Crossing the border from Morocco into Mauritania took us 7 hours and 6 minutes in total. It was most of our group’s longest ever border crossing. Our passports were checked multiple times, our truck was x-rayed and a sniffer dog sniffed (and left dog hair on) all our bags. Other than that, there was just a lot of waiting as there were many trucks in the queue before us. No-man’s land between the exit from Morocco and entry into Mauritania was filled with rusted cars, parts and old tyres. I could have had a field day litter picking here, but we didn’t get out of the truck or even deviate from the road as apparently it’s also littered with land mines.
and the colourful fish market about 4kms out of town
The next day we drove through the Parc National du Diawling and saw some warthogs, monkeys and many birds including egrets and herons. When we reached the end of the park, we had to pay and found out the rates had gone up from 1,000 to 2,000 Ougiyas from 1st June. They joked that if we left 4 people behind, all of whom had to be women, and one of them me, then we could get a discount! Needless to say, we quickly paid the increased rate.
Mauritania itself was similar in landscape to the Western Sahara – lots of sandy, rocky desert with small shrubs and the occasional herd of camels. We saw the ore train which Lonely Planet describes travelling on as being only for the most hardcore traveller.
We made it into Nouadhibou just on sunset and never ceased to attract attention in our big yellow bus.
Josh and I were on cook group duty (Ron also got subbed in as Staci is in Senegal) so we got straight on to preparing a “truck meal” otherwise known as a “floorboard special” – canned meatballs with mash and baked beans with mash for us vegos, as well as pasta and beetroot for a salad for tomorrow lunch. I ended up finishing my shower at 11pm that night and was up again at 6am the next day preparing brekkie and finishing off the lunch prep.
Nouakchott was our main destination in Mauritania as we were only ever meant to transit through the country due to the UK’s FCO advice. Us Aussies had to get our Senegal visas here, and luckily we managed to get them as normally they don’t issue them on Thursdays, and are closed on Friday and Saturday. Nouakchott was an interesting town
with a few main sights – Ali Baba’s burger joint, the grande mosquée,
the market,
and the colourful fish market about 4kms out of town
where I did some litter picking.
Most of the rubbish consisted of plastic cups.
We then had one bush camp on the way to the Senegal border and slept in Jo’s new pink double mozzie net with lace around each side (purchased in Nouakchott for 3,000 Ougiyas: 1 euro = 360 ougiyas), protected by the Gendarmes who spent the night near us to keep us safe.
The next day we drove through the Parc National du Diawling and saw some warthogs, monkeys and many birds including egrets and herons. When we reached the end of the park, we had to pay and found out the rates had gone up from 1,000 to 2,000 Ougiyas from 1st June. They joked that if we left 4 people behind, all of whom had to be women, and one of them me, then we could get a discount! Needless to say, we quickly paid the increased rate.
We also found this car nearby, but clearly wouldn’t want to be going anywhere in it in a hurry!
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