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Dakhlet Nouadhibou Travel Blogs

Background: Independent from France in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern third of the former Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) in 1976, but relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory. Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed TAYA siezed power in a coup in 1984. Opposition parties were legalized and a new constitution approved in 1991. Two multiparty presidential elections since then were widely seen as flawed, but October 2001 legislative and municipal elections were generally free and open. A bloodless coup in August 2005 deposed President TAYA and ushered in a military council headed by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed VALL, which declared it would remain in power for up to two years while it created conditions for genuine democratic institutions. For now, however, Mauritania remains, a one-party state. The country continues to experience ethnic tensions between its black population and the Maur (Arab-Berber) populace.

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By Bjorndahl
July 4th 2009

Philip: Border Crossing and into Mauritania Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

No Man's Land

Wow, So I thought I was going to go into some kind of internetless void for a week or so because I was going to be too busy traveling and being tired. But then luck fell on me! So last night it looked like I was going to end up paying 350 Dirham to get to Nouadhibou, which takes 7 hours of driving plus border time. Martin and I were debating whether or not to try and hitchhike or take the offer from the man we met at the bus stop in Dakhla. We met a really friendly taxi driver who [View Full Entry]

By LukeIRL
July 18th 2008

From Nouadhibou to Atar Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

Waiting for the Train

This was one of the best stretches of the journey - taking the empty iron ore train from the coast at Nouadhibou to the desert outpost at Choum, and then travelling by pickup over the escarpment into Atar. We waited all day for the train to pass by the station outside Nouadhibou, and then it was all rush to pile foodstuffs, oil barrels, furniture, animals etc into the open wagons. We ended up in a wagon full of wooden doors travelling to Zouerate. It was 9pm by the time the train headed into the desert. We went to sleep on the [View Full Entry]

By pablostrip
July 10th 2008

cape horn Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

dakhla nouadibou

el puto culo del mundo. eso es lo que es nouadhibou. para hacer los 350 km que separan marruecos de mauritania estuve 13 horas en una furgonetilla. al entrar solo estabamos una pareja franco/marroqui que estaban haciendo mas o menos el mismo viaje que yo, pero de improviso en el maletero de la fugonetilla entraron otras 9 personas: oops! en fin, muy divertido el viaje; con bombonas de butano sin amarrar del techo de la furgoneta que va por una carreterilla en territorio minado; ofrecimientois de matrimonio; ninos volando de un lado a otro; dos conejos apestando a orina; la abuela [View Full Entry]

By pnltravels
March 5th 2008

Goodbye Morocco, Hello Mauritania! Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

The Ship Cemetery

We left our hotel in Dakhla, Morocco in a hired car at 7:00 am. We stopped just outside of town to pick up 2 more passengers (thankfully not 4 more! we still haven't recovered from that ride!). Between Dakhla and Nouadhibou (Mauritania), it is about 350 km. We optomistically thought we would arrive in Nouadhibou around noon. We arrived at the Moroccan border at about 12:30 pm and for the first time, we weren't the ones to hold up our vehicle. We had a young Mauritanian fellow in our car (I call him "The Prince" as that was how he seemed [View Full Entry]

By Viajerong Pinoy
December 8th 2007

DESERTS AND MOSQUITOES Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

LUNCH STOP AT THE PARC NACIONAL DU BANC D ARGUIN

The Moroccan side of the border took us just over 3 hours to get through, lot of bureaucracy we got stopped no less than 3 times within the frontier, police stop, army stop etc. Then after we are through comes 3 km of no mans land full of garbage and abandoned cars, we stopped a moment to help a stranded car in the sands little did we know we will get stuck as well, out the tire mats and we worked hard to dig betsy out and by the time we got to the Mauritanian frontier it was quarter to 3, [View Full Entry]

By AfricaBound
October 17th 2007

Mauritania Part 1 - Nouadhibou and the real desert crossing Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

Sahara 10

We arrived in Nouadhibou the night of the 14th. A stark contrast to relatively civilized Morocco. This is when Kathie finally exclaimed, "okay, now we're in Africa!" The town itself is not much to speak of, but it was a place to re-charge after a couple of nights bush camping and stock up on supplies for the 3-day journey across the sand dunes to the capital of Nouakchott. After a short drive along the road, we left the tarmac and began our trek through the sand. Rather than roads, there are trails left behind by previous vehicles where the tracks haven't [View Full Entry]

By Marcoelitaliano
September 23rd 2007

The Train Ride Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

Travelling in Style

When I got to the station there was still plenty of time before the train left. A man drinking tea in the shade had told me it was twenty past three and the train didn’t go till six o’clock, so I decided to have a look outside to pass the time away. The journey from Atar had been both dreadfully hard and gloriously spectacular. Over twenty people -all men- crossing one of the harshest desert in the world on a white Toyota van. The car was so overloaded that more than once we all had been forced to get off and [View Full Entry]

By threels
February 4th 2007

Nouadhibou (3203 km) Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

Om 8:45, wordt er op mijn deur geklopt, ik heb me verslapen, om 9:00u stap ik verkreukeld in het oude Nissan, minivrachtwagentje, we gaan eerst heel Dahkla door, om boodschappen te doen, olie bijvullen, tanken, thee halen, mint kopen, broodjes kopen, nog wat spullen laden, nog een tijdje wachten bij de politiepost, tegen de tijd dat we goed en wel op weg gaan richting Nouadhibou is het 11:00u, we rijden een uurtje, dan gaan we lunchen en dan kunnen we eindelijk opweg, ondertussen zijn we al bijna verdronken in de thee, de bijrijder maakt onder het rijden met een gasbrandertje tussen [View Full Entry]

By WorldVoyageur
December 20th 2005

Border formalities Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

A lot of banter in several languages was going on between the six of us. Two of the three Moroccan women were in the back with Gianni, Julian, Brendan and myself. Having been firmly shut in by a bar across the back door of the van we couldn't see much at all and were trying to talk above the noise level of the engine. Occasionally Gianni would peer out of the dirty rear windows and tell us that there were camels out there .. I started reading my first guide book on Mauritania which Brendan had thoughtfully brought along. First things [View Full Entry]

By Stuart
December 28th 2004

At home with the Mama family. Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou » Nouadhibou

Nouadhibou

This is the 2nd attempt to write this blog. I had to abandon writing this half way through yesterday. It's been a few days since I last updated this blog. In that time a group of us have been invited to the home of a local family. The Mama's family hospitality has been without bounds. Merci beaucoup! Also I've been trying to leave this town for a couple of days, each time I go to the train station, there's no train. It's becoming like a recurrent dream, where you can't move... More about that later. So, to update recent events... When [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Africa » Mauritania » Dakhlet Nouadhibou