01-Nov-2002 -- We are members of Deutscher LandCruiser-Club (German LandCruiser Association) and love to travel the desert. In October/November 2002 we went with two cars to south Algeria. Most time we spend south of the oasis Djanet, a pretty nice desert place with all facilities a traveller needs.

After we had visited 24N 10E and 24N 11E, we decided to go for one more point. 23N 10E should be somewhere out there in the Ténéré, close to the border with Niger. We left the nice mountain area where we had spend some pretty nice days. When we reached the flat sand area of the Ténéré we tried to go strait to the point. The sand was hard and we could go pretty fast.

Did you ever try to drive exactly in one direction? That's difficult. The GPS showed us the way, there were no hills or dunes in our way. But always after a short time the car turned away from the shortest way. Funny!

After about 50 km we could see a mountain area in front of us. Would the point be in front of this? Or again between the mountains? Again searching? Try and error? No, a few km before the mountains we found the point.

As you can see on the pictures, there is nothing around. Ok, at one side the mountains. But nothing else. And again it was the best time to run around in the desert to mark the point and take the pictures: just after noon. Now we feel what it may mean to be out there in the desert without shadow. It is hot. But we like it! So we marked the point with an empty water bottle. And we took our pictures. Nothing more to tell about this point.

Just a short story of our way back north to Djanet: About two hours after we had left this point we were stopped by Algerian Border Patrol. As I said we were close to the border between Algeria and Niger. Seven armed men with two pretty fast cars (LandCruisers, of course) stopped us. They were friendly and gentle. "Where do you come from? Where do you go?", one of them was talking English to us. A very nice meeting out there in the desert. When we were ready to go, they gave us bread, cookies, and yogurt. "Do you have enough water?" Yes, we had. They said it would take them one and a half hour to drive to Djanet. "You will need about one hour more." They were right. We could see their tracks. Wow, they were very fast...

This was nearly the end of our trip to Algeria. But we will return in 2003.