Preview of Modernnomad67's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/modernnomad67/3/1192482180/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Nouadhibou, Mauritania Entry Title: "Nouadhibou & Cap Blanc, Mauritania, Oct 15, 2007" Entry: "Mauritania to me has long been a myst**ious and intriguing country that fits neatly neith** into Medit**ranean-facing Arabic North Africa nor Sub-Saharan Black Africa. The country is an Islamic republic whose t**ritory is located almost entirely in the Sahara Des**t, making its environment ov**all p**haps the most inhospitable of all the God-forsaken lands current national boundaries have created on the African continent. The majority of Mauritania's people are "white" Maures (or Moors), descendents of B**b** tribes who adopted Arab culture and speak a dialect of Arabic called Hassaniya. The population also includes Haratins, Blacks of the same language and culture who used to be the Maures' slaves and a minority of Black Africans near the south**n bord** from tribes like Wolof and Fulani who also live in adjacent areas of Senegal and Mali. The country's total population is only around three million in an area nearly twice the size of Texas, and with most of those people living in the capital city or in a narrow wett** stretch along the south**n bord**, Mauritania is ov**all one of the emptiest countries in the world. Mauritania must also be one of the least visited countries, one that provides a true sense of being "out th**e" for those who do make it. I posed the question via e-mail to my friend Brian, "I'm in Mauritania now. I bet you don't know wh**e Mauritania is?" His response was, "Of course I do. It's right next to Narnia." We spent a full day and two nights in Nouadhibou to relax and recup**ate between the two stretches of our Saharan crossing. Nouadhibou is Mauritania's second largest city and a major fishing and iron ore port. From the looks of it, it's not necessarily clear wheth** the city has seen bett** times or if it's nev** really seen any good ones. Our small walled campement in the town's dilapidated central comm**cial district provided a small bit of comfort in the form of two show** stalls with warm running wat**. The camp, though, was surrounded by cind**block slum houses sitting between sand dunes strewn with rubbish. The streets through town w**e a mixture of dirt lanes and disintegrating pavement, plied by more donkey carts laden with propane canist**s than the disintegrating hulks that make up what must surely be the world's worst national fleet of automobiles. In what seemed to be one of the most unwelcoming places I encount**ed, the ATMs didn't work, the telephone lines w**e down so the Int**net cafes (yes, th**e w**e some) w**e all closed, and the banks refused to exchange money. I had to resort to the risky business of changing some cash with a money chang** on the street. Our shopping for provisions for the next few days crossing the des**t was nearly as disappointing, th**e being almost no fresh produce and only a narrow range of imported canned goods I'd charact**ize as ingredients rath** than food that I couldn't figure out how to combine into dishes I would call food. I finally found a butch** shop with, surprisingly, an English speaking proprietor who yelled at me gruffly, "Speak English!" when I tried to ask him for something in French. The nice but slightly unusual looking meet he sold me as beef actually turned out to be camel (but more on that in a lat** chapt**). The town's only saving graces w**e two surprisingly good restaurants named Halima and Le M**ou wh**e I had lunch and dinn**, the latt** of which even sold me an ov**-priced lit**-size box of Spanish wine, contraband goods in ultra-Islamic Mauritania. In addition to its fishing industry, Nouadhibou is the t**minus of the train from Zou**at, the huge hell-on-earth iron mining cent** 600 miles or so into the Sahara, a rail line that ..." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/modernnomad67/3/1192482180/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. "Blair in our Campement Tent Ghetto" 2. "Shipwreck at Cap Blanc" 3. "Cap Blanc Lighthouse" 4. "Baie du Levrier" 5. "Calimbing Down to the Beach" 6. "Taxi Driver Helps Chris" 7. "Ed's Butt and Ian" 8. "Run Aground in the Fog" 9. "Shipwreck Country" 10. "Cap Blanc & Baie du Levrier" 11. "Land of Wrecks" 12. "Run Aground on Cap Blanc" 13. ""Would You Like a Tour?" He Asked." 14. "Rusted Hulk on Beach" 15. "Tide Was Coming In" 16. "Ed Climbing Back From Beach" 17. "Supposedly Monk Seals Down Below" 18. "Atlantic Shore at Cap Blanc" 19. "Cap Blanc" 20. "Wild Atlantic at Cap Blanc" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00c0-111c-d419?ytv4=1

• published: 14 Dec 2010
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