Mauritania: Sand, camels and police checkpoints

About 500 km separate Nouadhibou from Nouakchott, and not only…  There are also plenty of sand, camels and police checkpoints.

The way is very impressive and very pretty during the first 50 km, impressive and pretty in the following 50 km and highly tiring and desolating during the other 400 km!

On top of the sand, camels punctuate the landscape. During almost 500 km we saw plenty of them!

Mauritania is a place where kidnapping is a real danger, and most of the people just cross it as fast as possible. Just like we did, without a single stop in a gas station! If you cross it, just make sure you have plenty of “Les Fiches” to present at the very frequent police checkpoints. Le Fiche is a simple paper with your passport information (other details as address and occupation are also useful) and the vehicle information that can save you a lot of time. If you have them, you can just hand them to the police and keep moving in less than 5 minutes. If not… you will take much longer for sure! Don’t forget to bring them, and plenty… we handed over 20!!

Mauritania: The Chinese "house"

After the harsh cross from Dakhla to the border between Morocco and Mauritania, and driving 40 km between sand dunes, old cars and flying sand, finally we arrived at Nouadhibou, Mauritania. We had been warned it was an ugly town with old cars driving around. All of that was confirmed, and for our surprise we even found a Chinese restaurant! It had some red lanterns out, and it was located in what seemed to be a house working also as the owner's residence.

Tired of the long day, Sweet Potato went inside and, going straight to the point, asked if we could setup the tent on their yard. The lady promptly agreed and we were happy! We ordered some fish, and while waiting, Sweet Potato noticed that the house had plenty of rooms. Until we were done, no one else joined us in the restaurant despite of some people entering and leaving the house.

After the dinner, the hostess, already tipsy, started to call "babe" to Sweet Potato. Weird. Five minutes later, a costumer says "the girl is not happy with me!". The lady replied "It's already not your first time!". Other costumer asked "How much is it?". We started to be suspicious, even more when the restaurant stayed open till, at least, 00h30 and it was supposed to close at 10 pm...

Next morning, while improvising a funnel to change the engine's oil, the owner of the restaurant got us a piece of hard paper...

Yes, it is official: We slept in a Chinese brothel in Nouadhibou, Mauritania!!