Blogs from Dakhlet Nouadhibou, Mauritania, Africa

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 4-5 hours on the Moroccan side trying to exit, I think Mauritania had us stamped in in about an hour. Ridiculous really being harder to leave a country than enter one!! I think the most interesting aspect of our border experience was the no man’s land – always a place I find surreal. This particular no man’s land was a cross between a car graveyard, an abandoned fridge graveyard and random locals trying to solicit random business. It was desolate ... read more

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 M’Hamid 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 souvenir shops, and so you don’t have to go far to see that the traditional Berber lifestyle still dominates. Spending an afternoon trekking south towards the Algerian border on camels belonging to a friend of Aziz quickly explained how easy it is to get lost in the desert; orientation is nearly impossible because of the lack of any type of trail or notable landmarks (unless ... read more

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 y elo abuelo medio muerto; clases de arabe aceleradas... ese el viaje, ahora bien; noudibou es cosa aparte. no hay nada, rien, end of the line, fin del mundo, cape horn. es surrealista este sitio. ... read more

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 been covered by blowing sand. We would not have made it very far if we did not have our guide Ahmed with us. He is from Nouadhibou and is a very famous guide. He knows ... read more

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 zijn benen de ene pot thee na de andere. Het eerst uur gaat het goed, tot we de eerst heuvels tegen komen, er is iets met de gaskabel of zo, we komen net boven, na ... read more