Day 45-50
14th - 19th January 2007, Mauritania	previous entry next entry

Day Forty Five 14/1. Auberge Sahara, Nouakchott, Mauritania

18°06.15'N 15°59.85'W. Miles today 0, Total Miles 5206

Awoke to the weird Karioke thing again and the Plymouth to Bajul Rally nursing their injuries and limping their way out of the Auberge. Their ambulance still looked in good shape but the poor VW Beetle looked a little dispirited. We wished them all the luck we could. Tried to clean the car and ourselves up a bit, removing a sand dune from each orifice and then went in search of provisions. Having been advised by a peculiar camel hearding Scottsman to go to a particular local market on the outskirts, we hailed an unofficial taxi into town. Basically if you stand in the sand on the side of the road (there are no pavements in Mauritania), every second car will naturally hoot at you to see if you want a lift. We jumped into an old dilapidated Mercedes and I swear my bum almost hit the ground. "Marche Marrocain" we requested. He looked a little befuddled, as most tourists ask for the Marche Central, which is substantially less overwhelming. We were dropped off just past the live chicken sellers and managed to find our way through the maze of street stalls to find some wholesome veg as well as fresh coriander. Good prices and no hassle whatsoever. As usual, donkeys and carts everywhere but I was a little more on guard this time. Apparently, a donkey is only about a tenner here in Mauritania but the cart can cost up to 100 quid. Saf got some beef, which was freshly minced for her and found some lemons, as she and Matt had invited us to dinner tonight. There is a kitchen in the Auberge, which anyone can use and the roof terrace is a great place to eat. She made the most delicious meatballs with coriander and rice. All complete with a good portion of the token peanuts! Dessert then arrived in the shape of pancakes with lemon and sugar or a hit of Nutella. Jannie and Anotonio (2 of the crazy Dutch) joined us and we finished off their bottle of port they had smuggled across the border.

Day Forty Six 15/1. Auberge Sahara, Nouakchott, Mauritania

18°06.15'N 15°59.85'W. Miles today 263, Total Miles 5206

Went off in search of the Mali Embassy for our visas, which thanks to the Lonely Planet's (now officially known as Lost on the Planet) map, it took us over an hour to find. When they say 250 m to the left, they actually mean to the right. However, what a friendly and simple process once we got there, as they were all extremely welcoming and helpful. I can't help but think that Mali is gonna be frightfully busy with tourists, as the place was full with scruffy looking bikers and french hippy travellers all waiting for their visas. Two hours and 18 euros each later, we had another visa in our passports! Chilled out at the Auberge for the afternoon until Matt and Saf realised they had lost their car keys. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem if a) these weren't the last spare set of keys they had lost and b) the steering wasn't locked. No bother for Rob and Matt though. They simply took an angle grinder to the lock and cut it out! They now start the 2 CV with the Nutella knife! Decided to have a celebratory last night in Noukchott Cheeseburger, which honestly wasn't as good as the first one but hey, if there are no sausages on offer, then whose gonna refuse a secondary cheeseburger.

Day Forty Seven 16/1. Bush Camp, 10kn North of Aleg, Mauritania

17°09.42'N 13°52.55'W. Miles today 175, Total Miles 5379

Headed off on the long Road of Despair, as it's nick-named, towards Mali with Matt and Saf in convoy with us. The route is in fact, lovely, running beside red dunes covered in grass, trees and camels everywhere. Things are definitely starting to turn a smidgen more lush and a tad less sandy. The road itself is fairly badly potholed in places. So much so that Matt and Saf hit a rather large one and damaged two tyres in one go. Once again, no bother for Rob and Matt though. Providing great amusement to the locals, they spent the afternoon at the side of the road bending the rims back in place with a high-lift jack, tyre levers and a rather large hammer. Thankfully, they had already returned the angle grinder to it's rightful owner. Rob was over the moon that his over-preparation skills had paid off and that he finally got to use some of the expensive tools he had brought with him (and the best bit was, it wasn't even with the stress of on his own car!) Back on the road before dark, we decided to bush camp together in a quiet spot behind some trees. Hurrah! Veg curry for dinner again!

Day Forty Eight 17/1. Bush Camp, 20km W of Kifa, Mauritania

16°44.75'N 11°37.97'W. Miles today 179, Total Miles 5558

Back on the road of Despair, we passed through several markets towns offering tons of freshly slaughtered goat and cow. There are a remarkable number of livestock down this neck of the dunes and just as many of roadkill. Every 500m or so is a dead animal of some sort. I can only imagine they were hit at night while crossing the road. Having said that, there a number of suicide donkeys about who just stand in the road waiting to be taken to donkey heaven. We stopped to buy some bread. They make a weird loaf here, a sort of flat batch of 6-8 fingers all joined together. Very yummy. So fresh out the oven, still almost too hot to handle. We're still not absolutely sure how much we should be paying for bread. The little old man, all wrapped up in his turban and sheet asked for 500 UM (about 1.60 euros) and me, Miss Frugal, laughed and said no way, I only had 200 UM. This seemed no problem and he lovingly handed me a whole batch of fingers. Saf too paid 200 UM a few stalls down but only got half a loaf. Who knows! Stopped early in the afternoon over a rise before the village of Kiffa to have a peaceful afternoon but alas, were soon pounced upon by half the nearby village. One by one, they streamed in right in the midst of my breadmaking. I had decided to make flat breads for us and this provided a great source of entertainment for the women. They were trying to tell me that I was kneading it wrong and that it should be done on the floor with a stick. Oh ok! Unfortunately, they actually became a little annoying after 2 hours, as they were demanding all manner of gifts from us, especially the man and he was becoming quite rude and suggestive. I know they are a very poor country but they appear to be very angry poor. I guess it has a lot to do with the Mega money Dakar Rally passing through here. Such a shame. We decided to leave them to it and moved camp to quieter spot a bit further down the road. Only one or two curious locals passing by and one man with his sheet hooked up to his waist, chasing after his escapee camel. I finished off the flat bread making task and we agreed that a batch of bush pizzas were in order. Yum Scrum!

Day Forty Nine 18/1. Bush Camp, 80km North of Gogui, Mauritania

16°10.06'N 9°31.44'W. Miles today 180, Total Miles 5738

A super peaceful sleep with no visitors in the night, only the cameleer from last night who stopped by in the morning to ask for a light. Drove through Kiffa, which was another lively market town and headed towards Ayoun, where we were told we could get our exit stamps from Mauritania and get our carnet stamped. We arrived in the early afternoon after a long and very potholed drive of 140km. Without fail, we were pounced upon by millions of children screeching "cadeux cadeux" at us and getting very angry when we weren't showering them in the requested gifts. In particular, there was an extremely precocious thirteen-year-old girl, who just wouldn't let up. It was hard but we both somehow managed to keep our cool. We eventually found the Customs just passed the town. It seemed pretty deserted, although there was a tell-tale sign of a pair of sandals outside a door. We peered in to find the official watching some telly and looking rather surprised to see us. Turns out, they don't give exit stamps here anymore. We had to go back to Kiffa! Yup, that's another 140km back along the heavily pot-holed road. I should mention here that we still had a rather large group of now very annoying children still surrounding us. After further investigations and the official waving his mobile phone in the air in search of a hint of a signal, he got through to someone of great importance who told us that we could get our stamps a bit further down the road (about 5km) closer to Mali. At each police stop that followed, yet ridding us of more precious fiches, they kept saying "continue another 5 km" Matt was beginning to wonder whether this infamous stamp we were after could be replicated at home with a potato. It was now getting late so we decided to pull off the road and bushcamp for the night amongst some trees and start the hunt for the potato stamp again tomorrow. Alas, after half an hour we had some visitors. These ones were however, a lot more polite and were just curious. Saf made a scrummy spaghetti bolognaise with corned beef. No peanuts though.

Day Fifty 19/1. Malian Border, Mauritania

15°42.00'N 9°18.92'W. Miles today -, Total Miles ----

In our quest to just get out of Mauritania, we headed further along the road. At the town of Kolbeni, we came across a customs office willing to stamp our carnet. Hurrah! That's one stamp down. Matt and Saf had to fork out some cash to get their temporary import paper stamped. We paid nothing, so at least our carnet is finally proving itself useful. Now, just the search for the police to stamp our passports. A bit further down this now well appreciated Road of Despair, we reached the border town of Gogui. If there was no-one here then we would have to head back to Kiffa but hey, we were in luck. An exceptionally miserable little man in a uniform eagerly armed with a rubber stamp kindly let us out of Mauritania. We drove on delighted and excited as we were now approaching Mali.

Day 45-50

14th - 19th January 2007, Mauritania