El Aaiún, Morocco - Polarsteps

Today I arrived in Laayoune, the first mayor city in the unofficial country Western Sahara. To my surprise it’s actually quite big and modern with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels. It even has a Mac Donald’s! That’s the first place I went to after I checked into my hotel. It’s been ages since the last time I had Mac Donald’s, so I straight up ordered my favorite, a Big Mac menu with finger food. It was fantastic! So far, walking in the Sahara is quite easy. Temperatures are around 30 degrees and there is usually a pleasant tail wind. Finding camping spots isn’t too hard either. From Tan Tan to Laayoune I camped three nights. The first one was at a police check point. It was late and the officer didn’t like the idea of me camping at the coast, so I set up my tent behind a building right next to the check point. The other two nights I went a couple hundred meters off the main road and hid behind some rocks. I hope things keep going like this. Even though the police and the military are super nice, I’m worried they might not like me walking. Usually they only check my passport at the check points, but yesterday a car approached and a police officer checked it on the spot. “For your security” he said. After that, I noticed a police car driving by every hour or so. I might just be a bit paranoid though. I’m hoping so at least.