31st May - Nouadhibou

Well as I am sitting here in the truck amidst gale force winds, I am watching David walking across a potential landmine site to photograph some shipwrecks. We are pretty sure there aren’t any landmines this side of the railway but who can be 100% sure?! I am praying I do not hear a loud bang as I am not sure what I would do, as we are (as usual) in a fairly remote place…

We were on the hunt for Cap Blanc, the best beach in the area. It has monk seals as well, the last wild colony left in the world. It is, supposedly, in the words of the Lonely Planet, ‘a 20-minute taxi ride to the South’. Well I can assure you we have trailed round all four side roads off the one main road and the closest we have come is a sandy piste, definitely on the wrong side of the road for landmines, which in gale force winds is too sandy to follow very accurately. A local labourer told us that it was one of two pistes which lead to Cap Blanc, but indicated it would be hard to follow because of the sand blowing everywhere. On the basis we were entering the Western Sahara as well, which is renowned for its landmines as a result of the war, and all the factors listed above, we eventually gave up. Thank you Lonely Planet once again!

This morning we got up at the horrendous hour of 11am. We did deserve it really though, because of our early morning start for Rosso and our long drive yesterday. We went out to the office restaurant for lunch (the same one David and Abby visited for dinner when they were here), where David enjoyed a herb omelette and chips and I spaghetti Bolognese. We finished off the meal with Danish pastries, wow!! Interestingly a man was there who we had seen crossing the border at Rosso a few days back, it is funny how you bump into people out here that you see along the way.

We then headed to the internet café which had a fast internet connection, although David was unable to post the photos he was hoping to. I then did a quick tour of the truck with the video, although I felt the need to put on a stupid voice which I am sure you will all enjoy when you see it ( :s ). And that has concluded our day’s adventures thus far! Only I still can’t see David…..

David writes: I still have both my legs, thankfully. I wandered across the dunes to the ship’s graveyard, which was eerie and good to photograph. There were a few huts on the beach made of flotsam & jetsam; I think a handful of people subsist here by scavenging what they can from the rusting hulks beached offshore. The wind was whipping up the sand to sting my hands and face, but it was a cooling wind, so probably better than the alternative.

After I’d found my way back to the truck, we gave up on Cap Blanc and went back to our campsite.