"Nouamghar" El Mamghar by johnsakura

Nouamghar is a special kind of fishing village. Here the Imragen use strange techniques to catch fish. They strike the water with wooden sticks and then the doplhins come closer to the coast, driving smaller fish into the nest of the fishermen.
Nouamghar is about 155 kilometer north of Nouakchott, on the beach "road" to the Banc d'Arguin.

beach highway, mauritania

Banc d'Arguin National Park sign - Mauritania

Nouamghar consist on a small fisherman's village whice also have a office of the Banc d'Arguin National Park. Its a important point in the matter that almost every trip and every traveller have to stop here and wait until the ocean tide goes down and be able to pass on a 180km beach drive down to Nouakchott.
There's a couple of shops with more expensive goods (than in big cities, they ned to get here by trucks).
Lots of children come to you as if you are some kind of Santa Claus. They don't respect you at all and the first thing they do when they see you is asking for money and gifts. I dont really agree of those people that go to places to give thousands of toys and tshirts pens whatever. They deturpate children's mind which live in a different place that we do and by that their way of living consumerism is quite different. The more give to people here the more they will need. One of the children actually attacked me and grab my harm asking me for a pen.

beach

How to wait a couple of hours to let the tide go down and then make almost 180km on sand always having in mind that if water would come up we would be stuck and all lost. Beach and dunes on the other side. Fantastic scenery indeed.

From Nouamghar you have to drive on the beach, which is only possible at low tide. If the tide is really low you can drive all the way to Nouakchott. If the tide is too high you have to take the improving inland piste that starts at the fishing village of el-Mhaïjrat, about 50 kilometres south of Nouamghar. Ifyou have problems on the beach you’d better fix therm fast, otherwise you’lllose your vehicle. Even with a 4WD it is not always possible to get onto thedunes beyond the high tide mark

On this page you'll be able to see much more pics on this amazing trip. Please come back later.