Home » Mauritania Senegal » Overland Trip To Senagal 2004, Day 11: Goodbye from Mauritania, hello to 500 metres of anarchy...

10.04.04

Overland Trip To Senagal 2004, Day 11: Goodbye from Mauritania, hello to 500 metres of anarchy...

Thomas Morgan
2006-04-26 13:11:51

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we finally parted company 2500CFA poorer. In conversation between Ross and myself since then, he is referred to as “the arsehole” although there are surely countless arseholes in Rosso. It is hell on earth. Just as we thought we were safe inside our taxi, heads began poking in through the window selling things, asking for a cadeau, and feeling around for pockets of the Mauritanians sitting in front of us. As we pulled off, a feeling of relief came over the both of us. It was premature as we stopped at a petrol station barely 10 metres further on, leaving ourselves open to yet more taxi-to-taxi bullshit salespeople and intrusive head-through-window beggars. Eventually, we left for good, and inspected the damage. 12.000 CFA and 4 sunburnt arms, not bad for a few hours’ work – it must have been about 4pm. Ross’ misery was then compounded as he contracted a nosebleed to add to the two he got coming from Atâr.

There was, at least, before the American invasion, a form of government in Iraq, however repressive it was. They should have sent the marines into Rosso instead. Alternatively, Colonel Qadhafi’s nuclear weapons programme should have been accelerated instead of stopped, and the whole lot dumped on this dismal, anarchical hellhole. Things were looking up, however. We were slaloming the mid-road quarries as we dodged our way through the savanna, headed for St. Louis, where we would spend the night before moving on the next day to Dakar. On arrival, we decided to stay for 2 nights instead. The staff are friendly at the Auberge du Café des Arts, and having watched a French league game on TV and having showered the rid ourselves of the physical and psychological stench of Rosso, we chatted football to a young guy who works here as he took us to town to get our money changed and to buy the new traditional packet of biscuits and two bottles of water. For dinner.

“Senegal is nice” he tells us. “It’s laid back and relaxed.” Having experienced Rosso, we’d probably have settled for a few nights in Mogadishu but St. Louis looks like a genuinely nice place. Before hitting the sack for a well deserved sleep and a lie in, we decided to walk the length of the island tomorrow.