Transportation: 4WD Car (4×4) - Mauritania

This is the best way to travel all around Mauritania.
Mauritania is bounded west by the Atlantic Ocean, north by Morocco, north-east by Algeria, east and south-east by Mali, and south by Senegal. Around 40% is Sahara Desert, 30% semi-desert. There is a narrow band of fertile land along the Senegal river.
Area: The total area of Mauritania is 1,031,000 sq km (398,000 sq mi).
There are no roads connecting the north to the south and the only way you have is either the train to Choum-Atar-Nouakchott or the Banc D’Arguin National Park crossing desert tracks with sand dunes and beach paths…

Transportation: Nouadhibou ->Nouakchott - Mauritania

There are very unconfortable pick-up trucks that take people from Nouakchott to Nouadhibou and vice-versa. The only thing about this type of transportation is that you’ll share the back part of an old pick up truck along with about 15 more people. Take care with your bag. If you get the night transportation, remeber that the majority of the trucks are open and you’ll need clothes to protect you from the night desert cold. The price of this trip can be negotiable but will never be more than 15 euros (already tourist price of course).
This journey will be done along the truck desert tracks that you can see on the picture.

Transportation: Gambia river

The Gambia River is one of the smallest major rivers in Africa, running just 1,130 km (700 miles) from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean at the capital city, Banjul. It is navigable for about half that length.

The river is known largely because of The Gambia, the smallest country in Africa, which consists of little more than half the river and its two banks.

You can do almost all the river on boats, just ask people to go inside the boat and donated a bit of money. also usuayly there are boats that carry people and some merchandise to the big town down the river.

Beach Highway, Mauritania

Traject from Nouadhibou to Nouakchott passing Nouamghar and Bank d'Arguin Park, going through the legendary Beach Higway after Nouamghar.

The first 300 kilometres to the fishing village of Nouamghar are the most difficult. If you drive too far west the sand gets very soft, if you drive too fareast you have to handle deep truck tracks. (Note that trucks take a different route from cars and 4WDs). About seventy kilometres before Nouamghar (KM23 you have to cross four dunes. The first one is especially difficult. Two-wheel drives can only pass with very low tyre pressures.

From Nouamghar you have to drive on the beach, which is only possible at low tide. If the tide is really low you can drive all the way to Nouakchott. If the tide is too high you have to take the improving inland piste that starts atthe fishing village of el-Mhaïjrat, about 50 kilometres south of Nouamghar.

We had to wait a one hour until the tide went down enough to be able to make the beach piste until NKT. At the moment there were a french van, dutch car, german camper 4WD, spanish car and suisse 4WD. All wainting for the same.

If you have problems on the beach you’d better fix therm fast, otherwise you’lllose your vehicle. Even with a 4WD it is not always possible to get onto the dunes beyond the high tide mark.

2 trip coming from Nouakchott to the border, beach highway South-North

Here is on my second trip back from Nouakchott. I went direct from Nouakchott to the border without going to Nouadhibou.

On the picture you can see cars from the challenge Plymouth - Dakar (www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk) going to NKT.

The Challenge is to simply drive the route from Plymouth to Dakar (on a limited budget) with the principle aim of helping some Charitable causes in Senegal and The Gambia

beach highway, mauritania

Piroge trip to James Island - The Gambia

This is an amazing experience. you can take the boat by discussing the price in Albreda to the captain. You can get a cheaper guidance package including the albreda guide, the museum ticket and the boat to the james fort on the island and also the guide explaining the island history.

To go to James Island you have to get a boat in Albreda. Before Albreda you have Juffureh which is connected to Albreda. This is a small village that mainly subsists of the guidance to the james island museum and the guidance to the Island itself.

This will the the highlight of you visit. Altough the island is great to enjoy with the ruins and some canon, definately this will be the thing you'll like the most. You have to make a 20 minutes trip up stream the river Gambia with a couple of local people. Oon the way you can see some girafes and lions. hehehe, i'm kidding its a joke, you dont have them here in gambia. you can just enjoy the amazing view of the river. I actually touched the water, but i dont really advise you to put you hand in the mouth after, even with all the vaccines taken.
 

Sobir Rakhimov Metro Station-Tashkent

When you come from Samarkand in a small bus you will get off just across the road from this subway station. This station is one of the edges of the Chilonzor Line of Tashkent's Subway system. From here you can get the subway to the central part of the city.

Mini Bus Samarkand->Tashkent

This is a cheap and fast way of getting yourself around the country. From Samarkand,s Nortwest way out you can easily get a small van to Tashkent. The price will depend of the quality of the van. This one, an old Ford Transit costed me 5000SUM for a 6 hours journey. There were other kind of vand, cheaper, and other more expensive with AC .

Train Tashkent->Bukhara

This train takes 12 hours and connects the Capital Tashkent to Islam Holy City of Bukhara. The cost of the ticket is 6500SUM for a coach seat and bed. The system of this palce is like this: you have compartiments which sits transform into beds. 6 beds per compartiment. Watch out for your bags. The price includes the sheets, pillow and some breakfast. People on the train pass selling water, juice, bread, ice creams, etc…

Subway in Tashkent

This is a very easy way to get around the city. You’ll problably never wait more than 5 minutes for a train and the stations are quite clean and quite safe. To go in you have to pass a metal detector. For backpackers like me, a huge backpack will be very confusion. They need to check your bag to see if you have some bomb. The Subway in Tashkent was design to be a bomb shelter and nuclear shelter so no pictures are alowed inside. There are 3 main lines for subway in the city: red line, blue line and green line. The Uzbekistan and the Chilanzar, and the third under construction (the green one).

The cost of a ticket is 15SUM and system runs until 5am to 12pm.

Tashkent’s subway is the one and only in Central Asia so people seem quite proud of it. Actually Its quite nice and fast. I’ve never took such a fast metro before, nor NYC, Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, no, the fastest so far was in Central Asia?!

For a map on Tashkent subway map please click on the following link:

Tashkent Metro/Subway Map

Tashkent->Tehran Air Iran

I got a one way ticket from Iran Airline for 266800SUM about $260us. Contact Abda Travel Company for nice deals. They know the man in Iran Air office so maybe you can get a nice deal. 132-22-56 ask for Sanjar, manager of inbound. fax 132-22-56
abdatravel@albatros.uz

Street scene of Theran, Iran

Taxis in Uzbekistan

Shared taxis are a easy, fast and cheap way of gettnig around cities in Uzbekistan. ALso its a good opportunity to cut in half, hours buses need to make some journeys. This for long journeys can be dangerous if you decide to pay yourself a only person taxi, please, be smart and go with people, better not to go alone or with just 1 or 2 men. I knew some people rober my driver and another man.

In Tashkent you can get a shared taxi to Fergana Valley for about $6us, also to Samarkand.

In Uzbekistan people dont need taxis drivers license to bring people with them. So basicaly everyone that as a car will ry to make some extra money and take you any where. You just need to negociate the price. A normal trip inside a city shouldnt cost more then 2000SUM maybe a bit less if you can make a good deal.

Trains in Uzbekistan

Trains in Uzbekistan run slowly but safe I think. Although trains are a bit old, they seem to be in pretty good shape to me. You have international train lines going from Almaty to Tashkent ($40us), From Tashkent to Moscow (55 to 65 hours, 2 days a week, $89us+Russian visa), Tashkent to Turkmenabat->Ashgatat.

Inland train lines are like this:

Tashkent->Jizzakh->Samarkand->Navoi->Gijduvan->Bukhara

From Navoi is also possible to get a train to the new built north line going inside Karakalpakstan to Nukus and Qongirat.

Prices:
Tashkent-Samarkand-$3us
Tashkent-Bukhara-$6us +-6000SUM
Tashkent-Urgench-$8us

There are 2 train stations in Tashkent, one mainly for northern lines: Fergana Valley, Moscow, Almaty and Bishkek, and another station for southern lines going to Dushambe, Samarkand, Bukhara, Urgench and Ashgabat.

Arrival of the night train Tashkent to Bukhara. 12 hours on the train.

Mini Bus/Taxi-Samarkand

There are several historical buildings and sites in Samarkand which are quite far way from everything. For instance, if you need to go from the Registan square to Central Gorky Park you can get a mini bus on the Registan Avenue also named Registanskaya. From the Main Bazaar, you can get a mini bus to Samarkand War Memorial.

Taxis are also a good choice for moving in the city. If you are coming from Bukhara on a Mini Bus, 5000UM, 6hours, you'll get off near the Long distance Bus-Station. You'll have to get a taxi to the city. Deal the price for going there and don't pay more than 2000SUM or 1000SUm. If they complain about the price of oil etc, its not your problem, maybe they have to change job?

Mini Bus-Tashkent

In Tashkent there is a very fast way of getting to different places. This little mini vans can get everywhere just in a matter of seconds. There are several main points or squares where you can get them and leave to other destinations. If you’re coming from the border with Kazakhstan for instance you’ll get a taxi or mini van or normal bus to the Chorsu Bazaar. From here you can get transportation to all the main places in the city. 3 major streets head into Chorsu bazaar; they are Forob, Sagban and Zarqaynar Street. Near Chorsu you also have the Metro station which is also a good alternative to rush hours and heavy traffic.
Mini bus costs 500SUM