The end of civilisation or so they say

After arriving in Dakhla we met some really wonderful folks and stayed in a chilled and friendly camping site nestled alongside the beach. The place is a virtual mecca for kite and wind surfers. Although not being surfers of any kind ourselves we enjoyed it immensely because of the people we me there, it’s been the first place we both felt truly sad in departing. The folks there were really kind and helpful. A big thanks to Colin and Freya for being so welcoming and showing us around.

On our second day in Dakhla Colin brought us to a local technical school to meet a class of students studying to be freezing technicians. We talked in English about our adventure and about the lives of the students in Dakhla. It was a very interesting session and was probably as enlightening for them as it was for us.

While in Dakhla we also met a Spanish couple, Borza and Patricia, who were coming back from Senegal. They left Madrid 2 months ago on a Honda CB 250 and are in the final stages of completing their journey back home. The funny thing about these guys was that Borza only passed his bike license in October and then decided to set off to Africa with his girlfriend accompanying as pillion. I really empathise with Borza. I only passed my license recently and had very little riding experience when I undertook this trip. It’s great knowing you’re not alone.

While crossing over from Western Sahara there were some scary moments. There’s a a 7 km sand trail with mines on either side between Moroccan controlled Western Sahara and Mauritania. The place is littered with burnt out and blown up vehicles. The trick is to ride on the tracks made by other vehicles. Foolishly I didn’t zip up my tank bag and lost my V5 vehicle registration document and mobile phone there. We decided to go back and thankfully found both beside each other at the beginning of the trail.

We’re now in Nouadhibou, Mauritania. We arrived here three days ago after bumping into three South Africans at the Moroccan border. These guys originated from Cape Town and are traveling on to London. They came back to Mauritania after being denied entry at the Moroccan border on a stupid technicality. They’re on a similar trip to ours but in reverse. They’ve taken 11 months to get to where they are now. You can check their website out at www.africansurfer.com. On the other hand we know of 3 other South Africans, on KTM’s like our own, who’ve done the same trip in 60 days. I think we’ll aim for something a little in between.

Jeremy has become the victim of an eye infection which we believe to be conjunctivitis. We tried one form of antibiotics which have only seemed to make things worse. This morning things were worse, so after a consultation with an Algerian Doctor we’ve now switched the treatment to something a little stronger and are hoping for the best.

Depending on how Jeremy’s eye is tomorrow we will either go to Choum and Atar in the Adrar region, along the railway line as planned, or if his eye is not responding to the new treatment we’ll go down to Nouakchott. There’s better facilites there and we can organise Visas for Nigeria and Mali while we wait for a full recovery.

We have added the final pictures and captions to the Morocco gallery and we have now added a new gallery for Mauritania with more pictures to follow.

7 Comments

  1. Hi Dudes, Glad to hear you cleared the mine field in one piece. Capt Jeremey of the good ship black pearl. Good place for pirates. AHH me heartes. Enjoy the trip it sounds fantastic and looks really cool. the pics are great. V5 sounds like your energy drink Kieth, or is that your pop group. Glad all goning well. Nigel

  2. Hi there!

    Just happened to get this (via the ‘Mauritania alert’) and read the stories. Hope the eye is better?

    In case you’re going to Atar: there’s a Dutch friend who runs a nice camping, Bab Sahara, and his name is Just Buma. Maybe a nice tip?

    Anyhow, hope you have a good time!

    Take care,

    Q & H

    馃檪

  3. Hil, Wil and The SuperGull

    Greetings Monsieur,

    Your dear friends in Dublin are very concerned about one issue:

    How is the KFC in Mauritania? Is it as good as Memphis? We are all losing sleep, worrying that you may not be getting your fix of Colonel Saunders finest finger-lickin’ good chicken and co’n bread. Nothing like a good drumstick and gravy to satisfy devil-belly!

    On yer Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes!!!

  4. Hi there!
    Keith, thank u so much for your postcard, it made me really happy when i found it in my mailbox! Thank god you passed this dangerous mined part of western sahara without any damages. Jeremy, hopefully your eye soon will be better.

    All the best
    lin

  5. No Wil and Hil there’s no KFC’s around here but it hasn’t stopped me. As you know, it’s kinda been a slow process over the last 6 months. I’ve finally given up on being a vegetarian. I’m still not a fan of eating dead animals but I think that eating from time to time ain’t so bad.

  6. Don’t worry Keith, I’ll bring you for a slap-up feast in Abrakebabra upon your return, your probably crying in anticipation! I can just envision you getting your greedy chops around a doner kebab dripping with grease..Yummy yummy mmmmmmmmmmm! How good?We will get The Gull on board for a clandestine dirty meat feast, seeing as your both closet carnivores!

    PS: Don’t come running to me if you break your legs on that bike Monsieur! x

  7. nice work, bro

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