We left Laayoune after our nice breakfast on the top floor of our hotel with nice views of the city and headed south.
Today, we broke the long journey into 3 segments of 200+ kms each for tea/coffee/food stops.
As we were leaving, it was surprising to see how industrialized this city really was. We saw a lot of factories on the outskirts ... metals, cement, pre-fabrication of a lot of things ... a real well-balanced self-sustaining city ... in the middle of nowhere.
The road today again was mostly straight with some curves here and there to make sure you were still awake ... we saw a few European-plated land rovers, expedition campers, and sizable overland 4x4 vehicles ... all in adventure mode.
The route ran next to the ocean on an elevated continental shelf about 50 meters higher than the ocean ... below you could see beaches and beautiful cliffs ... and the turquoise waters of the African Atlantic.
The feeling of remoteness is very real ... it is interesting to realize how strange it is to be here right now ... a place that people do not usually visit ... a place that had been sparsely populated or deserted for millennia ... a harsh but majestic place.
As I was cruising along almost hypnotized by the constancy of the road and the desert ... I decided to listen to some music ... the first song that played was "This Life" (Jorge Celedon - Colombia) and the lyrics touched something!
"I like the smell of every morning, to feel the sun peeking through my window, filling my soul with a beautiful dawn. I like to listen to the peace of the mountains, and to look at the colors at dusk, to feel mi feet in the sand at the beach, and how sweet it is when I kiss my girl. I know time is in a hurry, I know it wants to scratch me from its list, but I tell it instead with all my heart .... !Hey, How Beautiful is Life! Even when it hurts sometimes, there is always somebody that loves us, always somebody to take care of us ...."
And that is when I lost it ... missing my beautiful family ... and the road and the desert and the ocean became blurry : )
The pictures below show the uniqueness and beauty of this area ... so remote.
We finally made it to Dakhla ... a long sandy peninsula that is being developed for tourism ... lots of kite surfing, hotels under development ... a nice feel ... a little like Zanzibar ... deep blue ocean waters touching the desert shores.
We found an amazing small hotel (7 rooms) right in front of the beach with a great view of the desert across the bay and had an amazing French dinner next door, a bigger and just as good hotel.
Tomorrow is a rest day before we head to the Mauritania border.
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