January 26, – The Mauritanian Desert
Feb 3rd, 2024 by rallyadmin
Friday, January 26, – Mauritanian Desert
The wind was nearly calm overnight and Dahid has said that the wind will be considerably less than yesterday. That would be nice but surprising. If it does die down the visibility will improve but the temperature will rise. It will still be beautiful and exciting.
Everyone breaks camp and packs up. We are losing a few cars, Clemo, Team 9 and Team 11. Clemo has decided to limp the car back to the road and go to directly to Nouakchott. Dahad says tht there is a mechanic there that has spares for Land Rovers and he can fix the Land Raver. We’ll see.
The three groups with their remaining cars head off in slightly different directions so as not to be following in each others tracks. The groups lead by Dahid’s guides never get very far apart but the groups are always out of sight of each other. That gives a more remote feel to the drive.
As the morning wears on the wind picks up and the visibility goes down. The upside is that the temperature doesn’t get as high as it would be without the wind and the high altitude dust. The downside is breathing the dusty air whenever we have the windows down. (Did I mention that our LR’s air conditioner is broken, fubarred, no more, deceased?)
The route today is mostly harder packed desert, not very much deep sand. WE wend our way through the higher dunes with the wind blowing the sand so much that we imagine that we see the dunes moving ever so slowly.
And camels! How the camels survive out here with NO liquid water is a mystery. They reportedly survive on the water that they get from the scrub plants that they graze on while roaming about the desert. After taking a good look at the plants, it’s hard to imagine that there is enough water for them to live on but here they are and we have seen no liquid water.
In mid afternoon, our group of three cars, Teams 6, 18 and 19, are first to a beach that is our camp for the night. We take advantage of the early arrival to take a dip in the ocean. Everyone else says that the water isn’t “that” cold. I disagree. After a short wander in the water just up to my knees, I get out a chair and sit looking out at the ocean, the Azores just over the horizon.
The beach is also the home of a Bedouin camp complete with Bedouin tents which are available for rent. After looking inside the Bedouin tent and seeing mattresses and pillows, rather than set up our tents, we gladly take a square, carpeted tent for the night. The tents cost about 14 euros which I think is a deal after the previous night’s terrible sleeping conditions on the too thin sleeping mat that Pinky brought for me.
As usual, there is some confusion about the cost of pitching a tent or renting a tent. Both are the same price. Go figure. (And some people opt to pitch their own tents!)
Dinner for the night is roasted mystery fish, probably a dorado. What ever it is, it is very tasty and it was out of a rat pack. The night is finished with a roaring campfire and cocktails made with smuggled liquor.
Tomorrow, more desert.
Obi-wan