Wouhou!  Je n'ai pas été abandonné dans le désert!  Bon, ok, les chances étaient minces, mais tout de même présentes...  Bref, après des heures de voitures en logeant l'Atlantique d'un côté et le Sahara de l'autre (et en écoutant du Phil Collins...), me voici dans la République Islamique de Mauritanie!  Et sans problème en plus.  On n'a même pas sauté sur une mine!! (il y en a des dizaines de milliers dans le no man's land de 3 km entre les deux frontières...)  Bizarre, il aurait dû m'arriver une couille depuis mon départ...  Même que la sortie du Maroc a été plus compliquée que l'entrée en Mauritanie.  Où les gens ont l'air assez fantastiques en fait.  A la frontière, il y avait un propriétaire d'un petit hôtel qui a tout fait pour que je vienne chez lui.  Et comme il avait l'air honnête, et bien je l'ai suivi jusque là...  Et ça sera probablement la chambre la plus confortable de tout mon voyage.  Et le gars est vraiment sympathique en plus!  Il me racontait la chute du tourisme depuis que des touristes français ont été tués dans la région de l'Adrar.  En fait, je crois que c'est pas mal plus la cancellation du Rally Paris-Dakar qui a suscité tous ses problèmes...  Sans ça, ça aurait été moins médiatisé, et les gens auraient eu moins peur de venir.  Moi, je me sens pas mal en sécurité ici.  Les gens sont accueillants, et pas du tout harcelant contrairement au Maroc.  Bref, juste pour vous donner une idée de l'impact, et bien avant tout ça, mon hôtel accueillait environ 20-30 personnes part nuit, alors que maintenant, avec un ou deux, le gars est content.  Je suis d'ailleurs le seul touriste présent...  Et je n'en ai rencontré aucun non plus en ville.  Même que le proprio me disait qu'il n'y en avait eu aucun qui avait passé la frontière aujourd'hui...

Anyway, là, je suis réellement en Afrique.  Le borel sur les routes, les chameaux et les chèvres partout, des enfants qui jouent dans les rues par dizaines, du bruit, de la saleté, tout le monde qui me dit "bonjour"...  Du moins, l'image stéréotypique que l'on s'en fait tous est bien représentée ici.  Je dois vous avouez que ça fout un peu les boules au début, mais je devrais m'habituer assez vite.  Bon, plus que quelques journées de vpyqgement encore, et je pourrais enfin me poser qque part!

MDLF:  Même en Afrique, les gens gueulent lorsqu'ils sont au cellulaire...

C'est bon, je suis rendu à Nouakchott, la capitale de la Mauritanie sans problème.  Du moins, pour moi...  Sur la route (480 km de désert sans aucune ville), nous avons croisé une voiture qui a eu un accident.  On est évidement allé voir...  Le conducteur avait une belle lacération au niveau de la main droite, avec un jolie flap de peau de 10 cm, mais rien de profond.  Ca ne saignait même plus.  Le passager arrière avait une jambe qui semblait fracturée, et à part lui donner des Advils pour la douleur, j'ai pas pu faire grand chose de plus.  Et le troisième, siège du passager avant, était malheureusement mort...  Ca semblait faire longtemps, et je n'ai pas trop su ce qui s'est passé dans tout cette histoire.  Probablement une dislocation cervicale, mais qui sait.  Bref, ils étaient tous là à attendre l'ambulance (la ville la plus proche était à 200 km...), avec déjà qques personnes sur place pour aider, donc on a repris notre chemin.

Il y a évidement beaucoup d'accidents de la route en Afrique.  Les voitures sont vieilles et en mauvais état (même si ce sont presque toutes des mercedes), et les routes sont parfois aussi bonnes que chez nous vers la fin de l'hiver.  Et personne n'est attaché.  En plus, une mercedes, les taxis-brousse usuels, on les appelle des "sept-places".  Parce que c'est physiquement impossible de rentrer plus de 7 hommes à l'intérieur...  Trois en avant et quatre en arrière.  Bon, moi, c'était la première fois que je prenais un taxi-brousse, et je crois que je vais continuer de me payer 2 sièges arrières, étant donné que ce n'est pas si cher.  Et même là, on est coincé...  Et en Afrique Occidentale, et bien il y a juste ça, des taxis-brousse...  Donc pendant les prochaines semaines, je crois que je vais souffrir pendant mes déplacements! 

Mais bon, après ce petit topo de la conduite africaine, vous voulez sans doute savoir de quoi a l'air Nouakchott!  Et bien laissez-moi vous dire que ça ne ressemble à rien.  La ville a été faite à la hâte en 1960 suite à l'indépendance du pays.  Donc, pas grand monument historique, ni attrait spécifique.  C'est incroyablement sale (plus que le reste du pays), et la moitié des bâtiments sont inachevés.  Mais bon, on ne vient pas en Afrique pour voir de l'architecture et de l'ordre, et les grandes villes ont rarement qque chose d'extraordinaire.  On y vient pour voir des gens, des paysages.  Donc, dès que je quitte le cybercafé, je vais me pointer au Port de Pêche, qui est apparement incroyablement rempli de vie.  Je vous en reparlerai, si j'y pense évidement...

MDLF:  Je n'ai franchement aucune idée du jour qu'on est...

Daily Drive 413 miles.

The idea today was to get up early as we knew we had a long drive ahead of us. We would be leaving Mauritania.

Well, we all overslept. I was the first to wake at 9.30. We were all shattered and it didn’t help that Andy was snoring so loud in the night. It was like a heard of elephants charging through the dorm. Also a few of the guys had gone in search of a place called the VIP bar. As Mauritania is a Muslim state and almost alcohol free, they had heard it was possible to buy beer there. I don’t think they were very pleased with the fanta and coke on sale!! Their attempt to smuggle in a bottle of whisky didn’t work either.

They still managed to stay out until gone 5 though. I was the boring one that went home to bed after the meal.

Mustafa had been waiting for us for over an hour to take us to another back street garage. I felt a bit guilty as he has really helped us out so much.

After three attempts we finally found a garage that said they could change our alternator. We then negotiated another rip off price for the work, which would have been worse if it was not for Mustafa.

Three alternators later and no joy. None of them matched ours. It was hot, dusty and I was getting hungry and fed up. I decided enough was enough and wanted to strip our alternator apart, clean it and see if this would fix it. This then entailed negotiating another price. This was much harder as Mustafa had left us and as they only spoke French. Eventually we got to work and cleaned it. It was full of sand and salt from the previous days drive on the beach. Finally it was fitted back to the car and guess what… It didn’t work! Great, now I was fed up. It was gone midday and we had achieved nothing. There was nothing more we could do and decided to go the rest of the way just using batteries. If we didn’t do too much night driving we would be ok. There would be nowhere else to try and fix the car.

Then mayhem. The chief mechanic wanted paying for a new alternator even though they didn’t provide us with one. I wasn’t happy and had a big argument with the guy. He had a real attitude. We managed to find somebody that spoke a bit of English and smoothed the situation over. I agreed to pay him a nominal fee for his time running around looking for an alternator. He went away then. Everybody wants something!

 It was a little scary for a moment as we were in the middle of nowhere, alone and surrounded by a lot of people. Thankfully it all turned out ok. We gave everyone a pen and finally got on our way.

Back to the Auberge Matata and met with Big Hans. The car of Andy and Ross that had been damaged on the beach was beyond repair and they had sold it cheaply to Mustafa. Hans was going to drive them to Bamako. After repacking his car and taking on some of their baggage we finally left for the drive to Nara and into Mali. It was mid afternoon and not a good time to be leaving.

By the time we left It was early afternoon and with such a long drive ahead there was no way we would make it to Kiffa in Daylight. Using lights would drain our batteries more quickly than we would like. In the end it was just a case of drive and see how farw e get.
We were doing really well and the battery was holding charge well until we put lights on then it dropped really quickly. And the place we lost power, Aleg!!. The one place I didn't want to stop or have to camp. Luckily we came across 3 more teams that had stopped to replace a tyre. We put a fresh battery in the car and they let us drive between them in convoy with sidelights on. After a while that battery started to drain so we taped a bicycle red flashing light to the back of our car so the one behind could see us. We  then drove for a further 3 hours like this!! If it wasn't for them we would have been in trouble. I was so happy to see the campsite that night. It was a filthy dump but I was just so happy the drive was over.

We left the campsite and drove for about 3 hours on paved roads and our battery went flat. This was just past a military check point and the armed guards came over to see why we had stopped. There was a heavy military presence all along this route because of the murders of the French tourists I mentioned before.

They were really friendly and helpful. They had a mechanic who took over the task of changing the battery. Then from nowhere this junior soldier appeared with a silver tray with a tea pot and gave us all a glass of tea. Totally surreal. Driving through the desert in the middle of nowhere and drinking tea with the Mauritanian Army. Mad!!. 

We left them with gifts of pens and went on our way.

When we arrived at the final town in Mauritania we decided that we would not make it through the bush and the dirt tracks without another battery.  The main road through Tidgima was a real mess, yet there was a shop full of car parts and unbelievably new fully charged batteries. 70 euros later we were off. Now with three batteries.

The road now disappeared as we drove through the town and onto deep sand tracks. No more roads and the gps was really important from now on. Unfortunately ours was flat as we couldn’t charge it up in our car. We were reliant on following Hans and had to keep up. This was fantastic driving. Some of the best so far. Very deep sand tracks and very bumpy. This was lined by lots of acacia trees and other plants. It was important not to lose control here or a close encounter with a tree was inevitable. I was really getting used to this and we were getting some good speed up. Then we went round one sharp corner and the jeep went up on two wheels and Steve let out a shout and a little swear word! He really thought we were going to roll over. Thankfully the sand rut caught hold of the wheels and straightened the car up just in time. I  was just laughing my head off. I wasn’t worried!! Well, maybe a little.  It didn’t slow me down though. It was too much fun. A few minutes later Big Hans hit a dip a bit too hard and the back half of his exhaust fell off.  This was his bargain 100 euro new exhaust he had fitted in Dhakla. When he got out to inspect it, he kicked the broken part and it spun around and and hit him in the leg. Poor Hans, he wasn’t happy but we all thought it was hilarious.

Steve then took over the driving before we lost all daylight. We stopped for the sunset which was great and relaxed for a while watching camels walk past the cars and watch the sun go down.

Now we had to drive in the dark with only one battery left. There was still a long way to go. As we set off into the bush again we followed Hans closely as we only had our side lights on and couldn’t see much. Then Hans lost the track and we were totally lost. We spent at least half an hour literally driving around and round in circles and ended up doubling back on ourselves. If we couldn’t find the track at least we would eventually come to a paved road. That was the theory anyway. We had to get Hans to put his fog lamp on as we were losing him in the dust. This was much better. We then came across four other teams that were lost. This made us feel a lot safer being in a larger group. One of the other cars then drove behind us so we could see where we going with the light from their headlamps.

Amazingly after about an hour we drove down a track and into the last checkpoint in Mauritania. It was a great site as we knew we were going the right way.

Two of the other teams decided to camp at the checkpoint as they didn’t feel safe driving on. There was only about an hour left and the rest of us opted to drive on. We just wanted to get into Mali. After about half an hour we lost all our lights. Steve did a great job of following Hans’ fog lamp, which actually lit up the track just enough to see. I can’t believe we drove in the pitch dark through the bush with no lights. We must be crazy.

Finally we turned a corner and there was the campsite. What a sight. We made it!

It was now 11pm and everyone was shattered from the drive. Steve pitched his tent and went straight to sleep. I had a walk around the campsite looking for our Hungarian friends in the other pajero. They were not there. I was a bit worried as they had taken two days to drive what we had just done in a day. I didn’t yet know it but my night was not over.

At midnight they arrived in the camp on the end of a tow rope. Now I’m going to get a bit technical.zzzzz. They had suffered what they thought was a cam belt failure and the engine would not start. This can cause major damage to the engine, requiring a rebuild. They had been found out in the bush by another team that towed them in. After closer inspection I noticed the cam belt had not snapped but the balance belt. This is not necessarily so serious. It had jammed between the cam belt and the cam belt pulley.  I was then up until 2 am unjamming the belts. The engine was turning over by hand and not making any horrendous noises so we were hopeful it might be ok. We had a quick go at starting it but nothing and as it was late we didn’t want to wake everyone.

Finally I got into my tent and sleep. What a day. Can it get any crazier. What do you think?

We were going to drive halfway to Kiffa today and camp somewhere along the route. I wasn't too happy with this as it would mean camping somewhere near the town of Aleg. This is the area in which a French family was slaughtered on christmas eve. Because of this the Paris Dakar was cancelled. Our organisers decided to go ahead as they thought the Paris Dakar people overreacted. Even so I wanted to get past Aleg as quick as possible without stopping.
Today our local fixer, Mustaffa took us to a back street garage to fix our starter motor. one bolt was loose and the other was missing. The previous day one of us would have to hold it in place each time we started the engine. While there we had they altenator belt tightened hoping this would fix our charging problem.
The mechanic tried charging us 150 euros for these small jobs. Thank goodness we had Mustaffa with us to avoid any big arguments.
Good news. Hans has turned up. He was in trouble. He had got stuck in a dune and spent the last 24 hours digging his Toyota jeep out on his own. He was very close to leaving it and trying to walk out of the reserve. I cant believe what he has been through. he looked very very happy but I could tell he was a bit shaken inside. He knew of a really cool auberge (hostel), so we checked in there for the night and shared a 6 man room. It was good to see him again. Mustaffa took us out to a local restaurant and I think Hans enjoyed his beer.!!

After setting camp the previous night to avoid high tide we awoke to a really strong sand storm. The camping equpment was covered in sand and steves tent had taken a real battering. we had to wear our scarfs and goggles to just be out and about. We were hoping that the tide would start to go out about 8am but nothing happened until midday. We dug the cars out and managed to finally have a great fun drive along the beach back towards the fishing village and try and get Andys car off the beach. 
When we reached their car the damage to he radiator didn't seem so bad. There was a small hole at a mounting point. I managed to fill this with a silicone gell and hoped it would seal quickly. We then had a complete nightmare pulling them off the beach. The sand was so soft and we kept getting stuck ourselves. Thankfully there were a few other teams around and and they all pushed my car as we towed the other one out. I thought we were going to blow our car up and the clutch was smelling really bad. The situation wasn't made any easier by loads of kids from the nearby fishing village getting in the way and constantly asking for gifts.
Eventually after about half an hour we managed to get the car to a paved road and thought it would be much easier. As we towed them we came across a dune that had formed on the road. I hit the brakes but unfortuneatly as the car being towed didn't have his engine running his brakes did not work properly. Well, as I bounced and landed heavily on the other side of the small drift I heard an almighty crunch. They had smashed into the back of my jeep. Jeep 1, car 0. Their headlight was smashed and bonnet(hood) completly wrecked. Could things get any worse!! I did feel a little bit bad, but at the end of the day it was them that took a car onto a beach and we were the ones helping them.
Finally we made it to the main road and we filled their car with water. My temporary repair was holding and they were able to drive the car. It was a distance of about 120km to the next city and hoped they could make it.
After all of this excitement and stress we then had a thankfully uneventful drive to Nouakchott. Although we have noticed that our alternator is not charging. The end point was a camp site with some chalets but we opted to go into the centre and find a hotel. It cost about 40 euros but I didn't care. After the last 48 hours I needed a proper shower and a bed. That shower was fantastic and I felt like new again.
We were a little concerned as our Norwegian friend, Hans, that we were travelling with was missing. He had taken an alternative route through a sand dune national park to the beach site. We decided not to go this way as i was worried about the sand storms blowing up.  He was also still not at the camp site in Nouakchott. We were told that the police and army had searched the park and made sure everybody was out. This was hard to believe considering the size of it and the weather conditions. This is 2 nights now. Something is not right.
We met up with our new Hungarian friends and went for a meal in a local restaurant. Although we were all worried about Hans we had a relaxing evening. He has travelled extensively in Africa and knows how to look after himself.

Nouadhibou beach to Nouakchott beach.
Daily miles 224

Yet another crazy day. Im sure that as the trip goes on, it is getting madder and madder.
This morning when I woke up I opened the zip of my tent and the view I had was straight onto the beach. This is the way to relax. It would not last long. I was expecting a real fun day of driving along the beach to another bay where there would be a party.
The route was through a national park of amazing sand dunes and scenery. I really wanted to drive this but as we approached the turn off I had second thoughts; there was a huge sand storm blowing and between ourselves and hans we didnt have good enough sand ladders for the soft sand in the dunes.
After talking with Steve we decided to take the main road to a fishing village down the coast and then drive on the beach back along the coast to the beach party. It was only a drive of just over 200km, so would be a nice easy day. Or so i thought.
The road book told us that the turn off from the main road to the beach would be suitable for 2 wheel drive cars.  It reallt wasn't.  Very bumpy with big pot holes and humps of sand where it had blown over the road.
When we reached the fishing village it was chaos. Kids everywhere and all you could hear was, cadeax cadeax, (gift).
There was a stretch of very soft sand between the end of the road and the beach, about 50 metres; I had to keep the speed up and dont stop what ever. This was a little nerve wracking with all the kids around but we made it to the harder strip of sand between the water and main soft beach. There is a thin strip that you have to stay on so you dont sink. Either side of this line and it could be big trouble. There was also only a window of driving between 1pm and 4 before high tide. We set off along the beach and it was great driving;
After a few kilometres I could not believe what I was seeing. Up ahead was the peugout 406 of a couple of scottish guys, Andy and Ross.  They were stuck deep in sand. What on earth where they thinking. We couldn't just drive by. It was getting late and if we left their car where it was it would have been washed away into the Atlantic.
And this is where my relaxing day all went crazy, again!!
We attached a towing hook to the car but as Andy the driver could not find the correct place to attach it, he just clipped it to the lower part of the cars body work. I didn't have time to check this as I was more concerned about getting them high up the beach and getting on our way. Well, we pulled them clear of the sea but when we looked at the car we had ripped the lower structure of the car apart. It was not pretty. This in itself would not have been a problem  but in the process the radiator had been damaged and all the water had poured out. Right now was not the time to worry about that though. We got Andy and Ross to collect all of their valubles from the car and I took Ross and a Hungarian team took Andy. The idea was to get to the beach rendevous and enjoy a relaxing evening. I was amazed to see Ross sauntering over with his football in hand. Not what I would call a essential when we were in a race against the tide!!
We set off as fast as possible along the coastline. We were told the camp was about 8 to 10 km away. The tide wa scoming in and I was a bit nervous as the strip of sand was getting more and more narrow. We must have driven well over 10 km and still no sign. Our friend Kristian was trying to guide us in by cb radio but we kept loosing signal. By this time we were dodging the tide and driving through the surf a lot. I decided it was too dangerous to continue and we turned around to make it back the main road and we would drive direct to Nouackchott. Half way back along the beach we came across another team in a Toyota Hi Ace. They were stuck in the sand on the shore line. Once again we could not leave them. We all jumped out of our jeep and with the aid of sand laddeers managed to free them and get them up the beach. By this time the tide was really high and myself and the other driver decided enough was enough. We would make camp and wait for low tide the following day. I am not risking losing the jeep to the Atlantic ocean.  It turned out to be a really chilled out and peaceful evening. We had to move the cars and our camp twice as we underestimated how high the tide would come in.
It turned out the two Hungarians we were camping with were doctors and they diagnosed Steve with a colon infection and not food poisoning. They gave him antibiotics which he was extremly grateful for as he was still having to do the 100metre dash over a dune every half hour. As we go to bed there is a very strong sand storm blowing up. My tent blew away lifting the pegs clean out and I have had to weigh the inside down with my bags.
Who knows what it will be like in the morning.  Im just glad to get to bed after one hell of a day.
We keep getting ourselves into these situations but cant just drive past people in need of help. It might be us tomorrow!

(Part of my "Placed lived" blogg..)
You cannot go to this vast country ( 1 mio square km = 2x France..) and not be impressed!

The stunning beauty of the desert is something everyon should see at least once in a lifetime!

Pictures from my time in Mauritania are unfortunately currupt and are under recovery..

Are you planning to go to Mauritania, please let me know as I still have a friends living there.

Enjoy!

The best advice I can give you if you plan to go to Mauritania: Bring cash! There is (was?) no ATM in the entire country and your creditcard is next to useless; only a couple of the western hotels will accept it.  Since Mauritania is a former French colony the Euro will do fine.

Next best advice: Bring plenty of cash: Mauritania is not cheap, everything has to be imported. When we were there the authorities had just discovered and rounded up a brothel.  Alcohol had been banned   because of this. Only the two main western hotels (Mercure & Novotel) sold beer and wine. A beer costed 6 Euro per can.

The officail name for Mauritania being the "Islamic Republic of Mauritania" I didn't know what to expect as a woman.  I'd been assured there where "no specific Islamic or cultural issue

Until now I hadn't been very lucky when it comes to business trips. Most of my colleagues had been to company branches in central and eastern Europe several times. The first time I made it abroad was two weeks ago, for a course in Rome (blog coming up).  When a colleague suggested to take me to Mauritania for an implementation as a trainee, I thought:  Where is Mauritania? And secondly: yeah right, that will never happen.
Looking up the location of Mauritania was easy enough, but I still had to wait more than a month thinking something would come up to spoil my trip.
It did happen (no surprise to you of course, since there wouldn't be a blog  if it didn't).

We were staying in Nouakchott, the capital. It's in the Sahara and that was  noticeable everywhere in the city. If they would stop sweeping the streets for a month, it would be a dessert again. I've added some aerial pictures I found on the internet to give you an idea.