructions from Niamey. Most of our dealings had been with
the Chef de Transit at the passport shack on the outskirts of the military
base. He had been telling us all sorts of lies about why we were being held
and when we would be released. He was a very difficult person to deal with -
at one point gesturing to me that he would tear up my passports if we didn't
leave him alone. Our main effort at this stage was to speak to the Military
commander of Dirkou. Of course we could get nowhere near his office. Our
vehicle papers, passports and visas were all in order and we wanted to know
what we were being held for.
The commander finally
agreed to see us late that afternoon. It was rather like meeting Kurtz. We
were shown into this darkened, blue room with padded doors. The commander
greeted us and asked what our problem was as he had heard we were anxious!
We explained that our vehicle papers, passports and visas were in good order
and that we were uncertain what the problem was. He explained that the
situation in the north is difficult, that tourists coming into Niger from
the north were a problem and that the only way to enter this region was
through Agadez where all the necessary paper work was available and where
guides could be hired. He assured us that he was working on a solution for
us. We asked if it was possible to simply deport us from Niger and we would
leave immediately back to Djanet the way we had come (this had been our plan
all along).
Fortunately we had managed
to get permission to be taken to Bilma (45km to the south) to phone our
embassies. With our vehicles still impounded we had to find a way of getting
there. The distinction between who was military and who was a tour operator
was extremely blurred. We were charged 30 quid one way for the trip although
we returned with a tour operator anxious for our business. They were an
unpleasant mafia-like gang and things turned sour shortly after they dropped
us off. Interestingly we were taken to the military commanders office in the
military base in the same tour operators Landcruiser. In Bilma we managed to
call the German consulate in Niamey (there is only an unofficial
representative for British nationals who is a businessmen in Niamey - he
didn't want to know our case!). I managed to get a line out to Megan who was
in Cape Town at the time. Megan phoned the German and British Embassies in S
Africa as well as the German Consulate in Niamey, eventually being put on to
the French Embassy in Niamey. This helped our case enormously, although we
had no way of knowing she had achieved all this until our problems were
nearly over.
Early in the afternoon of
our fourth day in Dirkou we were told that we were being taken to Agadez.
Remembering that the Commander of the military camp in Dirkou had told us
that Agadez had all the services necessary to help us, we were relieved that
the problems from their side seemed to be coming to an end. This soon
changed when a Land Cruiser with a machine gun and live ammo chain mounted
on the back rolled up. They were our escorts, so at least we didn't have to
take a guide! Our passports were still being held, so it was clear we were
simply being transferred to Agadez. We protested that our 30 year old series
2A was not up to the Dirkou to Agadez crossing of the Tenere, but we were
told that there was no option - take the vehicle or leave it behind - do or
die time for the 1950s transmission.
We left Dirkou at about
4pm. Although there was still problems to come it was good to leave that
stinking hot, dust riddled, barbed wire camp. The military Land Cruiser
drove in front but waved us past in frustration at our pace. We drove on to
the wells at Achegour which we reached by about 7:30 pm. It was amazing to
be crossing the central Tenere although it was a pity it was not in
circumstances of our own choosing. We drove through the night, following a
star but basically heading west south west. Again we didn't bother with a
GPS. With no sign of the military we decided to savour our freedom and drove
on into the morning light taking a dune corridor about 30km north of Arbre
de Tenere (make sure you are in the correct corridor if you want to see this
place otherwise you need to back track about 30km). The going in the central
Tenere is much softer than the northern Tenere. Our consumption dropped to
about 3km per litre [8mpg]. We hardly ever got out of second gear although
we didn't ever get stuck. Where the sand is very soft all the truck tracks
merge. Apart from a very high median strip the going is OK on the tracks.
We emerged from the sandy
desert at about noon the next day to find the military waiting for us. The
piste is up to 50km wide in the Tenere so they must have passed us in the
night. We drove on to Agadez arriving in the early evening. The commander of
the military camp in Agadez then met with us. He simply said that after a
days rest we would be taken on to Niamey 900km away. This was probably the
low point of the trip! After a few days we had another military escort down
to Niamey. We left on Christmas day at 9am and arrived in Niamey at about
8pm. We had a young soldier in our Land Rover but separated from the others
over the distance. We were held at the outskirts of Niamey as our passport
were in the other vehicle. Then we decided enough was enough and I
negotiated for a passport substitute, giving them some paper with work
letter heads. From there we basically made a run for the French Embassy -
the soldier protesting from the back of the Land Rover while we made out we
didn't know what he wanted us to do. We arrived at the French Embassy at
11:30 pm Christmas night and were greeted by the French Ambassador, the head
of the French Military attache in Niger and the Head of the Internationale
Police in Niger. They were all amazingly helpful. Details began to emerge
that we were suspected spies/gun runners. The piste from Djanet to Chirfa is
never crossed from north to south these days and so our arrival out of the
northern Tenere had aroused much suspicion. There was also a suggestion that
we had been picked up by a military patrol in the Northern Tenere. This
might have been the commander at Chirfa trying to win himself a promotion,
but it was certainly not how it happened as we had driven directly to the
military checkpoint at Chirfa and found them all lazing about in the sun.
