With no radio and no mobile phone we have time to contemplate - and thanks to people for support.

I write the blog lest I forget, but I'm also pleased others find it interesting. I tend to avoid hyperbole but some of the sights we've seen and the people we've met are quite amazing to us.

Not sure how many.

There's an auberge on the other side.

And some stones laid to help the track about 100m to our left (saw it too late)!

We've occasionally wondered if some of the tracks are made by people having fun rather than getting from A to B.

Still parallel to the Algerian border (a few km away on the right, closed to us).

We wonder at the forces that moulded this land.

A center for fossil (trilobite and other) collection.

Near Hasi Fougani.

The maps have different names for the same places.

Hit a patch of soft sand.

4wd didn't get us out.

Time to let the tyres down a bit more and use the spade.

Yes, we have a compressor to re-inflate them.

Just a gentle reminder that we aren't invincible.

Also how dry we became after a little exertion. Its difficult to keep a good fluid balance with low humidity, hot days, and cold nights.

The very sharp thorns stick into the soles of our shoes. Sometimes through them.

Then stick into fingers trying to remove them.

Not a herder in sight.

To me this is dark blue and pink.

To Ali its black and apricot.

And the camera never lies!

But we can at least agree the colours and patterns are fascinating.

There's a handful of small mines around.

There's a point on Olaf's Map that says "bad dunes".

We think they are only a "little bit bad". A bit like the road in China that was a "little difficult". People drive there.

2nd gear, 4wd, just follow the tracks.

Barbed wire either side of the road in from the west, among the palms.

Much drier on the eastern side.

North west of Taouz (another day away) the Oued Ziz is a documented site of pre-Islamic settlement, back to the neolithic.

We hope!

Hopefully we'll see more of it tomorrow.

Within a half hour the only vehicle  we've seen all day came past (a touring landcruiser).

Followed by a herderless herd of goats a half hour after that.

Erg Ouzina in the distance.

And three buildings (probably auberge) jspread out past where the road disappears.

Truck at lower right.

Looking over Oued Ziz.

The pile of stones in front is someone's old campfire. There's a few more at the other end of the valley.

We wonder at the mix of erosion and wind that collects the sand in some places but not others.

And sometimes slowly enough for vegetation to catch.

And the differences in colour of the sand.

And ...