Mercure Nouakchott Marhaba 3m

... slumber and we were all sipping Sprites, playing Scrabble and lounging around in hammocks and huts. Having a break was what we needed and no better place to do it!

In such a small town we were adopted and escorted to Chinguetti, our next port of call in no time at all. As there are very few tourists in Atar at the moment and as we were to find out, even fewer in Chinguetti our custom is craved and appreciated at all levels. Little could be done in the day due to the ...

... no real road, we were so close yet so far from Noudibhou...

Just a couple of kilometres out of town our trusty VW Gulf got as overheated as we were and packed up under all our weight. With the help of our Spanish/Moroccan mates who we had picked up along the way, we were soon saved by a bloke from the Spanish Consulate in Noudibhou. By this point, passed tired, totally wind swept by the Western Sahara but still ...

... br>7th - Left to travel towards Nema in the east of the country, passing through Boutilimit and Aleg, bush camping east of Sangrafa. Temp hit 38C inside the truck around midday.



Dist cov. = 412 km



8th - Passed through Kiffa and Tintane stopping 1km short of Ayoun el-Atrous. Temp hit 39C today.



Dist cov. = 369 km

Total dist cov. = 4778 km



9th - Went through ...

... who was by that time a fast friend of mine (always asking where I was going when I left the room and sitting with me, chatting away or watching Thomas the tank engine) were all there and we had a lovely time. We ended up all of us back at Nina's and chatted till the early hours of the morning over a bottle of three of wine and some lagers. A very good day. The family was all very welcoming of me and we think we may end up back there for a little while after the trans Africa finishes ...

... in 40 degree heat in the middle of the day (however luckily it was in a village from which we could restock our water supplies and be provided a hut for rest). After 3 days and several wrong turns, we hit sand dunes which made the journey to our destination impossible and we had to turn back within 26kms from Ouolata, deciding to travel at night when the sand was likely to be cooler and more compact. The experience divided the truck into travelers who ...

Yay sleep in as not leaving Nouakchott until afternoon. Got up around 8.30, breakfast, shower then headed straight to internet. A few of the people from the other truck walked in, a very nice guy but talkative as hell sitting next to me who proceeded, for the next hour, to ask question after question and just talk. Now I'm not sure if you know but when I'm on the internet, or any computer for ...

... the food back to him before sitting down with Luke, Barsby and Clara to eat mine.. .and yes indeed it was as good as we were told. By then the rest of the group had either returned to camp or gone in search of internet. So we're sitting there, near the street, watching life go by when we noticed a small demonstration coming towards us, maybe 50 or so people. It was all peaceful until they were a few ...

... mais dificeis para fazer ramadão. Quando batessem 18h00 eu entornava mais de 1,5l de agua. Não sentia propriamente fome, acho que o meu estômago tem uma educação melhor que a minha lingua e garganta. Tive oscilações de humor, as vezes apetecia-me insultar tudo e todos, mas faltavam-me as forças. Deixava-me so estar, esperando passar o dia. Lia de manhã, quando o calor não era ainda tão *******o, depois, a medida que o braseiro se instalava, ficava a morfar na ...

... You have to decide whether they're ripping you off or helping you out.  And it's a fine line to walk.  If you take it as read that everyone is trying to stiff you, you'll have a horrible time and rob yourself of some really wonderful moments of generosity and hospitality.  Similarly, if you trust everyone blindly, you'll end up being robbed blind." These words are true where ever you go in the world.  But, in Morocco, they seemed to describe our daily dilemmas so well.  Whilst ...

... game of rugby, with people elbowing others out of the way, people hanging off the side of the train as it was still moving in an effort to get the best seats/beds. We were actually quite lucky to get a place on one of the hard benches - without some assistance from some helpful Mauritanians who eased our paths onto the train I expect we would have been standing in a corridor (or worse).  The journey itself was an extreme test of endurance.  We were on the train for 12 hours ...