Residence Iman Nouakchott

... sea of sand outside the views were dream like but little chance of sleep so instead i was stared at some until we suddenly squeezed off the train through sleeping strangers, suspect parcels and who knows what else!<br><br>An aged man who we met onboard bought us biscuits and water for what was a 5.30am arrival breakfast and once again we woke the wee small settlement of Choum who before we bowled up were sleeping under the stunning stars on matresses that lined the ...

... or the one at home that doesn't work, but it was 15 pounds so we thought we'd conserve money and just continue our wanderings. We ended up back at Nina's for a late lunch and then Paul (Sarah's cousin) and his wife Vicky came over and we had a drink and chatted the evening away. Sarah was still very tired so had another arvo nap and we retired for the night. I caught up on the cricket scores and enjoyed watching the hundreds of pay TV channels. Even watched a bit of soccer. Day 3 Sarah ...

... littered with unexploded land mines. While at the border we held up on the Moroccan side for a while as they conducted checks. Not sure why. Now the test, could we get into Mauritania with liquor. As it turns out we did not get searched at all, I am not sure why. In fact it was relatively quick compared with Morocco. Considering that this is the main road that links Europe to West Africa it is a real surprise at the lack of ...

... the city centre to find dusty streets with haphazard street stalls (many were simply tarps on the ground with goods set out at your feet) and decrepit two storey concrete buildings with no clear official government presence. It highlighted that Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in the world, with little infrastructure or wealth even in the capital.<br><br>After catching up with washing (both of ourselves and our clothes), we headed east away ...

... mid day when we pulled off road for a lunch stop only to become bogged in sand a few metres in. Yeah talk about embarrassing - it's one thing to get bogged miles from nowhere but a metre from the main road with locals driving past beeping their horns at you - hahahaa funny. It did however give the boys an opportunity to get the "guns" out - Yakka you would have been in your element!! We dug a few times.... then a few ...

... dunes turn to grass covered plains, vegetable and crop fields start appearing. Amazing how quickly the landscape changes. We pulled off road and found a nice place to camp in long grasses, thankfully with no prickles this time. The following days cook group had purchased a massive amount of chicken so we were able to borrow some of theirs and have chicken curry with fresh apple. Rather delish.

La capitale ne pas passionnée. Une ville construite dans les années 60 à la va vite et où les faubourgs ressemblent à des bidonvilles avec des chevres partout (et oui il faut bien recycler le papier, le carton et les dechets vegetaux). Avec un groupe de francais, on est parti acheter de la biere, ce qui est totalement illegal en mauritanie. On a ...

Tout d'abord l'attentat! Il s'est produit à 200m de l'enroit où nous avons choisi de dormir, la même maison d'hôte que nous avions essayée en allant vers l'Adrar. Cette action viait visiblement la boite de nuit où l'alcool est en vente libre. Il parait que çà ne ...

... paid particular attention to the book's short section on "Women travellers".  There was reference to a widely held belief among Moroccan men that white women are, more-often-than-not, prostitiutes, and are therefore open to unwanted attention.  The book suggested that adopting a headscarf may help avoid some of this.  It stated that Moroccan culture dictated that men and women should not touch in public, and this could provide security against any undesirable advances.  However ...

... of Mauritania must be one of the least developed in the world.  In the whole country (which is approximately 3 times the size of France) there is one railway line and only one tarred road outside of the two cities (although the word 'city' perhaps gives the wrong impression - more large towns with perhaps a couple of main streets, the remainder being tracks which are slowly disappearing under the drifting sand). Still, despite this, and the descriptions of extreme ...