What 5 Days Alone in the Sahara Is Really Like

0:00 Car problems, unexpected company,

0:02 my first time being stuck in the desert, and a massive sandstorm.

0:06 Oh, what am I doing here?

0:09 I'm all alone.

0:11 Today, I tackle another long off-road trail in the Sahara for several

0:15 days of driving across some of the most remote areas of Morocco.

0:19 You cannot see the track right now.

0:21 Just a reminder of where we left off last week.

0:24 I had just done a 200-mile off-road trail when I

0:27 heard a very disturbing sound coming out of my truck, Odyssey.

0:31 Is everything kind of like a little lower than it should be?

0:34 Thank god I could still drive her all the way to the nearest town,

0:37 Zagora, where I was lucky to find a wellrespected mechanic.

0:42 So, that's where we pick up today.

0:44 Okay, here we are.

0:50 Um, the guys at the mechanic shop got straight to work diagnosing the issue.

1:00 Okay.

1:05 Okay.

1:05 So, what happened is that the coil springs on both

1:10 sides in the back came out of their socket,

1:14 which explains the noise, the sound that I heard.

1:17 Um, fortunately, it's not a massive repair at all.

1:20 It's relatively simple.

1:21 Um, and Ali, who is the boss of this workshop, said that he would um,

1:27 put in like a little bit of rubber or something like that to make

1:31 sure that the coils coil springs don't fall out of place again.

1:36 They found a couple of other small issues that needed some work.

1:40 So, we agreed that Odyssey would stay for the night for a little dose of TLC.

1:45 Okay.

1:45 Bye, Odyssey.

1:47 tomorrow.

1:48 Yeah, see you tomorrow.

1:50 But this expedition isn't just about dropping by the local garages.

1:54 There's also a good amount of daily survival logistics to manage.

1:58 One of the craziest things about being in Morocco is

2:01 that my food costs way less than Vil's food out here.

2:07 So, you know, I'm vegetarian for the most part and Vil is a carnivore.

2:13 He's on a raw meat diet.

2:14 So, when I bought his food yesterday for the upcoming week,

2:19 it cost me like $70, $80, something like that for his food for one week.

2:26 My food for one week cost me about 20 bucks.

2:33 Pick, you have it so good, you don't even know.

2:36 But, you have it so good.

2:39 Some lovely people I'd met recently invited me

2:42 to join them for an evening in the dunes.

2:44 It's nice to have some company sometimes.

2:46 So, I was excited to pick up Odyssey and head out to join them.

2:52 Bye.

2:53 Cha cha.

2:54 Okay, we're all good, fixed up, ready to go.

2:58 And she's clean.

3:00 Look at her.

3:00 They washed her, too.

3:02 Let's get going.

3:09 I think I've got a leak.

3:12 Yeah, that is definitely diesel.

3:14 I'm just going to give it a moment.

3:15 See if it stops.

3:16 If it stops leaking in the next minute or so,

3:20 that means that we've just overfilled it.

3:22 If it doesn't stop leaking, that means there's an actual leak somewhere.

3:27 I do not want to go back to the garage.

3:29 Okay, I just drove her for about a mile or so just

3:35 to see if the leak has stopped or if it's still going.

3:39 Oh god, not another freaking thing.

3:42 Oh, it's still going.

3:44 Definitely going less now.

3:46 So, I'll give her a couple more minutes

3:48 and check again in another couple of miles.

3:57 Okay.

3:59 All right.

3:59 One more check.

4:01 Still leaking, but the trend is downwards.

4:04 It's leaking less and less.

4:06 Not sure if I should head back to town and have

4:10 it checked out or just keep heading towards the desert.

4:14 I mean, I'm I'll I'll be seeing people tonight,

4:16 so I don't think there's any immediate danger.

4:21 Should we go to the desert with a leaky truck?

4:25 Yeah.

4:26 Is it a good idea?

4:30 You always have good advice.

4:32 The guys I was meeting, we're staying at a campsite near town.

4:35 From here, we will be driving into the raw

4:38 desert along some serious off-road trails and dunes.

4:41 Oo, I would have never come here on my own.

4:45 This is like a dune field.

4:47 It's a little scary.

4:48 I haven't gotten stuck just yet.

4:51 You know what they say, don't cut your chickens before they hatch.

5:02 It's time to air down the tires finally

5:05 all the way to make these tires sand friendly.

5:12 Adventure adventure.

5:13 It took a bit of time, effort, and encouragement,

5:16 but eventually with all hands on board and Hassan,

5:19 an experienced desert driver behind the wheel,

5:22 Odyssey slid out of the sand like she had never been stuck at all.

5:26 And this here is just Hassan showing off.

5:29 Totally fair enough.

5:31 How was it?

5:33 Good.

5:33 Good job.

5:34 I don't think I could have gotten it out myself, honestly.

5:37 Thank you so much.

5:37 Thanks, guys.

5:39 Thank you.

5:42 There's definitely something to be said for traveling with other people.

5:46 It really does take the edge off honestly because you know

5:48 that you can always rely on each other if something goes wrong.

5:52 It's so different from solo travel.

5:55 Okay, we have made it to our camp

5:57 and the little group that I'm with, we're all staying here.

6:01 Uh they've got their tents.

6:03 I'm going to be staying in the truck.

6:04 Obviously has already found a June to dig through.

6:10 But check this out.

6:12 How amazing is this?

6:15 Wow.

6:18 That evening, we climbed one of the tallest dunes in Morocco,

6:22 then sat around the fire and shattered the evening away.

6:25 You at the top of the dune.

6:27 It was so much fun.

6:27 I didn't even take any videos.

6:29 And the next day, we all went our separate ways again.

6:33 And we're on our own again.

6:37 So silent around here all of a sudden.

6:40 The plan today was to drive a little further

6:43 and camp by the biggest June sea in Morocco.

6:46 Of course, that meant more June driving, but this time alone.

6:51 This place really is amazing.

6:53 I mean, right now I'm driving towards the giant June of Eric Chaga,

6:58 which I think is the biggest June in Morocco.

7:00 And yet, I'm driving through a little green forest.

7:04 Amazing trees with big round waxy leaves everywhere around me.

7:09 Definitely did not expect to see this in the middle of the Sahara.

7:13 Okay, I'm going to I'm going to do this.

7:14 I'm going to drive into the dunes,

7:17 see if I can find a good campsite and not get stuck.

7:21 Honestly, no clue what I'm doing.

7:23 Just learning by experience.

7:24 YouTube University has taught me that less tire pressure is good.

7:28 Momentum is good.

7:30 Not getting stuck, yep, definitely good.

7:39 I made it.

7:41 Made it up the dune.

7:42 Check it out.

7:46 And over there in the distance,

7:48 an unobstructed view of the tallest dune in Morocco, Chaga.

8:09 I've just gone out for a little sunset

8:11 photo shoot with Vio and I have stumbled upon

8:14 this fire pit with some unused firewood which I

8:21 am promptly going to steal and make my own fire.

8:26 Come on, buddy.

8:26 Let's go.

8:28 We're firewood thieves.

9:04 Good morning.

9:06 Good morning from my little my little palace.

9:10 Here's V.

9:12 You just woke up.

9:14 Hi, buddy.

9:16 Oh, hi buddy.

9:18 And that is my view.

9:32 Yeah, the last few days have been so

9:35 unpredictable and so different from what I've been used

9:39 to on this trip that all I want to do is just get back into my routine.

9:44 I want to get back into my running routine,

9:47 my morning workout routine, my driving routine,

9:51 just all the things that have made this trip so beautiful and and wonderful.

9:58 So, I'm rebuilding my routine again today.

10:01 Going out for a run in the dunes.

10:04 Uh, the only thing about going for a run in the dunes

10:07 is that I need to make sure that I know

10:10 how to get back here to the truck because there's like

10:12 a million dunes out here and obviously they all look the same.

10:17 So, I'm going to mark my location on my GPS app.

10:22 So excited about my run today.

10:31 What you see here is called an urg in Arabic.

10:35 A bit of an awkward word to describe something really beautiful, a dune sea.

10:40 You can kind of see why they're called that, right?

10:43 This here, I think, is just the quintessential picture of the Sahara.

10:48 You know, in the end,

10:49 I didn't even need my GPS position to get back because V led me back.

10:55 But the advantages of having a dog like I need to start putting my dates

11:10 in some kind of um container because they're just covered in dog hair and sand.

11:20 Another big off-road day ahead of us.

11:22 The plan for today was to cover just under 100 miles across dried

11:26 out lakes and river beds and hopefully end up at a picture perfect oasis.

11:32 Oh my god, there's so much sun.

11:42 Okay, so now officially these long soft sandy stretches

11:47 are like my favorite thing in the world to try.

11:50 They're just so much fun.

11:52 Feels so smooth.

11:54 So good.

11:56 Trail update.

11:58 I'm in a bit of a pickle right now because I left my campsite today quite late.

12:03 Like very late.

12:04 Too late.

12:05 And then it took me a little while too long

12:09 to drive the distance that I wanted to drive today.

12:13 And um basically we're nearing sunset.

12:16 See the sun?

12:19 It is very close to setting and I

12:21 still haven't reached my campsite for the night.

12:25 Now, I have a golden rule, like a pact that I've made with myself

12:29 that whenever I'm doing these overlanding trips,

12:32 I never drive in the dark unless it's

12:35 an emergency because driving in the dark is dangerous.

12:41 There's a lot of camels, donkeys, wild animals here.

12:44 The trail is well, look at the trail.

12:47 it becomes completely invisible in the dark, even with good headlights.

12:53 And I still have probably like half an hour

12:55 to go until I reach the campsite that I found.

13:00 So, I really really hope that I make it there before before the night falls.

13:11 This is not a road.

13:12 It is not a track.

13:14 Oh, it's just some rocks.

13:17 There.

13:28 How amazing are those rocks?

13:32 Where am I?

13:34 Okay, we're just about to arrive, but there's other people there.

13:42 I see other trucks and tents.

13:45 No, no, no, no, no, no.

13:48 This hermit wants this place all to herself.

13:54 Well, I just needed to drive another 100 m to feel very much alone again.

13:59 Pretty cool.

14:00 Now, my only complaint is the company.

14:04 But I think I can get over it.

14:06 What did you bring?

14:08 Oh my god, look at that stick.

14:21 Good morning.

14:22 It's another beautiful day out in the Sahara Desert and I'm still

14:28 in the same spot where I was last night except um now it's just me.

14:32 So, I'm about to set off, but first there is something I need to do.

14:37 I'm going to I'm going to show you exactly what it is.

14:40 So, we need to uh adjust and change and tweak that corner of the truck.

14:47 All right.

14:48 So, as you can tell, I don't have a passenger seat in this truck.

14:53 Um, I took it out a few years back on purpose because it was

14:57 just me and I wasn't expecting to have any passengers sitting here with me,

15:03 so I just took it out to make more space.

15:05 And that's great.

15:06 I'm keeping it this way.

15:08 However, I've been noticing that V has been a little like restless

15:14 and he's been wanting to get to this window as we're driving.

15:19 Tell me what these are and I'll tell you how old you are.

15:23 Okay, V.

15:24 You want to get inside?

15:26 Get inside.

15:27 Try it out.

15:29 Oh, yeah.

15:30 Look at that.

15:32 Yeah.

15:32 Is that nice?

15:34 You can now look out the window.

15:36 Okay, so today is a bit of a different kind of day because

15:40 today I need to head up to a town that's just north of here.

15:44 I reckon it's going to take me about maybe an hour

15:47 to get there because my inverter is still being a little annoying.

15:54 You may remember from the last episode I had

15:56 some trouble with it and it won't charge my battery.

16:00 So, I want to head into town to get my battery charged from like

16:05 a wall socket just so I have that as a backup so I'm not,

16:09 you know, running around the desert with zero

16:11 connectivity and zero option to connect to the internet.

16:15 And while I'm there, I'm going to try and get some water.

16:19 Um, maybe some fresh veggies, something like that.

16:36 We're back on asphalt.

16:38 It's so smooth.

16:39 It doesn't even feel real.

16:40 It's like we're driving through butter.

16:46 Okay, so there's a campsite here.

16:48 I'm going to go in and check if they'll allow

16:51 me to um grab some water and charge my battery.

16:57 It's looking pretty empty.

16:59 Hello.

17:00 Hello.

17:00 Hello.

17:01 There's nobody here.

17:07 Okay, it seems like the um owner of the campsite isn't here, but his kids are,

17:12 and they said that I can come in and do all the things.

17:29 Okay, no luck getting a water hose,

17:32 but that's fine because it's not really an urgent per purchase.

17:36 However, what is very urgent is food.

17:39 I am starving and I also need to get some groceries.

17:43 So, let's go and do that and then pick

17:45 up the battery and then go back into the desert.

17:48 Are you at the restaurant?

17:53 As soon as my errands were done,

17:54 I headed back out into the desert to stay at the oasis for one more night.

17:59 But as I approached it,

18:00 I realized that things were suddenly looking very different out there.

18:04 Wow, look at that wind blowing across the plains.

18:09 There is so much sand coming from that direction.

18:14 Wow.

18:16 You see that haze on the horizon?

18:19 That's all sand.

18:21 Oh my gosh.

18:22 I think we might have ourselves a sandstorm tonight.

18:27 Holy Little did I know that this sandstorm would haunt

18:34 me and my plans for much longer than just today.

18:37 Well, this is something I didn't expect.

18:40 And I was just cruising around in circles

18:42 here because when there's a sandstorm like this, you

18:47 can't really see the tracks very well anymore because

18:49 the sand that's coming in just covers the ground.

18:53 So, any tracks that were visible yesterday no longer are.

18:58 At least it's very easy to lose them.

19:01 But thankfully, I've been uh tracking my route.

19:06 So, I'm just following the little yellow line right now on my app.

19:10 And uh yeah, hopefully we can make it to the camp

19:14 soon because I feel like the sandstorm is only intensifying now.

19:22 Sandstorms sweep over the Sahara with more and more regularity,

19:26 which is linked to the climate crisis.

19:28 This place looks a lot more eerie this afternoon than it did this morning.

19:33 In a sandstorm, dust particles are lifted high into the air,

19:37 as high as even 20,000 ft and carried on the wind over incredible distances.

19:42 Okay, we've got ourselves a spot.

19:44 I'm going to go out, but first I'm just going to close my windows.

19:49 Close these holes.

19:52 This is a Land Rover Air Con.

19:56 There we go.

19:57 Okay, I think this is an okay spot.

19:59 It's in the shade.

20:01 It's close to these palm trees, which gives me a little bit of shelter,

20:04 but it's far enough from them that if they fall due to the wind,

20:09 they won't reach the truck.

20:11 Well, I'm very curious as to how this is going to unfold.

20:17 In the past, the haze of Saharan sandstorms has even reached as far as London.

20:23 As for this sandstorm, the worst was yet to come.

20:27 I am just hunkered hunkered down here in the truck with V doing some work.

20:31 Anyway, everything looks quite eerie right now.

20:34 Quite dark, quite misty.

20:37 Very different from last night.

20:42 Good morning.

20:44 Whoop!

20:44 Oh, that wind really blew throughout the night.

20:49 Woke me up a couple of times.

20:52 The car became kind of like a boat in the wind just swaying to and fro.

20:57 Uh, but all is well and it's a still

21:01 pretty windy but beautiful morning out here in the desert.

21:04 I am a bit of a dirt bag when I'm out here.

21:07 I'm definitely a major dirt bag when I'm out here,

21:10 but I still do take care of myself in some way.

21:14 I wash my face every day.

21:16 I do my little skincare routine.

21:18 It's two or three products, but it's something.

21:32 And speaking of beauty routines, it's pretty wild how when you get out

21:36 to places like this where you know there's nothing

21:40 and no one and you don't get the incessant

21:44 kind of pressure to look a certain way, smell a certain way.

21:49 All of that stuff falls away so quickly.

21:51 You just stop caring.

21:52 You do not care.

21:54 couldn't care less about, you know, what filler would do to your lips or how you

21:58 would look if you had Botox injected into your face.

22:02 None of that stuff matters.

22:04 You realize how little it actually matters.

22:13 All right, it's time to leave.

22:15 The trail I had been following told me to head west,

22:18 but I drove south because on a map I spotted a trail

22:22 that had a very cool name and I just needed to follow it.

22:25 Well, this is pretty exciting.

22:27 So, if you look at those two mountains,

22:28 there's a pass that goes right in the middle of them, right through them.

22:32 And it's called the Cobra Pass, which sounds very cool.

22:37 So, I'm that's where I'm headed to the Cobra Pass.

22:43 The little things I feel like that's part of the adventure.

22:47 No, leaving the welltrodden path behind in favor of a hunch,

22:51 a feeling, or just a glimpse of something more exciting around the corner.

22:56 Okay, this looks, you know, the problem with the camera is that it

23:03 never shows you just how steep something is.

23:06 This is actually a really steep little drop,

23:10 and I'm not convinced that I feel safe.

23:13 I'm sure it's fine, but I'm gonna see if I can find a a way around it.

23:19 I did see a faint little track right there.

23:23 So, I'm guessing that's a little detour.

23:26 Let's go check it out.

23:28 Okay, there we go.

23:34 All done.

23:35 Haha.

23:36 Well, that was quick.

23:38 The sandstorm I got a glimpse of the night

23:40 before suddenly came back with a vengeance.

23:43 Once I got so far that turning back around was no longer viable,

23:47 the wind sped up and the sand raged all around me.

23:51 That wind is really blowing and we're going right into the storm.

23:55 You cannot see the track right now because of all

23:58 the sand that's blowing towards towards me, towards us.

24:03 So, I'm just going to have to stick to my uh GPS tracks as close as possible.

24:08 Wow, this is pretty wild.

24:10 At times I couldn't see any tracks in front of me.

24:13 But once in a while a sign popped up

24:15 from the dust warning me about landmines and military zones all around.

24:23 So the guys at the military checkpoint told me

24:26 that I can't continue along my intended route that I

24:29 have to turn uh north a little earlier because

24:33 where I wanted to go is a military zone.

24:35 So I can't go there.

24:36 However, we've got one cool thing coming up.

24:39 Completely unexpected water.

24:52 What the heck?

24:53 I did not see that coming.

24:55 We're completely covered in water.

24:59 Holy I just need to make sure that Odyssey is fine.

25:02 No, no, no, no, no.

25:03 Stay there.

25:07 Holy Okay, it's not very deep,

25:12 but because of the wind, that splash was so intense.

25:20 Holy crap.

25:21 Oh my god, this is horrific.

25:24 These are really, really bad conditions to drive in.

25:26 And I really hope that I'm on the right road because yeah,

25:29 these are not tracks that I I don't have these tracks.

25:33 One thing that I find worrying which is that just

25:37 as I did that water crossing um this light switched on.

25:42 I don't know if you can see it right here.

25:47 Uh this is the light to tell me that the diff lock is on, but it is not on.

25:57 So, I don't know why it's telling me

25:59 that it's on because certainly it is not on.

26:03 I hope I didn't break anything.

26:05 Oh, holy This is a pretty intense track.

26:10 Oh.

26:12 Oh my god.

26:13 I think I just need a minute to calm down.

26:16 I think we both need a minute to calm down.

26:20 Oh my god.

26:21 This is really intense.

26:25 I have no idea where I'm going.

26:27 Okay, let's keep going.

26:36 A driving through remote Sahara in a sandstorm.

26:41 This is an experience I did not know I signed up for.

26:48 What am I doing here?

26:50 I'm all alone.

26:53 Another half hour and I knew I'd be leaving the dirt road

26:56 and along with it the most pressing dangers of getting lost in the sandstorm,

27:00 but also I'd be leaving behind the freedom that comes with traveling off road.

27:06 And there it is, asphalt.

27:08 You know, every time I step off the dirt and onto asphalt,

27:13 I feel like I'm leaving behind this kingdom

27:17 that's mystical and available to the select few,

27:20 you know, full of magic and wildness and a place where you can really be feral.

27:27 And on the one hand, I feel like a giddy kid,

27:30 like I'm just a little little kid in, you know, wonderland.

27:34 On the other hand, I feel like in the last 5 days,

27:37 I've aged like 10 years covered in dust,

27:43 dirty, smelly, but it's been really amazing.

27:47 Um, the last 5 days or so have been just incredible.

27:51 And then the days before that, I've been on I've been on dirt for a while.

27:55 Anyhow, I need to prepare for the next stage of this journey.

27:59 And the next stage is going to be quite demanding, a little dangerous.

28:04 So, I want to make sure that I'm really well prepped for it.

28:07 Um, but yeah, it's going to be a really exciting one.

28:11 Very different.

28:13 Okay, let's find a place to stay for tonight and then keep going.

28:19 In the next episode,

28:21 I drive across what is known as the world's longest minefield,

28:25 following yet another long and remote off-road trail.

28:28 And when I say mines, I do mean landmines.

28:33 Millions of landmines.