Day 53 - 5540km Nouakchott, Mauritania.

With my Mali visa ready for collection at noon, I should be back on the road to South Africa this afternoon and on the trail of my French amigos, who had to carry on without me. Fortunately the delay has allowed me to recharge the batteries, overcome the now familiar traveler's stomach, collect an emergency resupply of malt loaf and give Bertha some much needed TLC. In many respects I take back my previous blog of having returned to civilisation, for a capital city, the range of services and infrastructure in Nouakchott are incredibly basic. Walking down the high street you are more likely to get a face full of sand, be flogged a wooden tooth brush or get pushed out of the way by a donkey and cart than pass suited workers going about their business. Still, that makes it a much more interesting and real place to explore, with the highlight being an incredible local fish market down at the beach where we bought an extremely fishy fresh catch for the BBQ. 

Next up is Senegal via a couple of National Parks with excellent birdwatching. I`ll be back in touch when I`ve sorted a local SIM, in the meantime feel free to check out some of the photos that will be posted over the next few days and look out for round 2 of lessons from the road. Thanks as always to all those that have donated to Re-Cycle.