The transition between Morocco and Mauritania is quite abrupt. Halfway across the 3km no man's land between the respective border posts, the tarmac ends and becomes....nothing. You have to pick a route across unmarked rocky ground and hope for the best. I almost stacked it at one point, and the thought did cross my mind as to whether my insurance covers me when I am neither in Morocco nor Mauritania. Maybe I would have to just crawl to one side or the other if something happened...
Formalities, while definitely African in style, were actually fairly painless and I was through in an hour or so. Too late in the day to attack the 400km drive to the capital, I made for Nouadhibou and camped up for the night, picking up some tips from a French couple while there on the state of the roads (ranging from "good" to "there is no road it is just sand"). From there it was a day of riding down to Nouakchott, the largest city in the country by a factor of 10. Adding a little spice to the ride was the fact that there were very few petrol stations along the way, and of the ones that periodically appeared out of the endless expanse of sand, none of them had petrol (only diesel) at the pumps. The distance between the two cities was right at the edge of my bike's range, and as much as I am in favour of taking a chance and winging it, the prospect of running out of fuel in the desert and then waiting forlornly for a petrol powered vehicle to come by to siphon from was not that appealing. Chatting to the guys at one of the
If places like Morocco are where old Mercedes go to die, to live out their lives as Grand Taxis, then Nouakchott is where they are raised from the dead and forced to serve as a zombie army, ploughing through the streets with bits hanging off and an apparent desire to recruit other vehicles to their tribe by destroying them. The driving here is as bad as I have seen anywhere, and from what I can discern the rules are: 1) if someone in front is not moving, or is not moving fast enough, then go around them and cut in front of them. This applies if they are in a queue, turning across traffic or if the only way to go around is to plough straight into oncoming cars. 2) if you want to pull out or turn just do it. Don't indicate and don't look back. That is it. After half an hour covering the brakes and endlessly scanning the scene like a meerkat I made it to the campsite in town and breathed a sigh of relief.
