Week 4, Mauritania and entering Senegal

 November, 15th:

Slept in until 7.30, showered (felt sooo good), breakfasted, sorted out my stuff, updated blog as far as possible (wifi went down)...

Had a nice relaxing morning here at the campsite in Atar:
Moved my tent to a better spot and managed to publish week 3 of this blog.

It was almost like a day at the office ... ;-)

Laterz....

The rest of the day was hot, hotter, hottest ... so, napped a little and round 5 pm Tom and I checked out town and got some refreshments. Nice walk but not that much to be seen. Little market was all. People really don't like it to be photographed, so i didn't.

Cookgroup made a nice diner, and the evening was chatted and guitar-played away (I'm sure that's incorrect English, but so what).

Slept like a log as usual, despite an electricity burn down and heavily snoring fellow travelers.

November, 16th:

Rose at 6.30, ran to the toilet (yep, diarrhea), breakfasted and packed for a day trip to Chinquetti, an old city. Some anti diarrhea pills and a second "emptying" attempt got the thing under control (I hope -> so far, so good, fingers crossed).

At nine our car for the day trip was supposed to show up, but it didn't. Oh well, another relaxing day isn't that bad either (certainly considering my physical conditions).

So here i am ... updating blogtext:

The beard is 6 days old. Decided to stop shaving. Too much of a hassle.

Spend the rest of the day relaxing, sleeping eating playing guitar and playing Digger (a very old PC game)

First part of the group came back by 3 or so. It was not that spectacular, so did not really miss something ...

November, 17th:

Rose at 6.30, breakfasted, took down and packed all our gear and on the road to Nouakchott. It was a long drive, but all went smoothly.

Had lunch in the heat of the desert...

... and on it went.

Arrived at the campsite round 16.30. Lost a beer, since Ben and I bet about the time we would arrive (thought it would be later).

It's a nice place with fairly good sanitaries, a nice restaurant with a terrace, and a refreshing cold sea:

Took a dip in the sea. The taste of the first sip of cold coke after that dip was beyond devine ...

Cookgroup made a great meal again (as usual) and at 9 i went to my tent to watch a star trek movie!

Slept like a log.

November, 18th:

Rose at 7 (or so), breakfasted and the hassle of visa application began:

no wifi, then wifi in the hotel nearby, but Guinea government site not accessible, then then server errors, then gave up frustrated.

Tried again at the restaurants wifi and .... yay! it worked.

Put in all required information (hope they accept my 20 years old yellow fever vaccination) and submitted. Awaiting the results ...

Rest of the day: relaxing, cold drinks and shopping for cookgroup...

back at the campsite took a dip, another soda, a shower and one fantabulous Mexican dish (deep respect for that cook group).

Went to the terrace, played cards, read the news and FB, and round 10-ish went to my tent for another Star Trek episode.

Slept like a log.

November, 19th:

Rose at 7.15, did a quick laundry, updated blogtext, and i must hurry now, otherwise i miss breafkast.

The rest of the day was: dips in the sea, soft drinks at the terrace and a quick visit to the fish market, 15 minutes walk away from here.

We did not really feel welcome there. Taking photos was not appreciated, but Gretchen and I secretly made a few:

Back at the campsite: another dip, shower, diner (Aussie Dave's famous BBQ) and some cardplaying/internetting at the terrace to close the day.

Went to my tent early for an star trek episode.

Guess how i slept ... 

Oh, i got my Visa for Guinea approved ... yay!

November, 20th:

Rose at 7.15, breakfasted, packed and ... waiting until 10.30 before we leave.

Bushcamping and cookgroup for me tonight ... 

Laterz ...

The ride was bumpy (to say the least) and humid ... through a kind of swamp. And it was long ... some stops at small villages ...

But the worse was still to come...

We found a (muddy) bushcamp ground around 5.30. 

Only 1 boar to chase away

I had cookgroup, so... spaghetti it was... everybody helped out, which was needed considering the circumstances, all went well but at sunset ... a mosquito avalanche... 

The worst.... my repellent helped for 90%, but the remaining 10% was still very annoying...

So, after packing kitchen everyone went to their tents and a long night was to start...

Slept reasonably well though...

November, 21st:

Rose early to make breakfast (5.30), packed all gear and continued the bumpy roads ... stops every now and then...

10 KM before the border We were stopped by the fraud police who tried to convince us to pay 200,- per person to continue.

Jordan and Cloe managed to convince the flipflopped police officer to go f*ck himself and after 15 minutes of negotiation we continued to the border. Without paying obviously. Well done guys!!

Crossing the border went smoothly... and what a change Senegal is compared to Mauritania... friendly people, no pushy salesmen, quick passport controls, airconned supermarkets, etc... 

Dan, wearing a local silly hat. He made a similar picture of me later:

Rajsrhee made a cute kid laugh ...

It made me realize that Mauritania was a nice(-ish) experience, but i will not be back.
Most of the group thought so..

So... on our way to St. Louis to do shopping and ... buy beer and wine!!

Than continue to the campsite outside town.

Put up our tents and went to the bar to have a little party...

A of group of dutch with 40 really cars were there as well and we joined in a nice evening with lost of singing and laughter ...

Went to bed at 10.45 or so, slept very good. 

D'uh!

See you next week.