http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Mauritania en-us Sun, 19 May 2013 16:35:06 +0000 Sun, 19 May 2013 16:35:06 +0000 SundayDay 36Today we crossed into Mauritania The border opened just after 9am and the truck was squeezed into the queue which had become quite long. We were to walk across as the truck is sent through an xray and also checked for alcohol Mauritania being a dry country. Dressed in long sleeves long pants and proper shoes rather than the flip flops or sandals that have given us our fantastic ta http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-710298.html A lot of websites now offer you iPhone app overview or iPad app critiques which show the recognition from the appearth and intelligent phones in the current days. The two iPhone and iPad are initial merchandise from Apple and are each extremely nicelyliked.iPhone is a wise cell phone that is developing calls sending texts and emails browse the web read guides perform video clips and music a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Chinguetti/blog-703889.html FOtki na razie wpis bdzie z czasem. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-667669.html W drodze do ambasady mijamy sprzedawcow jakis drewnialych bryl. Co to jest jaaa...to kokosy facet stoi z meczetsieka wydlubuje otworek i pijesz potem sieka dalej i wyjmuje to co potem idzie na wiorki z tym ze tutaj teraz jest miekkie i pyszne. Zreszta jak orzeszki ziemne tu tez sa swiee miekkiesoczyste i smakuj troche jak zielona fasolka.Te due kokosy maja nawet sporo mleczka. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-655300.html Stasiek wraca z wizami Wojtek cisnie na gaz pedzimy w strone granicynocleg 100km przed granica mile sniadanie i na granice. Zatrzymuje nas policja i sprawdzaja sie niepokoje wojtkapytaja o ubezpieczenie ktore skonczylo sie dwa dni wczesniej ze wzgledu na czekanie na wize.Na szczescie skonczylo sie na mandacie za niby przekroczenie predkosci . Jestesmy w Mauretaniiprzestrzegani p http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-640113.html I am on the back of a Ute high above the roof sitting on some bags. Its pitch black and I am concentrating so I dont fall asleep. If I do and fall off no one would know for a while. Only one other guy is up there with me and he is facing the other way The rest of the passengers are squeezed inside. There is no evidence to suggest that I am in the Sahara. Its just the sound of the tyres http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Chinguetti/blog-591333.html Will there be somewhere for me to sit down lay down Will I have to stand up the whole time What about a toilet Will I be able to breath Wheres my luggage going to go Even if I am able to sit or lay down whats the state of the floor or seat Will I be able to cope catching an iron ore train for 12 hours not equipped for humans and getting sand blasted by the Sahara for my troublesI cr http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Choum/blog-590841.html We were excited to hit our second country of the trip or third official territory Albeit probably the most dodgy country we would be visiting in terms of current political unrest. The border is notorious for taking a while.... but this time it was the Moroccans who decided to hold us up. We spent about 45 hours on the Moroccan side trying to exit I think Mauritania had us stamped in in a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-557767.html Cute very cute we were but even more naive....The bus ride from Bamako to Nouakchott was indeed a bit more than the promised 30 hours which I also mentioned in the previous blog entry. I would have settled for 40 but in the end it became 50 hours. Ok truth be told we arrived just a bit too late at the border so we were forced to sleep there. But the Mauritanian customs were nice and suggeste http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-550104.html Met a german with dreads and a van to give us a 700km lift south into Mauritania.slept in the dessert on the way dodged camels and traversed landmine infested terrain.border was a bit of a deal. took 5 hours to cross due to paper work and double checks.. looking at our passports again and again.inbetween mauritania and morocco theres 5 km of no mans land.with no road local nomades offer to gui http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-508112.html Climbed into the iron ore train after only an hour of waiting.I'm pretty sure I was the only female in the open bines section no ticket required and definitely the only tourist but I got lucky and rode with three very nice and experienced guys. They had warm blankets and quickly set up a sand firepit in the corner and we had a freshly cooked beef stew tangine and plenty of tea for the trip. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-492619.html Moroccan Sahara days sit at a perfect 33 degrees Celsius with barely a cloud in the sky and the nights are cool with thousands of stars visible above. The small towns of Zagora and MHamid are the last towns on the southbound road in eastern Morocco and are heavily marketed to tourists as the gateways to the Sahara but thankfully tourism has only had the effect of opening a few colorful http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-487783.html Mauritania For more details see our website www.adventurouspirits.comWe had decided not to spend too much time in Mauritania due to the current political situation. The country has recently had a coup and although it appears to stable there were 12 Mauritania soldiers killed in Western Mauritania the week before and tourism has suffered since the murder of a French family traveling through Mauri http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-468824.html Mauritania 16 DaysWe crossed no mans land the several kilometre wide area between the disputed borders between Morocco and Mauritania. It was pretty eirie at the border with so many exploded and abandoned cars and so many people in the middle of fluffing nowhere queing to enter Mauritania.Nouadhibou didnt have much to see but interestingly there were loads of shipwrecks off the coast that were http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-464139.html Last night was spent at Camping Abba in Nouadibou hit the town for a Chinese and a beer returned home and snuggled up to the cockroaches and set myself for an early start.Well before dawn I awoke don't know if it was excitement or apprehension either way as soon as first light broke I was on the road. Got to the border post and filtered past the trucks thought it was 24hr obviously not. Just http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-460624.html Good day today all told nice breakfast chilled start to the day and rattled off 250km's filled up and did another 100km by this time it was getting rather warm and the scenery had definitely moved into the desertdune territory. Intuition told me to fill up at this little filling station even though 13rd full good job i did because it was another 200Km before fuel did pass one in the desert http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/blog-455809.html Arrived in Nouakchott after a 6 hour ride in a small car with a soldier and some older funny men.Learned more about the history of Mauritania by reading my history section in the Lonely Planet I have been carrying around.This country is Desert almost completely so far.I hear it gets a bit more interesting on the border with Senegal.I have been thinking more about my last two major kind of adventur http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Trarza/Nouakchott/blog-417447.html So I have finished up my time in the desert with a camel ride in the Sahara around Chingetti.Left at 5 am and arrived in the nice quite town for about 7am. Was waived through all the checkpoints because our guide is a popular man as he told us when he first met us.Spent most of the day relaxing and getting to know our roomates Olie from England and Corey from Calgary.They were there to checkout http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Chinguetti/blog-417282.html Well quite the experience.First I had to wait 6 hours at the train station because the shipment was behind schedule and it was more important than the passengers makes sensen.Then when I finally got on the train I began to experience the dust...My god.Lots of it.In my eyes hair ears mouth.In all of my luggage.12 hours.BUT it was a lot of fun.The train was an amazin experience.Now I am in At http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Adrar/Atar/blog-416171.html WowSo 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 meSo 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 fr http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mauritania/Dakhlet-Nouadhibou/Nouadhibou/blog-415196.html