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Tidjikja, the capital of the Tagant Region, has a population of about 6000 inhabitants. Tidjikja is founded in 1680 by the Moorish tribe Idaw'ali, driven away from the more posperous region of Adrar in the north.In 18th century palmeraies were planted. In Tidjikja are the more important palmgroves of the country, a lively market, a fort and an old mosque.
Coming from Mali, Kiffa was the first town, we visited in Mauritania. Kiffa, situated in the south of the country at the ancient long-distance trading roads, is a lively markettown at the crossroads of black and arab Africa. Except the formalities we had to accomplish at the douane-office and police-post, there were also enough facilities for shopping, replenishing our supplies like food, water and diesel and changing cash money.
After we had accomplished all the formalities in the backstreets at the douane-office (south of the mainstreet) and police-post (north of the mainstreet), we returned to the mainstreet for our last shopping. Most of the local men in the street were wearing their traditional blue dresses.In the supermarket exactly at the point, where the road from the south joined the Nouakchott-Nema highway, we did buy our supplies for the next days. Here we could also change our euros in ouguiyas (UM) in a small office behind the counter of the shop.
Kiffa has a lively town centre, especially around the market area. There are a lot of small shops and streetstalls. Kiffa is famous because of its multi-coloured glassbeads, the so-called Kiffa beads. Though I was very interested -I have allready some ancient Kiffa beads at home-, I did not have the time to check the market or shops, where the beads are made and sold. We lost a lot of time in the first days of our trip because of problems with the car and we had to reach Tidjikja -another 400 KM- the same day before dark.
Mauritania is almost totally situated in the Sahara, anyway for 80%. Only a strip in the deep south along the Senegal River lies not in the Sahara desert.The Sahara has many faces. But when I see lots of sanddunes, I get the real feeling to be in the desert. Along the road to Tidjikja are a lot of sanddunes. We had to be careful, because sometimes there was sand at the road too, brought there by the wind.
On our way to Tidjikja, coming from Sangrafa, we not only drove in a wonderful landscape, but also entered some interesting villages and towns with houses built of mudbricks.It was allready late afternoon, the sun was low, so it was not hot anymore. I think that"s why we saw a lot more people along the road than in the villages we crossed earlier that day.It was a pity, that we were in such a hurry to reach Tidjikja in time before dark, but anyway I enjoyed to have a look from the window of the car without the possibility to stop or walk around.
From Sangrafa at the ''road of hope'' to Nouakchott to the oasis town Tidjikja lies the very scenic Tagant Region. The landscape is very varied and rather green at some places. We saw wonderful sanddunes, but also steep escarpments.This road to Tidjikja is suitable for normal cars without 4WD. We met some travellers, who visited Tidjikja along this road vice-versa with a normal minibus and private car.Unfortunately we had no time to do it ourselves, but in the Tagant Region you can also visit the lake of Matmata with crocodiles (the last remaining ones in Mauritania), rock paintings and a lovely oasis. All south of Tidjikja and only reachable with 4WDs.
On our way to Tidjikja we had to climb the pass Khang d' Atcheft, just after we passed the town Moudjeria. Moudjeria is a colonial town, founded in 1902 by the French and built of stone.From the mountainroad we had a splendid view at the town, surrounded by sanddunes. We could clearly recognize the rectangular patterns in the town and the houses built around inner courtyards.
Because of lack of time we didn't take the track right up to the north from Kiffa to Tidjikja. We took the longer tarred road of 410 KM. We first had to drive the ''road of hope'', the highway in the north-west direction to Nouakchott. In Sangrafa we left the ''road of hope'' by taking the side-road to the north-east to reach Tidjikja. Because of the smooth asphalt at the highway we could drive at higher speed than we were used to during the last three days. Though this was rather boring after all the adventurous tracks we drove, the surrounding landscape was very scenic by its sandstone mountains. Along the road were also some villages with mud-brick houses and dwellings. Between the small trees we saw regularly herdsmen with goats and camels.
The highway, linking the capital Nouakchott at the Atlantic coast and Nema in the far south-east of the country, is called the ''road of hope''. In Kiffa is this highway also the mainstreet in the centre of the town. After all the days off-road and driving dirt tracks, we were surprised to see so much traffic, like brand new 4WDS and a lot of mercedes cars as well. But we saw some donkey charts too.Along the mainstreet we saw a lot of shops and companies. Most shops have porches in front, giving some shade. We saw also a bank and telephone offices. I don't know if there is an internetcafe, we had not the time to check.
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