It was sparked by meeting our first ever ‘meteorite smuggler’ at Camping Baie des Levrier, and escalated through various weird and wonderful events since. Although there is basically nothing there, driving the stretch of coast we just have between Nouadhibou in Mauritania and Dakhla in the Western Sahara, one just gets the feeling that this [...]
0 CommentsI remember reading in a West Africa guidebook that Noudhibou, which is the north-most city in Mauritania, is one of the region’s major traveller’s crossroads. According to the guidebook Busua in Ghana, Bamako in Mali and Cotonou in Benin are others. To me, Noudhibou – a dusty and unappealing little town – didn’t merit this [...]
4 CommentsMauritania? It’s that country full of sand dunes with no beer, right? Yip that’s what we thought too. But we’ve been very pleasantly surprised by this country that receives more coverage on Taliban threats to tourists than it’s real attractions, which have been some of the most interesting we’ve encountered on this trip. It is [...]
0 CommentsThis story begins early this week when we had packed up our camp under the lighthouse at Cap Blanc and headed back to the city to refuel for the 400km trip to Dahkla in Morocco’s Western Sahara. The border formalities on the Mauritanian side went smoothly but, once we had crossed the rocky 4km no-man’s-land [...]
0 CommentsLast week we went to camp at Cap Blanc lighthouse in Noudhibou. It’s the only surf spot we’ve found or heard about in Noudhibou that you don’t need permission from the army to visit. Cliff-camping, Mauritania-style The point at Cap Blanc is home to a wave that has serious potential but wasn’t all-time when we [...]
0 CommentsAs recently as 2 years ago, one of the bigger obstacles in attempting a trans-Africa expedition, such as ours, up the West coast of the continent was the fact that there existed a 600km stretch of Sahara in Mauritania through which no formal road passes. Thus the requirement for a fairly risky desert-dash between Nouakchott [...]
1 CommentAnd so, the On-the-Virtual-Terrance-of-the-Maison-du-Mouton-Interview-Series continues with Mike “The American” Dvorak. Mike is a teacher at the international school in Dakar in office hours, but during off time he transforms into the peak-cap-wearing surfer we met in the water at Club Med. A peak-cap-wearing surfer, that is, who regularly makes drops like this with his trusty [...]
3 CommentsYou’ve laughed with us, you’ve cried with us, you’ve recoiled in horror with us, and you’ve shared some incredible waves with us thoughout the 11 months of this crazy expedition of ours. Now you’ve got the chance to Get Involved! Simply click on the big button below to nominate us for the South African Blog [...]
2 CommentsThere has been a lot of hype about Mauritania. Many people in Senegal warned us about the risks faced by travellers here but we’ve found most people to be welcoming and friendly – apart from the unscrupulous border guards who tried for several hours to extract bribes from us. Unsuccessfully, I can happily report. We [...]
1 CommentFourteen years ago, a young, blonde Swiss girl was invited by her boyfriend to accompany him on an overland expedition in Africa. Her name was Ursula, and – imagining long beaches and exotic wildlife – she gladly accepted Martin’s invitation to join him in his Range Rover.What she didn’t realise is that Martin was on [...]
4 CommentsWhat to do in St Louis, Senegal, when there’s no surf – go birdwatching of course! We didn’t realise it before we got here but Northern Senegal is home to supposedly the 3rd most important bird reserve in the world. It makes sense when you think about it – the area around the Senegal river [...]
1 CommentSalam Gaye is one of those guys who’s going to make it big. To be fair, he already is big. The man has a personal roladex of 3000 contacts (and a mailing list of 20 000 names “just in case he needs them”). He lives with his wonderfully hospitable family in a beautiful house in [...]
1 CommentWe were lucky in December that our arrival in Dakar coincided with the 3rd (and final) edition of the Senegal surfing champs for the 2007 year, held not far from the apartment we were renting. To witness such a gathering of surfers, at such a slickly run event was something we havent seen since SA. [...]
0 CommentsBecause we spent all of our time in Dakar surfing, playing table tennis with Mike and drinking Moroccan tea at Sufjan’s restaurant… Stone, Cara & Kingdom, minding their own business at Sufjan’s place… …we didn’t get round to blogging much about what two months in Dakar was actually like. To remedy this oversight, we present [...]
1 CommentWe were lucky that our stay in Dakar coincided with the 3rd edition of the 2007 Senegal Surf Champs. We captured and edited some of the action below, and the message is clear: watch out world, here come the Senegalese surfers! [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGLcz1aKzRc]
1 CommentTo start – good news, we’ve uploaded some new photo’s to the web from our last couple of surf-filled weeks in Dakar. If you’re not part of the Facebook group you can access the public gallery HERE. Anyway, as surfers, one of the things we’ve noticed as we’ve rounded the bulge is that all of [...]
1 CommentWe’re always happy to get some feedback on our blog-posts. It reassures us that it’s not only our mums and dads that visit the site, and makes the work that much more worthwhile. So first up, Hugo. You may remember we first met Hugo in Benin where he was living and working. He had procured [...]
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