After three days of driving it was good to arrive at the Auberge Menata where we have stayed both times before. Yesterday we reached Guerguerat on the Morrocan border at 3.30pm and were at the Mauritanian border by 5pm. Only 1km of No Man's Land is now the original rough surface as the Morrocans have built a smooth tarmac road and cleaned up all the old junk littering the route. The only notable thing was a Polisario encampment and UN observers monitoring the situation.
Our arrival was well timed as we discovered that visas could not be issued at the border due to no WiFi there and that a bus would be arranged to take the 50 or so people to Nouadhibou airport for biometric visas. Some people had been waiting all day. The bus arrived at 7pm and we were not back at the border until 11.30 for the scrum of collecting passports. As we had already completed the customs paperwork we were free to leave at 12.45 and drove down the road to park for the night near the railway track. Fortunately the first iron ore train didn't pass until 7.30 this morning.
Nouakchott has changed a lot since our first visit 5 years ago with a big new road from the airport and 3 lane dual carriageway lined with solar powered street lights. On connecting to WiFi on arrival we learned that unfortunately Paul's flight has been delayed due to fog at Gatwick and so he will not be getting here tonight as planned and we will have an extra day here to relax and carry out necessary work on the Enterprise.
The name of the blog? We now only have 3 chairs remaining from the original 4: 2 were a
Christmas gift 4 years ago and used here for the first time. The third was given to us in
Libya by our dear departed friend Chris Wood and its twin has gone to join him!
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