Day 11
Tue 10th
Morocco / Mauritania
Dakhla to Nouadhibou
Todays Distance 380km
Sleeping - ABBA Camping site
Mileage 68804
Car - Good - Bent rear arm
Punctures today - 0!
Today we cross the boarder from Morocco to Mauritania. The boarder crossing went very smoothly as Brigitte and a couple of others from the organisation arrived hours before the 2cvs and worked their charm to ensure all was ok for or arrival. Crossing from the Moroccan to Maritanian boarder there is about 5k of no-mans land. I have seen pictures of this on TV etc, theres a track through and we were advised to always stick to the track as there are land mines! The blown up cars on the sides of the track highlight this also! Needless to say we were very cautious and made it through with no problems. When leaving the Mauritanian boarder you can notice an immediate change, Morocco is not particularly clean but Mauritania is really dirty, there is rubbish everywhere (mainly plastic) and it really smells, Its defiantly a noticeably poorer country. However the people are all really ‘smiley!’ (I think they like the cars!) Some people warned us that they were not the nicest of people but everyone we met here was lovely (perhaps we were just lucky) We arrived in Nouadhibou at about 2pm and went into the town to get some fruit and a wrist watch for Dad, I asked a local lady (in my ‘bestest Mauritanian’ accent … un watchy?!) and she took my had and lead me through various market streets , 1st to a man repairing watches and then onto someone selling watches … success! All the way she was chewing on a stick, laughing and saying, Deux Chevaux (2cv) English! She was really funny! Dad meanwhile was desperately following us through these streets in the car!
After shopping we returned to camp and removed part of the roll cage as it was agreed by ourselves and the mechanics that this was not needed and therefore unnecessary weight, so our it came, Don’t worry though we are still sufficiently protected if we were to roll over … which we wont!!