http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Mauritania en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:11:58 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:11:58 BST chinguetti was beautiful but I dont feel like writting about it much. just check the pictures Ill post something else instead in a while...oh yeah just wanted to say that if you want to go to chinguetti you should go noow. since the killing of a bunch of frenchies in mauritania its a dessert city. me and the ppl that came with me were the only tourists in the city and besides some CIA spies http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Chinguetti/blog-300463.html there are no words nor images nor smells to describe the train trip. but Ill try...so heres the thing the train comes to nouadibou from somewhere in the middle of the dessert full of minerals is emptied in the port and then goes back. this happens two or three times a day insh alah and of course the train is only cleaned before its loaded with minerazls which means that by the tilme it get http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Choum/blog-300447.html 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 francomarroqui 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 am http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-297901.html We arrived at the train station early a small building beside the tracks constitutes the station to be sure we wouldn't miss the train as we did not know exactly when it left. Our group of four grew steadily as other travellers joined us. Sylvia and Michiel are from Dresden Germany he is Dutch though Marty is a fellow Canadian who is from Alberta and three Japanese fellows also joined us http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-255049.html We left our hotel in Dakhla Morocco in a hired car at 700 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 1230 pm and for the first http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-253083.html Mauritania is not a popular tourist destination. It has two main paved roads they are so skinny that I held my breath each time our car approached a HUGE overloaded truck often. The only way to get anywhere is in a small French car that is used as a longdistance taxi called a bush taxi. It is a fillandgo policy and the car is not full until there are 4 people in the backseat and two in http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-250323.html First stop in West Africa and a good place to warmup before heading south. Vast empty and amazing landscape. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-228528.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-226085.html Well after a good few days bush camping i.e. just camping in the woods or by a huge sand dune etc we have arrived in Mauritania.Everyone was glad to see a shower as the rolling about on a hyge sand dune seemed to get everyone very sandy... apparently the girls suffered the worst...We had to use the sand boards to get the truck across no mans land between Morocco and Mauritania which was rather http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-224745.html Hey Everyone I think itrsquos being about a month or so since I updated my blog. Donrsquot know if anyone even reads these but I thought that I would still write on the chance that people are. Things have being very hectic the last few weeks. I have being at site for about five weeks which is to long for me. After about week four Irsquom feeling the need to talk to my parents or use t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/blog-224052.html Faced with four and a half hours of free time on a Saturday afternoon in Saint Louis what else were we going to do but walk to Mauritania Our guidebook had a little map with an arrow saying Mauritania 3km so we figured it'd be no problem. Our first problem was that we forgot to figure in all the kilometres that it was going to take to get to the part of the map where the 3km started. In order http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/blog-222798.html 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 didnrsquot go till six orsquoclock 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-221293.html After a night in Nouakchott to shower and catch up on food shopping we ventured away from the coast inland to the old trading city of Chinguetti. Once a major player in Mauritania it is still considered by Mauritanians to be one of the holiest places in Islam. The city itself is a shadow of its former self and is slowly giving way to the sands of the desert that surround it. It's incredible to http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Chinguetti/blog-216756.html While the cities in Mauritania are anything but special the drive from Nouadhibou to Nouakchott was far and away the highlight of the trip on the Dover to Dakar section. There is a brand new tarmac'd highway linking the two cities but if we took that it would entirely defeat the purpose of travelling overland. A little sandmatting was certainly worth the effort in order to experience the real http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-213939.html 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 AfricaThe town itself is not much to speak of but it was a place to recharge after a couple of nights bush camping and stock up on supplies for the 3day journey across the sand dunes to the capital of Nouakchott.After a short drive alon http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-213920.html Hello Everyone Well it's being a while since I posted anything on my blog which I apologize for. No excuse really just got lazy for some reason. This posting finds me in the middle of Ramadan though I'm not fasting but it sure is hot here. The other day atar hit 120 degress. Not fun by any means but the cold season should be coming soon and it does actually get cold here during the night and http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Atar/blog-205511.html As you are not allowed to take alcohol out of Morocco and Mauritania is almost a dry country upwards of US4 for a beer who is going to pay that we spent the last night in MoroccoWestern Sahara burying all beer wine and spirits deep inside the truck hoping they wouldn't be found. On all previous trips apparently the trucks had been searched and alcohol removed lucky border guards. So af http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-175334.html hello everyone I havn't written in a while. Don't know why since I've being in atar a few times. Just lazy I suppose. Well school is done with for the summer. I gave my final test to the students and unfortunately their were not that many that did good. We had a teachers meetingwhich I missed because I was in atar and found afterword that a great majority of my students either will have to http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-173316.html DakhlaNouakchottTom GriffithThe Sahara You know you have arrived in West Africa when your old van breaks down in the desert wilderness of No Man's Land and then again five minutes past the customs check requiring you and five hastilygathered Mauritanians to get behind and give it a push. Yes we made it to Mauritania and it instantly felt so much more African than Morocco. From the ricketty w http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-161381.html Die Sekretaerin als Repraesentant des Spiessbuergertums. Beim Anblick der heissen Blondine sprach sie Na Betti was geht http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-159178.html There are numerous terms of varying political correctness to describe the stage of development of African countries. To give you an idea of where Mauritania is at the election campaign pledge of the recently appointed president was ldquoto stamp out slavery for goodrdquo The slave trade was only outlawed here in 1980 but apparently it continues. Mauritania is a fascinating country to tra http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-152179.html Since I left you in Morocco I've travelled south from Marrakech and on to Mauritania via the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Western Sahara as I found out was invaded by Morocco in 1975 resulting in a 16 year long guerilla war against the occupation. There's been a ceasefire for ages now but for the last 15 years the locals have been waiting to vote in a referendum to decide on indep http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-149539.html 4507 Sun Sand But where's the ocean So I'm back. I know I haven't written in awhile. Being at site for a few weeks and only came into atar last week. I'm in Atar for spring break since there is nothing to do at my site. Some of the students have left since many of them are not from Aoujeft they just live there during the school year. So their isn't much to do during the break so I http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-145685.html hello everyone just wanted to write a quick note to say that I've posted three pictures. They may not show up with my entries so you may have to hunt around for them on this site. They may be under galleries with the title of my mauritanian pictures. enjoy and i will post more later.jolene http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-133739.html Met z039n vieren achterin een oude Mercedes gepropt beginnen we aan de acht uur duurende rit richting Nouakchott de hoofdstad van Mauritani. Op de gebruikelijke gebed en theestops na schieten we lekker op de chauffeur rijdt lekker door rond 2200u staan we bij een politiepost aan de stadsgrens van Nouakchott wat er op dat moment precies aan de hand is kan ik niet helemaal volgen maar wat http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-133691.html Vandaag gaan we richting Chinguetti een rustplaats voor de vroegere kameel karavaans richting het zuiden of richting Mekka het begin van de ''echte'' Sahara zoals iedereen hem kent met z'n eindeloze zandduinen. Rond negen gaan we richting ''garage Chinguetti'' de verzamelplaats van pickups richting Chinguetti. Zoals gewoonlijk is het na de onderhandelingen over de juiste prijs wachten tot de pi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Chinguetti/blog-133682.html Ik was van plan met de trein richting het westen te gaan in het hostel ontmoet ik een Griekse gozer hij heeft dezelfde plannen en we hebben gisteren afgesproken vandaag samen de trein te pakken richting Choum. De trein komt in plaats van rond 1400u rond 1600u aan de trein is inmens de wagons houden werkelijk niet op het is de langste trein terwereld met soms wel tot 300 wagons en een tot http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Atar/blog-133670.html hey everyone it's being awhile since i last posted and alot of stuff has happened. after christmas i went back to my site for a month which is the longest i've being at my site without going into my regional capital. my freind from madden which is two hours away from my site. he was on his way back to madden from atar and the taxi stopped at my town and he had to switch cars to go back to madd http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-131995.html Om 845 wordt er op mijn deur geklopt ik heb me verslapen om 900u 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 1100u we http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-130125.html Whoa itrsquos been a little while since wersquove written. Wersquove been here a week it seems like so much longer. Herersquos a rundown of the past weekSATURDAY We slept from 5pm Friday until 9am on Saturday. We got up cooked breakfast with Rafo and headed off to see the Plaza De Armas. We visited the Cathedral and we saw the painting of the ldquoLast Supperrdquo with the Gu http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-118769.html