Is this the Capital

Trip Start Mar 07, 2009

Trip End Ongoing

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Mauritania Nouakchott, Mauritania
Monday, April 6, 2009

The Mauritania border crossing day meant getting up early to make breakfast for the group and hiding the vodka for the crossing. Its an Islamic country and does not allow liquor into the country. Our plan was to hide it in water bottle contains throughout the truck, with the intention of passing it off as water. About 6 litres in total in several bottles.

The drive to the border was only about 2 hours past some very country 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 vehicular traffic in the area

The Longest train in the World

.

Nouadhibou, was to be our home for the first night in Mauritania. On route we managed to catch a glimpse of the longest train the world about 2.5km as it made its way into Nouadhibou. The town is nothing worth writing about so lets leave it at that.

Nouakchott, is the capital of Mauritania. The drive to get here was awesome, lots of sand and desert, very remote. We did have the pleasure of running out of water on the drive as we miscalculated the amount of water we would drink during the day. The town itself is quite a messed up town that just seems to have been thrown together with very little planning.

We stayed in a hotel for the night which was right across the road from a mosque. The sounds of ALLAH, ALLAH at 4.15am and every 30 mins after that is enough, considering its coming from a loud speaker that would make a rock concert sound loud.

While in the Nouakchott the guidebook Lonely Planet recommended that no trip to the capital is complete without a trip to the Fish market. Well, take it from me, its not that good.....

Well, at this point its official my computer has shit itself and not working, I'm no longer happy. I think the cold, heat, sun, rain and worst of all the sand has finally killed it.....

Slideshow