Day 13 Dahkla

We made it to Dahkla late last night. The day started early from Tiznit getting on the road just as it was getting light. The drive south is now flat and fairly barren with the first sight of sand dunes into the first of many police checkpoints in Western Sahara. Each checkpoint we stop at we hand our passports for a look and hand them a 'fiche' which is just an A4 piece of paper with all our passport, car and entry details on photocopied so we don't have to wait as they copy all the details down. Once down into Western Sahara the road hugs the Atlantic coast so feels fresh in the ever increasing heat of the sun. A lot of the coast was cliffs to the sea and when it changed to beach you could spot regular shipwrecks on the shore. We stopped for lunch off the road next to a herd of about thirty camels munching away on what little scrub there was. As the sun went down we stopped again to watch it disappear and thought about stopping the night there. After a brief attempt at finding a suitable place to pitch the tent in between the rocks and fine sand we headed back on the road in the dark for a three hour drive to here. Today the plan is to sort the car out a bit and have a wander around the town then head south for a camp closer to the border. We will pass over the tropic of Cancer and all going well have our first camp up in 'the tropics' tonight.