We are at the border, full tanks and supplies. So many new experiences ahead! The border in front of me is Mauritania, the place I have read about the most and the place that is most mysterious for me. I know well that "our" Mauritania will be a difficult piece of ride, the track is ambitious. Huge temperatures, sand, general lack of fuel, water and roads. That's what I expect. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, in terms of GDP it ranks 156th. In all this harsh environment there are we - 4 motorcyclists exposed to the desert. The unknown waiting! It's gonna be adventure!
We are going to hire a setter, I heard that they can significantly speed up the entire process thanks to the relationships they have built with the officials. Michael comes up, has a white sweater and a white smile, and we decide to put our fate in his hands. At least for the next 4 hours...
It's 12AM. We are relaxing to a nice tarmac road. On the side there are high and modern transmission lines, below - small huts built from whatever was at hand, from some old metal parts, some wood leftovers... This is the first thing that strikes me. The second is heat. But hey, this is just the beginning, isn't it? The famous no man's land between the borders and then 40 kms of a smooth road ride. What will happen if we hit the dunes?! I don't know, but deep in my heart I'm happy because I love heat and dust, these are the conditions I want to proof myself in.
We reach Bon Lanuar in no time. Each of us has over 40 liters of fuel, almost 10 liters of water, and the rest of the luggage. I push Greta into the sand hard, she starts shimmying almost immediately, the sand is soft. I stop in the shade, tighten the steering damper, and we all look at each other, there is a meaning in our smiles. I pull up into the desert. The engine braaaaaaps loudly and Greta floats on the sand's surface as she gains speed. That's fine, we can ride those sandy pistas! We wander between the buildings for a while, not yet accustomed to the fact that You shouldn't look for the way, You should choose the line by yourself.
I start to get into the rhythm when I notice that Tomek is not with us. We Come back and found him quickly, he cannot ride because of the clutch lever is blocked, doesn't move not even an inch. The heat doesn't allow us to even think about doing repairs it here, and we would probably lose some small parts in the sand. We drag the bike into the shade, lucky we're still in the town. We are immediately surrounded by little screaming football fans, or at least that's what You can say from the shirts they wear. We are examining the bike, I am afraid that Tomek simply burned the clutch. The lever is totally blocked. We disassemble everything, slowly, bit by bit, then reassemble everything... It works! It has a slight play, but it works. We decide to pull up immediately.
We are going to ride along the railway line. This is the famous train track. Before leaving, I did my homework and spoke to many people who have been to Mauritania. Lots of great stories, and lots of warnings as well. Most though-provoking was Wojtek who had his fuel consumption reaching 11l/100km, and Wojtek had exactly the same motorcycle as mine, the mighty LC4 :-D Blimey. Still, others mentioned challanges in a deep sand and a camel grass... Still, everyone was talking about enormous temperatures. But hey, following hours are supposed to give us the answer, will we be able to ride Sahara, the schedule is very tight, plans are ambitious. It is also a relatively safe test, because in the middle we have a settlement where there will definitely be water, and along the railway line there is a chance of meeting people, even tourists like us.
It's late. We move forward again. Behind the village the ground becomes a bit harder, but with each kilometer there is more sand. It's a fantastic feeling, we're moving forward, knowing how many kilometers of wastelands there are still waiting for us. Just us and the Sahara. Just us and our skills. Just us and whatever we have. Such a romantic thought smiles to me from inside of my head. Finally the day ends. The moon is low and very bright. We camp exactly in the place where we have decided to stop, every place here is equally good. The stove is turned on, and we cook the usual thing - pasta with tuna and with whatever was available in the store, with a bit of luck, tomatoes. Stores are very poor. We've taken two multifuel stoves and we are using a gasoline. We wouldn't be able to find gas for such a long trip, there's not much place to buy it here. By the way, a gasoline powered kitchen is a trademark of a true globetrotter, isn't it? :-) At night we still hear the distant sounds of the train, it means we are far away from the tracks...
The morning. I notice a strange thing on my radio. It is black, spiked, supposedly a non organic creature... The train is carrying iron ore, right? It's the iron particles that have formed itself this way around the speaker magnet, another little thing that's surprising. We take down the camp, refuel and head east.
The road is endless. All You have to do is to keep balance and take a proper line, for the rest of the day. Is it a heaven already? Besides You have to tackle ruts, where the sand is basically a soft powder, and numerous camel grass tufts. It's tempting to go further away from the track, a few kilometers south, where the desert is smoother, but then we lose direct contact and have to call radio all the time. From time to time there is a hill or a dune, other times we get by some constructions made of old rails, steel metal sheets or other iron, this is how buildings look like here.
Finally we reach Inal, a settlement located approximately halfway along the railway route. It's already 11 o'clock and we haven't had breakfast yet. I expected something smaller, but it turns out that there are quite a lot of houses here, and Ibrahim, whom we met, reveals that there is even a shop located in the centre. We decide to go all in, buy eggs and fry a desert omelette. Shopping is not easy because the shop owner has a lot of trouble adding numbers and cannot calculate final sum. Something that is obvious to us, is nothing unusual in Mauritania. People often count by drawing in the sand, something like our school calculations made on a piece of paper. Ok, we have supplies, and Ibrahim insists that we visit his house and use the kitchen. As we are very curious what it all looks like inside, it's no brainer. Moreover, Piter and Kuba was learning French right for the trip, so it will be an opportunity to find out more about ordinary people, live here, in the middle of the desert. This is quite an experience to see the house and the kitchen, they are tiny, handmade. The kitchen itself is not a part of the building actually, what it is is several metal panels added to the existing clay walls. Totally. There is also a carpet, tea glasses, a bed and a Chinese sewing machine, and flies, lots of flies. Ibrahim's life is filled with hard work. "This is Africa man". He is an digger operator, a builder, a welder on a railway line and a tailor. He repairs Kuba's gloves. His wife is living far away in a small village in the south, contrary to sons. They are watching us with high attention. We give them cans of Coke, but they don't open any. Interesting, I can only guess why. Finally, after eating together, goodbyes, thanks to Ibrahim, we leave. Like everyone here, Ibrahim insists on exchanging contacts, whatever it is, a Facebook or Whatsapp. We don't know why, yet.
Here we go again, riding dunes and sands. I don't feel the time passing by, mind is busy, I am focused. Fascinating. We encounter more and more rocks, hidden under the thin sand. This is a sign that Ben Amera is close. Still at home, during the planning, I was dreaming of staying there for bivuac. However, it is difficult to predict the exact plan for each day, if it turned out that we arrived to Ben Amera in the middle of the day, we would probably have to skip it. But no, it looks like we're going right for it, it's very close!
Suddenly I see a thick smoke on the horizon. Here it is! Kuba takes off the drone and we rush right for it. Now I'm bombing along a moving train, how unreal this creature is! Sick! The impression is even stronger as the train crosses the desert like a great worm from Frank Herbert's Dune, raising clouds of sand and dust. The longest train in the world runs right here, in Mauritania, carrying iron ore from Zaureat, an inland mine, to the coast. The train is incredible, makes a huge impression live. The longest one is up to 2.8 km, with up to four trains going during the day. Just wow.
At some point I reach the front of the train, which has stopped in the meantime. The train driver and another man get off. They ask if I could take them to the end of the train, without waiting for an answer one tries to climb back seat :-) Unfortunately, that's not what I can do :-)
Finally, we reach the destination. I have goosebumps. This is a great travel dream of mine that is coming true. Ben Amera is the second largest monolith in the world, the first one is located in Australia, Ben Amera is right in front of me. I came here on my own, and now I admire its 633 meters of greatness. It is absolutely monumental! We ride around, looking for a convenient campsite. Find it easily, wonderful. The sun is close to horizon, painting walls of the monolith in vivid red. At no time we decide to take off our motorcycle equipment and, despite being tired, immediately set out to the top!
An hour later I'm sitting on one of the huge rocks, Piter is here with me. We look silently into the distance, there is no need to speak. The moment is pure magic. The sun sets below the horizon. We didn't decide to go all the way to the top, we stayed halfway. Kuba and Tomek continued to the top, whereas we did not feel safe on the smooth wall with slope of almost 40 degrees. Now I think that my imagination could overreacting the whole thing... but when You fall, there is nothing to catch, you can only gain more speed :-)
In the evening I fall asleep with an ease of mind. The demons of Mauritania lie around, snoring quietly. We have fuel consumption of about 6 to 6.5l/100km, we cope with sand very well, riding smoothly and with confidence. We don't get stuck in the sand, we just float on its surface. The heat is impossible, but it is not something we cannot overcome. We are now wearing light mesh jerseys. Ok, we use a bit more water than we thought. We planned to save it during the day, but in the evenings the body demanding a lot of it. Each day we also prepare a 1 liter of mineral-rich isotonic, a sip or two of which quenches thirst much better than pure water. In general, however, the water situation is not that bad as people who were here a few years ago told us. On the contrary, there are three human settlements on the way to Ben Amera, in the second of them we were given water from the well, although we decided to treat it with some tabs, water is water, right? Ok, generally speaking, it's not easy, we gain kilometers with great effort, but it is within our reach. This is fine, at this end of the world :-)
Track: https://www.wikiloc.com/trail-bike-trails/2023-dakar-stage-4-mauritania-the-rugged-rides-153550264
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