Ever the contrarian , Andy Torbet seeks out snorkelling opportunities while on a motorhome rally in the Moroccan desert
TORBET ON THE TUBE
Ships of the desert , and some camels
Andy cools down
Snorkeller of the desert sands
Ever the contrarian , Andy Torbet seeks out snorkelling opportunities while on a motorhome rally in the Moroccan desert
The Sahara Desert , the Great Sand Sea of North Africa . Vast , impressive , beautiful and probably not the first landscape that spring to mind when one ’ s mind turns to snorkelling . And , to be fair , it wasn ’ t a place with a dearth of diving opportunities .
I was in Morocco as part of the Sahara
Challenge 2 project , attempting to drive a motorhome plus two caravans from Bristol to the Sahara Desert . And the reason it was numbered ‘ 2 ’ was because we ’ d attempted the same trip in March 2020 , during the early days of Covid … and we all know how that went . We actually got as far as southern Spain when Morocco closed its borders and the ferry across the Mediterranean was cancelled indefinitely . However , 2023 was a success .
After the drive through France , Portugal and Spain , the ferry , then a trip down through Morocco we finally made it to the Sahara . The north coast of Morocco is part of the Med and , although I ’ ve never dived there , I ’ d assume it has a fairly similar undersea environment to Southern Spain . However , in the desert water is a rare commodity .
On the way to the desert proper , we ’ d camped in one of the last major towns , Ouarzazate ( pronounced Wa-Za-Zat ), also known as ‘ the door to the desert ’. While there , I ’ d heard about a body of water called Lake Ouarzazate ... and my interest was piqued .
However , over the time we spent driving further south , the days spent camping in the desert and then the journey back up to Ouarzazate , my optimism had diminished . Every small lake we drove by , every river we crossed was bone dry . There was nothing [‘ and no man needs nothing ’], not so much as a patch of damp mud where a pond may once have existed . Still , the trip down the Dades Gorge towards Ouarzazate gave me some hope . A small river still ran down the side of the steep ravine towards that notional lake .
Navigating the Dades Gorge
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