Mauritania travel advice

[bobby9]

Hi all,

Having benefited so much from the HUBB, we wanted to contribute. We also want to post some alternative information to that which exists on some Foreign Ministry websites about Mauritania.

Forgive the absence of much biographical information, but it is for the obvious reasons. We are two white Europeans, travelling in our own transport, who speak passable French.

The Njama crossing point is fairly easy and chilled. The Gendarmes wanted 10 Euros which seems to be about standard. We were a little short but they weren't fussed. The road to Rosso was of appaling quality, and whilst a 4x4 is not necessary it is helpful (in terms of clearance).

We headed as far east as Tadjikija and had no problems whatsoever with regards to security. We were camping, and were obliged to do so at the Gendarme posts along the way. One evening (in Aleg) we tried to stay at a truckers' rest and as we were about to turn in the local 'chef de police' turned up and politely insisted that we accompany him to the police post outside of town where we were shown an area where we could camp for free. Several time we turned up at posts on our journey and were always allowed to camp, free of charge, by very polite GDs. One of them even brought us bread in the morning, for which we gave him some fruit. None of them asked us for any bribes or cadeaux. We spoke to someone about this and there was an edict a while back, with some exemplary imprisionments, and it appears to have cured the problem.

We also did a couple of desert circuits to Matmata and to Rachid. There were no problems with these at all and we were met with kindness whereever we went (although Mauritanian citizens do have a penchant for asking for 'Cadeaux' from white people which can get a little annoying). We asked about the desert route to Atar (from both GDs and locals) and they were open and fine from a security point of view. Beyond Tadjikija, we were told that the route was safe up to about 100km from the Mali border, where the presence of some refugee camps were making the areas a little unsavoury for foreigners. We didn't meet any foreigners along this route at all, apart from a US peace corps guy who had had the same experiences as us - he also spoke Wolof and reported that what we were hearing in French matched what he was hearing in Wolof.

NKTT is perfectly fine as is the route up to Nouadbibo. This route is heavily plummed by rallies from Germany, Holland etc - although they get armed escorts by the GDs. One of us has some security experience, and the escorts what not in the least effective - they were purely for show (which, in their defence, is part of what they were up to i.e. deterence), but they would not have stopped a determined effort by a bunch of boy scouts at kidnap. The conclusion that we draw from this is that there is very little risk of those sorts of things and the escorts are organised by rally organisers to add 'shine' to their rallies, bring the insurance costs down, and to generate a bit of extra cash for the mauritanians. This is our personal opinin however.

Hope this helps anyone planning to go there.

[TheAfricaSchoolRun]

Hi

Thank you for posting... Very useful!