7:02
- This isn't your average jaunt into the desert. You know, I'm here completely alone. There's nobody else. I haven't seen anyone since like midday yesterday. In today's episode, I drive across Western Sahara, a contested nation occupied by Morocco. And unfortunately, home to the longest continuous minefield in the world. It is estimated that there's between seven and 10 million unexploded landmines in this area. You can take the easy paved road near the coast where you are guaranteed safety. But I decided to head inland and traverse Western Sahara via a scarcely driven offroad track through the desert and right through the minefield.
I don't think I've ever been to a place that's this empty. But before I can get going, there's still logistics I need to take care of. Last night, I camped up this campsite north of Smara, and the reason why I'm at a campsite is because this area is already quite dangerous. You know, there's already landmines strewn around here. So I was like, I'm not gonna wild camp if I don't have to. Being at this camp site just made me feel safer, you know, like I could walk around with Vilk
and know that nothing's gonna happen over the next couple of days, two days, three days, I don't really know. I'm not gonna have that luxury. I'm gonna have to be super careful as to where I go. So this was a nice little safe haven, I suppose, but it's time to pack up and leave. I'm gonna have to be completely self-sufficient over the next few days. So the distance is about 400 miles, and I don't know how long it's gonna take me to cross it because it's on a dirt track. So it could be two days, could be three days.
I have no idea, but I need to be able to carry my own water, my own food, and of course my own fuel. So water, we've got a couple of tanks, another tank here, and another tank in front. I'm currently carrying about 60 liters of water, which should be plenty. And then there's a question of diesel. So I need to fill this jerry can up, need to fill up that one at the top. This one's already full, but I also need to fill up my actual tank. And all of these combined should give me a range of about 400, well, 500 miles probably, I'm hoping. So yeah, that's gonna be the next task of the day, is to go to the gas station
and make sure that I am at a hundred percent across all my containers and jerry cans 'cause if I run out of diesel along that road, ain't no one gonna come and save me. Not gonna lie, this section of the expedition feels a little scary to the point where I have not told my family where I'm going. Just gonna make sure that all my fluids are in order. I just don't want them to worry needlessly. Engine oil. (pleasant music) (lid thuds) - Odyssey, please do not break down for the next, Hmm, like 800 miles just to be on the safe side okay?
No breaking down, no issues. You're gonna be fine. We're gonna be safe. Just don't break down. That's all I ask. Okay? Good girl. Okay, first stop diesel. (pleasant music) Technically, my main fuel tank should be enough to get me across, but driving on sand dramatically increases fuel consumption. Oh, by the way, can you see that odyssey is still leaking? Yeah, it turns out this happens every time I over fuel. Nothing to worry about.
Anyway, I'm bringing an extra 40 liters of fuel just in case the track is very sandy. This is it. (gentle music) This route will take me from the town of Smara in the north down a bit of tarmac, and then across the minefield, a fully offroad trail all the way to the settlement of Bir Anzarane and then onto the city of Dakhla. (Eva speaks foreign language) (guard speaks foreign language) - Exit ah, yes, two days ago. Okay, that was just a casual police checkpoint just outside of town. Now that we're out of town, we have a little stretch of highway for a little while, and then at some point I'm gonna have to turn south onto a track. That's where the real shit begins.
(dramatic music) To explain the political situation between Morocco and Western Sahara is way beyond the scope of this video. Here's how that conflict looks on a map. This is Morocco and this is Western Sahara. Currently, this part of Western Sahara is occupied by Morocco, and this part is managed by the Polisario, a native movement from Western Sahara. I'll come back to the history in a few minutes, but for now, let's focus on the geography of the conflict. Lining the split in the middle of Western Sahara is a so-called Berm, the second longest manmade wall after the Wall of China.
A wall of sand and rock, 1600 miles long and fortified with barbed wire and trenches, it was erected by the Moroccan army and its surrounded by landmines, but the mine field stretches much further into Western Sahara making life here extremely difficult and dangerous. So the area that I'm driving through right now is a mine. What Sahara may not have in terms of, you know, trees and water, it does make up for, in terms of its natural resources, one of the most precious of which is phosphide deposits. Those are used in commercial fertilizers, and it has tons of those. It also has a long Atlantic coast line with plenty of fish, all of which explains partly why Morocco occupies Western Sahara.
Okay, finally, we're getting off the tarmac. Much of Western Sahara today is polluted with landmines. The track I'm about to take leads right through the minefield, but it has technically been declared clear of mines. That is, I'll be safe as long as I stay exactly on the track and not veer off. See these tires here? So these tires mark the boundaries of the safe track, so I'm just gonna have to make sure that I stay in between them. On the one side, you've got these tires, and on the other side you've got these little mounds of rock and sand. And here are some tire tracks. Yay. I was really worried that the recent rains and winds would've swept away the tire tracks, but thankfully they're still here.
I'm also making sure to follow my GPX tracks very closely. I've got them loaded on my phone and I'm just looking at them right now. This way I know that I'm staying in the safe zone. I think as long as I manage to stay on this track in between the markers, I should be fine. When I reached out to people to ask for advice on doing this track, the predominant piece of advice that I got was threefold. Number one, follow the tracks. Don't veer off the tracks. Makes sense. Number two, bring enough fuel. And number three, don't go alone.
Oh, and then people said another thing that felt obvious, but I think it's still good to be said. If you find unidentified objects anywhere along the track, don't mess with them. Don't pick them up, don't play with them. Just leave them alone 'cause they could be, they could be explosive objects. (slow dramatic music) I quickly realized that the track was just an open space where sometimes you could see old tire tracks and sometimes you couldn't. More worrying was the fact that I sometimes couldn't even see the safety markers, which caused me to accidentally stray from the safe track a couple of times.
Oh wow. This place feels very empty. Okay, I stopped by the side of the road here because I wanna reduce my tire pressure. I'm now driving on sand and rock and dirt, which basically means that in order to make the ride a little bit smoother, I can afford to lose a little bit of air in my tires. So let's go ahead and do that. (pleasant music) (air hissing) It is estimated that there's between seven and 10 million unexploded landmines in this area. And so it shouldn't really come as a surprise that thousands of people have died or been wounded and injured by these landmines.
Of course, thousands upon thousands of migrating animals like camels have also died because of them. And the reason why these landmines are here is very complex, but it all is related to the occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco. I'm gonna cut to a voiceover here, so that I can explain this in a little bit more detail. (slow dramatic music) The history here is difficult, manipulated by multiple players and impossible to explain in a single video, though I've linked some resources in the description box. In a nutshell, Western Sahara used to be a Spanish colony. After the Spanish left, the Sahrawis, the people native to the region were promised independence.
But to cut a long story short, they were betrayed. And instead, control over Western Sahara was claimed by neighboring Morocco. They claimed that these are Morocco's historic lands, and therefore they belonged to Morocco. This of course, has led to bloody conflict. Hundreds of thousands of Sahrawi refugees fleeing across the border to Algeria, and the continued oppression of those Sahrawis who stayed in Morocco.
It's pretty wild to me that I get to drive across this contested landscape just to fly on a wall observing. And what a place to observe, so pure in its minimalism, monotonous to the point of being absolutely hypnotizing. You know, this place is really, really wild because I don't think I've ever been to a place that's this empty. And when I say empty, I mean, yeah, devoid of any like villages or towns. But also like no landmarks at all. No mountains, no trees, no buildings, nothing. Just like nothing to hang your eye on aside from these little mounds of sand that demarcate the trail.
Nothing else. Just sand and scorched earth as far as the eye can see. (gentle music) What did you find? (Vilk barks) Leave him alone. (pleasant music) (Eva clapping) It's so windy and so sandy out here. Obviously we're in the desert. It's sandy, but basically my hair is not gonna survive this, so I'm gonna have to fashion myself. A little turban, probably doing this completely wrong, but that's okay. Tie it in the back. Much better. (gentle soulful music)
Oh, this is gonna be a little bit harder than usual because I've got an extra 20 kg on the roof. Ugh. Yep. That diesel really adds up, huh? (gentle soulful music) You might be wondering how I know that this spot I've chosen to camp is safe. Well, no guarantees of course, but I had a good look around and didn't spot anything suspicious. Vilk and I are going to be staying within a very close radius of the truck at all times, just in case. (gentle soulful music) This must be one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in my life.
It's honestly amazing how incredibly peaceful a place so contested can feel that being out here, you really feel the soul of this place. You know, for centuries upon centuries, nomads used to cross these lands with their camel caravans, following their animals towards water and feeding grounds. This was their life. Crisscrossing and navigating this treacherous desert. That's how they lived. And you can still feel that spirit here.
I can sense it right now. (gentle soulful music) That's my food. On tonight's menu, we've got veggie chili, chili sin carne from one of my cans that I've already introduced you to in another episode and then Nando's spicy sauce just a little bit. And bread. That's all you need. It is all you need. (gentle music) Oh, so good.
You know, this must be one of the quietest places I have ever experienced. There is like no civilizational noise at all. You just hear the wind in the distance, and that's about it. There is no one here, no one. When I was speaking to the people who had done this track before me, they all said one thing. They all said they didn't see anyone else for two or three days, like no other cars. You're crossing a distance of several hundred miles and you see no one else.
How crazy is that? Goodnight buddy. Look at him down there. I think he's ready for me to go upstairs and give him some space. There we go. Oh, my little nook. Okay, I'm gonna read my book. So this is a book that I read that I've been reading about Western Sahara, unfortunately, I don't think there's an English translation, although I really think that there should be.
It kind of tells the tale of these Western Saharan women who have been fighting in the resistance fighting for independence. And it's really quite shocking via a very, very eye-opening amazing book. So I'm gonna read a little bit and then I'm gonna journal a little bit, and then I'm gonna go to bed in one of the quietest places I've ever been to. There's no one around for, I can probably say with almost certainty, there's no one around for like a hundred kilometers anywhere around me, which feels a little wild. (Eva chuckles) Oh, anyway, tomorrow we keep going, and tomorrow I'll tell you a little bit more about like my emergency procedures out here and all that good stuff. But yeah, for now, I am knackered.
So I'm going to get under my duvet. Read a little, go to sleep. Goodnight you guys. Good morning. We had a really crazy night here. It was so windy that the car was just going like (mocks wind) the whole night, not fun. And then the sun just started rising. And I'm seeing very, very weird weather out there. Let me show you what I mean. It is still quite windy. Very windy. You can see there's this like haze over the desert and dark clouds behind me.
Dark clouds mean rain. And it is in fact drizzling a tiny bit. Wow. Such an eerie place. (gentle music) Oh, being a good boy. (breeze blowing) Do you see that rainbow? It's a rainbow in the desert. What? And that one over there, do you see it? (Eva laughs) Wow, this is so amazing.
(gentle music) So yeah, the rainbow is beautiful. However, I am not a fan of those clouds in the back there. Pretty gray and dark. And I think they might be bringing in rain. I do not want to be here when it rains. So I'm thinking we should try and get outta here as fast as possible. I'm gonna take Vilk out for a little poop walk. I'm gonna make myself some coffee very quickly, and then we're gonna get outta here 'cause this does not bode well at all. And obviously I'm here completely on my own, so I don't wanna get myself into any trouble if I can possibly avoid it.
(calm music) Holy shit. It's actually raining now. (calm music) So situations like this where you know the weather turns bad, might leave you wondering like, what is my emergency procedure in places like this? You know, I'm here completely alone. There's nobody else. I haven't seen anyone since like midday yesterday, and I don't expect to see anyone until I hit the tarmac again in a couple of hundred miles. So basically, yeah, it's a risky place.
It's a risky situation. And what I'm doing right now is I've got my Starlink on the entire time, and it's sharing my live location with a couple of people so they know exactly where I am at all times. The Starlink is being powered by my inverter, but in case that ever failed, for some reason, I've got my Jackery Power Bank. That's an alternative source of energy that I can power the Starlink. And then if that fails for whatever reason, then I've got this. It's a little Garmin inReach tracker slash messenger, so I can always hit the SOS button on this, or simply message someone to come and rescue me. So yeah, those are basically my emergency procedures.
Oh, and this guy, by the way, this guy is in here in my pocket. So yeah, this is kind of what's helping me feel safer out here when I'm all alone. (gentle music) Two things made me anxious being out there, and they had nothing to do with running out of water, food, or fuel. Those were factors I could and did control. So much sand, deep, deep sand. Ooh, you don't wanna get stuck out here. What worried me was, of course, hitting a stray landmine that may have been moved by the strong winds
and the possibility of Odyssey breaking down. This isn't the kind of place where you can just call up a tow truck. And unfortunately, it seems like Odyssey was not feeling great. Yeah, everything is going great. The weather has improved. There's just one thing that's been bothering me, and you need to listen to this to understand what I mean. (engine revving) (gearbox cluttering) Did you hear that? That was Odyssey's gearbox being weird when I changed gears. I really hope it's nothing serious. Yes, we'll find out.
Another problem is that these trail markers are becoming smaller and smaller. Like sometimes I just don't see them for like two minutes and I'm like, "Ah, am I in a fricking minefield? Am I gonna die?" You know, it's a little scary. I just made a wrong turn, followed the wrong tracks, thought I was on the right track, I wasn't. Looked at my map, turned back around, drive through a freaking minefield until I got on the right track. And now I see trail marks again. Yeah, trail marker.
Just a tire. Just a tire, nothing else. Today the desert has turned from beautiful smooth sand into a bit of a mix of sand, and then the hamada. So the hamada is basically this like rocky expanse with tons of little rocks and still the desert, but it just has a very different kind of surface. And driving on the hamada is a little bit more difficult. You gotta be a little bit more careful with your tires 'cause it's easy to chance upon a very sharp rock that could slash your tire. And of course, it's much less comfortable to drive on because it's just very shaky and rickety. I feel like I'm going through an extended concussion, but it is what it is. That's what I signed up for. And that's just how things are in the desert.
For now, it's the hamada as far as the eye can see. First sign of live that I've seen out here. There are camels and there's a camel herder with them. Just a lone figure out here in the desert. I'm gonna go and chat to him. Okay, how the fuck did he get here? There is literally absolutely nothing here for miles upon miles on end. I don't understand it. (gentle music) (Eva speaks foreign language)
(Herder speaks foreign language) - Just here? (Herder speaks foreign language) Ah-huh. Okay. (both speak foreign language) Okay. (both speak foreign language) Dates, orange. Okay. (Eva speaks foreign language) - Khalid. - Khalid? I'm Eva. (both speak foreign language) Okay Khalid said, I think he said that Bir Anzarane, which is the little settlement that I'm aiming for next is about an hour away that way.
All right, you ready? You ready to go? I wondered what it was like for Khalid to wander this dangerous place with his animals. Over 2,500 people have been killed by mines since the conflict began in 1975. And landmines are a threat to all camel herders, nomads, and livestock today. The United Nations Mine Action Service works to remove them alongside Sahrawi locals. But it seems like a never ending task. And just to give you an idea of just how you know serious and current this landmine situation is
just yesterday, I looked at the news from the region and unfortunately a landmine exploded because someone drove on top of it. There was a local driver somewhere here in Western Sahara. Miraculously he survived. But the image of that burnt down car is something, something to behold. So yeah, I mean, the mines do keep going off. They are here. They continue to be a threat to civilians and to animals. So yeah, you just gotta be really, really careful. (gentle music) (jeep buzzing) Look what I just found. Whoa.
(solemn music) How amazing is this? I don't think this belongs to anyone. So maybe we can claim her. Oh, I wonder how she died or he died. I wonder if it was heat exhaustion or lack of water, dehydration, starvation, a mine, an injury.
I still can't figure out whether these horns once belonged to the common barbary sheep or the much more rare addax antelope. If you have an idea, let me know. (gentle music) (vehicle idling) Well, we got a new friend. (pleasant music) Hang on. I don't believe this. What? Already? Look at that. That's a tarmac road. Yep. That's tarmac. I guess that means we're done. Well, I didn't even have to dip into my spare diesel because the next gas station came sooner than expected. So I got some fuel and a cold drink, thanked Odyssey
for not breaking down despite the weird sounds and thanked the stars for making it out of the danger zone safely. This was a very challenging trail, more so psychologically than physically. I know how sensitive the question of Western Sahara is to Morocco. So I know that there's gonna be hate, but in this day and age, governments should not be allowed to just get away with annexing other people's land by force, whether it's Ukraine, Palestine, or Western Sahara. I invite you to learn about this forgotten conflict using some of the resources I've linked below.
Thank you so much for watching. (gentle music)
