"Crocodile Canyon"

Nouakchott to Moujéria, Tagant, Mauritania

Route to Moudjéria and the Tagant Plateau

There is a very good road from Nouakchott, southeast 210kms across the desert to Aleg, then northeast 150kms to shortly before Moudjéreia. Even when the road turns southeast again, away from our destination and towards Kiffa, the last 40kms of minor road to Moudjéria is still excellent. Stretched of the road are so straight they could have been built by the Romans, and these straight stretches could come in handy at the end of the expedition.

Road side villages, note the satellite dish
Miles upon miles of sandy or rocky Saharan desert

	The road across the desert vastness
A road the Romans would have been proud of	A settlement before Moudjéria

Ships of the desert

the colours of the desert, blue sky, pink sand,

and our four ships across the desert against a pink evening sky

We established a campsite in the desert dunes before Moudjéria and it was here that I had my first camel-riding lessons, all filmed of course.

The crew filming the novice cameleer	With the experts including Mauloud (on left)
Taking a break	Again with the expert cameleers (note L-plate under the arm of the man on the right)
Have own camel, will travel

It had been planned that I would drive a large truck across the desert sands but the vehicle had a defective starter motor and once stalled it would not start again without serious mechanical intervention - just the type of vehicle one would want to take out into a waterless wasteland!

So I drove one of the off-road vehicles instead, much more reliable and easy to handle.

Broken again - the truck with the faulty starter motor	More reliable transport,, Hemmo and Mark in a 4x4

In the early morning we broke camp and drove through Moudjéria and up with winding pass onto the towering Tagant Plateau above.

The Tagant Plateau in the distance	and in the early morning as we set off
Moudjéria at the foot of the Tagant Plateau, aerial view