2900 miles - Nouakchott

The track turned into asphalt and eventually we rejoined a real road, picking up the N1 highway towards the capital. I hope I get a copy of the photo of Nick kissing the tarmac! The run into Nouakchott was uneventful other than for a few checkpoints which Bamba handled for us.

We headed to the Auberge Alkawa, where we were mauled by the owner's small dog and rejoiced at the idea of a hot shower (which didn't materialise; maybe ten grubby tourists had overloaded the hot water system). We paid Bamba and I wrote him a recommendation at his request, explaining to future travellers that he hadn't abandoned us in the desert or stolen our food. I then spent most of the rest of the day asleep (I'd done pretty much all of the offroad driving in the desert and was knackered); we met up with the group again in the evening and went for dinner.

We're now on the road towards Aleg, travelling in close convoy with the other four cars from our desert group, using the radios between the front (Portuguese) and rear (us) vehicles to keep together and help with the overtaking. The Patrol is drinking fuel 'cos we're shoeing along at about 70mph, but other than that (and the locals thinking that it's OK to park on the road on the crest of a hill) everything is good. We've got into a drill for checkpoints now (slow down, hide the radio, hide the laptop - don't know why they are suspicious about it, but it causes trouble - put the camera away, turn the music off, find passports and fiches, and smile) and the police around here seem to be a bit more chilled out than further north. We're on our guard though and we plan to rush through this bit of Mauritania and get into Mali as soon as we can.