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Part III. Mauritanie

The border between Mauritanie and the western Sahara is littered with mines. Traffic uses guides here to find the save road. Crossing the border takes time, especially on the Moroccan side. We wait for more then 2 hours and talk with lots of other waiting people. One friendly man offers us a free lift to Nouadhibou, he has a van so it is no problem taking the bikes. To us it seems saver to take the lift as there will probably be no guide willing to help us. It is 65 km to Nouadhibou still it takes considerable time to get there due to several customs, police and gendarmerie posts. But we arrive safely in the port town, people here are different from Morocco , more reserved and they greet less. Things are also more expensive here we soon discover.

From here we take the train to Choum 500 km East because there are no cycleable roads out of this town, although they are working hard constructing a road to Nouakchott . At the station locals tell us to buy a ticket for 800 UM (about 2.5 Euro) The train arrives at 3.30 p.m., It is the longest train in the world and it is used to transport iron ore form Zouerat to the port. I jump in one of the transport wagons and Saskia reaches me the luggage and after that the bicycles. It is hard work getting the stuff over the wagon side. We end up with 3 other men in the iron container and settle ourselves on a blanket and our matrasses.

The train leaves and soon we are enveloped in dust clouds, no great desert views as we have to keep our eyes closed. Luckily I have swimming goggles with me witch work very well against the dust. The night falls and the train shudders and shocks its way to Choum, it is cold and we huddle together and talk with the two boys and the man.

3 A .M., Choum, exactly on time. It's dark, very dark as the moom has set already. Quickly we unload all the things from the train before it leaves again. Here we are in the middle of the night in a small railway village. We find a place to rest till the sun rises. Then we depart on the bicycles for Atar.

The road is difficult, there are several roads actually, it's a sort of network. We try to stay close to the escarpment which runs parallel to the road. Little traffic but lot's of sand and corrugation. Often we have to get of the bikes and push them through the sand. The landscape is pretty, some bush, some granite rock outcrops and even a shallow lake. After 57 km we put the tent up in the bush and sleep early although it's new years evening.

At 4 A .M. we wake up through a terrible sound, it is a donkey standing close to our tent. We wish each other happy new year and fall asleep again. New years day starts with a lot of sand, soon the road improves, will we reach Atar today? After 15 km we hit a wider road going East. The road is bumpy but we can cycle. Soon we reach the escarpment and the road winds up. After that we cycle through a valley and climb another escarpment then we reach a village and here the tarmac starts, 20 fast kilometers to Atar and there we have a cold drink on the New Year.

We have decided to make a side trip to Chinguetti a nice desert town. The unpaved road has one spectacular part, the climb up the Adrar plateau, this 4 km long climp is also paved but still tough because of its steepness. Cinguetti is situated at the edge of a large dune complex. We spend one day here for a camel ride. But this is a dissapointing experience. Wesit on our camels and Ali theguide pulls us through the desert, mostly over the plateau though. We have 3 hours siesta under a small bush and Ali cookes a simple meal for us, we get lot's of sweet thee with it. After that we head back.

Next morning we rise early and walk to the grand dunes to see the sun rise while having breakfast. Beautiful and very quiet, the town is waking up slowly and the colors of the dunes change quickly. On our way back to Atar we stop at some old rock paintings, 6000 years old and they show elephants, buffalow, Giraffe etc. All animals that don't excist here anymore.

From Atr we cycle in two and a halve days to the Capital Nouakchott. The last day in a sandstorm with luckily te right direction. Nouakchott is a dusty, dirty but friendly town. It means; “place of the winds” and that is true. Although it would be better to call it place of dust and winds. The visa for Mali are issued within 10 minutes and cost us 20 Euro.