From Southern France to Mauritania

Chloe Grant recently returned from an overland trip that took her from her home in Southern France to the deserts of Mauritania. She traveled for 3 weeks in various buses, taxis, vans, trains and the occasional donkey cart and managed to make it all the way to Mauritania's capital, Nouachkott and back.

Despite the usual stomach problems that accompany trips like this, Chloe met some wonderful people, found some great little hotels (like the one pictured here) and managed to complete the trip without her backpack but sense of humor intact. Read her excellent travel blog for more; here are some excerpts:

We headed SE towards Marrakesh en route to Tan Tan, the rear door wasn't firmly shut so a billowing gale of freezing wind came through all night, to the point that I could feel my toes for the cold! Arriving somewhere in the lower Atlas we got off the bus for supper, the normal Moroccan situation where there's a few cafes on the roadside, usually one of the cheapest but best Moroccan meals are to be found in places like this.

We piled back into the van, leaving the Moroccan border we were now on piste in no-mans land, with the comforting thought that if the van went off the piste, the area's got a few unexploded land mines!

[Catching a train in Mauritania] We waited, saw most of the men pray at least twice during our stay on the concrete benches, a few locomotives go past and then finally the train came - going the wrong way, but a good sign was that it was loaded up with iron ore (complete with passengers riding for free on top).

[In Nouachkott] we went down to the beach and discovered some lovely warm water and a massive shipwreck as a neighbour. As the hour progressed a few Mauritanian families came down and joined us, all incredibly friendly with the kids having a giggle at the westerners in swimsuits messing about in the sea.

The photo taken by Chloe Grant is of Abdul's Auberge Zarga, in Chinguetti, Mauritania