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Mauritania

Despite being obliged to take a customs officer with us as an escort we grew to love Ahmed Bamba and his taste in quirky Mauritania music.

The southern route through Mauritania is where we leave the Atlantic coast for the first time and head inland. The first part of the journey was through stunning dunes and the narrow tarmac road carved a fragile route through them. As soon as we left Nouakchott and strong headwind picked up and blew a sandstorm all around us, reducing the visibility to a few hundred meters at times.

Off roading in Mauritania

We had no problems passing through Kiffa, but ten days later we'd learn the shocking news that a French family of 4 would be gunned down on the same stretch of road a week after we'd passed through.

In 15 years coming to Mauritania I've heard rumours of the “Koranic Schools” hidden in the remoteness of the desert, operating as training and indoctrination camps but I'd never heard of any firm evidence. Mauritanians have always been welcoming and open to western visitors, and our experience was that although they will happily fleece you with hard bargaining, they are friendly and hospitable.

After 4 days and fewer breakdowns than usual we made it to the Mali border.

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The Expedition set off from the UK on the 26th of November and arrived in Timbuktu on the 26th of December 2007.

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