Off-piste - The fun bit

With all jerry cans fully loaded we headed west towards Zagora to our 3-day trip "off-piste" where we would do rough camping and experience the kind of solitude only seen in remote areas of the planet . This part of the trip was highly anticipated by some, but not for others as the lack of contact with civilisation was somewhat feared.

The tracks were a mixture of soft and hard sand and we crossed hundreds of dry river beds. Local young men with their mopeds appeared out of nowhere to tell us that we could not cross here of there and tried to guide us through main routes hoping for some money. Two river crossings were the biggest challenges for the day. Soon we reached a steep descent into a riverbed ahead of the first crossing and stopped to assess the situation. After walking around for a bit, we could not find a safe way through the other side, so we went back and drove around in a longer route.

At times we drove through deep sand and the power of the V8 engine came at hand allowing the heavy D3 to speed up and drive not so deep. Having said that the Defenders were also brilliant and the driving put smiles on the faces of all drivers, well almost all...keen to sand driving Mark left dad's Dave on the passenger seat for longer than he expected, however that allowed Dave to entertain us with always funny comments on the CB! With the wind blowing strongly, the dust lifted by the vehicles were not not only behind them, but actually on their sides and fully covered our inside view from the windows creating an awkward sensation.

Ana was a bit aprehensive on the ups & downs of the dunes and I tried to keep it easy, but in one of the ascents the D3 was caught up on its belly. We removed some sand and then I asked Emon for a quick pull, but then his winch stopped probably overheated (sorry Emon - will get you a beer to cool down ;-) . Few more digs and D3 was back on the game to continue the day...