Teepee For My Bunghole

Mauritania is a pretty great country. Very Sahara vibe and the place I’m staying at is pretty cool. Good people. The facilities and places are pretty modern but I think its because they’re pretty recently out of the desert. Like for instance you have to go to the internet cafe and it’s 1 block down and 2 blocks across and you decide to walk; take some water, make sure someone knows where you’re going and leave some emergency contact numbers because it’s kak far. The blocks are maaaassive. I think they still got desert mentality of quadrants and shit and “over the next dune” and such distances. Seriously, the first two times I walked to the internet cafe, I gave up. This time I took a taxi.

There’s some unexpected opportunities here. Like if you had that Kunte Kinte militant Roots kind of daydreams (like me) and wanted to free some slaves, this is a great place to do it. Yes, Mauritania is one of the few countries where slavery is still widespread. Apparently its a white Mauritanian black Mauritanian thing where the black Mauritanians work as slaves for food and lodge. I didn’t figure it out exactly and I can’t seem to spot slaves yet, but there’re definitely about. I was thinking that if the heat drains all the revolutionary life out of you (this is the desert remember), you could just own a couple of slaves for a while because that would fulfil some other dark daydreams. I could probably pass as a white Mauritanian because, let’s face it, they’re not that white to begin with. [I keep wondering if my humour crosses the sick border; sacred cows make the best burgers.]

It’s cool though. Real nice place for people looking for that Sahara experience. I’ve decided to wait till after Ramadaan before I do anything touristy because the heat is a killer. And will get some pics up once I remember to bring the cable for my camera. And if I’m really feeling energetic, I might just teach my brothers how to toyi toyi and we’ll do some Bob Marley Uprising on these motherfuckers. 

Now how do you ask ‘Are you a slave?’ in French?

Before I get onto my present bewegings, let me just bring y’all up to par. I last wrote just before the 3am train I was going to catch to Marrakesh. Well I took that train and ended up in Marrakesh at 9am. Then found that the bus at 3h30pm was not fully booked as per the mense up in Kenitra and so I had a few hours to kill in Marrakesh instead of the missioning finding a different bus like I expected.

Walked around trying to find a bookshop selling English guidebooks on West Africa – and I actually did. I’m now the proud owner of a 1985 edition of Africa on a Shoestring guidebook. Fat lot of good it’s going to do me. Apparently according to the book, I was about to travel through a war zone to a country no-one actually goes to. Seems like contrary to popular opinion, Africa has actually changed in the last 20 years.

Anyway, then I took the 24 hour bus ride from Marrakesh to Dakhla. (Mostly I just read one the novels I had bought). They had stops for breaking fast and mealtimes (midnight and before fajr). I used to think of Marrakesh as the South of Morocco but there’s a kak lot of country below and its gorgeous. Dakha itself is nice without being exotic but its location on a stukkie land out into the ocean is breathtaking. Finally a city in Morocco that opens itself to the beauty of the ocean rather than a weakness to defend (and litter).

I spent a night in Dakhla and left the next morning with another bra to Mauritania (for 250Dh). I met him at the police stop next to Dakhla (during the last 2 hours of the bus ride I had to get off 4 times to give my details to the police – and as the only foreigner had the whole bus waiting for me while they did their dutiful handwriting).

This Mexican nutjob also organised the same ride. I call him a nutjob because his method of travelling was ‘get to the country, kneel and proclaim it for Jesus Christ, buy a keychain, take a photo of the flag, gets some coins and then it’s off to the next country.’ I shit you not.

The ride from Dakhla to the border is a desert and ocean mix that was quite spectacular. Looked some nice beaches but I didn’t have a metal detector with so that I could check it out. I didn’t see any mines or loose limbs lying around.

…or are you happy to see me?

Yes, it’s time to skud [shake] again and I’m skudding with my digital camera in my pocket because it’s time for new places and new faces. Those of you tired of reading the inglorious subtitles of my life can rejoice because you can expect some pics. But not soon; I have like a gazillion miles of desert to cross first.

Now any travel wouldn’t be the same without a couple of things going wrong and true to form some things have gone wonky on me.

First off, my guidebook did not arrive by the 5-working-day-ridiculous-express-fee-dhl-mutherfscker-advertised time, despite me constantly contacting the DHL office for updates (or maybe because of it) and being told it would arrive on time.

Secondly, the bus from Marrakesh from to Dakhla (I was going to buy one ticket to take the train to Marrakesh and then onto the bus) is full for tomorrow so I’m going to have to mission in Marrakesh.

Anyway, I did a quick turnabout and I’m hopping on the 3am train 4 hours from now. Should give me enough time to find a bus to Dakhla tomorrow and maybe even find an English bookstore. Because without a guidebook, I’m going to have to rely on word-of-mouth for places to stay. And since word-of-mouth won’t be in English, I’m pretty much screwed.

So next post should be from Mauritania but I can’t say for certain. I’m kak excited though.

Yep in Casablanca and I have my Mauritanian visa. It was pretty easy to get with 200Dh, 2 passport photos and photocopy of my passport (besides the original of course). It is for one month from today, so I will effectively have 2 and a half weeks. Should be enough for a country I know nothing about.

I’ll be using the safarine malaria tablets but I still haven’t found a place to get mosquito lotion and the mosquito nets. That’s my next mission. I still need to figure out if I need any other shots. There are no other mandatory shots besides yellow fever, which I have, but I’m wondering what other vaccines are a good idea.

I also didn’t find a place that sold English guidebooks, so I payed through the hol and ordered one online from Amazon UK express delivery. I leave after it arrives; probably next week Monday.

[By the way the country Western Sahara that you see in the map I put in, hasn’t been a country since 1975 when Morocco and Mauritania took it over and split it amongst themselves. Apparently some of the locals too offence at that and there’s been some fighting but in the last few years it’s calmed down enough so that you don’t have to pass through by military convoy anymore. There are some left over mines though, so I’ll let you know if I see anyone blow up or any loose limbs lying around.]