Mauritania

We crossed the border from Morocco to Mauritania which seemed to take most of the day. Then we drove down to Nouaddibou just a short distance don the coast. This used to be part of Spanish Morocco but Mauritania occupied it in 1975 and is not going to give it back. It is a major deep water port and an iron ore exporting terminus of the railway from the interior where the ore is mined.

The tip of the peninsular is known for its birds and seals. The other great attraction is the daily ore train with its one passenger carriage that can be up to 2.3kms long, neither of which I had time to see as we were up early to drive down the dusty road to the capital, Nouakchott.

The grand mosque in Nouakchott. Unfortunately this is a new city with little f historic value preserved.

The hostel had flat ground for tents and a large dormitory tent on the roof.

The city is expanding fast and is quite advanced such as the lamp posts which are all solar powered with their own solar panels and batteries to charge up during the day and LED lights at night.

The big attraction here is the fish harbour where boats land their catch from the rich fishing grounds just off shore. There were hundreds of brightly coloured boats.

And more boats out to sea.

The fishermen are superstitious and don't like photos being taken so many were taken surreptitiously at waist height and many were so poor and had to be deleted except for a few such as this one of some snapper fish and you can make out my shadow and the camera in  my hand.

Then it was down the road to the border with Senegal. This  is the main road between the two countries, largely empty f traffic and being encroached upon by a sand dune.

Then the border area and after so much sand and desert it is surprising to ee water. The Senegal River marks the boundary and has a large delta and wetland area ideal for wildlife and much of it is a nature reserve.

And our first view of warthogs, standing beside the road.