This is the car hire story I was thinking of. I think I saw at least one other elsewhere:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...ip-to-ghardaia

A faff paying for extra kms, but incredibly cheap petrol makes up for it.

I didn't mean to suggest that I have reason to expect it will get worse. Just that any assumption (if anyone held one) that things can only improve from the currently awkward and restricted status isn't really sound. Ultimately it seems like a good opportunity if any of these really interesting areas are open when they're located right in the middle of such an immensely troubled and volatile region.

These are great points/suggestions. A camel trek for a few days, followed by a different route driving back, and maybe a stop to do some climbing/scrambling, could work very nicely... Don't know what's realistic though. Is a camel trek going to be possible for one person? Or just very expensive? I really need to start speaking to someone on the ground to find out what's possible.

Re flights, there seem to be enough options. Just looking for ways to fly both ways on 737-700s and newer... since I'm irrationally suspicious of Air Algerie and their old 737s and even more their ATR-72s... Staying in Algiers isn't really a problem, since I intend to do that anyway and want to see some of northern Algeria.

Thanks for the info on visas and agencies. Going to contact those in the next couple of days.