Aoulef Things to Do

In those remote places, it is always nice to be able to have presents for the kids. However, when you make a gift, you must always give one to each of them, let it be a candy, a pencil, etc.

If you have not the same gift for each of them, it is better not to give anything.

If there are too many kids, do not give anything, you would most probably be unable to handle the gifts properly to each of them.

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In the Sahara, you must carry plenty of water with you, much more than you will reasonably need. In case!

You will from time to time find along the trail someone with an empty can, begging for some water. It is nice when you can give him some.

You might have a breakdown or get lost. You will then have to stay away from an oasis longer that forecast.

Thus, each time you can make water, you must fill all your cans. Here in Aoulef, water was available at a well, Sudanese style. We had a bucket and a 20 meters rope, which is enough, most of the time. I remember that the water was very good.

It is always safer to have pills of disinfectant with you. However, in our different travels in the desert, we never used them and never got ill.

On our 1975 travel, the 2cv Citroën needed sometimes some help to prevent getting stuck. When the trail looked too sandy, we stopped the other car (my Peugeot 504, not a 4x4 neither) on a spot with hard sand and hand towed or pushed the light car.

Note: the face of individuals have been blurred.

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Tamarix grow well in the Sahara, given that they can find enough water in the sub-soil. Most of the time they grow as tall bushes but when they are trees, they are a heaven for a picnic! An excellent shade and no spines as with acacias!

However, the draw back is that even sheep know this is a pleasant place and you will often find under Tamarix a coat of sheep droppings. These sheep droppings are not really a problem by themselves as they are dry but they attract a lot of flies!

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Near Aoulef, there are several petrified forests with fossil tree trunks. They date from the time when there was plenty of water in the Sahara.

It is strictly prohibited to take away any sample of fossil and there are now a lot of controls. However, I have read that since our visit (1975), there has been a lot of theft and even that some of the trunks have been broken into pieces to take away.

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In Northern Africa, a marabout is a small religious monument, usually dedicated to a local saint. This one is built in a Sudanese style, shaped as a tall pyramid and stands just outside Aoulef. The dark dots are pieces of wood that allow climbing easily along the faces, for example for painting it in white. There are two concentric walls around it.

Actually the road sign shown on the front picture of this page was more specific and gave the direction of Aoulef-ech-Cheurfa, 2 kilometers away. You could see it from a long distance, but you had to drive to it to be able to read it!