Laura Zera

Stories to Connect Cultures

  • Writing
    • Blog
    • Books
    • Portfolio
  • Speaking
  • About
    • Bios
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

Atar to Nouakchott: A Mauritanian Minibus Odyssey

By Laura Zera 17 Comments

I was in Mauritania last week, part of my Marrakech-to-Dakar backpacking route (current location: Saint-Louis, Senegal). Public transport in Mauritania was never all that great (I’m being generous), but two journeys were particularly special. Here, I do an anatomy of one of those trips, which took me from the town of Atar, in the Adrar region, to the capital city of Nouakchott.

The distance between the two points is 438 kilometers, which is 1,314 in Africa-travel kilometers. Following is a breakdown of how I passed eight hours in transit.

 

Window that doesn’t open? Check. Temperature? About 88 degrees F.
Window that doesn’t close? Check. Unfortunately, it was in the back, and I was told to move and sit with the women in the row behind the driver so as to not mix with the dudes.
Tail light that gets pulled off at one of about eight police checkpoints? Check. Just shove that sucker under the seat. Maybe one day it will get put back on.
Cracked windshield? Check. Apparently they can’t get windshields in Mauritania, they have to go to Senegal. True story. I didn’t see a windshield in any vehicle that wasn’t cracked.
Shit ton of sand and dust? Check. The inside of my nose was black at the end.
Le petit-déjeuner under the driver’s seat? Check.
Sunroof? Check. Actually, it’s the sliding door. It sort of closed? Not really. It also rattled a lot.
Engine block directly under the lump to the left of my legroom? Throwing 95-degree heat? Check and check.
Health app on iPhone completely fucked up by the bumpiness of the ride? Check. I climbed just one flight of stairs that day.
Whizzing by camels in the wild? Check.
Old woman with rock? Check. I offered her a hand down at the end of our journey and she refused, taking a man’s hand instead. She did not approve of the removal of my layers down to my t-shirt.
Front tire blown at 70 mph, 90 minutes into the trip? Check. The funny thing is that I took a photo of the bald tire before we left, and predicted a blow-out. I even checked the other nearby mini-buses to see if any of them had better tires, which was a nyet.
Spare tire as smooth as a baby’s butt? Check. I reiterated this to the driver several times. Thankfully, he stopped at the one town on the route and got a better used tire. Apparently they don’t have new tires in Mauritania, either.
Worth the trip out to the desert in the first place? Check. It was all to see Chinguetti, a Berber town founded in the 13th century as the center of trans-Saharan trade routes,
A street in Chinguetti, Mauritania
The wise and funny curator at the ancient library in Chinguetti. It holds some incredibly old books of math, literature, science and astrology, as Chinguetti was also a place of Islamic scholarship. Sadly, a thief broke in about three years ago and stole the oldest book in the collection, which was the Koran.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • Reddit

Related

Comments

  1. Kathy @ SMART Living 365.com says

    January 23, 2019 at 10:46 am

    Wow! All I can say is WOW! And you survived to trek another day. Enjoy the journey. ~Kathy

    Reply
    • Laura Zera says

      January 23, 2019 at 12:35 pm

      Thanks, Kathy! I’m in the home stretch now. Off to Dakar tomorrow, then home on Wednesday.

      Reply
  2. Marilyn says

    January 23, 2019 at 1:27 pm

    Awesome! I’m sure you expected nothing less!

    Reply
    • Laura Zera says

      January 24, 2019 at 11:43 am

      That’s pretty much true!

      Reply
  3. Colleen says

    January 23, 2019 at 3:45 pm

    Wow. That you got through that with a sense of humor intact is impressive. That engine block, omg.

    Reply
    • Laura Zera says

      January 24, 2019 at 11:43 am

      I was so grateful for a hot shower that night.

      Reply
  4. Marie Ann Bailey says

    January 24, 2019 at 6:19 am

    What Kathy said, and with a few more Wow’s thrown in. I’ve been following your journey for a while on Facebook and Instagram. Here’s a dumb question: Why are you there? Work or leisure? While there seems nothing leisurely about this trip, I can imagine you, of all the people I know, going there simply because you want to 🙂

    Reply
    • Laura Zera says

      January 24, 2019 at 11:46 am

      You summed it up! I want to go everywhere, so I’m just kind of working my way around. I call this trip leisure, though I’m thinking that some essays will come out of it. Thanks for being here, Marie!

      Reply
      • Marie Ann Bailey says

        January 24, 2019 at 11:52 am

        Awesome. I hope you get your essays published, not just for your blog!

        Reply
  5. Kris says

    January 27, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    Thank you for the education and humor! You are a heartier woman than me. I enjoyed the virtual trip with you.

    Reply
    • Laura Zera says

      January 28, 2019 at 12:35 pm

      Thank you for reading my offering! I think I’m getting less hardy as the years go by.

      Reply
  6. Jeri says

    February 9, 2019 at 5:16 pm

    It was so fun and so inspiring to follow your journey through Africa. Everytime I think about going places by myself, there are thoughts of you in there as well. Right now it’s mostly me going hiking, but I will probably start taking solo overseas trips in the future once I get back into the classroom and have a regular salary again.

    Reply
    • Laura Zera says

      February 9, 2019 at 6:29 pm

      Yay! I’m so happy to hear that that’s your plan. Here’s to many happy future adventures.

      Reply
  7. Craig says

    March 6, 2019 at 3:31 am

    Hello , I’m off to Mauritania in April . Flying Mauritania Airlines from Las Palmas Canary Islands to Nouakchott. Afterwards heading to Chinguetti , then visiting Terjit Oasis. Did you cross into Senegal from Rosso or Diama??? I’m heading down to Bissau Guinea-Bissau via The Gambia & Casamance Senegal taking a ferry from Ziguinchor back to Dakar.

    Reply
    • Laura Zera says

      March 6, 2019 at 8:44 pm

      Hey there, Craig. That’s fantastic, I hope you have a blast. Are you going through Atar, and do you need the help of a guide (e.g., Terjit is tricky with public transit, most people go there with a hired car/driver, and I ended up skipping it for this reason)? If you need guide contacts, send me a message through the contact form on my website and I can pass on names/emails/phone numbers. I didn’t hire guides, but I hung out with them in Atar.

      I went across at Rosso. It was as bad as it’s written up to be, but not impossible. I would have rather gone via Diama but there’s just no guarantee for getting a lift there (I was completely using public transport). I got through Rosso without paying any bribes, though, which surprised me, because a fixer glued himself to my leg and wouldn’t leave me alone. He went as far as going in the side doors of the immigration police offices on both sides of the border and pointing me out to them, but they didn’t hit me for extra cash, thankfully.

      If you’re on Facebook, I highly recommend joining this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WATravellers/. It’s got heaps of up-to-the-minute (literally) info on just about everything. Lots of info on the Rosso crossing if you search the previous posts.

      Reply
      • Craig says

        March 12, 2019 at 8:47 pm

        Laura, Thank you for the tips/referral offer. I wish to go to Diama as you’re just 10km from St.Louis ,I was in Dakar back in 2009 when my adventures became an awaited grueling reality in visiting Mali & Morocco on the same trip. The part that really got to me was going from Gao Mali to Timbuktu. It took about 36 hours with brief potty stops which was the sand off the dirt road. Temperature between 35*C-45 *C in a non a/c jeep with 13 people in a jeep to fit six. I had three liters of water to last the duration of the 36 hours. This is where you hope to whoever that you don’t break down or the vultures will start laying eyes preying on you. :>) Afterward visited the Dogon Country, Mopti, Djenne, Bamako. Yes Terjit does look like its out of the way a little from Atar then there’s Azougi on the outskirts yet its just a trading post from several hundred years ago. My trips are now evolved around my medication as I get just a 30 day supply so my adventures have to be date set. As in West Africa allow a day or two just in case of delays.

        Reply
        • Laura Zera says

          March 23, 2019 at 6:27 pm

          Hi Craig, your recounting of your trip to Timbuktu is why I didn’t go that far, as the time of year I was visiting, the River Niger was too dry, so pirogues weren’t an option, and I didn’t want to subject myself to what you endured! But you’ve lived to tell the tale, as with many of these adventures on West Africa. I did love hiking around in Dogon Country. That was pretty fab. Sadly, I just read the BBC and saw a new story about another village attack near Mopti, and more than a hundred villagers were killed. It’s quite unstable in that area at the moment.

          Diama is clearly a better option if you can get there. It was a waste to pay 2700 CFAs (with bag) to get a back-row seat in a sept place and have my head jammed into the decaying roof liner for nearly two hours!

          Because of the need to keep within a 30-day schedule, I’m going to email you the contact names and phone numbers (they’re on WhatsApp) of two of the guides I met in Atar. Not sure how your French is, but one of guides is fluent in English, and the other can speak it a bit.

          Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Subscribe To Stay Connected

Search

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

© 2022 Laura Zera. All Rights Reserved · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.