Location: Nouakchott, Mauritania

Date: July 31, 2008 (around 9:00 am)

Local Temperature: 90 degrees Fahrenheit

Total Journey Mileage: 3,214 miles

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As we back track over the past week or so, I’d like to take a minute to pay respect to Mauritania. We had a horrible time crossing from Western Sahara into Mauritania, but instead of blogging about those 8 hours of hell in the heat of the desert at the border, I’d like to give a quick mention about the rest of our time there.

Mauritania has a small population of just over 3 million people, but it is the world’s 29th-largest country. Because the majority of the population lives in Nouakchott, Nouadhibou and Kiffa the vast distance between towns was really noticable as was the poverty and isolation.

Because of how long the border crossing took we ended up our first night sleeping in a large room adjacent to a petrol station between Nouadhibou and Nouakchott. The following day was spent in Nouakchott taking care of car repairs and enjoying a little rest at the lovely Auberge Sahara. Our friend Kirin got some chocolate ice cream on his way back from the Malian embassy. He was nice enough to give me a bite and to this day I wish I had gone and gotten myself some! Sigh. So, we took care of some business and then enjoyed the company of our convoy. It was a nice break before heading towards Kiffa, a city not far from the Malian border.

We were really struck by the heat as we headed east from Nouakchott towards Mali, the weather and lack of resources clearly have had an impact on the agriculture and livestock. As we drove, we noticed that the countryside was littered with dead cows, donkeys, camels and goats. All were at various stages of decay, but many had recently died.

Back in Nouakchott we ate delicious Senegalese fish, grilled up whole and spiced just right. Outside Nouakchott the food options were limited. Another thing we noticed was how expensive goods were. It seems it was a combination of us being overcharged as foreigners,  combined with the difficulty and expense of importing goods. Local food away from the fresh fish on the coast was limited and we ended up eating lots of eggs, bread and cheese (when it was available).

Thanks to kindess of strangers and our awesome convoy we made it through Mauritania. It was not a wowing experience, but it was memorable because of our crazy experiences and the nice people who helped us in Nouakchott and the beautiful mountains in the east. 

Dealing with the corrupt police and some persistent and aggressive people was not fun, but we made it through to Mali and everything worked out! Someday I’d like to trek in the mountains here, and enjoy tea with locals who could better help me find reasons to like Mauritania. This time through was a bit of a bust, so until next time …

More to come on Mali soon ….