The road from Tamanrasset to Assekrem is 15 minutes of paved road, and 3 hours of variable track, some pretty smooth, but other very hard on the vehicle.
Columnar basalt
This is a high volcanic mountain (no, no crater, but lava rocks everywhere) high in the Ahaggar National Park.
Our driver was a champion at dodging stones!
Not much wild life see aside from a few donkeys and domestic camels.
The views are beautiful all along.
Not sure why there are round rock in this volcanic environment.
Most likely erosion although there does not appear to be much water
Assekrem: a very isolated location where some monks study the weather.
Staying in Assekrem is really only for the hard core camper as there is very little support (no water with all the hygiene implications one can envision). I spend a hard night in a dormitory and was rapidly convinced to go to more comfortable locations.
Only the very young dromedary are not hobbled.
Don't eat to much and get grass founder ! :D
Pretty flowers but I could not find their name
Afilal Oasis, actually, a spring that continues as a river that goes back underground.
Delightful, beautiful and fragile environment !
Maybe just a trickle but totally amazing in view of the surroundings.
Amazingly with tadpoles and fish that must have been trapped here for 3 million years !
Lunch with the Tuareg! Mo (with raised thumb) was an incredibly friendly and funny guy. Skilled driver, master tea maker and OK cook. He lost his parents at 2 when they got lost in a sand storm. Last resort a Tuareg does is kill his camel to drink the fluids. They were found 15 km from their destination !
No refrigeration during the trip and the meat is hang out to dry on the acacias !
Bring your own wood !
Feral donkeys
There is, closer to Tamanrasset, another source with "sparkling water" (naturally carbonated by geothermal activity under ground that heats water and mixes in carbon dioxide gas). The water tasted pretty good.
