After having already spent over a month exploring the Mauritanian side of the Sahara, I reached the most well-known area of the country, where sights are numerous and easier to access.
Despite having a relatively large tourist crowd, not everything is simple in the Adrar region. The locals told us about what they call the “real desert”, an area so vast and harsh that you won’t ever encounter another soul.
That stretch of desert expands from the town of Chinguetti all the way to Timbuktu, over 1000km away.  In the real desert, not even the bravest nomads live. There isn’t a single village, camp, or hint of civilization, just sand.
It was then that we were told about La Gueila, an Oasis that stands at the entrance of this harsh patch of land. To get there, we had to get together with two guides and their camels, who brought us to La Gueila through a strenuous 12km hike over pure sand. Walking on the sand is hard enough, but it gets brutal when paired with the total absence of cover from the sun and a 5-hour hike.
This project conveys the life of the people traveling to and from La Gueila, through the start of the largest stretch of pure desert on Earth.