2008/02/05

Speeding in the desert – 31st January – Near the Moroccan border

We leave early in the morning, the plan is to work the day delay off and reach the Moroccan border. This means that we need to drive 900 km in the desert. Fortunately there’s a concrete road all the way across it, but there are many villages and goats on and next to it. A quick check in the morning tells us the final result for the day: 1138 km. Most probably Gyula will drive all way on his own. Tuti is still not well, he’s resting in the back. In final need Soma and Aravind can drive the bus too.

In the morning Gyula goes at a crazy speed, the engine is spinning, and we break the African record: the GPS showed 87.2 kmph. Two minor breakdowns slowed us down, but both of them were fixed in 10 minutes by Soma and Gyula.

Proceeding Northwest semi desert takes over the savannah, then comes the red desert with its sand dunes. The team is much more relaxed than on the way down to Bamako. Maybe because we are fewer and we know the route and the roads. I thought it was to be more difficult to get accustomed to the roads again after 2 days off, but it’s ok.

We took a policeman on board he accompanied us until Nouakchott. He doesn’t speak much, he put on his black turban and he’s sleeping. We tried to exchange his policeman badge, but he didn’t give it. Usually we take the hitchhiking soldiers on board, they have their separate reserved places on the bus. They eat our food suspiciously, although we pay attention not to give pork for them. The Moroccan soldiers are the masters of sleeping in sitting position. They fall asleep in 2 minutes in any position, a lot can be learnt from them.

We reach Nouakchott by the evening traffic jam, causing a big stir with the bendy bus. We get lost a bit, and get stuck between a donkey carriage and a broken down lorry. A policeman comes and leads and makes the way for us. Slowly we reach our destination, the Mercure hotel, where we will steal wifi from.


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