I guess we're gonna have to call it a draw...

First round went to Jephir,

In the second, a few low blows gave the round to the Sahara.

But in the third....

It all seemed to be going so well - until it took us 72 hours to travel 1000 km (that's 600 miles). Luckily, Jephir kept it's cool and made it to Dakhla unscathed. For the sheer intensity of the Saharan onslaught we had to call it a draw. Difficulties included: having our ride show up 5 hours late, breaking down 4 km outside of town (broken strut), sleeping in the van (it's free!), again having the driver show up 5 hours late, sleeping in the van (again, still free) at the border, being ditched the following morning at the border, loading ourselves into the back of a van (sans fenetre, i.e. no windows) full of empty wooden crates and finally making it to Dakhla to miss the bus to Marrakech because the ATM machine decided it didn't like our bankcard all of a sudden. So, we sleep the night away in Dakhla and tomorrow its 24 hours of goodness to Marrakech.

A few observations from the latest leg of our trip:

Old French people have few qualms about screwing over young American travelers.

Few things sound as strange as a Mauritanian speaking fluent English with a Philly accent, except for maybe the stray Mauritanian speaking fluent English with a British accent and displaying the mannerisms of Bilbo Baggins.

Mauritanians can often resemble these folk.

But they're really quite friendly - we drank at least 35 cups of tea over the 3 days and our driver did everything he could to help after screwing us over (because his car died).

This is a great photo. (should be the first Jephir action figure)