Blogs from Mauritania, Africa - page 3

So that’s it for Mauritania. I'm off to Senegal tomorrow. So the desert ended well. Evoku took me to his parents place in Atar the last night and got me in a cab to Choum the following day to catch a train to Nouadibou. Evoku’s family is very cute --- his wife, it turns out, is only 16 and they’ve been married for six years! Anyway, I find myself having strange paternal instincts, which must be due to a lack of intoxicants --- will cure that soon. So I got on the train with a feisty old Frenchman named Jacques. The Mauritanians thought he was Jewish because he looks a bit that way (to Mauritanians), although it probably had more to do with him arguing over the ticket price (again fitting Mauritanian's stereotypes). The train was ... read more

First some reflections on the pick-up ride yesterday. A once in a lifetime experience. I stress ONCE. However, it was very cool despite being somewhat hellish. So yesterday I decided to take a six day camel excursion with a young guy (Evoku) from Chingetti. Once we finally got to Chingetti (blown tire on the truck) a French woman gave me some good info on Senegal. Later her Burkinabe friend gave me info about Burkina Faso so I can stay at his house --- how unbelievably friendly since he has no idea who I am. Staying with Evoku’s family which includes his 18 year old wife and two children, as well as a large extended family. I’m supposed to go to Oudane but that plan got shot due to oil exploration (?). Also there’s a problem with ... read more

Still in Nouachott! I was thinking about leaving today but decided to wait until tomorrow to exchange money. Plus I don’t feel like traveling yet. It’s nice here, although not too much to do. Went to the port-au-peche with Kiryomi and Eri yesterday. This idiot asshole rich-boy Mauritanian drove us. He drove like an idiot with s**tty music blaring and almost hit a kid. He showed no inclination to honk or slow down. Took us to some resort beach, not to the port-au-peche and then told us that we couldn’t go to the port-au-peche because the police would stop us and it was closed anyway because it was Friday. It was all bulls**t. We ditched his pathetic ass (it was blatantly obvious he was only interested in the girls and swimming --- sorry a**hole!) and went ... read more

Finally our Visa came through and we were off towards the desert. We entered southern Morocco and to Marakesch where we saw the most amazing spectacle of the night market. Thousands of people gathered to eat at stalls selling goats brains,snails and almost every part of camels etc etc. Juice stalls ,magicians,street performers ,snake charmers and any other street activities were present. Many other sights such as the old palace mosques etc were in every corner.Further south we entered Western Sahara and our first taste of land mines,desert and UN peace keeping soldiers a common sight.After a couple of long driving days we entered Mauritania and the endless desert . We camped at Nouadhibou and Noukchott. This capital city was little more than sandy streets and rubbish and car wrecks littering everywhere but these were proud ... read more

Yep I made it, thought hours of waiting at the border, no I mean HOURS, really, in hte very baking sun, thankyou very much, a stint in no mans land, with with the three good friends I've made on hte way, and am still travelling with, we claim sovereignty over, call it Dayvéque, in hnour of Quebeqois friend David, and roll out a surprisingly american sounding constitutuion, for a great laugh, and we make it though to Nouadhibou. mmm what a wonder of a place. Sure, the road from Dakhla was LONG, but very scenic, did I say long, well there was sand and sand dunes, stones, larger stones and lots of sun. Actually I have seen a good whole week of pretty similar stuff in Mauritania too, though framed and divided in to plateaus and ... read more