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08.04.04

Overland Trip To Senagal 2004, Day 9: Foum Chour

Thomas Morgan
2006-04-26 12:04:28

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Double bonus ! Having told Samba last night that we had decided to stay in the Adrar for a while, he asked for money to go to Dakar which we couldn’t afford to give him. He left for Nouakchott this morning, and we got up early to go for a walk out of town. We had talked to a French overlander last night about walking to Azougui, a village about 10km away. When he told us that this route was boring and suggested another instead, we took his advice – good decision ! Having got up at 6am, we set off around 6.30 in the direction of Azougui and got a lift after a bit of walking from a man who flatly refused my offer of 200 ouguiyas for his troubles. We got off at the edge of the plateau and walked down a road which wound its way down to the valley floor, starting at 7am. From the top we saw the village, palm trees dotted around and sand and bushes stretching down the valley as far as the eye could see. The valley must have been about 2km wide with the sides rising sharply to the plateau in a kind of Mauritanian Grand Canyon. Having walked through the village and been on the receiving end of numerous ça vas, we turned right into the passé de Foum Chour, a path about 500m wide through the mountains. Going through a palmeraie, we stopped for biscuits, water and the obligatory pictures of palm trees, and Ross took advantage of this pause to apply some sun cream. The pass was a narrower version of the valley we had just left and zigzagged its way towards the horizon and the surroundings demanded quite a few more ventures into the pocket to reach for the camera.

Though still close to Atâr, it felt as if we were in the very middle of wildlife. The cliffs rise up either side of us, the innumerable rocks on the flobes are black and shiny and Frenchy spots a lizard stretched out one soaking up the sun, then another. Half a dozen or so scamper for cover as we pass under the increasingly warming sun. A total blue sky above us, a mixture of scrub ...