Blogs from Néma, Hodh Ech Chargui, Mauritania, Africa

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Africa » Mauritania » Hodh Ech Chargui » Néma July 29th 2008

We were told that this route wasn’t passable in the rainy season, but there was a track going up on the escarpment that was being used by 4X4s at the time. We left Nema around midday, and drove straight up a track going up the escarpment, which led us to scrubby pastures populated by many goats and camels. The tracks were quite waterlogged and we got stuck quite often - we pushed of mud holes, just to get covered in mud from the skidding tires! At lunch / prayer time, a berber family brought zreg (camel/goat milk) to us from their camp on a hillock above the grass, which was shared among all 16 or so passengers, and a fire was prepared for tea, which once again was shared out evenly. The day went on like ... read more
The pickup

Africa » Mauritania » Hodh Ech Chargui » Néma July 28th 2008

We took a mercedes grand-taxi from Nouakchott to Nema, 1000km away near the Malian border. The trip took 25 hours through rain storms, lightning storms, sunshine and darkness. At one stage we were crawling through a flood in the very middle of a thunder and lightning storm, with water around our feet from the flood around us and coming through the roof from the rain. For a while we lost the road but eventually found it again. Our taxi driver was an absolute legend - in those 25 hours he drove for 23 and slept for 2 - and he kept the car ticking over, bending the radiheater pump upwards when we were driving through deep floods to create a sort of snorkle for the engine. At times floods were too deep and we had to ... read more
View from the road
Pushing through a flood
Flooding




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