In the heart of Covid-19 lockdown, everyone was looking for a way to shatter the crippling isolation and return to something resembling normal, real life. It was a time when one was forced to reevaluate things and find pleasure in small, humble, everyday activities such as driving 1,400km (870 miles) through the empty wastelands of the Sahara desert. When the streets were empty anyway, it seemed like the logical place to go.

Leaving Marrakech 

We left Marrakech at night, heading south for the berber town of Tiznit. It is always with a sense of excitement and apprehension that one takes the road south from Marrakech – the majority of Morocco’s developed infrastructure and urban centers lie to the north, with the vibrant, modern cities of Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier, lining the coast of Africa’s top-left corner. South means the Atlas Mountains and the desert. It means slipping back, mile by mile, into the past. If Marrakech itself has a dreamlike quality, to travel south from the city is to voyage into the unreal. 

Three hours south of the city of Agadir lies the sleepy fishing town of Sidi Ifni. This town, usually shrouded in a twinkling, eerie fog, did little to dim the sense of unreality that was to define our journey. The former capital of Western Sahara in the days of Spanish rule, Sidi Ifni is scattered with ornate ruins of colonial government buildings, market halls, and even a cinema. Many of the buildings are still owned by the Spanish government, which has so far neglected to renovate them from their original condition. Today, the structures stand as crumbling relics of a bygone era, giving the town the impression of being suspended in time. 

Nearby is the beach of Legzira, known to many Moroccans as “the red beach,” due to the striking scarlet of its sand and rock. Legzira is renowned for its two enormous natural stone bridges that stretch across the beach from the cliffs to the ocean. Moroccan tourists flock long distances to be able to walk underneath the arches and admire their splendor. Except there is only one left. The collapse of the other in 2016 was not well publicized and, to this day, many visitors are shocked to find only 50 percent of the arches they were expecting. All that remains of the second is a scattered pile of crimson rubble, like discarded rubies on the sand. 

Into the Void

While the collapse of the arch fortunately left no casualties, for onward travelers, the sense of unease only begins upon taking the road south from Legzira. First up is the city of Guelmim, a very large but often overlooked traditional Moroccan town surrounded by pleasant oases. Often called “the gateway to the desert,” this is the end of the beaten track. As if in acknowledgement of the arid wilderness that was to follow, the heavens chose our stay in Guelmim to let loose a biblical rainstorm. 

Some five hours of single-lane dirt-road stretch between Guelmim and the next stop of Tan-Tan. This is quarry country, where colossal trucks and menacing mining machinery dominate the pitiless, empty landscape. Driving at night is impossible. Even in the clear light of day, the visibility can be appalling and there is many a close call rounding a tight corner or peering through the dust to squeeze past an oncoming behemoth.

On one occasion, I had to jam on the brakes of our beleaguered rented Dacia Logan as the arm of a JCB swung, without warning, out into the path in front of us. The workers, who do not expect to see vehicles smaller than an African elephant, made vague apologetic gestures and waved us on with an air of friendly boredom. 

As far as we could tell, to travel in this land produces a strange combination of seemingly contradictory sensations. A day in this place is like a week; a week like a month. As the road winds on, one falls prey to a creeping doubt in the existence of the outside world. And yet, as one looks back, the memory of the vast monotony of the desert seems to flicker by in an instant, no defining features standing out against the void. If one were stationed here full-time, as the miners are, we wondered, would it be the desert or the outside world that would first begin to seem unreal?