Km count: 545
Change of plan: 1
Cups of Mauritanian tea drunk: 3
The plan for today had been to drive down to the National Park on the coast, a bird-lovers’ paradise where the sand dunes of the Sahara meet the Atlantic Ocean. After a few days of long drives clocking up kms, the group has been looking forward to this outing and were hoping to have some time to fit in both a swim and a walk amongst the dunes before ‘rough camping’ by the sea. The National Park occupies a significant area of the land between Nouadhibou and the country’s capital, Nouakchott. Until a couple of years ago, a coastal road was the primary means of travelling between the two cities, but a recently built tarmac road funded by the Chinese has sped up travel times significantly. In order to get to the National Park we would hire a guide in Nouadhibou and then, leaving the 4 tonne trailer behind overnight, we planned to make our drive down for the day by the coastal road before re-tracing our steps tomorrow to pick up the trailer and begin the drive to Nouakchott. We were then hoping to do the Nouakchott drive in 2 stages, splitting the return to Nouadhibou and the 545kms on the Chinese road across a day and a half. It is in Nouakchott that we need to extend our visas to ensure that we are legally entitled to stay beyond this Friday, the 6th.
So whilst we discussed these plans with the guide, it was rather fortuitous that we noticed that the 6th falls on the Islamic holy day of Friday. A quick check in the Lonely Planet then confirmed our worst fears that we would be unable to do the required visa administration on Friday or indeed over the weekend and that tomorrow remains our last chance of doing it of we are to stay on schedule.
What’s more, Tom our trip leader is hoping to make it back to Mauritania to join us on Thursday and so we wouldn’t want to keep him waiting over the weekend. So with this new information, we made a last-minute change of plans and unfortunately decided it would be impossible to fit in the National Park (and the required doubling back for the trailer) if we were to stand any chance of getting to the visa office before they closed at 3pm on Thursday.
In preparation for the trip and in every briefing we have had since, we have been warned about these last minute changes of plans and unfortunately this has been a prime example for which we really have no alternative. So, disappointed, but ever-optimistic we set off straight away in an attempt to complete the 545km in a single go to get us to Nouakchott for the night and to allow us to sort the visas first thing tomorrow. With the morning’s admin/ bank and supermarket visits having pushed our planned departure time of 9am back to 12pm, it was a good challenge and, thanks to our trusty drivers Mark and Rich, we made it to the our campsite in good time by 8pm. The campsite had been recommended by a guide in Nouadhibou (whose employment we’d eventually had to cancel when we changed our plans from the National Park) and it was a great find. With large Bedouin tents set up complete with mosquito nets and mattresses, it allowed us to roll into the site, without having to set any tents up in the dark and meant that we could concentrate on rustling up a quick dinner for our drivers after a very long stint on the road.
Before bed, two guides who help out at the Auberge invited those of us still awake to join them for a Mauritanian tea. In an Islamic country where alcohol is prohibited, the sharing of tea is an important social event and holds with it a lot of traditions from the Tuareg culture. As Sidi (see future post) explained to us, the Mauritanian tea experience should really only exist if the 3 Gs are fulfilled. Three Arabic words beginning with G trnslate to provide the details of these rules:
1) taking one’s time – tea must not be rushed and consists of 3 rounds. The first round of tea is “dur comme la vie” (hard like the struggle of life), the second “doux comme l’amour” (sweet like love) and the third “suave comme la mort” (peaceful like death)
2) being a group – drinking tea alone is thought to be ‘sad’ and would go against the sociable nature of the experience which allows friends and families to spend time chatting and enjoying their sweet mint tea possibility of the discussion and interaction that the experience requires.
3) Charcoal – tea should be made on a charcoal-fuelled fire, which is part and parcel of 1) above and usually extends the time spent drinking tea significantly
Despite not being a tea lover myself, the tea was really nice and very drinkable probably due to the large amount of sugar in it. They serve it extremely hot which meant that I was definitely putting into practice rule 1 above. When the last (and my favourite) round finished at 1am we headed into our Bedouin tents ready for a well-deserved sleep!
