If you have trouble pronouncing Tamanrasset, the most southerly Saharan oasis in Algeria, do not worry. It is easier than you think. When I asked for a flight to Tamanrasset at the Algerian Airlines office in Algiers, the clerk hesitated a moment and then replied with a forgiving smile, ''Ah, vous voulez descendre sur Tam, M'sieur ...?'' In Algeria everyone settles for Tam.
But saying the name is the only painless thing about visiting the oasis. Tamanrasset is the gateway to the desolate splendor of the Hoggar Mountains - an incredible moonscape of wind-worn, rocky pinnacles rising 10,000 feet above sea level -and the site of the hermitage where Pere Charles de Foucauld, the French mystic and explorer, spent the last years of his life.
Going there is well worthwhile. But if you go, forget the sybaritic habits of a modern tourist and treat the trip as an adventure or a pilgrimage. The going can be rough.
The daily flight to Tam leaves at the untouristical hour of 5:30 A.M., and because the fare is relatively cheap there is often a wait of several days for a reservation. The 2,000-mile round trip costs about $170.
To my suprise, the night porter at the Aletti Hotel in Algiers had no difficulty finding a taxi shortly after 4 A.M. on the morning of my departure. Before dawn the domestic departure lounge at Algiers Houari Boumediene Airport is thronged with young soldiers carrying kitbags, executives in Western suits and white-robed travelers laden with boxes and bundles of every shape, all struggling to board planes to the desert. The confusion increases as dawn approaches and the pious spread prayer rugs in front of the departure gates.
Once aloft, the airport chaos is quickly forgotten as the Boeing 737 begins the long milk run to Tam. Within minutes Algeria's fertile coastal strip gives way to the snow-streaked peaks of the Atlas Mountains and then to the orange haze of the desert.
As the plane puts down every hour or so at little oases with names like Ougla and Beni-Timourine, the world of the desert presses in closer. Gradually the soldiers and businessmen in the passenger cabin are replaced by heavily veiled women and desert tribesmen in turbans that tower like dollops of whipped cream.
By 10 A.M. the plane is circling over the brown humps of the Hoggar Mountains, rising from the Saharan sand like the half-submerged bones of some colossal monster. Then it lands on the tiny airstrip at Tamanrasset, a city of about 2,000.
Even in March the sun is fierce and the air dry and clear on the high sandy plateau, ringed by jagged mountaintops, where Tamanrasset lies. For about $2.50 an old bus carries passengers a few miles along a desert road to the dusty, low-built town with tree-shaded streets and camels tethered in the parking lots. The bus finally deposits its passengers at the only hotel, the Tam Tahat, a modern building constructed in the style of an old Arab fort and standing on the edge of Tamanrasset with sand dunes lapping at its walls.
Despite an attractive exterior, the Tam Tahat is proof that modern American-style hotels are not easily transferred to the southern Sahara. Tantalizing signs in the lobby point the way to a swimming pool that was never built because the water supply proved inadequate. Even with this saving, the hotel bathrooms run dry around 9 A.M., encouraging an early rise.
Inside the hotel are big, airy public rooms with high ceilings and few windows, which remain quite cool during the heat of the day without air-conditioning. The dining room is similarly spacious, with comfortable chairs and clean white cloths on the tables. Guestrooms are relatively small with balconies and concrete sunbreaks that keep them reasonably cool and shaded without air-conditioning. Unfortunately, many have become rundown through lack of proper upkeep. Lights do not work, toilet seats are broken or nonexistent, wash basins are cracked and stained.
Simple but adequate food is available in the dining room, with a lunch or dinner of salad, roast meat, fruit and wine costing about $20 a person. Rooms with balconies are about $40 a night for a double with bath, and many command an impressive view of the camel dormitory, where the ships of the desert are moored for the night. (Camels do not snore, by the way; they squeak and grunt.)
