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December 1, 2003: Nouadhibou After four hours of border formalities, we are finally in Mauritania. Getting the visa was no problem at all. For 50 euro per person we got it. They did not search our car, nor did they want to see the money we declared. The traditional demand for "cadeau" in each bureau we just laughed away. (Is it because I, Nicole, did the formalities? Most other cars got searched).

We use coordinates from the Sahara Overland site of Chris Scott to get to Nouadhibou. We manage to take a wrong piste and we get stuck in the sand. Time to loosen the air pressure in the tires. Peace of cake now. We return to the point of our last coordinate and find where we went wrong. Once we arrive at the railway of the famous iron ore train, we have again some doubts about which piste to take. A lot of guides are standing there, explaining not to take the piste at the right of the railway, but this is the one mentioned on the site. In the end, we just take a guide with us, so we can manage the last 25 km to Nouadhibou before dark. We pay him the 10 promised euros and are happy to be here. Indeed the GPS waypoints of the site were wrong, although they were taken only 5 months ago. The desert changes every day!

At an insurance bureau, we buy the obligated insurance. Here we can also change money, but afterwards, we discover that the rate given to us, was not good (we got 280 UM for 1 euro - the next day, I changed again at a BMCI for 305 UM).

It is already dark when we settle at camping Abba. We make ourselves a memorable diner: chicken with chips. We prepare the chickens we bought in Dakhla in different ways: grilled on the bbq, in the wok, as brochettes and one whole chicken in a pot with lots of olive oil. This is a feast!! At 2 o'clock in the morning, we eat the last portion of fries, prepared in Belgian style.

December 2-7, 2003: Nouadhibou We have a few relaxing days. We hang around the camp site, the market, the fish market, the Toyota garage,… We read and prepare ourselves for the desert.

It's African time!

It is a pleasure to look at all the beautiful people in the streets. Men wear white or blue darâa (boubou) and women have the most colorful dresses. They all walk around graciously, often chewing on a stick of acacia wood to brush their teeth. Children are carried on the back, held tight with a scarf. But not everybody is dressed traditionally. There are a lot of girls and women dressed in modern fashion style. Even the hair is done according to the latest fashion. There is a lot of laughter and cheerful strolling around. We feel very much at ease here. Taking pictures is just not as easy as we thought it would be. Most people just don't want to be photographed. We respect that, so we have to let go on many beautiful shots.

One night, we here loud music and we just follow the sound. It's a dancing contest. Colorful women dance on the rhythms of the drums. It's a big spectacle with lots of people watching.

We also visit the Cap Blanc national park. On the way, we see five vultures sitting on the rocks.

These huge animals are resting from a long flight and will be off again in a few days. It's an impressive view.

A piste of 12 km leads to a lighthouse where we descend to the beach. A huge ship, the "Guadaloupe" from Monrovia is laying motionless on the beach. What is going to happen with it? Another shipwreck on the coast of Nouadhibou? There are already a dozen around. The cliffs are beautiful, the warm sand tickles our bare feet, the ocean is gorgeous and there is nobody around.
We are looking for monk seals. A colony of these endangered seals has its habitat around Cap Blanc. We are lucky: one big fellow is swimming right under the cliffs. We picnic on the beach and get a nice (red) tan.

On the way back to the center of Nouadhibou, in a tiny train station, we watch the longest and heaviest train on earth. Up to 3 locomotives pull a 2 km long train from Zouerat to Nouadhibou, filled with iron ore. From Nouadhibou to Zouerat, the train is practically empty, so people can, or get a free ride on the empty iron ore wagons (or get a seat in one of the two passenger wagons). In the 30 minutes that the train stands still, hundreds of people throw sacks, cans, satellite disks, radio's,… in the wagons and then find themselves a good spot out of the wind. It's going to be a long ride. After 10 to 12 hours through the desert, the train stops at Choum around 3 o'clock in the morning.

December 8, 2003: Nouadhibou - Banc d'Arguin It's raining! So, time to go again. We leave Nouadhibou early in the morning. With 4 cars and a guide, we want to go through the Banc d'Arguin, Nature Park. We fill up all the water tanks and the fuel tank. We have food for about three days.

It is a long and a hard drive through the Sahara desert but the scenery is overwhelming. We have waypoints on the GPS and the guide tries to follow these. It is his first time using GPS And that shows! We strand on a series of dunes we can't pass. We get stuck all the time. Lots of digging, using the sand plates, turning back,…

There is no other alternative than to return where we came from. Good decision, but it is a long way.

We drive for some time in the dark, but eventually we decide to stop in the middle of nowhere and camp. Under the bright full moon, we sleep on the desert floor. What a great feeling. This is something I have been dreaming of.

December 9, 2003: Banc d'Arguin (PK57 - Cap Tafarit) Sunrise in the desert… Back to square one. The guide hires another guide, just to be on the safe side (no this is not a joke!), and to make up for the lost time, food and fuel, the guide offers us to pay for the fuel. Fair enough. We find a place to fill up the tanks (we passed here already two times!): a few berber tents, goats and some diesel reservoirs. We would not have thought to find fuel here!

Now we are ready to tackle the desert again. We follow a bigger piste this time. Again it is a long, hot, exhausting day of driving. It is also hard for the cars. Rocks, sand, washboard, … When we arrive at the camping place, we are nearly evaporated: 42°C! We immediately go for a refreshing swim in the Atlantic Ocean. Won-der-ful! And the fish are just jumping out of the water.

We camp in the sand near the beach.

The rice curry tastes delicious. A scorpion pays us a visit. Dangerous! From now on, we don't walk bare foot anymore.

December 10, 2003: Banc d'Arguin (Cap Tafarit) We have a long, lazy day at the beach. We catch two big fish, which we immediately put on the grill. Never a fish tasted so delicious. Or are the surroundings playing a part in this?

We just love it to be in nature and to camp wherever we find a nice place. We wash the dishes with sand or sea water. We cook on our gas stove, on Tim's petrol burner or on charcoal in the sand. Tonight we eat chips, baked in our big wok. Are we real Belgians or what?

December 11, 2003: Cap Tafarit - Nouamghar - Nouakchott Early morning to leave for the big journey: the Atlantic route to Nouakchott.

The first lap: desert driving with a steeplechase of four dune crossings from Cap Tafarit to the fishing village of Nouamghar. With the car in 4x4 this causes no real problems, but we are happy to see the ocean again.

After this we drive a bit further along the beach where we see flamingos, white herons and lots of other birds. Fishing boats float silently on the calm water.

Around noon, we arrive in Nouamghar where we buy some bread and relax at the beach. Here we have to wait 3 hours for the low tide, because from here on, we have to drive 170 km on the beach till Nouakchott.

This part of the Atlantic route is absolutely fabulous: with sand dunes of the Sahara desert on our left and our right wheels in the surf of the Atlantic Ocean, it's an exciting ride!

Flocks of seagulls, pelicans, herons,... fly up when our cars approach.

Sometimes the waves are too fast and splash against our car. We cannot always avoid this because the sand to the left is too soft to drive through.

We pass fishing villages and zigzag through the boats and the fishermen.

The high tide is coming up (or maybe it is just the beach getting narrower), but just when the sun disappears under the horizon, we speed inland through the dunes (two cars get stuck again), where the tarmac road begins to the center of Nouakchott.

We park our cars in the camping La Rose, very satisfied with this exciting day.

December 12, 2003: Nouakchott Time to say good-bye to the English family Tim, Dee, Carla and Nicky. We enjoyed their company a lot and hope to see them again for Christmas at the Zebra Bar in Senegal. Gauthier and ourselves stay here to get some (computer) work done.