Back in November 2001 we were two bikes going from Djanet to Tam.
This was shortly after USA invaded Afghanistan and the rumors said that AQ had established training camps north of Djanet.

When we passed the fort in Serouenout we were stopped and the army asked a lot more questions then they usually do. They were very interesting in where we were going and where we would camp.
Anyway, we passed the fort and continued driving. Directly before it got dark we left the piste to camp. Since we hadn’t seen people for the entire and it was getting dark we parked pretty close to the piste.
After a few hours we saw the lights from a car approaching slowly. The piste is not that good and it must be a nightmare to drive after dark. We regretted that we had parked that close to the piste but decided not to move.
We sat in the dark and watched the car approaching very slowly, a few hundreds meters away the car stopped and we saw people (civilian) getting out. They where standing in the front of the car watching the piste (or our tracks). This happened several times and suddenly they stopped maybe 25 metres away from us. We could see that they carried guns and we sat totally quiet, partly behind a big rock. They where staring at the ground before they started to stare directly in our direction, luckily it was completely dark.
After a while they continued…

When we got to Ideles the next morning people knew that we were going to Tam via Assekrem. This info must have come from the soldiers in Serouenout. For some reason people were tense and it was not a very friendly place but we stayed for a few hours to get petrol (petrol station had no petrol and people told us there were no petrol in town). We tried to buy some food but it was impossible, everything was sold out. That’s strange, it has never happened to me before or after.

We sat beside the bikes trying to figure out what to do when we couldn’t get any petrol when some kids came along and started to chat. My friend told them that he would pay them if they could get petrol and after a while they brought us to a guy who sold us 13 liters. He didn’t seem happy about it…

Because of the shortage of petrol we decided to skip Assekrem and went to Tam.via In Amguel.


So why do I write this? What does it mean?
To be honest I don’t know but I learned a few things:

-Don’t tell people where you are going
-Park far from the piste
-Don’t camp before it’s getting dark
-Be careful with lights

Good thinking.
Honestly we also didn't know what was going on exactly. Or who to trust 100%.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could feel secure enough with your campfire that when strangers suddenly appear out of the dark you would simply be happy to have someone to drink tea with?

Was it ever like that in the Sahara?

Here's how they spent some of the ransom money.

‘We don't want to become a second Afghanistan' - The Globe and Mail

"The insurgents had night-vision goggles, bulletproof vests and rocket-propelled grenades. The soldiers carried amulets and Koranic verses for protection. They were also outnumbered 3 to 1. Two hours later, almost half of the 60 soldiers were dead, and the rest were fleeing for their lives."