Day 18… A communal start to the day with our hosts and fellow travellers with tea/coffee plus several furry friends. Around 6 hour drive to Nouakchott through sandy dunes and some trees. Roads in Mauritania are in poor condition with frayed edges and large potholes. The country is noticeably poorer with buildings incomplete and/or make shift with plastic rubbish lying around. Also plenty of police stops (I lost count but probably around 10). They ask for ‘fiche’ and you hand them a copy of your passport which they don’t check and then wave you on. I started to hand over driving license copies instead when we were running short of passport copies and this did not cause any problems. Some officers were friendly and others not so much. Not may vehicles on the road. We followed our fellow German traveller Marcus and his dog Otto for most of the day. Only one road heading south. Another campsite right on the beach and again very strong winds. Our tent survived but with two weary occupants who were sleep deprived and grumpy. Sand everywhere. Not ideal for another long day of driving and a boarder crossing into Senegal to deal with.
