Senegal

Last week we arrived at last in the beautiful Senegal. We drove to Zebrabar camping near St Louis where Beni fell in love for the first time with a visiting hound. The young lad is growing up!
Senegal is bursting with life, especially after the first rains. After driving through Western Sahara and Mauritania which I must say, in the middle of summer is quite devoid of life..... we are now being dive bombed by cicadas and hopping over enormous crabs. Everywhere there are multi-coloured birds and lizards and yesterday Beni met some monkeys which utterly confused him.
A few days ago I returned to the motherland and left Carruthers and Beni fending for themselves on an idyllic area of land not far from St Louis. I shall return in a few weeks and am hoping neither of them have gone too native.

Meanwhile, for your entertainment, watch this video of our journey through Western Sahara on the Paris Dakar route. (Slightly bigger screen if you click on the link... and turn up the sound!). Delightful!
 http://www.youtube.com/tarawatney

In the Sand 2

as you trundle down the road in Mauritania.... sometimes there is a little sand in the way.....

Fishy Business

Wednesday 13^th July – Currently in the capital Nouakchott, where it is much cooler. Last night we visited the most active fish market in West Africa. Its right on the beach and fisherman brave the crashing surf to bring their bounty ashore. The myriad of different species combines to produce a momentously malodorous reek, which put Carruthers in mind of his old school dinners. The colour and vibrancy made up for the odor to provide a highly entertaining evening. 

 

In the sand

10^th July ish – On arrival in Atar at the delightful Bab Sahara campsite we languished in 45-degree heat until deciding to venture into the desert to gaze upon the world’s second largest monolith (after Ayres Rock). After several hours driving of fillings loosening washboard roads, we found ourselves up to the axles in the sand. Repeated digging and use of sand ladders and high lift jack saw us taking 6 hours to progress 1km, at the end of which we had shoveled enough sand to build a full size sandcastle. Realising Ben Amira was a further 15km of shoveling and at the end of the day, just another big stone in a desert full of big stones… we camped for the night and retreated down the railway tracks the following morning with our tail between our legs. The self same railway track is the home to the world’s longest train. The 2km long iron ore train from Zouerat to Nouadhibou is truly impressive as it fills horizon to horizon. 

In an effort to entice Beni out of the car, Carruthers spent an afternoon sewing some Dogter Martins boots, as the sand was so hot. He currently walks in them like a dressage horse, but we are confident he will appreciate them in time. 

road kill sahara style

We stopped here to ask directions.... maybe we should swap the Rolls for a camel... In Morocco, Carruthers was offered 12 camels for the Rolls....hmmmmm

Beni in all his splendor

Border Line

Monday 4th July – The turn of the month saw us now leaving our now beloved Morocco for Mauritania. Moroccan customs; as many layered as an onion, is the usual exercise in futile bureaucracy and petty corruption, which took two hours of forced smiling and handing out cigarettes. This was followed by a ‘no-mans land’ of 3kms full of discarded tyres, stripped and burned out vehicles, reminiscent of Beirut or the road to Tripoli. By contrast the Mauritania officials were a paragon of efficiency. Although it may have helped that some were mildly inebriated on confiscated alcohol. Luckily they didn’t find the Gin, and luckily Islam has not yet banned Marmite. When jokingly they asked for Beni-Mallal’s passport, they were flabbergasted when we promptly produced it.

Evening saw us safely in Nouadhibou, Mauritania’s second city and centre of urban sophistication, where we camped down for the night at Camping Chez Abba, a little slice of the desert brought into town i.e more sand!

Currently driving to Atar to gaze upon one of the wonders of the desert… a big rock called Ben Amir. Have just been temporarily delayed at one of the many police checkpoints, however at this one, Carruthers was called upon to produce a 16mm spanner and help with various missing nuts….

Nouadhibou Taxi Servie

Downtown

i think the 2nd goat has pushed it just over the limit

dave being a good citizen

Paris Dakar

Monday 27^th June ish - Taking advantage of delays in the Moroccan mail system, Carruthers and I decided to spend a couple of days touring the Paris Dakar rally route of Western Sahara. Confident in our navigation abilities, we set off on a clearly defined track into the desert, this soon became 38 clearly defined tracks leading in all directions. Soon we were lost. Several hours of serious driving later we arrived at a camel watering station called Acfa, we were 60 kms east of Tamnavvart-At-Ramth which is where we expected to be.dinner On asking the bemused nomads directions, they waved there arm of the general direction of ‘over there’. This we duly followed for an hour and a half until we realised upon crossing a rather large sand wall (Moroccan defence wall against the Polasario, often covered in land mines) that we were going 180 degrees in the wrong direction. With backtracking and diligent use of the compass, we orientated ourselves in the trackless desert and found the town Jdriya where we should have been 8 hours previously. This led us to a rather wonderful saltpan, as flat as a billiard table and upon which we could get the rolls up to top speed. It was a delightful experience after the many hours of picking our way through appalling desert pistes

camels and wild melons

another saharan beauty

back to tarmac at last

saltpan