The beautiful crossing from the 20th to 30th October 2010
Go hiking this year in Mauritania.
The contrast between the happiness of my friends guides: "it rains a lot this year, pastures are good, the nomads will be on this road, it is really the moment to go there!", and formal warned of the authorities of my country: " last minute: the French authorities remind that they disadvise formally any travel in zones indicated in red... The rest of the country is disadvised except imperative reason " is without appeal. It is necessary to decide. I choose to make this big dream, crossing between two of the historic cities of Mauritania. I return amazed there, and wish to the lovers of courses in the middle of nowhere to seize such opportunities.Irony of the fate, our road flirts friendly with the "red" line. In the field, we met everywhere the same peace, the same kindness, the same smiling tolerance.
To specify my feeling once and for all: I do not say that to measure Mauritania puts supernaturally shielded from the torments of the world. The World is on fire and on blood, no place is protected to be splashed with it. But the Mauritanian population is not possible there no more and no less that the French population, and their country does not more deserve to be stigmatized that deserved it ours, for example, this hideous day when the RER(metro in Paris) explode in the station Port Royal in Paris.
Now, it is the smile of the children of Tijikja, delighted to stop a few minutes on the way of the school and to rest in front of our three dromedaries, that wishes us good allocates "This year, the desert is green"
It is indeed the living well desert that the crossing reveals. The green is everywhere, even if it only accompanies the mineral: in reality, the desert is black and green, brown and green, yet and green....
Throughout the route, our dromedaries will feed in plenty by grazing during the breaks and at night. A big feeling of harmony gets free of such a progress where animals are granted to the ground. Very fast, the dromedary which I take up will teach me the most delicious plants, at the top of which throne "telebouts", small bundles appearing from some sand, and which, firmly explained my frame, deserve a wide bite even when we are along the way...
The herds are there, and it is an enjoyment, after a day or two of the solitary walking, we perceive installed in the pasture a group of dromedaries with white camel of the year, a herd of sheep near the white Kaïma, or to meet nomads in travel with their herd of goats and sheeps.
We had the opportunity to do so common route during two days with a father and his son leading a herd towards Chinguitti, and to stop in several time near a family tent.
Whether it is for a brief stopping place or for night, information exchanges, offer of drinks (tea if they have time, zrig quickly, incomparable fresh milks for us), smile and shared quiet moments were always present. The nomadic know-how and the hospitality of people of the desert are very alive in Mauritania, nothing of a legend nor a reconstruction for tourists, the life as it beats...
A progress within a beautiful variety of landscapes
Eleven days of essentially north progress, during a succession of well individualized landscapes. Made uneven modest, no rough breaks, and nevertheless the rocky landscape where we were immersed it seems for days made sand, then the next day the sea of dunes puts down you on a reg, who will be transformed imperceptibly into pasture...
Every type of landscape has its charm, its difficulties, its presents. The bathas big (Tijikja-Rachid-Taoujet, Chig), wide sandy bottom of oueds when they do not flow, forms convenient roads, and feeds the essential wells.
Stony plains form a severe part, as long Ewaïm Elberd (cold bone) and Tarfwatwat, but authorize a safe progress and of which to graze. The big seas of dunes are a delight for eyes, spotless cleanliness, magnificent forms, but will ask efforts and attention for dromedaries, and up to the greyish regs, without charms at first sight, which have the comfort of a track, and keep imprints more faithfully than the sand.
If it was necessary to remember only a moment, I favour the feeling of Me getta, the passages, which lead through dunes from a zone to the other one, and at first the big Me getta who draw the road between the oued Chig and cliff of Arouassat. A place where shows itself all the knowledge of the guide Nemoud, the dunes, unstable objects, modifying ceaselessly the progress: the alive knowledge of the ground, its update by the permanent contact with the nomads traveling the region, will never be replaceable by a GPS point.
Drink
The beauty of the temporary accumulations of water contrasts with the extreme modesty of wells - but it is good of the latter on which depends the safety of the progress. They also evolve according to their use or abandonment by the nomads. We took 2 cans of 20 liters and one of the 10, our reserve, more a can of 10 liters which contained the filtered and handled water which I consumed.
We could so hold three days between two wells, and were just only in a single point of the road - the fortuitous meeting of two nomads watching their herd of dromedaries avoided us the stage of envisaged night, thanks to a puddle residual, modest and a little manhandled by the herd, but sufficient to give us the desired safety margin.
Dromedaries would have adapted of a rarer offer, even if after a long stage of dunes they appreciate the refreshment offered by the well of the oasis ElGuella. As for me, with this precaution of filtering and treatment, I had no concern. The only limitation to which the guide Nemoud mercilessly subjected me concerned the zrig, the drink with beaten milk and with water, delicious offering which proposed to us the met nomadic tents. In an unchanging rite, and no matter of my desire, Nemoud enjoyed slowly, carefully, and returned its verdict: you can - or you cannot - drink. I have never had to regret him.
Straight from the earth: move forward light
For the rest, strict base diet, pancake cooks under the sand and the perfumed rice of some onions and beans, some cans of food. But widely cheered up as soon as possible by the local resources, the small yellow watermelons, the milk, and a memorable lamb barbecue with the village of Ain Sabra. The dead wood collected along the way to obtain embers on which we shall put the small teapot and under whom will cook the pancake. No tent, the beautiful star having never best deserved its name. Here it is really possible to live on the floor.
So we are going "light", even if the equipment of three dromedaries is an object of very attentive care to the morning departures (well before the sunrise) and of the evening stage (when the heat begins to fall).
The intimate knowledge of the ground replaces the heavy logistics.
For all those whom the big crossings make dream, come to measure Mauritania, on foot and in dromedary (easier for the riders but possible for all). For your happiness, and for these men and these admirable women who keep alive the desert!
With my deepest thanks to Sidi Mohamed, adorable camel driver, and Mohamed Mahmoud Bewba Nemoud, greats guide!
Sarah, 6/11/2010
sarah.claude50@gmail.com
