Nah, this one was easy. On the border, €55, quite a queue but I think my bus driver skipped the hassle. It still took over 2 hours.
I took a 8/8:30/9am Supratours bus from Dakhla. It costs 260Dh to Nouadhibou. There is change of bus to minibus at he border. You can also take it to Nouakchott, there was a 2nd change of minibus just before Nouadhibou in the middle of nowhere.
The bus was almost full! Perhaps because it’s the only bus going South of Dakhla in a day. The scenery was as always mesmerising yellowness of sand, there were dunes, there were camels. We stopped once for tea but the cafe was overwhelmed by the number of visitors and they ran out of the tea sets. They also sold bread eggs oil, the usual. There were 2 or 3 document checks on the way with the mandatory profession question.
The Moroccan side was quick though at the beginning confusing. I was directed to someone sitting at a table outside the border crossing compound. It was a man filling up departure card for the passengers. Most of my minibus was there…
Then we sat into the minibus and drove through a graveyard of cars. Oh we meandered among the wrecks on a sand piste for about 15mins. It was a weirdly glorious sight but unfortunately I wasn’t brave enough to start taking photos.
It’s entry to Mauritania that took long. There were quite many foreigners in their overland trucks and a group of Italian bike drivers. Now what exactly is happening with all those white people after they cross the border I have no idea, I’m not seeing them in town at all. But there we were. It takes 2 rooms to get a visa, they take your fingerprints and a photo, then it’s on to another room where you get the visa stamped and some questions are asked, as to where I’m going. Not all of Mauritania is safe, and it’s a pity.
It was hot and dry. There were many flies.
The minibus dropped us at what seemed like the outskirts of Nouadhibou. I was standing on the roadside with one of my co-passengers and he started by telling me that Mauritanians are bandits and let me see how the taxi will rip me off.
The Lonely Planet guidebook to West Africa is perhaps fresh but also a joke, there is barely any information. I carry with me The Rough Guide to West Africa, which is over 1000 pages but unfortunately the last edition is from 2008. So I am not sure many hotels and restaurants mentioned in the guidebook exist. But the guidebook is so much more thorough and budget accommodation in West Africa is scarce, so I’m giving it a chance, cross-checking with Google Maps.
And I picked up an Auberge Sahara for my night. Mentioned in Rough Guide, not in Lonely Planet (which I always considered masters of budget things) but on Google Maps yet without a review or a photo. I found a reference to the auberge on a French website so chances were it still existed.
The taxi driver obviously had no idea. He also had no idea where we were going when I told him “after Central Bank”. His initial price was 1000ouguiya, which to my minibus co-traveller only proved the banditry of the Mauritanians because apparently the taxi is shared and costs 100ouguiya, yet I agreed on a price. It was about 9kms to get to the auberge along one long main road.
The taxi driver didn’t really speak French. Halfway to our destination, me looking at Google Maps and pointing him straight he started complaining. Taxi drivers can only complain that the road is too long for the money. And of course he did. When we finally stopped and he’s talking talking talking, I asked him how much he said 2000, I said 1500 and he agreed and even he gave me his phone number to call him for further service. Yeah right.
The neighbourhood we stopped was kinda shabby. I started doubting if the auberge is still there. I walked among car workshops, entered a street with small hole-in-the-wall shops and when I saw someone who looked like he may know, I asked. And he knew the auberge and the auberge was just around the corner.
Boy, if I didn’t know what I was looking for, I’d never found it. The gate is falling apart, the name barely visible but there were some ladies sitting inside and they rushed me in.
It feels very dusty and forgotten, Auberge Sahara. It’s full of overland journey stickers from 2008 and pale photos from around that time. It must have been popular. Now it’s just a shadow of what Sahara Overland used to be.
T
The room costs 3000ouguiya with shared shower and Western toilet. There seems to be hot water heater and it seems operational.
I went out looking for food. The promise of Senegalese restaurants was tempting but they were all closed down for the day. It took me a bit of a walk to find a restaurant that was serving food, and that at 6pm. The city doesn’t look nice, it’s all dust and plastic and true grayness. I didn’t see a place to sit down for coffee, not even for tea. I bought some fruits but I think again I was ripped off. Must be sharper next time.
Coming back to Maman 