We thought we might be in for a spot of trouble this afternoon when a 4×4 appeared out of nowhere, screeched to a halt in front of us and two men jumped out. Turns out it wasn’t a robbery but rather two Germans on their way to Senegal, who also happen to be enthusiastic cyclists. They shook our hands vigorously, asked several rapid-fire questions and then declared they had to get going as they were already short on time for their trip, but not before giving us their address so we could meet up in Stuttgart someday. One of the men, who’d been all around Asia on his bike, said he might even join us if we come by his house so Travelling Two might be Travelling Three by the summer! Other than our brief ambush, the day was a fairly quiet one.

There are hardly any towns or even villages along this stretch, just a few camels grazing and the occasional goat and sheep herd. We were quite relieved to get a clean hotel room in Alnif, where we washed off the dirt of the last two days. At the same time, we were surprised at the prices: more expensive than we’d expected for a small town. We successfully bartered down the price of the room from 200DH to 100DH, more in line with what we’ve paid elsewhere, but dinner remained expensive in relative terms. It must be the tourists running between the two desert towns of Zagora and Merzouga that keep business good here.