This is a nice place where you can leave your car as long as you want. Prices are fixed on a big board so no surprises like in so many other places in Marrakesh. Price for full day and night is 36 Dirhams, around 3.5 Euros. This time while I’m in town, the car is staying there for almost 3 weeks now and no problem. There’s a 24hours guard looking for the cars.
I’m already in Marrakech for a few days now and today I decided to try one of the well known massage houses. Here in Marrakech there are many massage houses and hammams, all open recently as is now seen as a profitable business where tourists both women and men like to mix both culture and well being and healthy stuff.
In Kennaria street right here in the medina there are lots of massage houses but this one has been getting my attention. Jut the other day I went there to check out the facilities, prices and the different offers they have. I got interested.
Although just a few day I had another massage in the Riad I’m staying, Riad 107 - riad marrakech, where I payed 150DH ( +- 15EUROS ), today I offered myself a one hour relax massage 380DH ( +- 38EUROS ). This very nice massage made with argan oil which hydrates the skin very well. Argania Spinosa is extracted from the fruits in the southwest of Morocco, and it’s unique in the world, only exists here in the calcareous semi-desertic regions near Agadir.
So there I was ready to be relaxed and it worked. I enjoyed it a lot and this amazing beautiful “mulata” girl knew what she was doing. I got foot massage, leg massage, belly massage, back massage, shoulders massage and neck massage. Also a bit in the head and face which felt really great as I spend too much time reading in front of the pc this was great. I think that in a few day I’ll try the Thai massage or the Duo massage with 2 girls at the same time.
Rêves des Sens
Un voyage multisensorielle - Massage Solo ou Duo - Hamam et Massage
Rêves des sens, 146 Rue Kenaria “medina”
Telefone: 00212.1209.5915 contact@revesdesens.com www.revesdessens.com
As I moved to Morocco recently and due to work reasons I now have to explore the country a lot, and, be with my clients to make photos and new itineraries around the country in their 4wd.
My last trip was 4 days with ” Marrakech Expedition 4×4” from my friend Ali whom along with his brother started this transport agency specialized in the southern part of Morocco. We went away for 4 days where I had the opportunity to talk, discuss and interact with them while traveling in their tour, and more or less the trip goes like this:
Atlas and Sahara Desert 4 days Tour.:
Day 1: Marrakech - Telouet – Ouarzazate = 200 Km total with 32 Km off-road
Day 2: Ouarzazate - Skoura Oasis - Kelaa Mgouna - Boumalne - Todra Gorges - Tinjdad -Touroug - Erfoud – Merzouga = 350 Km Total with 35 off-road
Day 3: Merzouga - Rissani - Alnif - Tazarine - Nkob - Draa Valley - Zagora = 360 Km Total with 90 Km off-road
Day 4: Zagora - Ouarzazate - Marrakesh = 350 Km Total
Everyday you mixed a bit of off-road as we were driving a nice 4wd Toyota Land Cruiser, and we pass from the big city of Marrakech to the other side of the Atlas Mountains arriving in Ouarzazate. Next day we went to Oasis Skoura to enjoy the nice palm groves and small little oasis in the middle of the palm trees. Omar was quite a friend as we left Ali in his office in Ouarzazate. Now both of us continued the trip south to Merzouga but passing the most beautiful canyons in Morocco: Gorges du Todra. We got to the desert to enjoy the Sun Set in the dunes. We made a lot of photos and are now sleeping in this nice hotel in the dunes of Erg Chebbi. There’s a chance to choose from sleeping on the hotel and take a camel trekking excursion into the dunes and overnight in a traditional nomad tend. The next day we headed to Zagora making the ancient Sahara track between Merzouga and Zagora. This is an extreme travel as the landscapes are pure and untouched, the real thing is here, this is the Sahara. We got to Zagora by the end of the afternoon. And that was it we now drove from Zagora all the way in the Draa Valley lunching in Ouarzazate with Ali who came to join us in a small nice restaurant near his office. We got to Marrakech around 6pm. Nice trip.
On this picture above, we stopped in Gorges du Todra to have a small snack and there were some donkeys in the river. Very nice place.If by chance you want to travel to Morocco and try this tour out please check their website at: 4×4 Morocco
Marijuana fields can often be seen all around the 40km2 in the Rif Mountains northern Morocco. These are surprising huge plantations that can be seen while on the mountains. You do have to do some serious hiking to be able to see them as they are deep inside the mountains.
What is interesting about the picture above is that you can see a family playing in the river, so marijuana fields make part of a Sunday afternoon pic-nic landscape, a normal family environment for local people.
There’s an ancient law that gave permissions to this specific region in Morocco to produce marijuana. The present King can’t end with ancient laws set out by other older kings. These Marijuana crops are usually harvested during Summer and while on the region, the cannabis smell can be felt miles away. The smell is intense.
After the harvest, people pass to the next conservation step which is to be let down to dry open sky.
Marijuana in Morocco is a serious threat to public health in Europe as it is the first exporter of this herb.
Marijuana fields, Marijuana plantations in the Mountains, Cannabis Rif Moutains, Northern Morocco
The New Book of “Free Men of Morocco” is NO LONGER AVAILABLE available.
IMAZIGHEN - Free Men of Morocco
Photography in the land of the Imazighen: Northern Morocco, the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert.
Small collection of 28 carefully selected photos taken in 2005 by João Leitão.
Imazighen or Amazigh ( singular ) is the original ethnic group of the Maghreb region in North Africa. A.k.a. Berbers, these unique people persisted to exist and maintain their traditions even after several foreign invasions. In Morocco there are more than 20 million Berber spread around the country in few distinct tribes and groups.
This photographic research helps you understand the main differences between the Berbers from the North, from the Atlas Mountains and from the Sahara.
Morocco seen different
This 32 pages book shows a different Morocco. The Morocco beyond the eyes of foreigners, beyound the eyes of the cameras. We often think Morocco is just another Arab country but in fact that is not the reality. Berbers ( Imazighen ) kept their ancesters traditions well attached to their values, creating by this mean a certain gap between them and the Moroccan Arabic citizens.
The New Book of “Free Men of Morocco” is NO LONGER AVAILABLE available.
This is a small Berber Amazigh village in the middle of the High-Atlas Mountains center of Morocco. This village is located 2119m altitude and helds an annual marriage festival in mid September. Imilchil has great attractions nearby, the great lakes Isli and Tislit. Imilchil continues the road to Gorges du Todra, thru the mountains passing Agoudal, Toumliline, Tizi-Tirherhouzine Pass at 2700m, Ait Hani and Tamtettoucht.
Imilchil is surrounded by fascinating mountains, potato and wheat plantations. Food, at its best due to the organic produce planted all around the village.
This is well known to be the worst place to enter Senegal. From all border passages, the border here in Rosso is quite messy and full of corrupt police officers in both sides, Mauritania and Senegal.
Coming from Mauritanian Rosso, you have to make all your documents signed from the head chief police, and remember not to give your passport to the wrong guy, it can just disappear. give your passport when 2 people police men are with you, follow them even if they say you can’t pass, this way you can always follow them and when someone blocks your entry say loudly they have your passports to stamp! this way everyone will know reducing the probabilities of getting your passport robbed and being ripped of for it to appear again.
At Least Do This: after Mauritanian formalities you have to get a boat to Senegalese Rosso which will cost you 1500UM for a vehicle and plus 500UM for each passenger.
On the Senegalese side things get worst eve. If you heard people talking about corrupt police force but never saw them in action, here is the perfect place to meet them face to face. open your eyes and open your hears baby, cos you’re going to give money away…
for entrance policeman that stamps your passport will ask you for money…doesn’t exists in other entrances to Senegal like in Diamba or south in the Gambian border.
Police will tell you how the customs are closed and you have to stay there 2 days without passing unless you give double to costume staff. Don’t give your passport away to the men that are in the border telling you they will take care f everything for you just for an exchange of money, you can do it by yourself. Alternative: IF YOU COME WITH A VEHICLE OLDER THAN 4 YEARS YOU WILL NOT PASS INTO SENEGAL! you need carnet de passage…
Policemen in Senegal are the worst I’ve seen. Altough I know in some other countries in Africa they are even worst (how is this possible??). Even if you have all your documents and papers in order, follow all the rules and take care of people and situations, police will always try to get something out of you. Once a police in countryside Senegal told me I would leave until some money would be given to him…come one…
In St. Louis on a road there is no road sign so I just turned left and he told me i made an infraction and should have gone to the roundabout (250m after) to make the run. He wanted some money and kept my drivers license. I didnt give him money and went direct to the police headquarters in St Louis. I made some pictures with my digital camera of place in St Louis with road sign and from the specific place without road sign to me to follow the rules, the head police was very understandable and gave me a paper that would stop my infraction and i went to the police on the sreet and he had to give my drivers license back.
I had to wait almost 45 minutes to be able to talk to the head police. At the police station they will try to tell you YOU are the one wrong and should come to the police station…wait be perssistent, they are not going to eat you its just to frighten you and with this you can go away. wait and be precistent. tell loudly that polçice in senegal are bad and they dont like it…
At Least Do This: On the picture you have the place with no road sign telling you should keep straight. This is right in front of the big St Louis market in langue. On the picture the market is on your right side.
Expect high temperatures all year round. Best time to go there maybe its in European Winter and Spring. I went in April and was ok although we got max 53º Celsius ( 127.4 degrees Fahrenheit ), which is hot but ok. In summer temperatures can rise up to 60 ( 140 degrees Fahrenheit ) which is a lot already. I can handle around 55 not more.
Current temperature in Dakar capital of Senegal:
Interesting text about the climate in Senegal:
Sunshine guaranteed ! Senegal is one of the sunniest countries in the world (more than 3.000 hours of sun per year). Two seasons can be distinguished:
- The rainy season, that goes from June to October, with an important amount of precipitation from the south to the north;
- The dry season, from November to May, with temperatures ranging from 22°C to 30°C, with a significant variation between the littoral and the interior of the country.
On the littoral, especially between Saint-Louis and Dakar, the trade winds that blow along the coast cause a drop in temperature.
In Dakar, the maximum average temperature is 24°C from January to March. During the months of April, May and December they stay between 25 to 27°C. From June to October, the temperatures can reach 30°C.
In southern Senegal, the freshest period is from December to mid-February, with average temperatures close to 24°C. In October and November, and mid-February to April, the maximum temperatures are around 26°C. From July to September, they reach 30°C.
The important precipitation decreases as you go from the south to the north of the country. In the extreme north (Senegal river region), the average annual precipitation is 300 mm, while in the extreme south (lower Casamance, region of Kolda), it can exceed 1 500 mm.
You should take care and don’t drink the local water. Sometimes the tea people offer you is made from that non good water and while making the tea, the water doesn’t boil enough time. If someone invites you for a tea at their place or in the street just say yes if you feel like but know or ask to boil the water well.
At Least Do This: If you get sick, you’re done for a couple of days. take medicine and wait, suffer, roll over yourself, head aches, pains in intestines etc…suffer…suffer…
Alternative: Bring lots of chloride pills to mix with the local water. Well, there are not many alternatives as you’ll get sick anyway…
Yes its me on the picture, not lying on the beach cos I was having a great time but I was actually feeling really bad. This was the second time of many that I got sick in just 2 weeks period while traveling in West Africa. First time i got sick from my sinusitis that got me into a little crises due to weather changing already in Mauritania, and this one I felt sick cos I ate too much “Chakry” a Senegalese dessert with yogurt and fruit along with couscous.
At Least Do This: Take pills to your stomach and intestines, take all vaccines you can at home: yellow fever, tetanus, hep A B, Typhoid also. Bring lots of chloride pills to mix with the local water. Alternative: there’s no alternative unless you stay home. Traveling to West Africa or Africa generally specking you’ll probably get sick. If you eat and drink like the local people even taking care of normal things like washing hands, food etc. we went 4 people on this trip and everyone got sick at least 2 up or 3 times…i got back home with less 14 pounds or 7 kilos.
You can go around the island and enjoy its night illumination. the lights along with the water reflex can make a very nice ambiance.
I don’t think Goree Island would have problems of people trying to rob you or anything. It just look so calm to me… this however will not happen in the center of Dakar.
Île de Gorée (i.e. “Gorée Island”) (pronounced /goʀe/, not /gɔɹi/) is one of the 19 communes d’arrondissement (i.e. “commune of arrondissement”) of the city of Dakar, Senegal. It is a 0.182 km² (45 acres) island located a mere 1 km. at sea from the main harbor of Dakar (14°40′0″N, 17°24′0″W).
Its population as of 31 January 2004 official estimates is 1,034 inhabitants, giving a density of 5,678 inh. per km² (14,705 inh. per sq. mile), which is only half the average density of the city of Dakar. Gorée is both the smallest and the least populated of the 19 communes d’arrondissement of Dakar.
Gorée is famous as a former center of the Atlantic slave trade from where many Black slaves were deported to the Americas.
A small Video of Drums in Goree Island:
hum… what I have to say about this video? well I don’t think Senegal lives music that strongly as we all might think, ok apart from a few really good artists, people, youngsters they forgot a bit of their musical roots. These guys are over-posing rhythms and the majority of the young guys that actually play for tourists, they are boring just playing to get money. They don’t like it and they are not good. I compare this to Morocco for instense where the musicality of people in Sahara and the fact they do have to play for tourists, well they just combine both. The rhythm is inside.
History and slave trade
Gorée is best known as the location of the House of Slaves (French: Maison des esclaves), built by an Afro-French family c. 1780 - 1784, one of the houses of slaves that were used as a holding and transfer point for human cargo during the slave trade. The House of Slaves is one of the oldest houses on the island. It is now a popular tourist destination. Well known in the western world, Gorée was actually just one of the many places from where slave trade was conducted, and in fact it was much smaller than the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, which was the largest center of the slave trade carried out by the Arabs. Zanzibar is arguably the largest slave trading center ever to have existed.
The island of Gorée was one of the first places in Africa to be settled by Europeans, the Portuguese setting foot on the island in 1444. Later it was captured by the United Netherlands in 1588, then the Portuguese again, again the Dutch — who named it after the Dutch island of Goeree — the British under Robert Holmes in 1664 and then eventually the French in 1677. The island remained continuously French until 1960 when Senegal was granted independence, with only brief periods of English occupation during the various wars fought by France and England between 1677 and 1815.
The first house of slaves was built by the Portuguese in 1544. After the French conquest in 1677, the slave trade from Gorée was essentially in the hands of the rich merchant families of Bordeaux and Nantes in France, alongside other Europeans such as the Dutch. The tremendous prosperity of Nantes in the 18th century was based in a large measure on slave trade. The Black slaves from Gorée were destined essentially to the French colonies in the Caribbean (prominently Haiti) and in Louisiana, as well as to the Spanish colonies (Cuba essentially) and to the Portuguese colonies in Brazil (some of which had been originally settled by the Dutch). It should be noted that contrary to legend, very few Black Americans from the USA have ancestors who went through Gorée, as the English colonists had other sources of “import” for their slaves. Those who can with most certainty consider Gorée as a transit point for their ancestors are the Black Americans whose family are from the south of Louisiana, some of which actually still speak some sort of French (see Louisiana Creole people). As Black people have migrated a lot throughout the US in the last 100 years, it can be difficult to know with certainty which Black family was originally from French Louisiana. A good rule of thumb is religion: any Black American from the USA whose family is Catholic (traditionally, not recently converted) is very likely descending from Black slaves imported by the French colonists through Gorée.
In February 1794, during the French Revolution, France was the first country in the world to abolish slavery (with the exception of a few precedents set by some US states such as Massachusetts), and so the slave trade from Gorée stopped. However, in May 1802 Napoleon reestablished slavery after intense lobbying from the sugar plantations’ owners of the Caribbean départements of France, who found precious support in the very wife of Napoleon, Joséphine de Beauharnais, daughter of a rich plantation owner from Martinique. In March 1815, during his political comeback known as the Hundred Days, Napoleon definitely abolished slave trade in order to ingratiate himself with England which had abolished it in 1807, and this time the abolition was not reversed. Thus, Gorée officially stopped to be a slave trading point in 1815. In reality, however, the abolition of slave trade was not effectively enforced by the French government, and a clandestine slave trade remained active until 1848, when the newly founded Second Republic finally abolished slavery for good in all the territories under French sovereignty.
Despite the changes brought about by the end of the slave trade, the island of Gorée grew rapidly as a port with a population of over 6,000 people. When French rule in Senegal was finally cemented, the Cap Vert peninsula became safe enough for most to move on the mainland with the foundation of Dakar in 1857.
Administration
With the foundation of Dakar in 1857, Gorée gradually lost its importance. In 1872, the French colonial authorities created the two communes of Saint-Louis and Gorée, the first western-style municipalities in West Africa, with exactly the same status as any commune in France. Dakar, on the mainland, was part of the commune of Gorée, whose administration was located on the island. However, as early as 1887, Dakar was detached from the commune of Gorée and was turned into a commune in its own right. Thus, the commune of Gorée became limited to its tiny island.
In 1891, Gorée still had 2,100 inhabitants, while Dakar only had 8,737 inhabitants. However, by 1926 the population of Gorée had declined to only 700 inhabitants, while the population of Dakar had increased to 33,679 inhabitants. Thus, in 1929 it was decided to merge Gorée with Dakar. The commune of Gorée disappeared, and Gorée was now only a small island of the commune of Dakar.
In 1996, a massive reform of the administrative and political divisions of Senegal was voted by the Parliament of Senegal. The commune of Dakar, deemed too large and too populated to be properly managed by a central municipality, was divided into 19 communes d’arrondissement to which extensive powers were given. The commune of Dakar was maintained above these 19 communes d’arrondissement, and it coordinates the activities of the communes d’arrondissement, much as Greater London coordinates the activities of the London boroughs.
Thus, in 1996 the commune of Gorée was resurrected, although it is now only a commune d’arrondissement (but in fact with powers quite similar to a commune). The new commune d’arrondissement of Gorée, which is officially known in French as the Commune d’Arrondissement de l’île de Gorée, retook possession of the old mairie (town hall) in the center of the island, which had been used as the mairie of the former commune of Gorée between 1872 and 1929.
The commune d’arrondissement of Gorée is ruled by a municipal council (conseil municipal) democratically elected every 5 years, and by a mayor elected by members of the municipal council.
The current mayor of Gorée is Augustin Senghor, elected in 2002.
Island historical sites
Other attractions on the island include three museums, one dedicated to women, one to the history of Senegal and one to the sea; the seventeenth century Gorée Police Station, Gorée Castle and a small beach.
The island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Archaeological research on the historical occupation of Gorée has been recently undertaken by Dr Ibrahima Thiaw (Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN), and the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal), Dr Susan Keech McIntosh (Professor of Archaeology, Rice University, Houston, Texas), and Raina Croff (PhD candidate at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut). View results of their research at Goree Archaeology.
Another more recent map of the island:
Information on this post taken from:
You can visit this information page on WIKIPEDIA on the link below:
My friend Eric bought a Kora instrument on a shop in the island. We was fascinated about it even before he got out of Portugal. As he collects musical instruments from different parts of the world, here in Senegal was the perfect place to get one, supposedly cheaper and on a better quality standard.
Kora is a string instrument and it is played in the westernmost part of Africa in Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
For what I remember, I think he payed something like $70us for it on a local music shop.
While we were waiting for the night boat to get back to Dakar, he tried to play the Kora on the port and this really nice ambiance took place along with the sound of the waves on this very special place.
In dakar you have lots of opportunity to eat during the day and at night. You should take in consideration that restaurants close before 11:30pm, so after this will be a bit sifficult to dine out. I remember we had to walk at least one hour just to get a restaurant open. We end up on this one which was already preparing to close.
Favorite Dish: We ate rice, salad and yogurt, others ate some meat speciality from senegal with green pees, also some shrimps.
If you are traveling in Africa on your own wheels, with your own car, prepare yourself to eat food from the day before and sometimes not in very good conditions :-). As we cooked usually dinner in a bigger quantity we always had breakfast or lunch the following day. We were lucky and didn’t get much heat, only 52 degrees by 2pm ( 125.6 degrees Fahrenheit )! Favorite Dish: This special day of the picture I remembered to be very hard on our stomaches. As we got out of Tambacounda in the morning direction Park Niokolo Koba we had no food prepared, so we tried to eat the leftover from the day before. I think a few part of the food was already a bit of date, but, hunger makes incredible things to your taste glandules.
Medina District street restaurants, Dakar Restaurants Avenue Faidherbe, West Africa, Senegal
Restaurant Name: Medina street restaurants-Dakar
You can eat on these street tables near the Medina district. This is located after the Avenue Faidherbe.
At lunch time this seems to be full of people as it should be a fast and cheap way of eating almost home made food.
Favorite Dish: You can easily and fast eat sandwiches with salad inside, you can eat rice, corn, and some meat that I didn’t eat.
hum… as you can notice this is a very nice luxury restaurant, the type of restaurants you can go back to your hotel and head directly to the toilet. I don’t really thing this is a clean place, actually maybe 100% to get sick. Somehow I didn’t. Lucky me. The sandwiches were tasty anyway…
This is full of Senegalese people as it’s a cheap and fast way of eating. It’s strategic position gets people that come from the northern part to the city center on foot. hey have to pass here while going to the center.
As we arrived in St. Louis and rented a house on the beach (which was very cheap by the way), we used the kitchen to cook our own food.
We went out to the market to buy all the ingredients on te busy market streets of Saint Louis and came back home with a lot of good and tasty things. St. Louis is the perfect place to buy vegetables and fruits.
Favorite Dish: Our super dinner consisted in:
home made potato chips
mixed vegetables salad
spaguetti
home made tomato sauce
This is a choice you have, passing by foot your actually getting yourself inside the long hours train from Dakar. The train will also pass here, the border city of Kidira. You can get out in this city Kidira and walk to the Senegalese officers get a stamp and head the bridge that separates both countries. The first city on the Mali side is Diboli and just a couple of hundred metres before you have the Mali costumes officers and to get a stamp you have to go to the police station in the city after. You don’t get the stamp on the border exactly but have to go and look for the police station after when you get to the nearby town.
Again if you’re coming with a car, make sure you have a less then 4 years old car or the carnet de passage.
The Carnet de Passages en Douane is an internationally recognised customs document that, if accepted in a country, entitles the holder to temporarily import a vehicle without the need to pay the appropriate customs duties and taxes. A Carnet is required for most transcontinental journeys and you must obtained one in advance of the journey.
Morocco is an amazing country. Its the most wonderful place I’ve ever been to and somewhere I will always go until no more roads and villages are left to be discovered by me. I love Morocco and all it has to offer, either you’re looking for high touristy places or lonely villages in the middle of the mountains this is the place to be.
I backpacked first time to Morocco back in 2000 and since then I’ve visited the country more than 20 times. Ever little time I have spare from my work in Portugal I try to head South and enjoy great people, food, landscapes and of course the thrill of it all: The Sahara Desert which is quite special here, not by its greatness (although the biggest sand dune of North Africa is here located) but indeed for its special energy and relaxing ambiance.
I have the idea that usually many people search for cultural shock or cultural differences to enjoy the most of a trip and put on their mind to buy a faraway ticket somewhere thousands of kilometres away. No need. At least for me, Morocco stays precisely 520 kilometres (323 miles) from my city to the border of Bab Sebta. As the country’s already keeps records of being one of the most visited countries in all Africa, still many places need to be visited and apart from big cities and fancy touristy spots, there is a lot to be found and experienced.
I discovered that driving to Morocco is quite more easy than taking public transportation as the countries conditions are very much ok to enjoy a trip with your car without worries. This is the way you can take more advantage of the country and explore unexplored villages or mountains that usually Agencies or buses don’t go. This way you can also experience Moroccan extreme sense of good hosts and receive you with great hospitality, which you can but not as often find in big cities.
Great places to visit in Morocco are:
Merzouga’s Erg Chebbi Sahara Dunes
Marrakesh the Red Chaotic city
Bou Iblane Mountains and surrounding villages
Gorges du Todra and all villages after: Imilchil and Agoudal
Draa Valley and Tinfou Sand Dunes near Zagora
Ait Ben-Haddou Kasbah UNESCO village
Chefchaouen Blue painted city on the mountains
The train from Nouadhibou to Choum is the longest train in the world.
The iron ore train carry thousands of tons of crusehed rock in a chain of wagons up to three kilometres long. Their schecules and frequencies depend partly on the speed of the extraction at the mines, and on unpredictable hold-ups-damaged rails, enginefailure and even in the past, attacks by Polisario guerillas from over the border in Western Sahara-and travellers should realize that ore is the priority, not passangers.
Three trains a day go from Zouerat to Nouadhibou, but only one with a passenger carriage passes Choum at about 5.30-6pm. the usual journey time for Choum to Nouadhibou is around 12 hours but expect more. 2 others may come through late at night, or early in the morning, but on these foot passengers have to huddle in the ore trucks.
There are 3 trains a day, but only the one at 14.30 takes passengers (maybe if you have to transport your car as well, you can take another train).
It is 460km/12hrs from Nouadhibou to Choum and you can follow the distance on milestones along the track.
For further information contact SNIM, Nouadhibou BP 42 -tel 745174 ext:1700;fax 745396, the state organization that runs the iron ore mines and the railway.
Motorists who are heading to Atar can load their car onto opene platforms, althogh this can take days: start waiting at the railway station opposite the douanes at 9am to stand the chance of getting it loaded onto the 6pm freight train.
It transports iron ore from Zouerat to Nouadhibou and can be up to 2.5km long. There are lots of bucket wagons for the ore but just one passenger wagon.
It is very easy to find camel meat in Mauritania, and in a lot of places in the desert, camel meat with onions and couscous or rice will be about the only thing available.
With that, like we farm cows, they in Mauritania farm dromedaires.
Historically, cattle herding was Mauritania’s most important economic activity. In the 1980s, with a cattle-to-people ratio of three to one–the highest in West Africa–herding provided subsistence for up to 70 percent of the country’s people. Herding has been dramatically affected by chronic drought and the attendant rapid advance of the desert. These events have forced shifts in patterns of movement, herd composition and ownership, and increased pressures on lands also occupied by sedentary farmers in the south
The drought also caused shifts in the herding of camels (traditionally located in the drier north) and of sheep and goats (held by groups all across Mauritania).
These changes were less dramatic than those for cattle, however, because camels, sheep, and goats are more resistant to drought. Although decreases in sheep, goat, and camel herd size in drought years could be significant, recovery was more rapid and sustained.
The overall size of camel, sheep, and goat herds may have risen since the 1960s, as these hardier animals have moved into areas abandoned by cattle herds. This pattern seems to have been particularly true for the camel herds.
Nouadhibou its the first city after the border with Moroccan Western Sahara. From here arrive by land hundreds of stolen vehicles, man slavering and all kind of goods, even vegetables can be passed illegally at the border.
Nouadhibou is a place never constructed to fit the needs of tourists.
What to say a bout this city…what to say about Mauritania in general… its indeed a different country from whatever you’ve been used to. Its full of poverty, racial conflicts, garbage and worldwide mafia.
There’s this huge worldwide terrorist organization that is very active in this city, more than in the capital which the presidential control is bigger. This organization which i don’t have the need to write the name is very powerful here in Nouadhibou and takes control of almost every single facility related to Islam. Huge and good quality mosques (Mauritanian speaking of course) are visible and you even notice the leaders mansions near by with grand cars BMW and big expensive SUVs 4 wheel drive cars at their door, in a country that the normal salary is not more than 15000 UM, about 40- 45 euros, which usually 6000 go to pay the monthly rent of a single room no electricity and proper toilet facilities.
Specially here in Nouadhibou, various organized mafia groups and underground organizations find refuge to make business. Korean, Russian, Chinese, Nigerian, Senegalese and also White Moors underground organizations are settled here with their business of drugs, prostitution, car export, fish export, guns and even man slavery working at day light.
There is much to see inside the city of more around 60,000 people, but the nature here is great.
Nouadhibou like many desert cities, is large, and comes in three parts. The first is the new quarter of Numerowat in the north, with mess of construction sites. This is where the majority of people live. The various quarters of “Numerowat” are identified by robinets (premiere robinet or deuxieme robinet etc) according to the nearest public water standpipe, which come at 500 metre intervals along the asphalt road to downtown Nouadhibou.
Downtown is “Ville”, with all the usual services and shops and the city main market. On the south side of town, a full 10km from the city centre, is the iron ore company’s dormitory town of Cansado.
Nouadhibou is stretching along a thin peninsula running out from and parallel to the mainland in southern direction. Everything is more or less sand, shaped by the wind, meeting the sea in several bays without any vegetation destroying your impression of really being in Sahara.
Senegal’s currency is the CFA franc.CFA100 equals 1 French Franc, 10 French francs=1 euro.
You can easily get money out of bank ATM machines in Big cities like Dakar, Thies, Mbour and St. Louis. in other parts of the country it will be very difficult to get ATM machines, they just dont exist.
Banks close from 11:30am until 2:30 or 3:00pm.
I know there are taxis that will take you from Dakhla to the last Police check point in Bir Gandus. They will drop you off in the border as you can see on the picture (taxis are those red mercedes). i also know that a taxi will cost around 100euros, cos you have to pay the taxi driver back to Dakhla. From the border to Dakhla (if you’re coming from mauritania) can be cheaper if you make a good deal.
be careful with taxis, these region is know to have people getting kidnapped or robbed.
you can also get direct buses from northern morocco to south morocco in moroccan western sahara. Try CTM bus company.
You can easily go with your car. be careful not to hit a landmine. after the first Moroccan police checkpoint you have 7km with bombed road and sand. as soon as you get to the first Mauritanian police checkpoint you have even worse desert tracks to get to the second police control house and “duane”. from there to enter Nouadhibou you’ll need a guide cos you don’t know the way into the sand. even with GPS it will be hard to pass due to the large amount of landmines.
I know there are taxis that will take you from Dakhla to the last Police check point in Bir Gandus. They will drop you off in the border as you can see on the picture (taxis are those red mercedes). i also know that a taxi will cost around 100euros, cos you have to pay the taxi driver back to Dakhla. From the border to Dakhla (if you’re coming from mauritania) can be cheaper if you make a good deal.
be careful with taxis, these region is know to have people getting kidnapped or robbed.
If you go to KM 40 after dakhla in Western Sahara, where the police checks for peoples ID, you can get a ride from tourist going south. many people sleep in dakhla to leave in the morning to Mauritanian border. I got a ride to this Moroccan point and from here got another different ride. Be careful with rides from local people. there are news that some tourists, backpacking were killed while hitch hiking in western Sahara towards Mauritania.
remember that from dakhla to the border is almost 400km.
