Algérie

Algérie – chapitre 1

AlgérieDe la frontière Tunisie-Algérie à DjanetAlgérieDe la frontière Tunisie-Algérie à DjanetAlgérie De la frontière Tunisie-Algérie à Djanet Part 1. The Tunisian-Algerian border to Djanet The Algerian Sahara | Guides, police escorts, migrants and marvels We arrive early at the Taleb Larbi border crossing between southern Tunisia and Algeria. We are in the red zone, ‘formally advised against’ by the French ministry of foreign affairs. We know that a long day is ahead to clear police checkpoints and customs. As we join the waiting line of cars, we meet Amastan, our Tuareg guide who will help us cross into Algeria and escort us over the next 1800 km south along the red-zone border with Libya, then southwest into the yellow zones (‘not recommended except for imperative reasons’). The goal for this first leg of our journey is Djanet, our point of departure for visiting the Tassili N’Ajjer National Park and the Tadrart Rouge mountain range. Amastan, ‘protector’ in Tuareg, is tall and imposing, wearing a traditional Tuareg chéche head scarf and a long tunic over loose pants. He waves us over to a small parking lot in front of the high concrete arches that mark the border post. We hand over

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Algérie – chapitre 2

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

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Algérie – chapitre 3

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

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Algérie – chapitre 4

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

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Algérie – chapitre 5

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

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Algérie – chapitre 6

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

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Algérie – chapitre 7

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

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