Western Sahara OVERVIEW
If hardcore trips catch your fancy, Western Sahara is a promise of harsh conditions, formal obstacles, and hazy political status. Although much of the territory falls under Moroccan control, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic has also laid claims to its governance and so far managed to tear away a strip east of the Berm - a 2,200 kilometer-long Maroccan wall that separates the area from the rest of the Western Sahara. Flanked by one of the world's largest minefields, it's not a construction you'd love to behold, unless you don't mind being flagged down at each and every military checkpoint and producing ever the same answers to long lists of questions asked with a painstaking attention to detail and effort to hold you back.
The only option through Western Sahara is to follow the coast road, jumping from the most economically prominent El-Aaiún to the dreaded Cape Bojador, which used to strike terror among Portuguese seafarers, and as far as to sand-strewn Dakhla for brilliant windsurfing, quad driving opportunities, and cheap pastry. There's little to please the eye as far as sightseeing goes, and nature doesn't seem to spoil visitors with awe-inspiring sights either, if you don't count the undulating dunes that stretch for kilometers across the territory. The omnipresent sun will seriously get in your hair, making it obligatory to brush up on ways to avoid overheating before you set off. But if the measure you adopt for an inspiring trip is how "upstream" you need to go, the hindrances will all add to the adventure...one that few can actually boast.
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