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Jul.15, 2004: Ayoun El Atrous Coming from the heavy mud pistes in Mali, the road to Ayoun is almost too good to be true. The difference in landscape is tremendous. Savanna turns into desert. There are no more houses scattered around. Tents have taken their place. Camels stroll over the plains, searching for some bits of green. The hot wind strikes us like a hairdryer and we are more than happy to find a campement with nice rooms, showers and for the first time: air-conditioning!

Jul.16, 2004: Ayoun El Atrous - Kiffa Profiting the luxury of a fresh room, we stay just before check-out time and then start the 200 km Route de l'Espoir to Kiffa. Just outside Ayoun, a gorgeous mountain range seduces us to a little excursion. More than 40°C and a constant hot wind makes us feel like bread in the oven.

Still, we can enjoy natures beauty, but not for too long! Alarm! The meter for water temperature has reached the maximum. Very suddenly. We stop and discover two tiny holes in the radiators. All the water has pored out. What to do now? We are 20 km west of Tintane. To make a long story short: Wim fixed the two tiny little holes by squeezing the leakages and now we can move on. The route de l'Espoir is in an excellent condition and we arrive in Kiffa just before dark. At Auberge Phare du desert, we find a place for our car. Here we meet Suleiman. He is a young black man, who was brought up "in the bush". He didn't go to school, but he started to learn French and some English from the tourists who come by. Once he starts to speak, no one can stop him, certainly not we! We talk all night, sitting next to our car under a sky full of stars. More people join us and it is a friendly, open atmosphere. For the xx time, we talk about religion, nature, education, Europe, friendship,…

Jul.17, 2004: Kiffa The night in the car was too hot. And some creep frightened us by snooping around. How could we know that cats play hide and seek on the top of our car? Anyway, today is not going to be very active. We drink tea all day in the open lounge of the auberge, together with our new friends. We get a view into daily Mauritanian life and they get a glimpse of our photography-work via the portable computer. We tell them stories about other African countries and show them our pictures.

Jul.18-19, 2004: Kiffa The heat has got us now! We are not able to do anything. We can't sleep at night and walk like zombies during the day. Especially Wim has got so thin and pale that we fear something is terribly wrong. I feed hem soup with lots of bouillon, in the hope that it will make him stronger.

Tonight we sleep in the open lounge in the company of a gigantic "gab-gabe" (spider). I go with Suleiman to Kiffa "city". I'm surprised about the scale of this town in the midst of the desert. Plenty of people and - are you surprised? - a big market. The dust road is used by donkey carriages, people on foot and some expensive cars. It is very busy and thanks to Suleiman - who turns out a skillful guide - I get to see how the people here make traditional jewels, saddles, nomad tables,…

The temperature in the car is 59°C. I can hardly touch the steering wheel and my longs are not happy with the dry hot air that I inhale. I burn my lips by drinking from the SIG bottle. My body can't cope anymore. Rest! Sleep! We are not the only ones who take a siesta all afternoon. It's quite funny how we, Suleiman, Adi, "The little one", and a few more are sleeping on the floor in the open lounge.

Jul.20, 2004: Kiffa In the night, a sandstorm has raged over the campement. Everything is covered with a layer of sand and dust. Also we are. Are we ever going to have a good night's rest again? After a nice breakfast in the company of the personal, we leave. We are invited to stay in the house of one of our friends. For the first time we see a real grasshopper invasion. Millions are flying around. Like a huge, impressive cloud, they darken the sky for half an hour. They are everywhere. And when they are gone, so is most of the vegetation. This is another disaster for local agriculture.

Jul.21, 2004: Kiffa - Nouakchott In the break of dawn, we leave for Nouakchott. The wind hasn't eased yet and it looks like we are driving in a brown fog. But at the same time, it is so very, very hot. This is no place for human beings. It is not even a weather to chase a camel through…But the tents prove we are wrong: people do live here. They eat, work, love and give birth like anywhere else. Though the frequently scattered white bones of animals prove that only the fittest survive. This is no place for the weak. And sad enough, we are weak now. Weeks of bad night rest and dehydration has taken away our energy. We promise ourselves that we will return to this beautiful, fascinating land later, when we are in a good shape. For 20 minutes, I succeed to forget all my little aches and pains, while I walk up a dune. The isolation, the infinite desert landscape, the sand under my bare feet, the feeling of freedom, purity,… I stay for a while, until my tongue feels like a rubber in my mouth, then I return to the car and drink 2 liters of water at once. We really deal with extremities here: the beauty and the beast…

When we approach the capital Nouakchott, traffic increases. And they all drive their brand-new Mercedes or Nissan Patrol like they used to drive their camels. I keep my hand on the hoop. We find a little hotel besides our favorite burger tent and "Pizza Lina" restaurant. Here we have already spent some dinners together with our friend Gauthier on our way down. We are familiar with the area. It feels like "coming home". But this homecoming is also the beginning of 8 black days in our diary.

Jul.22 - 30, 2004: Nouakchott 8 days, we could hardly leave our room. No need to go into details: but we were quite sick with amoebic dysentery. We owe a lot to some local people, who took care of us. I hope they will read this and I want to thank them again. Now Mauritania has touched our harts even more. The place where you encounter the most harsh situations, there you will also find the kindest people. Today, we use the early morning "freshness" (30°C) to stroll on the "marché cinqième". I just love the colorful textiles, the boubous, and the busy coming and going.

Jul.31 - Aug. 4, 2004: Nouakchott We are still recovering, but every day we are getting stronger. Tomorrow, we will leave Nouakchott. We pack the car and suddenly, our friend Mahfoudh turns up. He needs a lift to Nouadhibou and will join us tomorrow.

Aug. 5, 2004: Nouakchott - Fort Guergarat (Western Sahara) Before sunrise, we are already on our way. With Mahfoudh, who is a professional guide, it is easy. The new tar road going to the border is not yet finished, so washboard, soft dunes and pistes are still in the running. At the railway point PK46, we stop to drink tea and have a last look on the passing iron ore train.

This is so much an element of Mauritania, so typical…We already get nostalgic! At the border formalities, it is a piece of cake, the only thing you need is patience. Especially at the Moroccan police. We notice we have already a totally other opinion of officers out here. We start to feel sorry for them: living isolated and underpaid in a shabby shed. Who can blame them if they ask for some shampoo or trousers or… We would like to give some things out of sympathy, but we are also aware that this would cause (maintain?) a bad habit of hassling travelers in the future. This is a never ending discussion. We are back in the Western Sahara now…