Sunday, January 20, 2013

Mauritania, Africa at last

We have updated our blog with links to pictures per country (new page).
Update Jan 10th 2013
A quick update about our last few days in Morocco. After getting the air conditioning fixed in Agadir we drove straight south towards the Western Sahara. We took it slow and drove partially along the beach  on pistes to put the Unimog to the test. We now know it can drive on three wheels and can pretty much get anywhere.


Yes the road suddenly ends.....


The Western Sahara was interesting, a very good tar road for about 800km through the desert with some nice views on one side, of steep cliffs, the Atlantic Ocean and sand, rocks and dunes on the other side. New was also the military presence. About every 100km and before every town there was police that would stop you and ask for a “fiche” (a note that contains the passport information, vehicle information, job and some other information that is of no relevance). Fortunately we had made copies in Agadir, so each of the stops was rather quick. We are just wondering what are they doing with these “fiches”? Is it a hobby of bored policemen to collect as many tourist fiches as possible? Do they have gatherings, like stamp collectors, where they meet and exchange “fiches”? Is a ‘fiche” from a Dutch/Brazilian couple more valuable than a French couple? We just do not know…..

Near Dakhla

Where is Cape Town?


In Dakhla we filled up on water and diesel (0.60 Euro a liter, Morocco gives all kind of tax advantages to people living in the Western Sahara to lure Moroccans to move there, so when it ever comes to a vote about the independence of the Western Sahara, the Moroccans will outnumber the local people).

From there we drove towards the border with Mauritania, trying to find a camping spot before hitting the border crossing the next day. This proved to be a small challenge as either the military did not allow us to park close to the beach when we found a track and we did not want to drive off road/track since there are still mines in the area. In the end we decided to just park next to the road for the night. Within 10 minutes a military guy showed up telling us that it was not safe there and that we should park 1 km further next to  the military check point so they could guard us. We did not feel like moving again as we had straightened out the truck and started making dinner, so we told the guy that Rosana was to sick to drive further. Now it was OK to stay but we should use the horn and headlights to warn him in case of a problem. Friendly soldier and off course there was no problem. We always felt super safe wild camping in Morocco.

On the road from Dakhla we drove a couple of times through a “swarm” of grasshoppers (see video). They were everywhere and the road was covered with them. Easy to believe that these creatures can ruin the crop of a country. They are big and there must have been hundreds of them per square meter.
Yes, Millions of Grasshoppers


Border crossing into Mauritania.

This was another experience. We had heard from people that it would take about 4-5 hours but could take up to 8 hours. Well we have set another record, it took us 9 hours to get out of Morocco and into Mauritania. The worst part was trying to get out of Morocco. Below is the timing of the a very efficient border crossing:

9am: Arrive at Moroccan border
There are two lines (well maybe more...), one for trucks and one for any other car. Not clear in which line we should go so we decide to go with the regular cars. Rosana gets an exit form that we need to fill out while Marc waits in the non-moving line.
Line to get out of Morocco

Is it the same van from the Moroccan border?

9.30am: Move to the truck line
Some guy from Ivory coast tells us to go to the truck lane. So we do.

10.00am: Car lane starts moving. Marc decides to go back to the car lane (Stupid move)
After moving back to the car lane the truck lane starts moving fast.

11.30am: First in line to get into the secured area
An Moroccan official, who had seen us in the car lane for the last hour and a half directs us back in the truck lane.

12.00pm: Entering secured area
We are now in the secured area for trucks and park our car in front of the “scanner” (same big X-ray machine that we had to go through when we entered Morocco).  It is not clear what we need to do. Finally found out that we need to get our passport stamped. We put our passport on a granite countertop together with about 10 other passports.

1.00pm: Passport gets stamped
No Idea what the guy in the office does but it took him an hour to get the 10 passports stamped.
Back to the “scanner”. We are still in line there. By now the first vehicles from Mauritania have arrived and since there is only one scanner, the whole process goes even slower.

1.30pm: Cleared the scanner
We got through the scanner and got the import/export document for the car signed off on. Now to the customs office for the exit stamp. After that we are finally off to Mauritania. No, wait…. there are still two places where they needed to check the passport again and a third place where they had to write our passport and car information in a big book.

2.00pm: Leaving Morocco, entering no-man’s land
Now we had to drive for 5km through no-man’s land. As soon as we enter it we get hassled by Mauritanians that want to guide us to the border crossing, change money. Besides these people there are just car-wrecks and garbage along this very bad road.

No man's land - garbage and car wrecks

2.30pm: Arrive at the secured area for Mauritania
Also here we get hassled by people that want to help us through the border. We ignore them. The first stop is customs a friendly guy asks for a “fiche” (yes apparently the Mauritanians have the same hobby as the Moroccans) and he wants to see the inside of the car. As soon as he is inside he asks for a “cadeau” to speed up the process. We ignore him and act like we do not speak French, he then asks for money but again we ignore him. We are getting worried that we now have endure a very long inspection process but fortunately in 5 minutes we were done. (us vs corrupt official 1-0)
Line to get in Mauritania after No man's land

2.45pm: Buy an import/export document for the car
Next stop was the customs office to get an import export document. This was also done in about 10 minutes and they did not even ask for a “cadeau”

3.00pm: Pay local community tax
A guy who looked like one of the hustlers comes to our car and wants us to pay a local tax. We ignore him and start to drive away…..that is until we get stopped by someone who looked like and official Mauritanian soldier who tells us that we need to pay the local tax. So we do and off we go to the next stop.

3.15pm: Immigration office
Now we are in the immigration office where they actually have a computer and they scan the passport and add some additional information. The boss walks us back outside with the passports and asks for a cadeau. Marc acts like he does not understand, grabs the passports from the guys hand and says “merci”. The official now asks for money but sees that it is a lost cause as he does not have our passports anymore (Us vs corrupt official 2-0).

3.30pm: Insurance office
We are now done with all immigration and custom formalities however in Mauritania you need to buy insurance for your car. This is done in the back of a little shop/currency exchange. One guy manually filling out three different forms and collecting 60 Euro. It took one hour and a half until it was our turn. While waiting we were enjoying the nature around us....

More garbage and car wrecks

5.30pm: Finally on the road in Mauritania.
We decided to stop at the first “campground”, more a small goat farm where we could park our car before it was getting to dark. Tomorrow we will be going into the desert again as we will follow the train track (that supposedly is used by the longest train in the world (3+km) that carries ore from the north of Mauritania) towards Atar.
After negotiating a 25% discount

Update Jan 15th 2013
Sand dunes between Chinguetti and Atar

We made it to Atar in three days of driving along the railtrack. The first 300km the scenery was quite boring: sand, rocks, stone and flat. The fun part was the driving through the sand dunes. We got stuck twice, the Unimog is struggling with the sudden steep ascents. One time just reversing and driving up with the diffs locked solved the problem and the second time we just drove around the dune.

The last 200 kms the scenery got impressive again with the dunes (see here video when we were driving over the dunes) and the Adrar plateau in the background.



Not a bad spot for wild camping !!!




Arriving at the campground in Atar we got an update on the war in Mali. The previous week we had heard it was safe to travel through the southern part of Mali. This should still be safe as the fighting is a lot further north but we don’t know whether Mali will start closing its borders. The Mauritanian army has also moved troops to the border with Mali and travel in the Eastern part of Mauritania is restricted. We are still quite far from Mali and everyone in Atar is telling us that it is still safe to travel around the Adrar plateau.

Stayed two days in Atar, just relaxing and strolling through the village. The area has been devastated by the travel warnings/restrictions issued by the EU. There used to be direct flights from Paris to Atar. But they have been suspended for a while and French tourists are not coming to the area anymore, so all the Auberges/hostels/hotels are closed or have been deserted. It is a big blow to the local economy.

We also found out that none of the ATMs in the town are working and that of the three banks in town only one was willing/able to exchange dollars/euros.

Walking over the market we saw a lot of bags with flour that came from the US. 45kg bags with in big writing “USAID – Not for resale or exchange”. I guess it shows again how corrupt Africa is. People are dying of starvation and around the corner someone else is making money on selling flour that was intended for refugee camps.

We almost got arrested when we were buying flour. We had brought a plastic bag to put the flour in, but did not realize that in Atar they have outlawed all plastic bags to fight pollution. While we were in the shop someone saw us using the plastic and went to the police. The policeman gave us a warning while he was leaning on a “USAID flour bag – NOT FOR RESALE”. So the positive thing is that they are trying to do something about the garbage that you find around  most towns, the bad thing is that they apparently do not care that people are smuggling and selling flour that was intended for humanitarian aid projects.

Before leaving for the desert again we went to the Gendarmerie to let them know about our routes. That is where we found out that they have been keeping track of our progress through Mauritania. The head of police, had the information of where we had passed in his book. Apparently the information gets called in to the town that you are visiting next. The head of police called with his colleagues in the two main towns we are going to visit to let them know that we are coming. So we expect a grand welcome when we get to these places.

Adrar Plateau
We just arrived at the first town but we were only welcomed by many children asking for a cadeau and some hustlers trying to get us to stay at their campground and offering guiding services. It was kind of annoying so we decided to drive on and started the first part of driving through a riverbed for about 120km to the next town. It is absolutely beautiful and very very sandy. Got stuck once pretty good with sand halfway up the tires. A little bit of digging and releasing more air did the trick.

Digging...
Update Jan 16th 2013 -  20km West of Ouedane

We almost made it to Ouedane if we had not gotten stuck again. This time it was more serious as we already had the tires at a very low pressure and the sand was thick and soft.  

We left our beautiful campsite around 9.30 in the morning. The wind had picked up a lot during the night and after an hour or so we were in the middle of a minor sandstorm. The track was very easy to follow until we came to the village of Toucheret. After a while the tracks all disappeared and we could not find a place to cross the riverbed as the dunes on the other side were to steep. We decided to follow the riverbed more west, were there was supposed to be another track. When we got there after 6km we did not find any tracks and as we continued in the riverbed we hit a soft spot and got stuck. The tires were about half covered in sand and after trying to dig them out and using the diff locks without success we had to try our last resort, the sandplates. By this time some women and kids from the nearby village (5 huts and a camel) had gathered and were trying to sell us some local art and the kids were asking for cadeaus. Obviously we were not interested in any of it as were trying to get the unimog out.  Instead of offering help to dig us out, they all kept asking for cadeaus and sat down having fun looking at us digging around the wheels, getting the sandplates off the car and putting them under the wheels. 
More digging
 Fortunately we were successful and after about an hour and a half or so we got the Unimog out (See video). The women helped carrying the sandplates to the car, which was nice but they immediately started to try sell us some of their stuff (no idea what it was what they were trying to sell, it looked like a little drum and a carpet).

Mauritanian AAA (ANWB)
Again we first wanted to get the sandplates back on the car, which was not easy as one of them was bended by the force of the car. After that we thought we could thank the women and give them some money for helping us. But as suddenly as they had appeared, so quickly they were gone. So we drove a little further and decided to try to cross the dunes in the general direction of where we needed to go. We are about 20km further now, still have not found any tracks but according to the route we have on the GPS we are on a track. So tomorrow we will continue driving through the dunes and sand. We really have the feeling that we are in the desert now, only sand, dunes and a sandstorm. We are full of sand (hair, ears, etc… looking forward to a nice shower before dinner/bed), the box is full of sand, sand is just everywhere. It is great (Marc) not so (Rosana).


Wild Camping in a postcard setting






The Old City of Ouadane (13th century)


View from the top of the old city

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Christmas & New Year's eve

Sorry we have not updated our blog in a while
We have had internet access a few times but not good & long enough to upload the pictures.

Update: 12-23-2012  Erg Chebbi, Morocco
Not a lot of newsworthy stuff since the last update. We stayed at a very nice, quiet campground for a week nearby Essaouira, where we waited for the Carnet de Passage to be delivered and also took the opportunity to fix some little things on the car (broken lock, leaking rooftop-window). We also visited a camel market (where they also sell sheep, goats, cows, etc...). Marc has not exchanged Rosana for some camels yet as he did not find any camels that could cook a decent dinner.


If you are wondering about the sound of a camel: http://youtu.be/a-uR6XEWLI8

We haven't bought any meat in the local markets... Are you wondering why ???

The Carnet de Passage arrived a lot quicker than expected (thanks Patrick) and we picked it up in Marrakech.

Marrakech was a little bit of a disappointment. It is very touristy and the Medina does not feel as original as the ones we visited in Fes and Tetouan. To prove our disappointment, we only took a picture of the famous Mosque with its 75 meter tall tower.

We spent the night practically right under the Mosque, so we got a nice wake-up call at 5.30am (Ian, if you are reading this, going to a Baptizing is not that bad and no wonder the state of Michigan did not allow a Mosque to have speakers installed on the Minaret).

After Marrakech we started to drive in the direction of the Sahara desert. We ended up “bushcamping” at some beautiful spots along the way. We drove through canyons and valleys. Absolutely stunning !










Mountain pass: two dutch cyclists, a German on his motorbike, and a Berber on his Donkey
 Right now we are at Erg Chebbi, basically the entrance to the Sahara desert. It looks like we will be spending X-mass here in the desert.




Update: 12-25-2012 Middle of nowhere (see movie), Morocco
We spent Christmas eve by the dunes of Erg Chebbi. Marc decorated our Christmas tree
 and Rosana cooked a nice meal of beef, carrots, green beans and roasted potatoes with mushroom sauce. For dessert we had a vanilla cake with pineapple and cream.
Desert X-mass tree




Today we drove about 140km through the desert. Beautiful landscape. We even saw a baby camel with his mom. So cute !!! (this is Rosana's comments... of course Marc would not post anything like it)

Although we always think we have chosen a camping spot far away from any living creature there are always Moroccans on their “mobilet” trying to sell us fossils. Marc was already thinking about buying their entire bag and as soon as the next one stopped by we would offer him our fossils….

(We are driving from Merzouga to Zagora through the desert. Most of  the piste is good but still slow going. We did the whole route of 240km in almost two days.) It looks like we are lucky tonight. It is already 7pm and nobody stopped by. Well, according to the route we are at least 25 km away from a water source (meaning “people”) so we might be OK.




To get an idea of the vastness of the Sahara, here some videos:
http://youtu.be/sUu3Kg8Ez7I
http://youtu.be/vGq0wQKSSFU


General update:
Rosana is cooking every day and has been creating some delicious meals mixing canned veggies with fresh veggies (carrots, green beans, zucchini, onions and potatoes), also using some of the frozen meat (we have not bought ANY “fresh” meat at the markets) and dried sausages. We always have fresh bread with cheese, some deli meat and pate. Our coffee/tea is accompanied by cookies or homemade cake.

Fruits are also good. We have had mandarins, bananas, grapes, strawberries and kiwi.
So life isn’t that bad, is it?

Update 12-31-2012
The last few days we stayed at a campground near Agadir where we met 2 other overland couples that are planning to drive all the way to South Africa. One couple from The Netherlands and another from Austria. Very nice to finally meet people that are doing the same as us. We hope to meet them again in the new future. We also had to stop in Agadir to fix the air conditioning in the box. The ventilator motor was broken and we needed to order a new one.
Have ever wondered where dates come from ?


Spending New Year’s eve along the coast wild camping. The sounds of the waves is A M A Z I N G. There is nothing around here. Just shepherds, lots of sheep, goats and camels. We had our champagne for sunset with camels in the background. Thanks Erik & Simone.

Can you see the camels ?








Update 01/01/2013: Happy New Year

We have only been driving for 15 minutes in the new year and we are stuck for the first time. It was the price we paid for not lowering the tire pressure for just 50 meters of very soft sand.

Stuck for the first time

Digging, hopefully for the last time
 Below is a video on how we finally got out, without lowering the tire pressure but with diff locks engaged.
http://youtu.be/a-uR6XEWLI8

Right now we are in Tafraout, in the Anti Atlas, a nice mountain town after taking a very scenic route from the coast.



Tomorrow we will slowly drive back to Agadir to collect the new motor for the ventilator of the air conditioning and then we will be off  to Mauritania (still 1500km South of Agadir).