Les ruines d'Ouara

My visit to Ouara is more of a story about the journey and not much the destination itself. In Jan 2012, a friend and I convinced the relevant authorities (through some very loose associations with NGO's in the country) that we should be given permits to travel to Abeche, ostensibly to research some future work there.

I don't remember now how we heard about Ouara but it was along the lines of vague rumours of ruins somewhere nearby. Asking around town we were given all sorts of directions and replies until we found an old bedouin mototaxi driver that claimed to have been there once years ago. He recruited another driver nearby to assist as well and in one of the most foolish travel decisions of our lives, at 1pm in 30+C and without any additional preparations we jumped on and headed out of town thinking it would be a quick trip. I can only say with confidence the site is somewhere ~40km north of town somewhere nestled behind a small mountain well off the main dirt road heading north from Abeche. We finally arrived there about 20 minutes before sunset after stopping for directions at every little village we found, a couple flat tires, nap time under a tree and an aborted mutiny by the 2nd driver and finally an off road "short cut" that only ended in success when we found a lone camel herder to get us around the last corner so to speak.

Ouara …