After the border-formalities we went to Nouadhibou the second largest town in Mauretania.
On the campground there we met two young Germans with a Toyota they asked for company to drive the piste to Choum. Though we are now six of us traveling East along the railroad.
At the begin of the track was a lot of soft sand where our companions could prove their skills in the sand, no bogging in that was good.
Some km later we where ready for our desert-camp. We did a little train-spotting and had some visitors.
The next day we made good km untill … we had to stopp at a police checkpoint and took one of them with us to the next village. We hoped it’s an advantage for us to have a local guy with us who knows the best piste. I think he never drove there by truck. Maybe that was the reason he led us on a track which was good for pickups and SUVs but not for heavy vehicles, for them the sand was weigh to soft. Though we worked a couple of hours with shuffles and sandladders to gain a few km. After we “lost” our “guide” it was still the same sand but we went on without bogging in.
The following afternoon we arrived at the Ben Amera it is a the second largest monolith after the Ayers Rock. We slept there but we couldn’t camp at the mountain the gendarmerie wanted us near their station.
The prescription for the track said we’ll have high dunes ten km later. Fortunately meanwhile the wind changed the terrain into a dunefield like the others we had before, no major problem.
We reached Choum after 450 km following more or less the railroad. This train transporting ironore is famous because it’s more than tree km long. We hoped for a good shot with the cameras and camcorders. But when we saw the trains they were far away or it was nighttime.
The piste to Atar went more and more easier, the last 20 km are even paved.
On the campground there we met two young Germans with a Toyota they asked for company to drive the piste to Choum. Though we are now six of us traveling East along the railroad.
At the begin of the track was a lot of soft sand where our companions could prove their skills in the sand, no bogging in that was good.
Some km later we where ready for our desert-camp. We did a little train-spotting and had some visitors.
The next day we made good km untill … we had to stopp at a police checkpoint and took one of them with us to the next village. We hoped it’s an advantage for us to have a local guy with us who knows the best piste. I think he never drove there by truck. Maybe that was the reason he led us on a track which was good for pickups and SUVs but not for heavy vehicles, for them the sand was weigh to soft. Though we worked a couple of hours with shuffles and sandladders to gain a few km. After we “lost” our “guide” it was still the same sand but we went on without bogging in.
The following afternoon we arrived at the Ben Amera it is a the second largest monolith after the Ayers Rock. We slept there but we couldn’t camp at the mountain the gendarmerie wanted us near their station.
The prescription for the track said we’ll have high dunes ten km later. Fortunately meanwhile the wind changed the terrain into a dunefield like the others we had before, no major problem.
We reached Choum after 450 km following more or less the railroad. This train transporting ironore is famous because it’s more than tree km long. We hoped for a good shot with the cameras and camcorders. But when we saw the trains they were far away or it was nighttime.
The piste to Atar went more and more easier, the last 20 km are even paved.
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