High Flying Bird

Excuses first…Mauritania has shocking Internet speeds and thanks to an “idiot” in a campsite I lost all my data allowance and all my credit. So many thanks to the owner in Bab Sahara for not listening to a word I was saying and blindly pressing keys on my phone and so he allowed all my data to expire. This was further compounded by the fact I then ended up with 300MRU worth of voice i could not use and nobody sells the 100MRU top ups to recharge my data. Then once i did do this my SIM card (both UK and Mauritania) succumbed to the heat. This meant i had to start all over again…..anyhoo. We’ve not been treating poor Henrietta very well. She’s battered, bruised, damaged, dented, scratched and just hot. She’s had a new steering damper fitted as my last one was (we hope) causing death wobble. We’ve travelled some “roads” which the locals said were impossible. Been stuck in sand a couple of times and also watch others get stuck in sand. We’ve taken Henrietta to places no other Ambulance has been, EVER ! Here’s a video of one little bit of the BFGoodrich KM3 rock crawling. Now this looks a little tame but i can assure you it was not and in a 3800kg Ambulance. It’s hard work.

We drove part of the train line to Ben Amera from East to West from Choum to the rock. The track from the train station in town is OK for the most part but with some serious stretches of sand dunes the nearer you get to the rock. The rock is the 3rd largest monolith in the world. Its pretty impressive. Also an excellent place to camp.

So let jump back a bit. After entry into Mauritania we went to the normal towns and to the capital in the south. It was VERY windy all the way down and the fuel here is crap so my MPG was terrible. Allow for this! Seriously my MPG went down 10 and this was with all the trucks so its not just my huge box on the back. We then went all the way back to the north east to Chinguetti and on the shitty corrugated road to that pointless waste of time. The landscapes around the area are stunning though but we got a little more adventurous and did Passe de Amojar. A camel fell off the track two days before. It not easy. 70km of very hard piste. When our travelling companions get home there should be more photos and videos of us.

After the Passe we met some Germans in the campsite where i lost all my data and we decided to go to the Monolith. You seen those photos. After the Monolith we went to see some isolated prehistoric crocodiles. No idea why. It was VERY hard work and again super deep sand. Henrietta was by this time getting used to it. We still got stuck. It was a few hours walk and we were exhausted and dehydrated as we were told it was 10 minutes and so went unprepared for the heat and over 2 hours.

Did i mention we went past the Tropic of Cancer. I took a piss on the sign in memory of all the people and family who’ve suffered through prostrate cancer.