Nouakchott

Dinner last night was in one of Nouadibhou’s top restaurants – converted from an office building, so we sat in what looked like the Managing Director’s office, complete with glass walls and polystyrene ceiling tiles. The food was very good, and the waiter spoke excellent English, which he’d learned from an American teacher at the local school. The bill came to a few pounds, which is at the upper end of the scale here, although I’m pretty sure we’re being totally fleeced when buying cans of drinks, pens, etc. Whilst we sat eating, an enthusiastic Mauritanian souvenir salesman tried to sell us jewellery and clothing. Abby was interested in a necklace, but it was a bit too small. In the end I bought some clothing, as it was actually worth buying, but my haggling was obviously pretty pathetic, because afterwards he threw in the necklace free anyway. That’s never a sign of a bargain!

This morning we bade farewell to Marc and Carole, and also bumped into Leigh from Australia, who’d asked us for a lift from Dakhla but whom we couldn’t accommodate. In the end she and her friend had got a lift at a reasonable price with some Mauritanians. We were glad it had worked out for her, because we’d felt bad about not being able to take her. Abby had bought two pens last night, neither of which worked, so took them back this morning for a replacement, which is not really part of African culture!

Driving back through the town we saw a whole wrecked car body being pulled along on top of a donkey cart, sideways. However, this didn’t really affect the traffic flow, as the taxis just drive round any obstacles in any direction they see fit. Heading back north to join the road to Nouakchott, we saw what could have been the world’s longest train, but I think was a bit shorter than the ones they normally run, because it only took three minutes to pass us. I ran across to take a photo of it, having already decided that the chances of the narrow strip of sand between the main road and the railway being mined were pretty remote, but I still got into trouble from Abby.

Today was excellent from a camel-spotting perspective; at times you could hardly move for them. Large camels, small camels, brown camels, white camels, baby camels, and at one point Abby spotted a dead camel. We also nearly saw goat carnage, where a small herd of young goats (these ones weren’t wearing bras) crossed the road directly in front of a Toyota we were following. It was touch and go for a while, with goats scattering every which way, but there were no casualties. I was quite glad, as it crossed my mind that if one had been maimed, I’d have had to have finished it off, perhaps with the jack like Alan Partridge.

Until recently, the way between Nouadibhou and Nouakchott involved driving across dunes for a few hours and then down 130km of beach (when the tide was out), but they’ve just finished building a tarmac road to link the two towns. I’d have liked to have taken the old road, as it sounds like a great adventure, but sadly we decided due to time constraints we’d drive the new road. Maybe if we had another vehicle with us it would have been worth a go. It’s a shame not to be using the capabilities of our vehicle to their full, but we can ill afford a couple of days to dig ourselves out of a sand dune.

There was pretty much nothing at all apart from endless desert for the nearly 500km the new road runs. Think of driving from London to Scotland and seeing nothing but sand, camels and about 2 dozen cars and trucks all the way. There were some odd hummocks, which due to the mirage effect you can see from some way away, which we drove out to check out; they’re about the size of a cow, and have a dark but thin crust on top, and group together to form C-shaped curves around 50-100 yards long. I’ve no idea what they are. We did see a few scattered trees, the first since northern Morocco. It’s surprising how much the vegetation clings on in a region with very little water and no nutrients, just a whole bunch of sand.

Occasionally by the side of the road we’d see tents, some of which were optimistically signposted “Restaurant” or “Auberge”. They’re the Mauritanian equivalent of a Little Chef or Travelodge. There’s not a whole lot of traffic on the road, but they seemed to be getting passing custom. If one of them started to stock fuel, they’d probably do well!

The heat today was very noticeable; at one point the in-cab thermometer which we bought in Spain showed 42 degrees, and the spare hammer on top of the gearbox cover was almost too hot to pick up, although by the end of the afternoon it was cooling down nicely. I’m glad the truck has shown no signs of overheating. The thermostat cuts in at 90 degrees, and the temperature gauge sits between 80 and 90 unless you’re driving up a mountain, of which there aren’t any in Mauritania. We still have our oil leaks though. I tried to buy oil this morning; normally in the UK I’d use 10W40 (the numbers denote how viscous the oil is at cold and hot temperatures respectively), but was going to use 20W50, ie more viscous oil, in the heat. The lightest oil you can get here is 40W50; they’ve not really heard of anything less viscous. I wasn’t sure if I was being ripped off, so noted the price and will look elsewhere. (By the way, I know some people will find a discussion on oil viscosity a trifle dull, but I know lots of the Land Rover fraternity look at our blog, so I make no apologies!)

At points the dunes were encroaching across the road, and we saw a couple of diggers moving the sand out of the way. Elsewhere the Mauritanians had rigged up fences of black plastic mesh by the side of the road, to stabilise the dunes, but I’m not sure how effective it was proving. Parts of the road are already subsiding, and a crew was replacing sections, at which point what little traffic there was had to drive out onto the sand and find its own way past. We followed a lorry with a cargo of plastic canisters in a huge net, which extended to around twice the height and twice the width of the already large lorry. We also saw a French 4x4 group, which I’m sure we saw on the way down through Spain, but we find the French drivers never wave back, unlike the Belgians, Dutch and Germans we’ve occasionally seen. Abby was keen for me to point out that we saw a Toyota Tercel, like the one her parents used to have.

The motorcyclist we saw yesterday had a range of 370km on a tank of fuel, and the road is 475km long, with only one fuel station, near the beginning, which only sells diesel. I’m not sure how he got on. We’d have happily topped him up from our jerry cans if we’d seen him, but he’s probably in Senegal by now. We had to use 40l of our own reserve of 220l to make the whole distance, at our rate of around 4km/litre. Arriving eventually in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, the three petrol stations we’ve tried so far are all out of petrol, and say you have to buy petrol on the black market. This isn’t a major concern, as we have enough to get to Senegal if needed, but it’s a bit of a pain. We’ll keep our eyes open, as there’s bound to be some somewhere.

This evening’s dinner was at a restaurant run by a Belgian who has lived here for ten years, and was top notch. I think he also owns the grocer and butcher adjoining. The butcher has a picture of a camel on its sign, and two young camels were tied up outside. They didn’t quite have the look of nonchalant superiority that most camels maintain; rather they looked slightly concerned. Kefta de Chameau (camel meatballs) was on the menu, but it’s always going to be difficult eating something which has just made eye contact.

On the way to the restaurant we scouted around looking for a web café, near the Olympic stadium, which surprised me as I couldn’t remember Mauritania bidding for the games. We failed to find either, but found that walking round the city alone after dark, as implied by the French owners of our accommodation, was perfectly safe and not in the least threatening.

We’re parked in the compound of the Auberge Sahara, which is quite a way out of town, but has nice facilities and is friendly. We have an electricity hookup, so I basked in the air conditioning for a while earlier. Even though it’s now quite cool outside, the engine and gearbox radiate heat for some time after we’ve stopped. We plan to stay here the whole day tomorrow before leaving for the Senegal border on Monday, probably crossing Tuesday morning.