{"id":9901,"date":"2025-07-02T09:51:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9901"},"modified":"2025-07-02T09:51:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:51:59","slug":"transafrica-1975-crossing-the-sahara-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9901","title":{"rendered":"TransAfrica 1975: Crossing the Sahara \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This second leg of the Sahara crossing in 1975 goes from Arak to Arlit. This is all rough tracks and soft sand – there was no tarmac here in 1975!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first photo is when one of the springs broke on the Land Rover. They had been bent up to lift the suspension but, with the rough track, it was too much for the metal. Fortunately we had spares:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Broken spring repair, past Arak – Petes Photo: 8th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The following photo was taken early in the morning. For some reason I found the scene quite captivating; like something I imagined from ‘Lord of the Rings’:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mountains on the road past Arak – early morning: 9th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We were told about this small mosque on the way to Tamanrasset – you had to circle it 3 times for good luck. We couldn’t remember in which direction so we did both! I have tried looking for more information on it but couldn’t find any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Small mosque on the way to Tamanrasset: 9th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to my diary, after examining the map (64 miles to the inch!) I said to my friends that we should have passed the Tropic of Cancer by now, 5 minutes later we came across this sign by the road:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Me by the Tropic of Cancer: 9th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Land Rover on the road to Tamanrasset taken from the Transit: 9th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Packing up after camping in the Hoggar (Chez JoJo) near Tamanrasset: 10th-13th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This part of the road was fun to drive. The main track was very corrugated so we went on the sand to the side. Provided you kept the speed up (about 50mph) you didn’t get stuck, but you could, at times, feel the drag on the vehicle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Land Rover on the road again on softish sand, taken from the Transit: About 15th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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With Rob and Steph (a couple we met several times) in their Combi. On the road to In Guezzam: 15th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pete and Bob in Arlit Market in the heat of the day: 16th-18th April 1975<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the broken springs, and the heat (we once measured 120\u00baF (49\u00baC) in the shade) we had a good, interesting drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This second leg of the Sahara crossing in 1975 goes from Arak to Arlit. This is all rough tracks and soft sand – there was no tarmac here in 1975! The first photo is when one of the springs broke on the Land Rover. They had been bent up to lift the suspension but, with … Continue reading “TransAfrica 1975: Crossing the Sahara \u2013 Part 2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,3,146,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landrover","category-photography","category-trans-africa-1975","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9901"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9914,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9901\/revisions\/9914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}