Nebeur Things to Do

1 more image

A few kilometres out of Nebeur and you reach a massive dam, Barrage Mellegue. The road at the top of the dam has good views of the lake, with snow-capped mountains in the background. There is even an auberge-type cafe at the top, which was deserted in March but maybe attracts more visitors in warmer months. Aside from looking at the lake, there isn't much else to do. Or at least, that's what I thought.

Yasser took me down the steep road towards the base of the dam, past a sign saying No Entry and a barbed wire encrusted gate. "What are you doing?" I asked, "We can't go down here!". Oh but we can, said Yasser. And so we did. The security guards looked menacing from afar, but Yasser waved and shouted hello, then just walked straight past them. They didn't bat an eyelid. We walked along the railings, down steps, past controlled torrents of muddy water gushing out of the dam, and down to the stream at the bottom. It was an unusual sidetrip.

Climbing back up, we stopped in the dam office for a glass of tea with the workers, all from Nebeur, who were again delighted to receive a foreign guest but rather perplexed as to why I had come!