Since three weeks now I am in Western Sahara (a country disputed between Morocco, Mauretania and the Frente Polisario (a Freedom Movement). Let aside the political issue, the living conditions and the UN system, the desert is great! Behind every hill and every dune, the landscape changes and I am very lucky to find myself here after heavy rainfalls, so some parts of the area are really green! Have you ever seen a sunset in the desert? Well, I cannot describe it, but you can see every colour possible! And it is, despite some other "hardships", a great thing to be in an international environment that is not NATO dominated. Had I the knowledge of how to post pics here, I would do it, but as I have not - please have a look at my personal pic page!

I once did a camel trek in the Sahara just to see how mad it was. Utterly horrible creatures - never again.. good scenery though..

i travelled morocco a long time ago and i really always wanted to go to Timbuktu one day. Have u been? How is best to get there? I looked at possibly going up Niger river from Ivory coast. What is the access like from Moroccan border?

Your an UNMO on a 6 month or 12 month rotation in MINSURO?

Unfortunately, going nowhere that mission but very interesting place from what I have heard from other colleagues who have been there. Good luck and enjoy.

Be nice to post some pics in your next journal.

@PeeMarc

Asking too many questions at a time, aren't you Unfortunately, I am quite sure that during my trip here I will not go to Timbuktu (although I would like to generally!). Mauretania and Marocco keep good relations, but they don't have common borders, as the Frente Polisario is in between. And I also think that Morocco likes to have tourists even in its occupied territory of Western Sahara, but for sure not in the Area of Restriction and for sure not close to the berm. So I think you better chose another acces route !

@LakeGeneve

I am here for one year. Yes, you are right, the mission is going for nowhere, as they already failed to organize the referendum for two times. But UN would not admit! And honestly, as long as I can get a (too small) share of the money they are wasting, I am happy! And yes, I will post some pics here, because the landscape is tremendous! And if not here, you always can go to my homepage www.heinznitsch.com to see!

@Flying_Pig

Well, it always depends on what you are expecting! Here, I am astonished how few animals I am seeing. Back in the mid-Nineties in Kuwait, we had camel spiders virtually invading our place and some vipers and cobras trying to settle themselves on our container steps, let alone the scores of scorpions running around Our Chinese friends were very muchexcited because at homr, they would have had to pay US$5 per scorpion that ran free here. And they took what they could! (No offence-just an observation!). Here, it is calm and people (most of them in their first mission) are screaming once they see a snake or so. Only the flies are very annoying - I've never experienced as many as here in my previous missions!