Road from Nouadhibou to Nouakchott
We left the campsite thus morning at 8am and had a long hot journey to out current campsite situated on a beach. The journey was 460km. We stopped a few times for pee breaks and once for lunch at a very rundown village or small town. There were a few holes in the wall calling themselves restaurants but none of had the courage to sample their wares. Wisely, perhaps. Most of us bought snacks; I bought a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water, straight from the fridge.
Here’s a good YouTube video on Mauritania if you can stand the infantile presentation and the idiotic screeching. Apart from that, it gives a lot if useful info: We left the campsite thus morning at 8am and had a long hot journey to out current campsite situated on a beach in . The journey was 460km. We stopped a few times for pee breaks and once for lunch at a very rundown village or small town. There were a few holes in the wall calling themselves restaurants but none of had the courage to sample their wares. Wisely, perhaps. Most of us bought snacks; I bought a packet of biscuits and a bottle of water, straight from the fridge.
Here’s a good YouTube video on Mauritania if you can stand the infantile presentation and the idiotic screeching. Apart from that, it gives a lot if useful info.
The weather was seriously hot, the hottest I have experienced for a long time. It was mid to high 30s. I was on the side of the truck exposed to the sun and it got so hot that it acted like a radiator. The window and side was so hot I couldn’t touch it. It wasn’t too bad when we were moving but when we stopped for the interminable police stops, it was almost unbearable. Oddly enough, I sort of enjoyed the experience as it was so out of my normal comfort zone. Tomorrow, it will be 40°C and we have another truck day. The joys of overlanding. By the way, did I mention we had no air-conditioning?
(Please click on any thumbnail above to enlarge the whole gallery for full sliding photos)
The scenery slowly changed from scrubby desert to true desert with fine silky sand and dunes. The site we are at is on a beach with fine white soft sand.
The poverty we witnessed, on our way, was truly awful. Nearly all the cars were wrecks and the houses falling to bits. One of the guys on our trip who has been on a West Africa overland expedition before said, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
There’s a lovely cafe on the beach and I’m sitting here now writing this, as the waves crash in the background. I read in the Irish Times that storm Debi (?) is heading for Ireland
Blurb from Wikipedia :
Nouakchott (/nwækˈʃɒt, nwɑː-/; French: [nwakʃɔt]; Arabic: نواكشوط; Berber: Nwakcoṭ, originally derived from Berber: Nawākšūṭ, “place of the winds”) is the capital and largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities in the Sahara. The city also serves as the administrative and economic center of Mauritania
Nouakchott was a mid-sized village of little importance until 1958 when it was chosen as the capital of the nascent nation of Mauritania. At the time, it was designed and built to accommodate 15,000 people. However, beginning in the 1970s, a vast number of Mauritanians began moving to Nouakchott because environmental conditions in their home villages had become too harsh due to drought and increasing desertification. As of 2013, the city had a population of just under a million people. Many of the newcomers settled in slum areas of the city that were poorly maintained and extremely overcrowded. However, more recently, the living conditions of some of these inhabitants have improved.[citation needed]
The city is the hub of the Mauritanian economy. It is home to a deepwater port and Nouakchott–Oumtounsy International Airport, one of the country’s two international airports. It also hosts the University of Nouakchott and several other more specialized institutions of higher learning.
Nouakchott
Nouakchott was a large, fortified fishing village (ksar) in pre-colonial times and under French rule. As Mauritania prepared for independence, it lacked a capital city. The area of present-day Nouakchott was chosen by Moktar Ould Daddah, the first President of Mauritania, and his advisors. Ould Daddah desired the new capital to symbolise modernity and national unity, which ruled out existing cities or towns in the interior. The village was selected as the capital city for its central location between Saint-Louis, Senegal, the city from which the colony of Mauritania was governed, and Nouadhibou. Its location also meant that it avoided the sensitive issue of whether the capital was built in an area dominated by the Arabs, Amazigh (Berbers) or Sub-Saharan Africans.: 369
Construction began in March 1958 to enlarge the village to house a population of 15,000, and the basics were completed by the time that the French granted independence on 28 November 1960. Nouakchott was planned with the expectation that commerce and other economic activities would not take place in the city. Nouakchott’s central business district was planned with broad streets and a grid-like structure; the new Cinquième Quartier (Fifth District) was located close to this area and became the location of a large open-air market and residential area within a few years. During the 1960s, the city obtained its own local government. By the 1970s, these new areas had grown so much that they replaced the old ksar in terms of importance, as they also hosted the governmental buildings and state enterprises.: 369
The city was attacked twice in 1976 by the Polisario Front during the Western Sahara conflict, but the guerrillas caused little damage. The city has had massive and unconstrained growth, driven by the North African drought, since the beginning of the 1970s; hundreds of thousands moved there in search of a better life. The official censuses showed 134,000 residents in 1977 and 393,325 in 1988, although both figures were probably smaller than reality.: 370 The population is now estimated to consist of at least one third of the country’s population of 3.2 million, and the 2013 census showed a population of 958,399.
Located on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara Desert, it lies on the west coast of Africa. With the exception of Friendship Port and a small fishing port, the coastal strip is mostly left empty and allowed to flood. The coastline includes shifting sandbanks and sandy beaches. There are areas of quicksand close to the harbor. Nouakchott is largely flat and only a few meters above sea level. It is threatened by the sand dunes advancing from its eastern side which pose a daily problem. There have been efforts to save particular areas, including work by Jean Meunier.: 168 Owing to the rapid build-up, the city is quite spread out, with few tall buildings. Most buildings are one-story.[citation needed]
Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Gamal Abdel Nasser, which runs northeast through the city centre from the airport. It divides the city into two, with the residential areas in the north and the medina quarter, along with the kebbe, a shanty town formed due to the displacement of people from other areas by the desert.: 50–57 Other major streets are named (in French) for notable Mauritanian or international figures of the 1960s: Avenue Abdel Nasser, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, Avenue Kennedy, and Avenue Lumumba, for example.
The kebbe consists of cement buildings that are built overnight and made to look permanent to avoid destruction by the authorities. In 1999, it was estimated that more than half of the city’s inhabitants lived in tents and shacks, which were used for residential as well as business purposes. The city is broken into nine arrondissements, sub-divided into alphabetised Îlots. These are Teyarett, Ksar, Tevragh Zeïna, Toujournine, Sebkha, El Mina, Dar Naïm, Arafat and Riad. The Sebkha (Cinquième) Arrondissement is home to a large shopping area.: 116−17
Climate
Nouakchott features a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh) with hot temperatures throughout the year but cool winter night temperatures. Due to the city’s oceanside location, Nouakchott is generally not quite as hot as other cities with this climate. Still, the city can experience sweltering days. While average high temperatures are relatively constant at around 33 °C (91 °F), average low temperatures can range from 25 °C (77 °F) during the summer months to 13 °C (55 °F) during the winter months. Minimum temperatures can be as low as 10 °C (50 °F) during winter nights in Nouakchott. Average rainfall in the city is 95 mm (3.7 in) a year.
The weather was seriously hot, the hottest I have experienced for a long time. It was mid to high 30s. I was on the side of the truck exposed to the sun and it got so hot that it acted like a radiator. The window and side was so hot I couldn’t touch it. It wasn’t too bad when we were moving but when we stopped for the interminable police stops, it was almost unbearable. Oddly enough, I sort of enjoyed the experience as it was so out of my normal comfort zone. Tomorrow, it will be 40°C and we have another truck day. The joys of overlanding. By the way, did I mention we had no air-conditioning?
The scenery slowly changed from scrubby desert to true desert with fine silťy sand and dunes. The site we are at is on a beach with fine white soft sand.
The poverty we witnessed, on our way, was truly awful. Nearly all the cars were wrecks and the houses falling to bits. One of the guys on our trip who has been on a West Africa overland expedition before said, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
There’s a lovely cafe on the beach and I’m sitting here now writing this, as the waves crash in the background. I read in the Irish Times that storm Debi (?) is heading for Ireland
Blurb from Wikipedia :
Nouakchott (/nwækˈʃɒt, nwɑː-/; French: [nwakʃɔt]; Arabic: نواكشوط; Berber: Nwakcoṭ, originally derived from Berber: Nawākšūṭ, “place of the winds”) is the capital and largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities in the Sahara. The city also serves as the administrative and economic center of Mauritania
Nouakchott was a mid-sized village of little importance until 1958 when it was chosen as the capital of the nascent nation of Mauritania. At the time, it was designed and built to accommodate 15,000 people. However, beginning in the 1970s, a vast number of Mauritanians began moving to Nouakchott because environmental conditions in their home villages had become too harsh due to drought and increasing desertification. As of 2013, the city had a population of just under a million people. Many of the newcomers settled in slum areas of the city that were poorly maintained and extremely overcrowded. However, more recently, the living conditions of some of these inhabitants have improved.[citation needed]
The city is the hub of the Mauritanian economy. It is home to a deepwater port and Nouakchott–Oumtounsy International Airport, one of the country’s two international airports. It also hosts the University of Nouakchott and several other more specialized institutions of higher learning.
Nouakchott
Nouakchott was a large, fortified fishing village (ksar) in pre-colonial times and under French rule. As Mauritania prepared for independence, it lacked a capital city. The area of present-day Nouakchott was chosen by Moktar Ould Daddah, the first President of Mauritania, and his advisors. Ould Daddah desired the new capital to symbolise modernity and national unity, which ruled out existing cities or towns in the interior. The village was selected as the capital city for its central location between Saint-Louis, Senegal, the city from which the colony of Mauritania was governed, and Nouadhibou. Its location also meant that it avoided the sensitive issue of whether the capital was built in an area dominated by the Arabs, Amazigh (Berbers) or Sub-Saharan Africans.: 369
Construction began in March 1958 to enlarge the village to house a population of 15,000, and the basics were completed by the time that the French granted independence on 28 November 1960. Nouakchott was planned with the expectation that commerce and other economic activities would not take place in the city. Nouakchott’s central business district was planned with broad streets and a grid-like structure; the new Cinquième Quartier (Fifth District) was located close to this area and became the location of a large open-air market and residential area within a few years. During the 1960s, the city obtained its own local government. By the 1970s, these new areas had grown so much that they replaced the old ksar in terms of importance, as they also hosted the governmental buildings and state enterprises.: 369
The city was attacked twice in 1976 by the Polisario Front during the Western Sahara conflict, but the guerrillas caused little damage. The city has had massive and unconstrained growth, driven by the North African drought, since the beginning of the 1970s; hundreds of thousands moved there in search of a better life. The official censuses showed 134,000 residents in 1977 and 393,325 in 1988, although both figures were probably smaller than reality.: 370 The population is now estimated to consist of at least one third of the country’s population of 3.2 million, and the 2013 census showed a population of 958,399.
Located on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara Desert, it lies on the west coast of Africa. With the exception of Friendship Port and a small fishing port, the coastal strip is mostly left empty and allowed to flood. The coastline includes shifting sandbanks and sandy beaches. There are areas of quicksand close to the harbor. Nouakchott is largely flat and only a few meters above sea level. It is threatened by the sand dunes advancing from its eastern side which pose a daily problem. There have been efforts to save particular areas, including work by Jean Meunier.: 168 Owing to the rapid build-up, the city is quite spread out, with few tall buildings. Most buildings are one-story.[citation needed]
Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Gamal Abdel Nasser, which runs northeast through the city centre from the airport. It divides the city into two, with the residential areas in the north and the medina quarter, along with the kebbe, a shanty town formed due to the displacement of people from other areas by the desert.: 50–57 Other major streets are named (in French) for notable Mauritanian or international figures of the 1960s: Avenue Abdel Nasser, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, Avenue Kennedy, and Avenue Lumumba, for example.
The kebbe consists of cement buildings that are built overnight and made to look permanent to avoid destruction by the authorities. In 1999, it was estimated that more than half of the city’s inhabitants lived in tents and shacks, which were used for residential as well as business purposes. The city is broken into nine arrondissements, sub-divided into alphabetised Îlots. These are Teyarett, Ksar, Tevragh Zeïna, Toujournine, Sebkha, El Mina, Dar Naïm, Arafat and Riad. The Sebkha (Cinquième) Arrondissement is home to a large shopping area.: 116−17
Climate
Nouakchott features a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh) with hot temperatures throughout the year but cool winter night temperatures. Due to the city’s oceanside location, Nouakchott is generally not quite as hot as other cities with this climate. Still, the city can experience sweltering days. While average high temperatures are relatively constant at around 33 °C (91 °F), average low temperatures can range from 25 °C (77 °F) during the summer months to 13 °C (55 °F) during the winter months. Minimum temperatures can be as low as 10 °C (50 °F) during winter nights in Nouakchott. Average rainfall in the city is 95 mm (3.7 in) a year.
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