Two passengers walk off into the void along one lightly traveled track, while the other track heads towards a valley. At the junction is a decrepit building and although there are no officers at the checkpoint, our diver scrounges some water from a barrel. He refills Ampara's bottle with dirty water, but later on it bounces out the back of the Land Rover so there was no need to waste sterilizing tablets on it. Shortly we arrive at a village in a narrowing canyon. Our humble abode The walls of the canyon have closed in, the floor is covered by date palms crowding against the cliffs.
Family groups lounge around on mats and mattresses in the cool moist shade amongst greenery.
This is the dream of desert dwellers, and will do us nicely. A bit further upstream comes the sound of splashing and kids yelling, doubtless a pool. If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Africa Insiders page .