Mauritania: the capital, Nouakchott

We headed on south to the capital, a gruelling 6 hour drive with a variety of fun challenges like drifting sand, huge potholes, corrugated tarmac and ragged-edged roads.

On the plus side, after a week travelling through the desert, we were so glad to see some greenery gradually reappearing and small acacia trees, misshapen by the strong winds.

The sand also changed colour to a lurid orange (apparently related to higher concentrations of iron ore), and there was some altitude, rather than the completely flat landscapes of the previous week, so we occasionally had some vistas and glimpses of the road snaking ahead of us.

There was a bit more activity in the southern half of the route as we approached Nouakchott, with small groups of tents/marquees in the sand and big expensive-looking cars surrounding them. I wondered what religious or social event was going on, Rob’s guess was Mauritanian Bake Off.

Nouakchott was a big contrast from the second city, Nouadibou, much bigger, more developed, more women out on their own.

Two years ago Mauritania decided to remove a 0 from their currency, causing confusion all round as most prices and bills are still presented in the old currency.

We found an amazingly good restaurant in Nouakchott run by a friendly woman, with really tasty, massive meals and breakfasts and such good value, we thought we must have got confused with the new and the old money.

We were the only customers sitting out on the nice spacious outdoor patio and wondered why there weren’t more customers. Then we noticed the constant stream of people driving up and the team of young guys taking and delivering orders being overlooked and loudly advised by the owner.

Down near the port we saw some pretty impressive long breakers and 100s of colourful fishing boats stacked up on the beach.