Hell ends in Tan Tan

It is 6 am; the sun rises on the Saharan horizon. I'm curled like a slug, buried deep down in my sleeping bag. A trickle of air seeping up to

Reduced to Insignificance

The psychological effort I need to leave this service station is immeasurable. There is nothing around it in about 200 km in every direction,

Western SaharaNicolás Marino10 May 2016africa, sahara, saharauis, Dakhla, Western Sahara, adventure, desert, sand, wind, bicycle touring

Chronicles of a Lost Battle

I pedal with my head wrapped in my turban and my eyes sheltered behind my sunglasses. The glow of the incandescent sand in the midday sun blinds me. In this Saharan

Western SaharaNicolás Marino8 May 2016sahara, mauritania, africa, western sahara, adventure, bicycle, cycling, travel, desert, ordeal

The Iron Serpent

Pasaron 10 años desde que comencé a viajar en bicicleta por el mundo y no tengo planes de cambiar de medio de transporte, pero si tuviera que elegir un medio motorizado en el que yo no

MauritaniaNicolás Marino4 May 2016africa, mauritania, sahara, choum, nouadhibou, Zouerat, train, adventure, cargo, iron train, west africa, desert, iron ore

The Heart of the Adrar

Most travelers who cross this region of Africa do so by following the most direct route, which is the one that follows the coast of the continent. However, my intention is not

MauritaniaNicolás Marino25 April 2016mauritania, adrar, sahara, africa, touareg, jaimas, bicycle touring, adventure, desert, headwind, tents, adversity, west africa, dunes, cobras, snkes, snakes

Teamwork

As soon as I get off the taxi, the stench assaults my nostrils penetrating deep into my lungs. For a few seconds I hold my breath to digest the impact. I exhale, and try to

The Return to the Sahara

Rosso, the main border crossing between Senegal and Mauritania, has one of the worst reputations in all of Africa. Among travelers, stories abound of

MauritaniaNicolás Marino16 April 2016africa, mauritania, sahara, keur macene, daraa, diama, border, adventure, headwind, desert, dunes, dawn, west africa

Toubab, Toubab, Toubab!!!

I leave Dakar full of energy. I feel like new. I shaved after 5 months, I cut my hair, I got deodorant and everything smells of soap because I washed the few clothes I have. It is not just any

SenegalNicolás Marino14 April 2016senegal, africa, lac rose, adventure, St Louis, toubab, sahara, bicycle touring, wind, desert

Sahel

Despite the great inconvenience, I am surprised at how quickly I am able to resolve the end of the visa process. I find it amazing because that's how things are always like in Africa: totally unpredictable.

Burkina FasoNicolás Marino2 January 2016burkina faso, sahel, africa, desert, adventure, touring, bicycle, cycling, fulani, fula, tribes, niger, mali

Simple Happiness

My original intention to head directly to the heart of the Sahel once I entered Burkina Faso, was truncated by the unexpected condition imposed on Burkinese visas obtained at the country's borders.

Burkina FasoNicolás Marino30 December 2015burkina faso, africa, sahel, fulani, gourmatche, gourma, fula, dor, cycling, bicycle, touring, adventure, village, desert

BF - Burkina Faso - or - Bureaucracy Folly

It's mid-morning, the sun is high already and the heat is tightening. I am happy because I am about to cross into a country that I have been waiting for so long to arrive: Burkina Faso. It is one of those countries (as were Kyrgyzstan, Gabon and others in the past) to which, with total honesty, I always wanted to go mostly because of the very curiosity that the name generated in me

Burkina FasoNicolás Marino27 December 2015burkina faso, sahel, visa, togo, africa, adventure, cycling, touring, desert

The chanting of the lions

After the rough crossing of the Namib, I took a week off in Windhoek to recover my strength, to eat very well, to braai (barbacue) every night with very good friends, and most importantly

NamibiaNicolás Marino2 June 2015africa, namibia, kaokoland, damaraland, desert, opuwo, himba, tribes, cycling, bicycle, touring, lions, animals, elephant

The Sublime Beauty of Desolation

Throughout my years as a traveler, I have discovered, especially since I began to travel by bicycle, that the essence of a country and a culture lies in that delicate transition that occurs between its the renowned points of interest.

NamibiaNicolás Marino21 May 2015cycling, namibia, sossusvlei, deadvlei, desert, namib, africa

Enjoy the Silence

By the time I arrived at Vioolsdrif, the South African border post, all the landscape and atmospheric phenomena around me had been transformed; an extra-planetary sunset indicated my course: Namibia

NamibiaNicolás Marino12 May 2015cycling, bicycle, magic, surreal, namibia, bicyle, touring, desert, namib, namib rand, hyena, sunset, colors, milky way, night photography

The Omo Circus

The departure from Addis was the starting point of our long scape from Ethiopia. We had already spent a month and a half in the middle of the country, and our

EthiopiaNicolás Marino28 July 2014adventure, arbore, bicycle, dassanech, desert, ethiopia, hamar, hamer, omo valley, omo, omorate, river, touring, tribal, tribe, turkana, valley

From the Capital of Sand to the Border

From an aesthetics point of view, sincerely speaking, Khartoum is not the most attractive city in the world. In terms of architecture, it is a city built half-way, in fact, there is no single building that

SudanNicolás Marino25 May 2014adventure, bicycle, border, cycling, desert, food, fuul, galabat, heat, juice, khartoum, mango, qadarif, sahara, sahel, sandstorm, sudan, touring

For a Few Crumbs of Gold

Much more than the idyllic images of silhouettes of camel caravans walking at a slow pace along the undulating golden dunes at sunset, the Sahara is for many, the place to come to earn a living. In this vast ocean of sand, the abrasive heat, the harshness of the wind and the cruelty of the sun make it unthinkable that a place to work can be possibly found here.

SudanNicolás Marino5 May 2014delgo, desert, excavation, fever, gold fever, gold, golden, market, mine, miners, mining, nubian, sahara, sudan

The Sudanese

I perceived it from the very beginning in Wadi Halfa, while walking along its streets of sand in that very hot Saharan night. I looked around me and the hundreds of merchants that filled the

SudanNicolás Marino30 April 2014adventure, bicycle, camels, cycling, desert, kerma, nile, nubia, nubians, people, sahara, sudan, touring, wedding

Sweating Sudan

We are in the queue to buy the tickets for the boat to Wadi Halfa, it's 46 C in the shade. While we wait, two nice Egyptian tour agents get in the queue behind us and exclaim effusively the usual: “Welcome to Alaska!” to

SudanNicolás Marino26 April 2014adventure, bicycle, cycling, desert, heat, kerma, mamba, moltaga, nile, river, sahara, sudan, summer, temperature, touring, wind

Welcome to Alaska??

Only when you reach the Nile after having spent weeks in the desert is when you are finally able to understand its historical and present-day relevance. It is very

EgyptNicolás Marino20 April 2014adventure, aswan, bicycle, cycling, desert, domino, egypt, luxor, nile, river, sahara, shisha, touring