Morocco & the Western Sahara, Two Hit the Desert (1 Viewer)

Tempted by the possibilities of Sand Cats and other exotic mammals of the night, this nine-day trip had two main goals: (i) mammals across the region, and (ii) a sampling on the seawatching possibilities off Cap Rhir, north of Agadir.

Mid-summer in the Sahara might seem a mad idea, but in reality temperatures in the Western Sahara are rather milder than might be expected at this season (a pleasant 20-25 C on the coast, 25-30 C inland). That said, temperatures in central Morocco were higher than expected, hitting highs on 42 C in the areas around Tizi n'Test pass, Cascades d'Ouzard and Marrakesh! The temperatures were not really a hinderance however and, as it turned out, the trip was a remarkable success with 17 species of mammal recorded and seawatching that far exceeded my expectations.

Having visited Morocco twice before and the coastal stretch of the Western Sahara once, my itinerary on this trip was dedicated almost solely to localities for mammals, but in the Western Sahara in particular these largely overlap with the main birding sites anyway. In central Morocco, the only birding sites I visited were Oued Massa, Cap Rhir and Essaouira (for Eleonora's Falcons).

Madcap team for the trip consisted of myself and, now a hardcore traveller voyaging onto her fourth continent, a six-year old on her maiden trip to Sahara. More than eager to endure sleeping out in the desert night after night and to scramble up umpteen dunes, it should be noted that as a concession to my companion, several hours each day were spent on beaches, etc, but with species such as Royal Terns and Audouin's Gulls in abundance, this was hardly a hardship!

I look forward to reading what you found with great interest Jos.

Great another one to read, thanks.

Phil

Should be interesting this Jos!

Logistics & Costs

To assist anybody planning a similar trip, just a quick words on costs, etc, before the actual report.

My flights to and from Marrakech were on Ryan Air, arriving early both ways and very well-priced at 47 euros per person outward and just 29 euros return. Car rental was also organized via the Ryan website and cost 130 euros for nine days, the car supplied by Hertz and brand new. However, they ripped me off by adding a 45 euro 'cleaning fee' for returning the car moderately dusty. We only stayed in two hotels, both costing approximately 11 euros for doubles, otherwise we wild camped each night.

Any trip incorporating both Morocco and the Western Sahara is going to see the kilometers whizz by, the Marrakech-Dakhla route alone chalking up 1400 km each way. If returning to Dakhla during the day, each of the night drives on the Aoussard road gobbles up another 300 or 400 km. Thus, it was no surprise to find that we covered 4615 km over the nine days. Fuel cost about 0.70 euro/litre in the Western Sahara and 1.05/litre in Morocco, with my entire fuel bill coming to 220 euro.

In the Western Sahara, there are military checkpoints at regular intervals where all passport and personal details are logged - the soldiers are all very friendly, but it saves a lot of time if you carry a dozen or so photocopies of a paper with your name, address, profession and passport details clearly identifiable in French.

Elsewhere, there is a very heavy police presence on the roads of Morocco, roadblocks are frequent and very active guys with radars wait at seemingly every other small town. There don't log passport details, but if you are a few kilometers over the sometimes unclear speed limit, your budget will be dented by about 28 euros, more if going very fast. And be warned, the guy with the radar is often a lone guy sitting in the street somewhere or concealed behind bushes who radios the next checkpoint where you get stopped!

19 June. Marrakesh, the Long Road South.

Into the sultry heat at 9.00 am, touching down at Marrakesh Airport, Pallid Swifts screaming around the arrival gates, a House Bunting in full song inside the terminal. One humongous queue at immigration, then a less than friendly official who struck a line straight through our arrival cards and denied us entry to Morocco! Gee, what a welcome! Rather confused we stumbled back into the mass of other tourists awaiting their turn and sought out another official to find out what the problem was. It turned out that 'hotel' is not a sufficient address for the immigration forms. Hmm, so we borrowed a hotel name from another tourist and tried again. Nope, no still no entry! A rather friendlier official this time said as we had been rejected by one particular immigration guy we needed to return to him again. Oo er, this was not looking good! Anyhow, skipping the queues, we went straight back to his booth and breathed a massive sigh of relief when the thuds of the stamp went on our passports, we were in!

After that, all went rather more smoothly. Hertz delivered us a plush new shiny car and moments later we were cruising out onto the streets of Marrakesh. Umpteen more Pallid Swifts overhead, Common Bulbuls in roadside shrubbery, a bunch of camels on a roadside junction. One quick police checkpoint and we were off, it was now near 11.00 a.m. and ahead of us lay a drive of 1400 km to Dakhla in the southern sections of the Western Sahara. Didn't make many stops on this first day, just continued ploughing south till the evening, the roads rather busy and slow all the way to Guelmine. White Storks, European Bee-eaters and Turtle Doves near Marrakesh, Spotless Starlings around Agadir, Woodchat Shrikes and Thekla Larks somewhere further south.

Some time after dark, 620 km into our journey, I pulled off the road onto a rocky track leading towards the sea near Oued Choika, a fine site to camp for the first night. Trillions of little fish jumped in the water as we shone the spotlight around, the crashing Atlantic made for a fine backdrop. Having also travelled through the previous night, there was no trouble in sleeping that night!

Those Ryan Air tickets were amazingly cheap, does that include baggage?

Despite having read that driving conditions were bad in Morocco we were amazed how good the roads were.Very little traffic, good road surface on the main roads.We toddled along at a pretty sedate speed, taking in the sights, occasionally taking evasive action from a vehicle crossing the centre line on a bend and on one occasion an emergency stop for a child who ran in to the road without looking. I was feeling very pleased with my driving skills, even more so when a nice policeman stepped in to the road to beckon me to stop. I was only too pleased to hand over £20 to cover the administration costs of the "Certificate of Excellent Driving" he wanted to award me. Must have been the nice smile I gave his mate, the adjudicator of these awards, who was sitting behind a bush as I drifted down a steep little hill on the outskirts of a village that sealed it !

Dave Williams said:

Those Ryan Air tickets were amazingly cheap, does that include baggage?

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With Ryan Air now allowing a generous two pieces of hand baggage for free, all my optics, cameras, tent, sleeping bags and mats and etc, squeezed into the free allocation, so no additional costs. I was also rather impressed that when I checked in online for my return flight, clicking for the free random seat selection, they upgraded me to one of the 'premium' front seats and gave me priority boarding for no charge. Good old Ryan Air :t:

Sat on their website for a few days, watching for cheap tickets, then bought when I found. Didn't buy the outward and return tickets at the same time.

Jos Stratford said:

With Ryan Air now allowing a generous two pieces of hand baggage for free, all my optics, cameras, tent, sleeping bags and mats and etc, squeezed into the free allocation, so no additional costs. I was also rather impressed that when I checked in online for my return flight, clicking for the free random seat selection, they upgraded me to one of the 'premium' front seats and gave me priority boarding for no charge. Good old Ryan Air :t:

Sat on their website for a few days, watching for cheap tickets, then bought when I found. Didn't buy the outward and return tickets at the same time.

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Wow... must take a look myself!

Just wow, Jos!
Your 6 year old is putting me (and most other birders) to shame.
Have you considered giving the new generation their own website/voice?

20 June. Dakhla, Aousserd Road.

Dawn on the Atlantic coast, vast stone expanses stretching to the east, breakers crashing on a lonely beach to our immediate west. Oystercatchers strutting on the sand, a single Marbled Duck paddling on the stunted stretch of river that we had camped alongside. Had a little while to explore before hitting the road again, two Western Reef Herons in the bay, a single Greater Flamingo too, plus a little gaggle of Night Herons and Little Egrets on rocks by the road bridge. And then it was time to begin the drive again, an enormous 800 km to cover by late afternoon.

Numerous military roadchecks, an eventful breakfast on a sand dune with a flock of five Cream-coloured Coursers flying in to join us, then two more, shortly followed by the first Hoopoe Lark of the trip and a couple of Desert Wheatears. Stopped at Khnifiss Lagoon for an hour or so, the little one practiced rock climbing, scattering Black Wheatears as she went, I scoped for large dark-backed gulls. With the tide out, the task was a little daunting, birds scattered far and wide ...ignoring the masses of terns roosting way off in the next galaxy, I set out scanning the nearer islands and sandbanks. Quite productive, a flock of 18 Eurasian Spoonbills plodded intertidal flats just near, assorted waders included Kentish Plovers, Bar-tailed Godwits and Turnstones, while a small rocky islet looked very promising indeed - atop it a bunch of dark-backed gulls, target bird might just be amongst them. Hmm, despite a total lack of heat haze and pretty good viewing conditions, I was either struggling to identify the bird I sought or there wasn't one there! It wasn't helped by the fact that several candidates were partially hidden behind rocks, tops of backs and heads just about all that was visible. After quite a while of pretty intense scoping however, I was reasonably convinced that all the birds I was looking at were Great Black-backed Gulls, including two pairs with fat bundles of chicks wandering around. These are pretty remarkable birds in themselves, breeding many hundreds of kilometres further south than the normal range, but it would be more than an hour before until another bird appeared on a sand bank miles off to the right that appeared to match the key features for the bird I desired ...greenish legs, broad white trailing edge to the wings, a lighter build to the head, or an active imagination in this last regard, but I am pretty sure it was a Cape Gull. At that range, I couldn't say it was a stunning bird though and, typical blighter, it chose to fly off when I wasn't looking ...oops!

Anyhow, with hundreds of kilometres still to go, back to the road we went, crossing into Western Sahara proper and trundling south for ever more, Red-rumped Wheatears popping up every now and then, so too four more Cream-coloured Coursers, another Hoopoe Lark and quite regular Desert Wheatears. Passing a right dump of a small settlement made famous a few years back for the first ever Pied Crows breeding in the Western Palearctic, I paused a while to scan the jumbled litter ...I'm not sure if the Pied Crows have been seen for a couple of years, but regardless, they certainly weren't present this day - a dozen scrawny dogs, 12 Brown-necked Ravens, one Black Kite and one police road block, the sum of life at that stop! Another hundred kilometres and three final checkpoints and finally we were there, rolling into Dakhla town at 6 p.m., the great drive behind us!

An hour or so on the beach, then off we went, another drive about to unfold ...one into the night on the legendary Aousserd Road!

Jos Stratford said:

and Thekla Buntings somewhere further south.

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New one on me Jos, what's it split from? :-O

Looking forward to another good read here, keep it coming.

Cheers

James

JWN Andrewes said:

New one on me Jos, what's it split from? :-O

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Oops, looks like the sun was getting me from the very first day :t:

Jos Stratford said:

Oops, looks like the sun was getting me from the very first day :t:

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You seem to have been hallucinating Red-tailed Wheatears too.

Steve

Steve Lister said:

You seem to have been hallucinating Red-tailed Wheatears too.

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Tail, rump, oops. Think I need to slow down on the typing! Thanks, now corrected.

An hour or so on the beach, then off we went, another drive about to unfold ...one into the night on the legendary Aousserd road!

Prior to 2010, Sand Cat was a mystical beast in the Western Palearctic, a mere five records or so, all in the remote wilds of the Western Sahara. Recently however, exploration of the Aousserd road at night has revealed this cat to be rather regular, several dedicated teams scoring success in return for two or three nights spotlighting along the road. So it was, as the sun began to drop, we positioned ourselves at Gleb Jdiane to await dusk. This locality, at km 17 on the Aousserd road, occasionally gets sandgrouse dropping into to drink, but nothing much to report on that evening, so after slinging a few small mammal traps in the vegetation and watching the sun fall below the horizon, we set off eastwards into the night.

Compared with about 2012, rodent numbers appear to have crashed along this road, I presume a cyclical thing, and it would appear that carnivores are following. With a spotlight mounted on the car, illuminating up to about 500 metres on the northern side of the road, I trundled along at a sedate 30 km/hour, watching both in front and the north side, little one with a separate light watching the south. Though exciting stuff, slowly advancing through the desert not knowing what would appear, it was unbelievably quiet ...bar some pretty spooky camels emerging from the darkness, not a single rodent or bigger critter disturbed the night for almost two hours. After the long drive from Marrakesh, I did half consider calling it a night and starting afresh the next evening ...but dispelling all such thoughts, two bright shining eyes at km 53 signalled the first mammal of the night - one fine Ruppell's Fox strolling a hundred metres or so to the north of the road, nice. Watched it as it wandered along, the animal eventually turning and heading directly away.

Back to the road ...and back to vast expanses of desert seemingly devoid of life. Little one decided to go to sleep, I continued along. Half an hour more, km 76, then a mad little critter zigzagging across the road at great rates of knots. Swung the car headlights onto it, it froze, then hopped to the road's edge. Lesser Egyptian Jerboa, mini kangaroo. This was a superb little animal and after a while began to feed on little tussocks of vegetation, me quietly getting out of the car and photographing it.

I was now approaching one of the most productive stretches of the road, the part from km 85 to km 120 accounting for the bulk of all past records of Sand Cat and Fennec Fox. It was past midnight and I was getting rather bleary eyed, the effects of the 1400 km drive were now appreciable. Slowed down to about 20 km/hour and continued. Moments later, I almost jumped out of my seat and started to swear ...I was at km 83 and mere metres from the road, plodding through stunted tussocks, a feline!!! I stopped the car and swung the spotlight, there, now standing still and staring straight at me, one absolutely amazing Sand Cat in all its glory. A bit smaller than I was expecting, slightly chubby head, a sandy little thing, lightly striped tail and limbs, what a fantastic animal ...I was not sleepy anymore! And then it turned and ran, up and over a slight ridge, pausing at hundred metres or so to watch again, then off it went again, disappearing to view. Ah, what a good evening I thought.

Five kilometres later, another Lesser Egyptian Jerboa danced across the road, then another kilometre beyond, I got stopped by a car. Only the second car I had encountered on the road, this was a local gendarme on his way to Aousserd. Quite a friendly guy, but discovering I was looking for wildlife, rather alarmingly he said permission was needed to use this road at night ...and such permission needed to be sought from Aousserd, still 110 km ahead. I said I was about to turn back to Dakhla, an answer he seemed quite happy with. So that was just about it for the night, he continued towards Aousserd, I did turn around. At 1 a.m., a few kilometres back along the road, I turned into the desert and set up camp. An excellent first night on the road - only four animals in total, but with Sand Cat as one of them, I was not complaining.

Was so surprised and mesmorized by the Sand Cat appearing so close to the road, I didn't even think of grabbing my camera until too late. Just as I lifted my camera, so the Sand Cat decided to run, zipping directly out of the light.

Swung the camera around and clicked off at random, getting a single less than amazing shot of the night as below...

But wonders of Photoshop, lightened the shot many times and there, albeit just about the fuzziest picture I have ever taken, one Sand Cat in full flight!

I was going to delete the shot from my camera, but I actually quite like this shot, happy I didn't delete now!

Wonderful shot of a very scarce species.

There really should be a listing for mammal sightings like there is for birds.
You'd probably make the cut for most rare species, even if your overall totals were down because you lack the bat sightings that really drive up the totals.

Well done. Photos like that often give a better sense of the moment than more technically perfect ones.