Don’t always blindly trust Google Maps !! We had used Google Maps to plan our itinirary from Hammamet to Ksar Ghilane, an Oasis in the Sahara desert.
Everything went great until Google told us to go down South taking the “African Highway”, a road that actually goes down to the whole african continent. Looking at the map, it sounded indeed as a wise choice and the quickest way to get to Kzar Ghilane. At first we thought we had missed the crossing to take the African Highway. We made a U turn and checked again. No African Highway. We made another U turn and then we saw it. A tiny rocky and sandy path, totally wrecked and covered of trash… that was the African Highway. Thank you google !
It was too late to take another road so we tried our luck with this one. Our rental was a standard small car and not a 4×4. While we were entering the desert by this road, with nothing but sand around, driving at 20km/h and seeing the sun quickly, too quickly, setting down, we started to get quite concerned that we would never reach the Oasis in time and might well end up spending the night in a car in the desert…
After 120km at this pace though, we joined a crossing and starting from there the African Highway was a normal road. Thank you ! Thank you ! Thank you ! Finally we could drive a bit faster. And get to the Oasis. We got there after a barrage of military guys checking cars and trunks for weapons (reassuring…). 50 meters before entering, the dude that was driving at that time (and I won’t tell his name here) decided he would try and do some rodeo with the car in the sand dunes, outside of the road. Of course we got stuck. And of course, we had get out and push the car to get it back to the road helped by other locals…. What a day.
We arrived at night to the Yadis Camp in the oasis where we had own own tent waiting for us. After a well deserved (and delicious) dinner, we headed to the observation tower where we could see that around the oasis was nothing but sand and stars. WOW, so cool !!
The next day we took went into a Quad Bike adventure to wander the dunes and that was extraordinary. So much fun ! Well, except when you get stuck into the sand. If you don’t want to get stuck, just don’t slow down 🙂
