We got and had a quick breakfast and cracked on with the list of jobs we needed to do before heading off for the border. This ended up taking longer than we wanted, as one of the important jobs was to fill up on water. Unfortunately the water pressure in the only tap we could fit the water jerry cans under was very low, and it took ages to fill all three. We then left the campsite and headed into Dakhla. Not far down the road we had to stop at a police checkpoint. He did the usual thing of looking at our passports, asking where we were going, etc. We then asked him if we needed to get our passports stamped in Dakhla. He said no, and that all formalities had moved to the border post. We then continued on into town. I phoned home, Matt sent some postcards and we stocked up on some food. The last job was to fill up with fuel, which we done at the last fuel station before leaving town. This included filling all the jerry cans as the price was good and we would need the fuel for the desert crossing in Mauritania. By the time we had done all this it was late morning and so the plan was to drive to the border and see what time we had left. After a straight forward drive down to the border it was late afternoon. We decided that we would try and get through, thinking that this late in the day the customs and police wanted the finish work and so would not want to give us much hassle. The road block at the Moroccan border post was a bit of a joke, as in consisted of loose rocks placed across the road and directing you toward to ram shackled buildings on the left side of the road. We drove up to the first building and found it to be the customs. After finding the right bloke to talk to the formalities went smoothly. Which included talking about 1980’s football players. That done, we drove the whole 10m on to the next building and to another crappy barrier. This turned out to be the police checkpoint. It took us a while to work out as they were not wearing any uniforms like the customs guys, but were wearing Addis tracksuits. The usual questions where asked and then they started on the topic of why the England and America were in Iraqi. After explaining that we didn’t personally agree with this, denounced Bush and what was going on. He seamed happy and sent us on our way. We collected our passports and made a sharp exit. On leaving the Moroccan border post we only travelled down the road a short distance before coming across an army checkpoint. He again took down our details and let us through. We then entered the no-mans land, which is reputably mined, between the to border posts. We followed the main piste until it forked. We decided to head straight on while Matt was consulting the various sources we had for directions. A car soon sped past, cutting us up and indicating to slow down. We stopped and opened the window a faction to talk to them. They turned out to be guides wanting to show the way. A boy then approached the passenger window, who Matt spotted was carrying a knife in his had. By this time we had worked out which direction we should be going in, so quickly did a about turn and left these dodgy guys and the kid in our dust. The direction we had soon led us to the Mauritanian border post. It was quite different from the Moroccan one and only consisted of three poorly stone built sheds in the middle of nowhere. After working our way between the sheds, which turned out to be the Army, police and customs it had cost us 20€ and a stick of French bread. As we finally left the Mauritanian border post we new we only had about an hour of light left. We done our best to follow the main piste, but took a few wrong turns along the way which caused us to have to back track and take the other options. At this point we started following a GPS waypoint from our directions to find the train tracks we needed to find and follow to Nouadhibou. We soon found them and turned a followed them south. At some points we had to actually drive along the tracks as the piste was very soft sand and hard going. As we drove further south a good piste appeared on the east side of the tacks, which we spotted trucks using. We found a way across the follow it south keeping the tracks insight. This brought us to another small town just North of Nouadhibou. By this time it was dark, so it the chaos of cars and unlit donkey carts we picked our way through the traffic to Nouadhibou and to a campsite that was recommend in the Rough Guide. We where very glade that we had made it and that we didn’t had to spend the night camping in the so called mined area. The owner of the campsite was very friendly. He gave us tea and arranged for a guy to come to the campsite and change money. We got a good rate and the all important receipt. It had been a long day and after chatting to some other travellers in the campsite we went to bed exhausted.
After breakfast we got chatting to a German couple called Julia and Gorge who were also travelling across Africa on two Suzuki DR350’s. There bikes were well kitted and had long range fuel tanks, GPS and hard luggage boxes amongst other things. We soon decided we would go round town together to sort things like insurance for the vehicles and get tickets to enter the National Park, which we would have to pass through on our way to Nouakchott. The insurance was straight forward as the AGM office was opposite the campsite, but it took a little longer to find the park office. But once there it was not a problem to get the tickets issued. Our jobs done we split up and Matt and I went for a walk down to the ships graveyard and the fish market, before returning to the campsite. Once back we decided it would be a good idea for us to cross the desert piste to Nouakchott together. The rest of the afternoon and early evening we spent chilling out and getting odd jobs done. It was late afternoon when another overland kitted Land Rover pulled into the campsite. Matt recognised it, as he had met the owners before. I was soon introduced to the Dutch couple who were called Emiel and Mirjam. They soon explained that they were also planning to drive overland around Africa before returning to South Africa to Ship there Landy to South America and continue their journey to North America. They popped off to sort there car insurance and other things and on returning to the campsite decided they would join the German bikers and us for the piste to Nouakchott. That evening was spent relaxing and chatting until it was time for bed.
We got up around 07:00 and were ready to go for 08:00. We paid for the campsite and drove north through Nouadhibou until we found the piste heading north along the train tracks. We had to stop at a couple of police checkpoints along the way but we didn’t get too much hassle off any of them and we were soon whizzing along the piste. We had decided to follow the piste running along side the train tracks to the village called Bou Lanouar, then turn south-east and follow the piste into the national park. This was the route recommended to us by the campsite owner in Nouadhibou. The piste was good all the way to the village, and even in some places there was new tarmac. We followed the piste away from the village, but it soon degraded and we lost track of it. We were now driving through soft sand and dusty so fine it was light talcum power. The bikers were finding this hard going, and they decided it would be better if they continued at there own pace and the Landys would go off ahead. We now found our selves on a wide open plain with dunes in the distance to the east and west of us. We decided to follow a bearing to the park entrance GPS waypoint we had been given. Most of the plan was flat but for patches of stones and small bushes, which meant we could keep a quite fast speed up. Eventually we arrived at the GPS waypoint of the park entrance, only to find all that marked the position was a red and white striped post. We then spent the rest of the afternoon following the GPS waypoints along the piste through the national park southward. Along the way there were sections of piste where it was hard compacted dirt, which we could drive very fast. Other sections were deep soft sand and not far from the campsite we were aiming for we both got bogged in quick succession. All was needed was to lower the tyre pressures and we were away again. Shortly after we arrived at the campsite that was marked on the national parks map. It only consisted on a few tents along the shoreline and no other facilities. We decided that we would sleep in one of there tents as the wind was quite high and would batter our roof tents. Unfortunately they stung us on the price a bit later in the evening. But it did mean we come cook and sleep in comfort after a long hot day.
We woke, had breakfast and were soon on our way. We continued following the GPS waypoints through the national park. We got a little off track at one point and ended up driving through bush covered dunes. The Dutch couples Landy suffered a flat tyre, which we all pitched in to swap for one of the spares. We then soon found our way back to the main piste, which was slowly getting closer to the coast. Eventually we were driving along the shoreline until we came across the Southern entrance to the park. Along the way we spotted a few different types of birds including some flamingos. The park rangers checked our tickets and sent us on our way. Just the other side of the village we had to stop again for a police checkpoint. This guy was being a pain in the neck and wanted some sort of present. We refused and after a while he gave up and let us go. We quickly drove off and hid behind the next dune to wait for tide to drop enough for us to drive along the beach to Nouakchott. There we met a group of French guys who were on there way to Senegal for a holiday. We chatted and went for a swim while we waited for the tide. Eventually there was enough hard sand for us to make good progress and we set off down the beach. It was a lovely drive all the way along the beach, right on the water edge. We passed plenty of local fishing boats on the beach, a couple of wrecks of boats and even a bus. Not far from Nouakchott we had to stop to refuel my Landy, which attracted quite a crowd of onlooker, wanting to know what was going on. We had to put our foot down for the last bit of beach as it looked like the tide was coming in and that we would not have the hard sand for much longer. We made it to Nouakchott just it time. We then went into town a eventually found a small campsite to stay in. By this time was dark and quite late. No one was in the mood for cooking so we ate dinner at a restaurant across the road. On returning to the campsite we set up our bed stuff in there traditional tent and soon fell asleep.
We woke, got some breakfast and went for a walk around the shops to stock up on things for our trip to Atar and the surrounding area. We had decided to do this as Friday is the start of the weekend in Mauritania and we could not get the visa’s we want for our onward travel. We left the campsite late morning and after finding our way out of town headed north-east along the main road to Atar. All the way along the road it was open flat dusty bush and semi desert and the temperature rows to 43C which was stifling hot. We decided that we would stop short of Atar and spend the night at a small village called Terjit with was renown for a beautiful oasis. We found the place easily and soon found the campsite. Once settle we walked up the valley to the oasis just as the sun was setting, with it in mind to have a swim. Unfortunately they wanted to charge too much for us to go for swim so we just had a look around before returning to the campsite. We had dinner and a shower before bed. The temperature was still reading 35C at 21:00 and didn’t really drop until early the next morning.
After getting up, we took a quick walk around the oasis in the village before jumping in the Landys and heading for Atar. Along the way we gave a local boy a lift to the main road. As the Landy only has two front seats we made him sit on the roof, which he seamed to quite enjoy. Once back to the main road it was not long before we were in Atar. We parked up to have a wonder and get some food, and where immediately set a pone by hawkers and money changers. Some on who followed us right round the shops. We then left Atar and made our way to Chinguetti. The drive there took us up onto a plateau which was cooler than the plain below and a nice relief. After diving through Chinguetti, we stopped not too far outside of the town amongst some tree at the edge of the dunes. Here we set camp and wondered out onto the dunes to watch the sunset. After dinner we spent the evening chatting before climbing into the roof tents.
We decided that as we had been driving a lot over the past few days that we would stay at the nice spot we had found just outside Chinguetti for the day and just chill out. We spent the day tidying things up in the back of the Landy, writing diary entries and reading books. Early evening we walked back into town and after an extended walk found a nice restaurant for dinner. After waiting for 2 hours dinner finally turned up, which was very nice. Fully stuffed we walked back to the Landies and soon got our heads down.
We got up early and left our campsite at around 06:30, as we wanted to get a lot of the driving done before the heat of the day. We made good progress and where soon back in Atar, where we picked up some fresh bread, refuelled and got the punchiered tyre repaired. We then set out on the long drive back the Nouakchott. We arrived around early afternoon and because of the cloud cover the temperature was a more comfortable 38C. We then used the GPS to find the campsite, and after a bit of a tour of Nouakchott, as the waypoint was entered a little incorrect, we found the campsite. We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering round the town and shops looking for various things. On returning to the campsite we had dinner at a kebab shop just outside of the campsite the owner recommended. It was nice, and surprisingly filling. We then wondered round town a bit more and found a internet café. After spending an hour there we returned to the campsite and spent the evening chatting to a German group who were on a overland trip to Ghana.
We woke, I had a long over dew shave and we got a taxi to the Mauritanian Embassy for around 09:00. We were the only people there and so walked right in. The formalities were straightforward. We handed over our photo’s and documents along with 3000UM and where told to return after 13:00 to pick them up. We took a slow walk back to the campsite. Me, Emiel and Mirjam spent the afternoon sorting stuff for our websites and Matt done some washing and chilled reading his book. In between we returned to the Mauritanian Embassy to pick up our visas, and popped round to the French Embassy to see about more visas. They weren’t being very helpful and so we returned to the campsite, and carried on with what we were doing. It was early evening before I had finished all my website updates and sent them off.
Once up we spent the first half of the morning packing the Landies and getting supplies round town, before fuelling up and leaving Nouakchott for the Senegal border. It was a uneventful drive to the border town of Rosso, where we turned off and headed along a piste for the border crossing at Diame. The entrance to the piste was a bit tricky to find, and was on the other side of a car park on the right just after the first petrol station you come to on our way into Rosso. We drove past the slums and found the first of many army checkpoints along the piste. They were all trying it on and asking for presents or going through our documents looking for something wrong. The piste its self was hard compacted dirt and generally quite smooth. Along the way we spotted a few different birds and some wart hogs. Once at the Mauritanian side of the border the fun began. First we had to see the Mauritanian customs who checked all our documents and stamped our carnet, which we had to pay 10 Euros for. Then we had to go to a little booth and pay a community tax of 500UM each. This was the local’s way of scamming money from you. Then we went to the Mauritanian Police to get our passports stamped and had to pay 2000UM each. We then were able to drive through the checkpoint and over the dame to the Senegal checkpoint. Where we promptly found out we had to pay 10 euro each for crossing the bridge. Then we went to the Senegal police who charged us 10 euro for stamping our passports and then to the customs that charged us another 10 euro each for stamping the carnet. So in total it had cost around 50 euros to get each Landy through the border. We then had to sort out local insurance for another 50 euros each, but at least that was for two months and covered Mail as well. Pissed off we head off for St Louis as the sun was setting. Not far outside St. Louise we were stopped in a police check and they started going through everything they could to try and come up with something to fine us with. They decided to try and pick on the fact that my number plate was in the front window and not on the bumper as a point to fine me on. I had had enough and got into an argument with the policeman. Not the wisest thing to do, but they knew that we knew that they were just trying it on. So we gaffer taped the number plate to the bumper, which shut the policeman up and drove off. After finding our way through St Louis in the dark we eventually came to the campsite we were looking for. It lived up to the review some other traveller had told us, as it indeed looked like paradise. With clean smart buildings, nice facilities and a bar. So after our long day we settled for dinner and a beer in the bar. As it turns out mobile phones are very expensive in Senegal, and so this produces a good market for second hand phones. I decided to sell the old mobile I had brought with me and managed to get 20 euros for it. \which helped recoup some of the cost of getting across the border.