Home » Mauritania » Overland Trip To Senagal 2004, Day 8: Atar

07.04.04

Overland Trip To Senagal 2004, Day 8: Atar

Thomas Morgan
2006-04-26 11:55:32

Displayed times (last time: )

we shared the car with him, Frenchy doing all the talking. He was trying to get back to Dakar, his hometown, but didn’t have enough money. Or doesn’t, present tense being correct, as he is asleep in the tent with Frenchy, a Real Madrid shirt with Beckham 23 on the back. Lunch is delicious. I begin to get the feel of the place. It’s a really nice place and I would like to get to know the two owners, a German couple, or Dutch. Hard-working and helping a very poor community. The two men who work in the kitchen, for example. They serve us quietly and are swift in their work.

Very, very hot, Frenchy and I eat for the first time since we snuck in the last of the cereal bars while the train was travelling slowly enough not to kick up dust. Omelette and tomato on a bread roll, delicious. We don’t pay, but write our names in a notebook, for one lump payment when we depart, I imagine. We walk into town in the baking heat, first to the post office to post the key to our hotel room in Nouâdhibou that I put in my pocket and forgot to hand in.. 150 ouguiya. The post office looks like a jail. We got a free short lift there, Samba’s great at these sorts of things. We walk for ten minutes and can’t find the internet café. Eventually we’re informed of where it is and that it’s closed until 4pm. We pass a small hairdressers and the idea takes root. My hair is long, still stiff despite being shampooed upon arrival here. It’s hot as well. Samba has a friend here who has a place with a TV showing tonight’s Champions League quarter final. We’re keen to go early on but change our mind later, changing our mind to eat here at the camp rather than in town. The hens and roosters here are gripping and foolish. We walk into town again, straight to the hairdressers. Samba talks him down to 700 ouguiya for me. It’s shaved very short, looks good and costs next to nothing. Then to the internet. Dad’s written back, in two sentences expresses ...