When we arrived at Illizi we asked the chief of police if we could carry on without a guide as we had had no problems so far. He curtly replied "ici c'est le grand Sud".
He said we were the first to arrive on our own since the kidnappings of 2003.
So we had to find a quick guide to Djanet. There we found two excellent guides and spent a wonderful week driving around the desert and on to Tamanrasset, avoiding all gendarmes.
In Tam we waited eleven days for a visa to Niger, which was ultimately denied. And so we had to drive to Mali, which became an eventful trip. The guide we were assigned (by the name Rasta) we found untrustworthy and he later actually went to jail for staging a kidnapping. We asked around town for the best guide to go to Kidal, and found the perfect one - an old warrior who was well known to everyone we met all the way to Gao. His name was Zroufi.
Overall one of the best trips I have ever made.
Brahim and Abdellah from Djanet

Zroufi from Kidal
Magical Tanezrouft

Coming home I started planning for the next trip to Algeria, but as the situation deteriorated over the following years, it never happened. Alas.
Last edited by priffe; 3 Jan 2024 at 20:06.
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