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Popular Off the Beaten Path | Other Off the Beaten Path Tips | All Tips (62) *Asphalt about 20km after Atar
Orange sand on the end of the asphalt road for about 100m. Very tough sand. Good for 4x4 tough. be prepared for many rocks under the sand. Be careful for some locals that might be prepared to help you for a bit of money and maybe even want to drive your car and pass the sand: maybe run away with the car, maybe break it and you have to stay there, with them…
Desert tracks all the way.
There are no marks for the road. Supposedly you just have to follow other car tracks and keep in mind there always a big mountain on your right side. Half the way and after the big descend to the Valley where you start to see that specific mountain, there is a lot of sand. You cannot tell its sand almost but the floor cracks and you get inside it due to the weight of you car or even your feet.
The landscape here is impressive. You have lots of palm trees after Atar for some dozen of kms, and after you drive straight until you have a huge descend. From above you can see the huge mountains and the huge desert forming in front of your eyes.
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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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Bir Moghrein is a lost village somewhere in the North of Mauritania. Its was an old military Spanish post and still a fortress can be seen exactly on the virtual border with Mauritania and the unprotected area of the Moroccan Western Sahara.
Here I hope I will instruct in all someone needs to know about how to get to Bir Moghrein and possibly make the route to enter Western Sahara. I should always remind that from when I passed there until the present date of Feb 05, at least 2 European groups of travellers were kidnapped and taken hostage and asked for money to the authorities of their native countries. One group was from Germany and the other was from The Nederland. I know also that in the South part of the country, a group of travellers from Qatar were kidnapped and taken from the no mans land between Mauritania and Mali South east part. Also in the beginning of the year a traveller was almost shot and his car taken away from him in a major city on the Mauritanian coast right inside his camping place.
Bir Moghrein is located on the Northern region of Tiris-Zemmour and this is the way to get to Tindouf resistant and refugees from Western Sahara back from the 80´s and 70´s. This refugee camp is about 20,000 people and full of new generations that never actually went to Western Sahara (although pride goes beyond all and they say they will never go even if the Moroccan Government wants them. Latest news say Moroccan King Mohammad VI is trying to bring those people back to Morocco, their living conditions should be much better for them. Even Moroccans say “what are they doing there with Algerians? They should come to their country....
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Choum -> Touajil -> Fderik -> Zouerat +-250km
This is a very rough journey. Usually local 4x4 make the shortest and fast way through the train tracks where they hit their tyres against the protective objects that exist on the tracks preventing vehicles to drive there. They still do it and get their tyres flat of course. if you are careful and whenever you see one of this protection you can drive out of the train tracks. Also advisable is to get out when you see a train…hehehe, but maybe fast cos you can get stuck in sand on the way out, this can happen also with 4x4 of course. The train takes 10kms to stop…hehehe, as it’s the biggest train of the world.
On the picture you can see the iron mountains of Fderik.
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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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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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If it wasn’t for this guy we wouldn’t make it to Morocco on this part of Tiris-Zemmour. He drove a small Opel Corsa through 9km of dunes after Touajil, help us to get local pick up trucks to my friends and to all our baggage with local price payment (4-6 euros for the whole day of journey looks like it was local price to me). He got us some people to bring us to the Fortress after Bir Moghrein. This is very important help! For my experience, you should trust someone else…as this is a damn good tip. You can print out this picture and ask for him in the Choum. Even if someone tells you he is not there, just go to his family and wait 2 days even. You can stay there for a minimum payment (you will decide after. it depends if you want food, but price goes from 5 to 15 euros…its all up to you.) Leave a Comment
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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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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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on February 17, 2005
