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…..
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| Near Dakhla |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Line to get out of Morocco |
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| 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.
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| 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....
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| 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 |
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.
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| 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.
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| Adrar Plateau |
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| Digging... |
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.
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).
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).
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| More digging |
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| Mauritanian AAA (ANWB) |
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| Wild Camping in a postcard setting |
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| The Old City of Ouadane (13th century) |
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| View from the top of the old city |
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