The Beginning

At last, the long anticipated trip has finally come! My trip to Western Sahara. I've just boarded the plane. It was a pretty expensive ticket for an 8 day round trip from the cold, wet Seattle to the hot, desert sands of Western Sahara, but thanks to Kayak, it only cost $4,919! The only thing left is to reach my destination, of course, with a few stops... First stop, Frankfurt, Germany, then a second stop at Casablanca, Morocco, and then finally, land at Dakhla, Morocco, where I have to drive to Western Sahara. The plane ride itself, in total, is 44 hours and 45 minutes! Weird to think that when I finally reach my destination, 2 days will have already passed! I guess to start of my "little" blog, I should inform you, whomever is reading, about Western Sahara's past and present, and what to expect for future travelers!

  Western Sahara is a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North Africa. For those who don't know what the Maghreb region is, it is, in the simplest terms, western part of North Africa. Bordering Western Sahara is Morocco (North), Algeria (extreme Northeast), Mauritania (East and South), and the Atlantic Ocean (West).

The population of Western Sahara is over 500,000. That's how many people live in Seattle, Washington! It's the size of Colorado and has a relatively flat land, with a few little mounds of rocky or sandy mountains... "Surprisingly", its very hot and dry! Rain is rare and sometimes fog and heavy dew comes in from cold-offshore air currents. Western Sahara is a tropical desert, with similar weather to Dubai. The days are hot, often reaching 38°C (100°F), but don't feel so hot in the (usually non-existent) shade because of the low humidity. Nights cool off quickly because of the lack of insulating cloud cover and can be cool with lows in single figures (<50°F). Near to the Atlantic coast, light fogs can be generated by warm, moisture laden winds from the Atlantic Ocean, meeting the cooler early morning air from the desert.

The main religion of Western Sahara is Sunni Muslims (99.9%). Sunni Muslims are a member of the branch of Islam that accepts the first four caliphsas rightful successors to Muhammad.

Now, fellow readers, I must fly off (pun intended), from the rainy west coasts of Seattle, to the arid land of Western Sahara! Just so everyone can get caught up with information about, well, pretty much everything in Western Sahara, I've added a video above! Please watch, the narrator has a heavy accent, but it's a truly amazing video (well put together), and you don't have to read so much!!