Safety Tips in Mauritania

Not really a danger. Just make sure you have plenty of small bills with you. Chances are you will have to bribe the arrivals officer who will quickly process your passport as you arrive. Make sure you don't just have $20 or $100 bills!

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When you go into the desert, especially the route between Tidjikja and the Adrar Region (Atar/ Terjit/ Chinquetti), you need a good guide, because there are no distinct tracks and orientation points.

We hired an excellent guide in Tidjikja, Baba Ulabdi Nega. He lives in the quartier Kraifa, tel. 00 222 569318. The staff of the Auberge ''Le Phare du Desert" in Tidjikja arranged this for us.

Baba knows the desert as his backyard. He showed us the best way through the sand, the dunes and the rocks. He was not only a good guide, but also a good driver, if needed.

With the guide we did this route of 350 KM in 2 days. We heard of people, who did it without guide. It took them more than 5 days before they reached finally their destination.

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When you go into the desert it's necessary to bring enough supplies, like food, but more important water and diesel ! Allthough we had enough water to cross the 350 KM desert from Tidjikja to Chinquetti, we bought 24 bottles extra. Even back in Spain we still drunk the water from Tidjikja.

It's also important to go with at least two 4WDS. Baba our guide told us that two frenchmen and their guide died last year halfway Tidjikja and Atar. Their only car broke down and they hadn't enough water at the end.

In the north of Mauritania the waterpump of our landcruiser broke and destroyed also the ventilator and radiator. So the pajero had to drag the landcruiser for about 400 KM along the railway from almost Choum to Nouadhibou.

Mauritania is one of the hardest hit countries by the worst locust invasion in West Africa for 15 years. The locusts, which can eat their own weight n food each day, invaded the entire country.

The FAO warned that up to 50 percent of Mauritania's cereal production might be lost after swarms of locusts devoured their way through crops. The Mauritanian government faced a grain deficit of almost 190.000 tonnes during the year ahead. Around 1.6 million hectares of land were infested with the locusts at the height of the crisis in summer 2004.

Not only people lost their food. Also the 17 million camels, cows, sheep and goats, which many nomadic Mauritanians depend on for their livelihood, were under threat. Much of the desert pasture has been picked clean, leaving the nomadic herdsmen with shortages of grazing land for their animals.

The Mauritanian locust control programme moved into top action in October, when western donors brought more spray planes and insecticide. When we were in Mauritania in November most of the swarms had moved to the north into the Sahara desert, far away from the crop growing areas of southern Mauritania.

In the south we saw hardly any locust, only a few trees were covered with the red coloured locusts. In the north along the railway we saw one small swarm of locusts, resembling flying shrimps. Along the road to Nouadhibou we saw the most locusts, all dead problably by insecticide or by exhaustion after they reached the ocean.

El Hospital de Chinguetti, Mauritania
construido por una O.N.G de la Región de Murcia
NECESITA
Pediatras, Oftalmólogos, Médicos,
Dentistas y Técnicos de Laboratorio,
para realizar campañas de formación y de tratamiento
de pacientes. La duración de cada campaña
es aproximadamente de 3 semanas.
Alojamiento y comida gratuito.
NECESITAMOS URGENTEMENTE UN ECÓGRAFO Y UN AUTOCLAVE
AYÚDANOS A CONSEGUIRLO

I heard about crickets two month before start and when I arrived the calamity was still there. The trees totally covered by crickets... they leave only the wood. In some places 80 million concentration for Km2 is not an exaggeration.
But for our trip wan't a problem at all. Only in doing the bath on the atlantic ocean I confused the cricket with shrimps :-)

Malaria is probably the number one danger. Make sure you take proper measures and you'll be fine. Be aware of corrupt police and officials who constantly try to have you arrested or threaten you. Just ignore them and if you learn a little arabic you'll be fine - - Gasar amerik - - joking!

The main risk is “mal d’Africa” (help me to translate!).
I was walking with a friend in a very lonely place, when I realised that I’ve spent a lot of time walking around alone, in the desert, in darkness, without any feeling of fear.
Don’t travel alone in the desert; but this is just a matter of common sense.
About malaria ask health care in your country before leaving. Vaccination against yellow fever is not mandatory, unless you’re coming from an infected area.