Monday 13th March – Day around Dakhla

We were collected for breakfast at 8.00 and taken to the Samarkand restaurant for a breakfast of bread rolls, omelette, cheese and tea/coffee with freshly squeezed orange juice. We chose a table area that looked out over the bay and along the beech there were Grey Plover, Turnstone, Whimbrel and Little Egret foraging. Just as we sat down to eat a couple of Ospreys flew along, one flew up over the café but the other came down the beech, stopping just offshore to catch a fish before carrying on further along.

The morning was spent driving down to the point of La Sarga where there is a large fishing village of shacks generating a huge amount of rubbish. On the way we made a stop at a large group of gulls, mainly Lesser Black Back Gulls with a colour ringed one among them. There are hundreds of fishing boats parked along the sand and tractors roar around collecting them and moving them, fetching them from the sea and dragging them across the sand or just tidying them up. Down on the point there were more gulls and several Caspian Terns with Sanderling running around the shore. A lot of searching through the gulls eventually found an adult Kelp Gull. Around the bay there were lots of waders, including Kentish Plover, Curlew Sandpiper and an Audouin's Gull  In the distance was a flock of Flamingos.

We spent a lot of time looking through the birds and enjoying the boats being moved around. Mohammed took us round to the other side of the bay and left us to walk round the dune while he drove to the other side. Just as we were about to get out we saw a small bird that turned out to be a Red-throated Pipit. Another bird joined it before they flew over the bushes inland. In the sand were lots of Cistanche spikes in various stages from fresh out to very dead. As we walked round the fishing village the amount of rubbish was incredible.

From here we headed back north with a stop for some sea-watching where we saw several Skuas and a few Storm Petrels, but these were too far away to identify positively. There was one of the local fishing boats struggling through the waves heading back to La Sarga.

We drove on through Dakhla and further north via a diversion to the coast to avoid the police checks. There were more flocks of Gulls and Caspian Terns to check through before we came out on the road again and headed further north.

Taking to the side tracks again we came to the edge of the bay and looking down there was a stretch of marshy area with Little egrets and further on we stopped by some rocks and among the Caspian terns were a least three Royal terns. We spent a little time watching them from an odd jumble of rocks before moving closer, taking time to look at and photograph a Dumeril's Sand Lizard.

Returning to the car we travelled back towards Dakhla before going off-piste again and parking by a fish restaurant. We walked down the steps to a small beach-side fish restaurant. It was clled Talamare Huitres and there were oysters being farmed just offshore. The starter was a plate of oysters with lime and then a bowl of tomato, onion, cucumber and a bit of green pepper salad. We were waiting for the main course when a Little egret flew by followed a few minutes later by a Western Reef Heron. The main course arrived as a large tray with a whole fish surrounded by baked potato slices, tomatoes, egg plant and carrot with a large green pepper. It was delicious, except for the pepper which turned out to be very hot. I managed to fit in a paddle from the steps before we left. On the way out a Striped hawkmoth was found on the steps and relocated to a wall for safety.

We returned to our accommodation around four o'clock having seen all the target species and had a great day. As it was still light and as we had 3 hours to kill we decided to try and make it to the sea by walking out and east. We found our way but the area was very trashed and there was little to see and little opportunity for a drink. On the way back we checked out the Collared Doves in case there were any African doves and watched the acrobatic antics of several Little Swifts over the roof tops. We retraced our steps to a small café near the apartments where we had some drinks and made use of their wifi before returning to get freshened up for dinner.  We were collected at 7.30 and had a meal at the Samarkand, enjoyed a mint tea and then came back for the night.
Click here for a map of our route.