Dwarf Attack

02/26/23 Alnif - Merzouga Children are a great treasure. In every way. I have already raved about the cheerful laughter of the little ones here, about their carefree, friendly nature. But like everything in our world, they also have two sides - that was shown today during our passage through Rissani.

The desert town with 20,000 inhabitants is located about 40 kilometers before our destination Merzouga. Ricci wanted to stop because some needed gas cylinders and some of the women - I can't mention any names here, otherwise this blog would end with this post today - wanted to go shopping at the market.

With ten motorhomes we drove into the center of the small town, through narrow streets, past pushy, noisy trucks and mopeds that were playing with their lives. We couldn't find a parking space and drove out of town where we stopped next to a large field where many children were playing. We hadn't even stopped properly when we were surrounded by the little ones. They knocked on the window, begged and indicated that they were hungry. But there were just too many. Some of us quickly got out, but got back in even faster.

We had to go on, but as it turned out, we were in a dead end. We had to turn around. On a four, five meters wide road that was impossible for many of our camper sailors. We drove on and luckily found a side road where we turned around. Ricci had continued straight ahead to maybe find a different way, the rest of us drove back - now in a mixed order, no longer ordered by numbers. That could become a problem because now no one knew for sure if a vehicle was missing.

We drove back and through the narrowest parts of this town again. We had to stop and suddenly the children were back. They climbed onto the bumpers and banged on the cars. But now they didn't beg and plead anymore, now they became more and more angry. "They have opened our door," Birgit said, "and we had our valuables open on the table." With clear words and gestures, Udo closed the door again. The situation escalated when some of the dwarves picked up stones and threatened to throw them. What could we do? We couldn't move forward and couldn't move back.

It was our luck that not far from the road where we stood, a policeman was sitting in a café and noticed the commotion. When he came, the children disappeared in a flash. The man showed us the fastest way to the road to Merzouga and less than ten minutes later we were back on the RN17A.

We hadn't traveled many kilometers since leaving Rissani when the landscape changed. On the horizon, a beige band became increasingly thicker between the dark brown desert and the dark blue sky. Was that already the desert? Yes, it was, the first images of the Sahara, Merzouga desert with the highest sand dunes in the world. They reach a height of up to 150 meters. And we will explore them in the next few days.