It was 5 days drive from Essaouira through the Western Sahara to the border with Mauritania. Our first night was spent at the roadside again after the road had shut due to a landslide. It had already been closed for 5 days so we were thankful when it opened at 5 pm the next day. It's been pretty relaxed as we have headed down the coast and have been making many stops in little towns to buy supplies, fuel, get coffee, WiFi and have a shower.
Upon arrival at the border out of Morocco we found that we were at the back of a long line of trucks and the border hadn't even opened. We spent 6 hours queueing to get into the compound to depart from Morocco. The truck needed to be x-rayed. This is something that the Moroccans do as they don't want any weapons to be transported into Mauritania which could then be used against them. This was a long process. Us as passengers were stamped out of Morocco before the truck had been x rayed so we just had to wait. Getting into Mauritania was a little quicker, taking about 2 hours which was mainly paperwork for Steve. We had spent nearly 12 hours doing the border crossing and it was well into the evening when we would have to find somewhere to camp. Northern Mauritania is classed as a red zone by the Foreign Commonwealth Office which is "do not travel" so it wouldn't have been safe to travel at night. Kindly the border guards offered us a place to camp within the border boundaries. We got instructions though not to venture too far to the toilet due to the amount of landmines in the area! Next stop Nouadhibou.
No comments:
Post a Comment