Atar Off The Beaten Path

You get to the wall and you have to deliver your passport to the Moroccan authorities. You stay under Moroccan army custody maybe even for a few days. Don’t go out of the asphalt as it has lots of land mines. You have to wait maybe up to a few days to get the permission to go inside morocco with army convoy just for you until Layoune to get a stamp from the airport costumes.
This Moroccan army people are gentle polite and love to talk to someone, as it passes weeks in a row where they don’t see nothing exiting or new like a group of scared tourist coming from Mauritania hehehe.
We were given water (which was already over for many hours), cheese, fresh bread and very tasty olives. WELCOME TO MOROCCO AND WONDERFUL PEOPLE!
we camped in a small area free of mines.

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Fortress on the border with Western Sahara -> “Le Mure”

NO Man’s LAND. BE careful be careful be careful. mines, pirates… old asphalt road broken by explosions at least 4 times until the “WALL”. 2 of the times was quite hard to pass. about 36kms.

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Bir Moghrein -> Fortress on the border with Western Sahara (on Michelin Map it’s the star)

We had to make 96km until a place known has "Le Mure" or "the wall" which consists of a thousand km wall separating Morocco from the land mines of the Western Sahara land, full of Front Polisario activist and many pirates that can appear and try to kidnap you or rob you in the middle of the desert.
From Bir Moghrein to “the wall” was about 40km.
There are blue marks for UN free of mines tracks that can be easily be done with 4x4. Altough some landmines mysteriously change place…
This blue marks are just a few pilled stones on the floor that are painted in blue.
There's a point on the map that you can see that is a star. That start is a local of interest. Here on the picture you can see which one is it. Its the exact point where Mauritania ends, and the no man's land between Morocco and lost and unprotected land mined western sahara full of pirates begin.
you have 40km until the military moroccan check point.

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We got to the police check point on the town and stayed there until they stamped our passports out, and we knew that was going to be the beginning of our big adventure as there is no entry police control stop on the Mauritanian side and also on the Moroccan border. No man's land was coming.

Right as you arrive in the village you have to make yourself a presentation to the police station. this may take a few hours and they will stamp your passpor and write something that you have arrive in Bir Moghrein. Stamp from the Bir Moghrein Army Post date etc...

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So this picture is from the cafe or restaurant on top of the Rich Mountains. This is the only stop existing in the way. Lots of kms without a living soul but here, incredible...

This is divided in different parts. right side for tea and business men like Saharawis and Polisario. Then goes for a small shop with some food water and and other goods, then goes to the women part, men not alowed and like a hotel on the last door. sleeping area.

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Half the way you pass the Rich Mountains, where on top you have a small café that usually have some Polisario taking some tea, painting new car plates with new numbers. No I think this is where the problem can be for many people. This is one of the dangers, as many people know that many old Polisario fighters from the old times are very nice and believe in victory for Western Sahara in the future. This are good working people fighting for their belief. But also remember that Polisario has a lot, a lot of smugglers, criminals and bandits assassins that kidnap and kill… Also the young generation of Polisario are quite rude and don’t know what they are fighting for… (Again personal opinion after being with then for many hours. They were rude, opposite to the older guys who were very polite and talk about their beliefs, but not the young ones.)
We were taken inside this wrecked house in the top of the rich mountains by this young Polisario boy who took us to his “superior”. We were offered tea and joked about all the time until we went away and I said he was not honest and not polite. When he would give me the respect I give him and his cause, then I speak with him. and we went away. They were very rough and said they were Polisario and we should be afraid, etc… not with me. Although I think we were very lucky, cos we are Portuguese and one girl was Spanish. The old guys saluted us and instructed the young one to take care of their Spanish friends. Spain always gave support to the Polisario cause and with this we got some extra luck! Remember this also as other nationalities don’t work the same. On the same route, others get kidnapped…

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I was coming by a small car and my friends which had to switch to a Toyota pick up truck due to the extreme weight on our small car, too much weight for the desert tracks that connected Zouerat to Bir Moghrein, making the total of 440km of tracks.
After two days of discussion in Zouerat trying to head north to Morocco, finally we got a option. Moulay Sheriff was very friendly and helpful and got us a solution to put all our cargo and 2 people inside a local bus pick up truck. The car now would only go with 2 people inside which would be much better to drive on the desert tracks and the enormous amount of sand also found on the way. each person paid 1500UM for the 440km journey that too almost 20 hours. For me, well, I was the one driving, but for the ones on top of the truck, that was a hard journey.
This is indeed the most impressive of all landscapes in Mauritania and indeed one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen ever on my travelling.

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The other solution is to go inside the dunes after the small village of Touajil. The local transportation pick up trucks don’t do this way cos they usually have too much weight and can get easily stuck in sand. This was the way my small city car went to. Moulay Sharif drove it and we actually passed one 4x4 stuck in sand, that when we passes they were really surprised of being stuck and a small city car passing them. Moulay Sharif said that he have done those dunes also with a Citroen 2c long time ago. He said “it’s the driver, not the car, LOOK AT THEM!! HAHAHA” very nice experience indeed.

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