Libya and Algeria (2/2)
This post is part 2 of the "libya-algeria-2025" series:
I spent nearly 3 weeks exploring Libya and then Algeria. It was a pretty good trip overall, despite requiring 9 separate flights (round trip).
This trip was a long time coming. My first attempt to visit Algeria was back in 2022, but I couldn't get a visa. The second attempt was a year ago, but the tour group never got enough signups, and it was cancelled. This time, I took steps to eliminate both of those risks, by pursuing Algeria's (newish) visa-on-arrival program, and signing up for a private tour. That isn't to say that any of it was easy. Finding a tour company that I could actually rely on was a huge mess. I contacted nearly a dozen different companies. Some never replied at all. Others stopped responding for no obvious reason. But, I thought I had a good company lined up, and was ready to finalize dates and pay them, they ghosted me. I scrambled to find another company, and found one that was actually pretty good to work with.
What follows is the time that I spent in Algeria, see the first part for Libya.
Day 7
I didn't get to bed until nearly 1am, but slept great until 7:30am. I met Dylan for breakfast at 9am. It was fine, but very busy.
First stop of the day was the museum of modern art. Getting there was a bit of a slog. It was in direct line of sight from the hotel, but the streets are twisty, so we had to walk a huge loop, up a steep hill. Thankfully the museum was open, and free. It was really nice, with lots of obscure (to me) art.
After that we hopped on the metro and took it to the end of the line at Martyr's Square. We walked around the casbah for a few hours,
which involved a lot of stairs up & down steep hills. We saw many many cats. We had a bit of an adventure trying to reach the Palace of the Dey.
There's a mosque in the area that was insanely popular, to the extent that hundreds of men were sitting in the street to pray.
We were having problems finding the entrance and kept walking. We ended up walking past the defense ministry and two guards got alarmed and started to approach us.
To be clear, we were on a normal street, with others. As soon as the guards started walking towards us, we got the message and turned back.
We decided to find lunch. We went down an alley and found a few food places. They all claimed to have pizza, but in reality they had other dough related things.
I got this flatbread thing that had a spicy orange sauce inside. It was pretty good. After we ate,
prayers had finished and we returned to the palace to find out its closed until Monday.
We walked back down the hill and headed into the center of the modern city. They closed a large street to traffic and there was a street fair, with people selling stuff, music, and games. There were people playing chess, and Dylan & I played a game. Afterwards, we made our way back to the hotel.
We went to the restaurant 'Al Bustain' for dinner. It was pretty good. I got an appetizer with sardines and lamb shank for my main. There was an old guy with an escort at the table beside us which was sad.
Day 8
I slept well and was up for the day at 7:30am. Breakfast was the same as yesterday.
We went to the botanical gardens beside the hotel. Lots of cats, including an orange that loved my feet. The gardens were really nice, with tons of large trees,
and a duck pond. Afterwards, we took the cable car up the hill to the Martyr's Memorial. Its a huge concrete structure.
We ended up wandering around a dying shopping mall nearby in search of a toilet.
We returned to the hotel afterwards to rest for an hour. We got a late 3pm checkout. Then at 3pm we dropped our bags,
and took the metro back to the center of the city. We wandered around for a while. The streets were very crowded with people.
Eventually we stopped at a cafe and got pizza. It was fairly awful, soggy, and greasy. We wandered for another hour, then returned to the hotel at 6pm.
We played chess for a while, then took the airport shuttle back to the airport for our 22:15 flight down to Djanet.
The domestic terminal was janky. We had to wait in line outside to clear security. The boarding pass line was actually not bad. We needed to complete departure cards, and clear identity checks. Security was a complete joke. They didn't care about the metal detector going off for nearly every person. They also let me bring 2 water bottles through. Once at the 3 gates there was no wifi, and rows of crowded seats. Dylan wanted to check out the lounge. It was about $20/person. He decided he wanted to pay, so we went inside. It was easily the worst airport lounge I've ever used. Very warm, with insanely bright light. Very little food, and few drinks. Also, they took our boarding passes until we were ready to leave. Our flight got pushed back (late) to 23:00 at 21:00.
The flight was easily 90% European tourists. The boarding process was ridiculous. First another round of pointless security. Then a bus gate, where they were determined to squeeze every passenger onto one bus. Then they only opened the front door of the bus, and trickled out about 8 people at a time. A large security guy was waiting at the bottom of the steps, checking everyone's boarding pass again. Then up the steps where the crew verified boarding passes yet again, before being seated. We took off a full hour late. The flight was fine, other than getting assigned a window seat for the 2 hours. Landing was kinda weird. Normally you see stuff on the ground, but here there was just darkness until the runway lights appeared.
No jetway, but also no bus. Short walk into the terminal, where security were confiscating everyone's passports until they had a guide to escort them out. Smoking is apparently permitted inside the terminal.
We drove a few km from the airport, turned off the road, and pulled into the fixed camp. It had running water, and large canvas tents with cots.
Day 9
I slept ok until around 4am when some distant dog started barking non stop. Then I needed the toilet, and then I was cold and couldn't warm up again.
I gave up at 6:30am.
Breakfast was tea, biscuits, baguettes, laughing cow, and salty peanuts. Our guide is Muhammed, and the driver is Fubro. They filled up every spare inch of the vehicle with food & supplies, including firewood on the roof. We departed at 8am, and drove north on a very new paved 4 lane road into Djanet.
Before we could leave town, we needed a military permit, as the road we needed passed through an army base. We sat on the side of the road for nearly an hour, along with half a dozen other vehicles. We finally got clearance just before 10am, and headed east. After about a half hour, we came to a (relatively) famous sign at a fork in the road. Left leads to the Libyan border, and right goes to Niger. The scenery was nice (but not yet amazing). Large distant black rocky mountains with a dusting of sand everywhere.
Just before noon we pulled off the road and drove to a small rocky hill about a half mile away. We scrambled to the top where we saw lots of art.
Giraffes, bulls, weird spiral shapes and birds. We drove another hour on the road, then pulled off on a sandy track for a bit.
We got out, then hiked up a rocky slope to a cave near the top. On the walls & ceiling were paintings from over 7000 years ago. Cows & humans in red, brown & tan.
When we came back down, we waited for lunch to be ready. Lunch was vegetable soup with meatballs, salad, baguettes and fruit. It was ok.
After lunch we drove further and then left the paved road for the day. The scenery gradually became grander with huge mesas and large sand dunes.
We saw a few other groups, all basically going to the same area. By 5pm we reached our stopping point for the day. We explored for a while on foot,
while the camp was being setup.
They provided (very crappy, cheap) tents, blankets, a pillow, a sleeping bag, and pad. Dylan & I played chess as dinner was prepared.
They gave us some snacks (peanuts, cookies, raisons) plus tea/coffee while we waited for dinner. Dinner was lentil soup, and beef stew, with baguette. It was fine.
The tents are small. As in, I cannot lay flat with my legs out because I am taller than the tent is across.
Day 10
I was concerned that i'd be cold overnight, but my quilt bag was great, and I was cozy, until I was up for the day at 6:30am.
While waiting for breakfast, we saw a mountain goat sprinting across the valley. Apparently, its rare to see them at all. Breakfast was omelettes,
plus the usual stuff.
We departed at 9:30am, and gradually worked through scenery that was huge sandstone mesas with dunes running up their sides. Occasionally we saw arches.
We stopped a few times to look at rock art in small caves & alcoves, with cows and a few humans.
At 11am, we entered a huge valley that was full of massive dunes. We were left to explore, and the vehicle drove across the valley to prepare lunch.
The biggest dune was several hundred feet.
Lunch was pasta salad with some rubbery white cheese. Dylan & I played chess while everything was cleaned & packed up. Dylan wanted to go explore a bit,
so we walked down the canyon. There wasn't much to see. Unfortunately the guys decided it was nap time while we were gone, instead of finishing cleaning up.
We sat around for another 30 minutes, then finally left at 15:30.
We spent the next hour driving past lots of nice scenery, with large arches, and some rock art. Then we entered another dune field, which was, in reality,
a high plateau above a large valley. We got out to enjoy the view, and the guys drove off to setup camp in the valley below.
Except there were more dunes down there, and we lost track of them. We started walking down, but the perspective was different from the ground,
and we quickly became unsure where they went. Dylan climbed a dune for some height, while I continued to walk below.
Eventually we found them, but it was really unclear for a while.
Dinner was lentil soup, followed by tomato chickpea beef soup. Apparently soup is a big thing here.
Day 11
Last night was rough. I woke at 3am from a bad dream and my feet were very cold. I couldn't get them warm, and laid there almost shivering for hours. Just as I started drifting to sleep someone's phone started playing music. I gave up at 6:30am. Breakfast was hard boiled eggs.
As they were packing up camp, they suggested we walk out to the road, where they'd drive to meet us. The walk was fine, but we ended up waiting a while. As we waited a group of 14 walked past. They seemed to be French speakers, but greeted us in English to ask where we were from. Once we answered, one yelled 'god bless america' in a way that sounded sincere, but also very weird.
Once we got underway, the scenery was really lovely. We saw 3 massive arches, rock art (with a dozen giraffes, and a pooping elephant), and many more dunes.
We ran into a group of Danish, plus one guy from Norway. The color of the sand is gradually shifting from tan to pinkish red.
Lunch was orzo salad with mayo and vegetable salad with olives. Plus lots and lots of flies. The flies here are relentless.
After lunch we passed through an area with fewer dunes and fields of small black rock. At 15:30 we stopped beside a large dead acacia tree to chop firewood.
We camped at the base of the (supposed) tallest dune in the Sahara, at 520m. It was definitely massive. Dylan climbed the dune, as I watched from below.
Dinner was chicken & rice soup, followed by very thick lentils.
Day 12
I swapped tents with Dylan last night, and somehow his is slightly larger and warmer. Meaning that I could actually lay flat with my legs extended,
and I was warmer overall. There were jerks at a camp maybe a half mile away who were playing loud drum music until nearly midnight.
I still managed to fall asleep but woke a few times. I was up for the day at 6:40am. Breakfast was hard boiled eggs again.
They had us walk from camp as they finished packing up. We ended up standing around waiting for nearly 30 minutes. We saw some great stuff this morning. A number of nice arches, rock art, and some caves & slot canyons to explore. We also were sort of retracing the route that we took, mostly on some parallel roads.
Lunch was in a dead end side canyon that seemed to be infested with flies. They made rice, corn & sardines, with what seemed like cooked eggplant and weird processed cheese. Basically they were using up random stuff. The plan is to return to Djanet on Thursday to resupply, before moving to a completely different area for the last 4 days.
In the afternoon, we saw a bunch of fun spots. There was a long, very narrow slot canyon, more rock art, and a huge rock with fossilized plants stuck in it.
Towards the late afternoon we were heading west, back towards the real road. There was a sad military checkpoint with two guys.
We are camping on dunes (again). Thankfully, it seems to be a fairly isolated spot.
Dinner was lentil soup followed by beef stew. I should have brought a jacket or a hat. During the day the temperature is nice, but once the sun goes down it drops into the 40s, and i'm chilly until I get into bed.
Day 13
The temperature overnight was ok, but the sand was firm and I kept waking with cramps. Also there was a lot of wind for a while. I was up for the day at 6:30, and we had omelettes for breakfast.
We exited Tassili NP at 10am, and drove back towards Djanet. About 70km east from Djanet, the engine kept stalling and the check engine light came on. Apparently we ran out of fuel. The fuel gauge ran down to empty around mid day yesterday, but I assumed they had a 2nd tank that the gauge didn't register. They somehow had cell service (while I did not), and called to have more fuel delivered. It took nearly 2 hours for fuel to get delivered, and we resumed driving at 1pm. Twenty minutes later they ran put of fuel again. But it seemed like the car that resupplied them was following us, and provided more fuel.
We finally rolled into Djanet at 1:30pm, and went to a restaurant for lunch. The food was ok. We had gloopy mashed potatoes, a roasted half chicken, chickpea soup, samosas filled with mashed potatoes, and a very spicy harissa sauce. Afterwards we returned to their compound on the outskirts of town to get a hot shower, and then wait for the truck to get fully refueled and restocked with food & supplies. The shower had a tankless water heater that was seriously broken. When it turned on, a huge blue flame shot out of the top. It ran like that for barely 30 seconds, then shutoff. It was prolly for the best, as the tiny room was likely filling with carbon monoxide fumes.
We departed just after 5pm, and drove south of Djanet for a little while. We turned off the road and stopped to see thr 'crying cows',
a 10k year old rock carving where several huge cows appear to be crying. It looked really cool.
Then we headed west into an area full of sand and smaller buttes scattered about. We reached camp at 6:20pm, just as the sun was setting.
Dinner was lentil soup and beef stew. But they got a can of spicy harissa sauce for me when they noticed that I liked it with lunch. OMG it was so good.
I added it to everything and dinner was actually pretty good.
Day 14
I slept fairly well until the driver's phone started making noises at 6am. Breakfast was an omelette.
We departed, and drove across a vast plain, with distant large dunes at the horizon. Eventually we turned onto a paved road, and headed northwest, with dunes far off to the left. That road fell apart after a while.
Just after 10am we rolled into a real, small town, and we stopped to get more supplies. Then we drove another hour out to the Tin Taghirt rock art site.
It was a huge rocky hill with dozens of animal rock carvings. It was nice, but I'm kinda hitting rock art fatigue now.
Afterwards we had lunch, which was hard boiled eggs, vegetable salad, and tuna pasta salad. There was a French Algerian family here at the same time as us.
Next we drove further north to Idaren. Its an old abandoned village at the base of a canyon with an oasis formed by a river. The drive passed through a massive lava field. There's not much of the village left, just a few huts. The new, modern village is not far away, and is relatively nice, with a large school. We're camping inside the old village as well.
Dinner was lamb ribs, couscous with potatoes & carrots.
Day 15
What a crappy night. Due to the proximity to the river, there were mosquitoes, which managed to get into my tent and buzz my ears all night long. There were multiple dogs barking all night long. The only good thing last night was that it was much warmer overall. Breakfast was hard boiled eggs. Plus a cat showed up while we were eating. It was in rough shape with a ton of wounds on its head. I gave it some laughing cow, which it seemed to enjoy.
We departed at 9am. Just before 10am, we passed a group of guys walking along the road. One of them had a weird harness with plastic water bottles. We stopped and chatted with them briefly, and gave them a full water bottle plus an empty. Apparently they had been walking from Mali, which is over 1000km away through the desert, just to the border.
Just after 11am, we turned off route 3 to Djanet, and started bumping down a deep sand road. Eventually we reached the mouth of Essendeline Canyon.
The canyon was full of mesquite trees, and had vertical walls several hundred feet tall. Eventually we reached a pool of water and a dry fall. It was really pretty.
The walk back was a bit of a slog, but we were supposed to get lunch at the car. However, nothing was setup when we got back 2 hours after departing.
sWe sat around for another 15 minutes as they lazily set up the table.
Lunch was a cucumber, tomato & onion salad, and fries with green beans & eggplant. As we finished eating a large herd of feisty goats wandered by. They were noisy. Then they started climbing up the side of a cliff.
We finally departed at 3pm, and drove back out of the canyon. We were told that we were going to stop to meet nomads. In reality they had us sit on an old filthy rug as the women tried to sell us a bunch of crude arts & crafts. Also our guide encouraged us to ask questions. Yet he either didn't know the answer or refused to relay my question to the women. We left after a few awkward minutes, and the entire thing seemed like a waste of time.
We spent the next 90 minutes driving sorta east through the open desert past massive dunes and rock formations, to the campsite.
For dinner they attempted to make bread baked in the hot sand from the campfire. I say attrmpted, as it took nearly an hour, and the dough was still kinda sticky.
They served red lentil soup too.
Day 16
I slept mostly ok until the driver's phone started beeping at 6am. Then some jerks from another camp walked past talking loudly around 6:30am. and I gave up. Breakfast was an omelette again.
We spent the morning heading generally southeast towards Djanet. We stopped briefly at a bunch of sites with rock art, arches and weird rock formations.
We stopped for lunch juat before noon in the shadow of a huge butte. Lunch was spagheti with meat sauce (which was surprisingly not bad), and a salad,
with so many damn flies.
In the afternoon we saw a few more rock art sites, and reached the camp spot just after 4pm. It was a maze of rocky spires and sand.
Dinner was lentil soup and chicken bean soup
Day 17
I slept ok for the last night of camping. The sky was mostly cloudy this morning. Breakfast was an omelette.
We basically wasted away much of the day. We drove around in the desert for much of the morning. Then we headed back to Djanet to get gas. Then drove around more in the desert. Then returned to the fixed camp on the outskirts of Djanet where we sat around with swarms of flies. At 1:40pm they gave us a sad lunch of vegetable salad and rice & bread.
After lunch we drove back into Djanet. First stop was the regional museum, which had a decent number of historic artifacts. Next was the market, which was the typical batch of tourist trinkets. The wind started to get crazy and by late afternoon we had a full blown sand storm. The last stop was the old fortress up on the hill. The tour of the fortress was nice. We returned to the camp afterwards.
There was a group of 4 from Slovenia spending the night before starting their 12 day tour. We had dinner (more soup) with them.
We're heading to the airport at midnight for our flight back to Algiers. We're a bit concerned that the flight will get cancelled due to the sandstorm.
I fully expect the flight will be late regardless, because its always late.
Day 18
After dinner we tried to take a 2 hour nap. But the wind, rain & people made too much noise. We gave up at 11pm. We departed for the Djanet airport at 11:45pm.
There was a long, slow line to enter the terminal. Once inside, there was a long line to get boarding passes. But the driver knew a bunch of people,
and walked up to the counter with our passports and returned a few minutes later with our boarding passes. We sat in a generic arrivals hall for over an hour.
Our inbound Air algeria flight departed 75 minutes late. Eventually they started allowing people to clear gate security and enter the gate area.
Our plane arrived at 2:15am (instead of 12:55am). They deplaned from the front & rear exits. The terminal has no smoking signs everywhere,
yet people are smoking in the restrooms as if this is some highschool.
Boarding was utter chaos with people literally pushing & shoving just to exit the terminal. They boarded front & rear too, which would have been better if they didn't have just 1 person checking every boarding pass to tell them where to board. The flight was fine. We ended up in the exit row. I tried to sleep. We landed in Algiers just before 6am (90 minutes late). We had to wait 15 minutes for the hotel shuttle to arrive.
The room was kind of a dump. AC didn't work, and there was a leak coming from the ceiling above the toilet. I complained and was moved to a new room, which was much better. I got my first real shower in 9 days.
Just before 9am we went down to the lobby for our day trip/tour of Cherchell & Tapisa. We found the guide, Riad, waiting in the lobby, and we headed out.
The drive mostly ran along the Mediterranean, with pretty green hills and farms.
The first stop was a stone domed mausaleum dating back to Roman times. After that we drove to the town of Cherchill.
There was a really nice museum of Roman artefacts (including several gorgeous mosaics). We stopped for lunch at a nice seafood restaurant.
I got grilled whiting with a huge salad. The final stop was the Roman ruins in Tipaza. It was a nice park on the water, with lots of friendly cats.
Day 19
what a fiasco. the airport shuttle was a few minutes late. then a guy exploded a bottle of sparkling water in the shuttle. the Air France boarding pass counter opened 40 minutes late. departure cards were only in french and the immigration guy scolded me for not completing every line. my punishment was being sent to the currency declaration interrogation, where i literally had to show them that my wallet had zero Algerian dinar. the VIP lounge has the same awful food as the domestic lounge from before Djanet. its not even 5am, and i'm already exhausted.
boarding the plane required me to present my passport & boarding pass to 4 different security goons up to stepping on the plane. one of them seemed to be demanding to open my bags when another said something about America, and then I was waived through.
Thankfully all the remaining travel home went smoothly.
All trip pictures are posted HERE
Overall, it was a good trip, and wrapped up my exploration of North Africa. I wouldn't rule out returning to either country, but Libya really stood out as the unexplored gem worthy of another visit.
A GPX map track from the trip is:
This post is part 2 of the "libya-algeria-2025" series: