AlgérieDjanetAlgérieDjanetAlgérie Djanet Part 2.        Djanet Crew change and desert preparations | The explosive legacy of the Franco-Algerian War We are in Djanet for 48 hours, picking up 5 more crew members at the airport, shaking out the sand and preparing for the next leg of the journey into the southeast corner of the Tassili n’Ajjer park and the Tadrart Rouge, within easy bazooka range, we joke, of the borders with Libya and Niger. We will need to be self-sufficient for 12 days and begin filling tanks and jerry cans with fuel and water and loading up on fresh food. As I arrange supplies in the Defender, a young woman introduces herself. She is an English teacher in Algiers visiting her family in Djanet. After a pleasant exchange, she offers us a tin full of cookies she had just made. I give her one of my baksheesh Swiss chocolate bars. She accepts it with obvious pleasure, but her mother calls her over and whispers something in her ear. She shyly asks if I have “medicine against headaches”. I had read that this was a common request in the remote places of the Sahara and had come prepared with extra boxes of paracetamol. We say goodbye to Amastan and meet our new guide for the dunes, Otchi, also a Tuareg, with whom our group’s leader has worked before. He is stout and solid, with a toothless smile and eyes baked into a permanent squint. He is wearing dark brown pants and a dark brown coat, and unlike most Tuareg we meet, he does not cover his head, revealing a crown of soft thinning curls. Otchi grew up here and has been exploring the desert on moped since he was 14. He is passionate about the region’s rock art and has guided

AlgérieDjanetAlgérieDjanetAlgérie Djanet Part 2.        Djanet Crew change and desert preparations | The explosive legacy of the Franco-Algerian War We are in Djanet for 48 hours, picking up 5 more crew members at the airport, shaking out the sand and preparing for the next leg of the journey into the southeast corner of the Tassili n’Ajjer park and the Tadrart Rouge, within easy bazooka range, we joke, of the borders with Libya and Niger. We will need to be self-sufficient for 12 days and begin filling tanks and jerry cans with fuel and water and loading up on fresh food. As I arrange supplies in the Defender, a young woman introduces herself. She is an English teacher in Algiers visiting her family in Djanet. After a pleasant exchange, she offers us a tin full of cookies she had just made. I give her one of my baksheesh Swiss chocolate bars. She accepts it with obvious pleasure, but her mother calls her over and whispers something in her ear. She shyly asks if I have “medicine against headaches”. I had read that this was a common request in the remote places of the Sahara and had come prepared with extra boxes of paracetamol. We say goodbye to Amastan and meet our new guide for the dunes, Otchi, also a Tuareg, with whom our group’s leader has worked before. He is stout and solid, with a toothless smile and eyes baked into a permanent squint. He is wearing dark brown pants and a dark brown coat, and unlike most Tuareg we meet, he does not cover his head, revealing a crown of soft thinning curls. Otchi grew up here and has been exploring the desert on moped since he was 14. He is passionate about the region’s rock art and has guided

AlgérieDjanetAlgérieDjanetAlgérie Djanet Part 2.        Djanet Crew change and desert preparations | The explosive legacy of the Franco-Algerian War We are in Djanet for 48 hours, picking up 5 more crew members at the airport, shaking out the sand and preparing for the next leg of the journey into the southeast corner of the Tassili n’Ajjer park and the Tadrart Rouge, within easy bazooka range, we joke, of the borders with Libya and Niger. We will need to be self-sufficient for 12 days and begin filling tanks and jerry cans with fuel and water and loading up on fresh food. As I arrange supplies in the Defender, a young woman introduces herself. She is an English teacher in Algiers visiting her family in Djanet. After a pleasant exchange, she offers us a tin full of cookies she had just made. I give her one of my baksheesh Swiss chocolate bars. She accepts it with obvious pleasure, but her mother calls her over and whispers something in her ear. She shyly asks if I have “medicine against headaches”. I had read that this was a common request in the remote places of the Sahara and had come prepared with extra boxes of paracetamol. We say goodbye to Amastan and meet our new guide for the dunes, Otchi, also a Tuareg, with whom our group’s leader has worked before. He is stout and solid, with a toothless smile and eyes baked into a permanent squint. He is wearing dark brown pants and a dark brown coat, and unlike most Tuareg we meet, he does not cover his head, revealing a crown of soft thinning curls. Otchi grew up here and has been exploring the desert on moped since he was 14. He is passionate about the region’s rock art and has guided

AlgérieDjanetAlgérieDjanetAlgérie Djanet Part 2.        Djanet Crew change and desert preparations | The explosive legacy of the Franco-Algerian War We are in Djanet for 48 hours, picking up 5 more crew members at the airport, shaking out the sand and preparing for the next leg of the journey into the southeast corner of the Tassili n’Ajjer park and the Tadrart Rouge, within easy bazooka range, we joke, of the borders with Libya and Niger. We will need to be self-sufficient for 12 days and begin filling tanks and jerry cans with fuel and water and loading up on fresh food. As I arrange supplies in the Defender, a young woman introduces herself. She is an English teacher in Algiers visiting her family in Djanet. After a pleasant exchange, she offers us a tin full of cookies she had just made. I give her one of my baksheesh Swiss chocolate bars. She accepts it with obvious pleasure, but her mother calls her over and whispers something in her ear. She shyly asks if I have “medicine against headaches”. I had read that this was a common request in the remote places of the Sahara and had come prepared with extra boxes of paracetamol. We say goodbye to Amastan and meet our new guide for the dunes, Otchi, also a Tuareg, with whom our group’s leader has worked before. He is stout and solid, with a toothless smile and eyes baked into a permanent squint. He is wearing dark brown pants and a dark brown coat, and unlike most Tuareg we meet, he does not cover his head, revealing a crown of soft thinning curls. Otchi grew up here and has been exploring the desert on moped since he was 14. He is passionate about the region’s rock art and has guided

AlgérieDjanetAlgérieDjanetAlgérie Djanet Part 2.        Djanet Crew change and desert preparations | The explosive legacy of the Franco-Algerian War We are in Djanet for 48 hours, picking up 5 more crew members at the airport, shaking out the sand and preparing for the next leg of the journey into the southeast corner of the Tassili n’Ajjer park and the Tadrart Rouge, within easy bazooka range, we joke, of the borders with Libya and Niger. We will need to be self-sufficient for 12 days and begin filling tanks and jerry cans with fuel and water and loading up on fresh food. As I arrange supplies in the Defender, a young woman introduces herself. She is an English teacher in Algiers visiting her family in Djanet. After a pleasant exchange, she offers us a tin full of cookies she had just made. I give her one of my baksheesh Swiss chocolate bars. She accepts it with obvious pleasure, but her mother calls her over and whispers something in her ear. She shyly asks if I have “medicine against headaches”. I had read that this was a common request in the remote places of the Sahara and had come prepared with extra boxes of paracetamol. We say goodbye to Amastan and meet our new guide for the dunes, Otchi, also a Tuareg, with whom our group’s leader has worked before. He is stout and solid, with a toothless smile and eyes baked into a permanent squint. He is wearing dark brown pants and a dark brown coat, and unlike most Tuareg we meet, he does not cover his head, revealing a crown of soft thinning curls. Otchi grew up here and has been exploring the desert on moped since he was 14. He is passionate about the region’s rock art and has guided