How to get to Bir Moghrein? (part 1) and other Mauritania Off The Beaten Path Tips

Bir Moghrein is a lost village somewhere in the North of Mauritania. Its was an old military Spanish post and still a fortress can be seen exactly on the virtual border with Mauritania and the unprotected area of the Moroccan Western Sahara.
Here I hope I will instruct in all someone needs to know about how to get to Bir Moghrein and possibly make the route to enter Western Sahara. I should always remind that from when I passed there until the present date of Feb 05, at least 2 European groups of travellers were kidnapped and taken hostage and asked for money to the authorities of their native countries. One group was from Germany and the other was from The Nederland. I know also that in the South part of the country, a group of travellers from Qatar were kidnapped and taken from the no mans land between Mauritania and Mali South east part. Also in the beginning of the year a traveller was almost shot and his car taken away from him in a major city on the Mauritanian coast right inside his camping place.
Bir Moghrein is located on the Northern region of Tiris-Zemmour and this is the way to get to Tindouf resistant and refugees from Western Sahara back from the 80´s and 70´s. This refugee camp is about 20,000 people and full of new generations that never actually went to Western Sahara (although pride goes beyond all and they say they will never go even if the Moroccan Government wants them. Latest news say Moroccan King Mohammad VI is trying to bring those people back to Morocco, their living conditions should be much better for them. Even Moroccans say “what are they doing there with Algerians? They should come to their country....
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This is all very complicated and we shouldn’t forget about some people that say that Algeria only gives force to Polisario because they want a piece of the Atlantic… Algeria want Atlantic… I don’t want to be turning this text to any political statement, but I’m trying to follow my logic from stuff I hear and see on the road, after visiting Mauritania and Western Sahara 4 times and more than 14 times to Morocco.
To get to Bir Moghrein you have to drive north from Zouerat 440km of desert tracks, mountains and black rocks that makes you think you're in another planet. Bir Moghrein is something like a military post and has nothing really to see but indeed a lot to experience with amazing local people that unfortunately have a rough life and also landscapes.

This is the route you should make to get there:

Atar -> Choum +-120km

Choum -> Touajil -> Fderik -> Zouerat +-250km

Zouerat -> Bir Moghrein +-440km

After is the route to Morocco trough Gueltat Zemmour

Bir Moghrein -> Fortress on the border with Western Sahara +-56km

Fortress on the border with Western Sahara -> “Le Mure” +-40km

Heres on on-line maps of Mauritania:

Map of Mauritania 1

Map of Mauritania 2

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*Asphalt about 20km after Atar
Orange sand on the end of the asphalt road for about 100m. Very tough sand. Good for 4x4 tough. be prepared for many rocks under the sand. Be careful for some locals that might be prepared to help you for a bit of money and maybe even want to drive your car and pass the sand: maybe run away with the car, maybe break it and you have to stay there, with them…
Desert tracks all the way.
There are no marks for the road. Supposedly you just have to follow other car tracks and keep in mind there always a big mountain on your right side. Half the way and after the big descend to the Valley where you start to see that specific mountain, there is a lot of sand. You cannot tell its sand almost but the floor cracks and you get inside it due to the weight of you car or even your feet.
The landscape here is impressive. You have lots of palm trees after Atar for some dozen of kms, and after you drive straight until you have a huge descend. From above you can see the huge mountains and the huge desert forming in front of your eyes.

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We got stuck in the sand and after a couple of hours of digging we got some paid help from local people that after asking for money gave us a help from their very old 4x4 Toyota. As soon as we got to Choum, our deal went off and they stay asking for 3 times more the money and threatened with police and violence. If this happens insist also with police. This will calm people and the people you are dealing, as they are also afraid of police. Always when asking for help, write down the price you dealt and make the person sign it. This was the best solution the police man in Choum advised me to do next time. But I some how end up paying only 5 euros more and gave him 2 t-shirts and some pencils to his sons and the story ended.

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Train between Choum and Nouadhibou went off as we were asked a lot of money and had to wait 4 more days until it wrould arrive. For what I understood, if I would pay about 100 euros, they would possibly put it the on the train the day after, but they asked for about 70 euros for a 4 days maybe a week waiting in Choum, plus money for passengers. This is not good price and we didn’t do it. At this point, it wasn’t a matter of money of course. We had the money, but we didn’t want to pay someone 3 times more the normal money to make this trip in a country that the normal monthly salary is about 30 euros maximum 50 euros. After a very warm and strong conversation with the responsible of the train and cars, we end up going up to Bir Moghrein and try to get out of Mauritania, following the way to the North on the forbidden tracks of Bir Moghrein along the Polisario Guerrilla.

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This is a very nice person. He helped us all the way to the border with Western Sahara. Of course nothing on this trip to Mauritania end up going as planed, also with him hehehe, but for sure you can trust him and he will try to do what is necessary to pass you all the tracks to the border. We paid him. I am not going to tell how much because it’s his business and your business. Now, go by me, this is the guy YOU SHOULD TRUST! Remember I also came to Mauritania on a 4x4, and had other guides and other problems, more than once… My trip was not a one time experience but more than 4, and with different vehicles and hiring different guides which were not very good and untruthful. Ripping you off taking money out of you…
He lives in Choum. His house is near the mosque and he says he is the only one that has a “auberge” in town. hehehe, its not a “auberge” but in the future I know it will be. Its his own house, along with his wonderful family.

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If it wasn’t for this guy we wouldn’t make it to Morocco on this part of Tiris-Zemmour. He drove a small Opel Corsa through 9km of dunes after Touajil, help us to get local pick up trucks to my friends and to all our baggage with local price payment (4-6 euros for the whole day of journey looks like it was local price to me). He got us some people to bring us to the Fortress after Bir Moghrein. This is very important help! For my experience, you should trust someone else…as this is a damn good tip. You can print out this picture and ask for him in the Choum. Even if someone tells you he is not there, just go to his family and wait 2 days even. You can stay there for a minimum payment (you will decide after. it depends if you want food, but price goes from 5 to 15 euros…its all up to you.)

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Choum -> Touajil -> Fderik -> Zouerat +-250km

This is a very rough journey. Usually local 4x4 make the shortest and fast way through the train tracks where they hit their tyres against the protective objects that exist on the tracks preventing vehicles to drive there. They still do it and get their tyres flat of course. if you are careful and whenever you see one of this protection you can drive out of the train tracks. Also advisable is to get out when you see a train…hehehe, but maybe fast cos you can get stuck in sand on the way out, this can happen also with 4x4 of course. The train takes 10kms to stop…hehehe, as it’s the biggest train of the world.

On the picture you can see the iron mountains of Fderik.

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The other solution is to go inside the dunes after the small village of Touajil. The local transportation pick up trucks don’t do this way cos they usually have too much weight and can get easily stuck in sand. This was the way my small city car went to. Moulay Sharif drove it and we actually passed one 4x4 stuck in sand, that when we passes they were really surprised of being stuck and a small city car passing them. Moulay Sharif said that he have done those dunes also with a Citroen 2c long time ago. He said “it’s the driver, not the car, LOOK AT THEM!! HAHAHA” very nice experience indeed.

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I was coming by a small car and my friends which had to switch to a Toyota pick up truck due to the extreme weight on our small car, too much weight for the desert tracks that connected Zouerat to Bir Moghrein, making the total of 440km of tracks.
After two days of discussion in Zouerat trying to head north to Morocco, finally we got a option. Moulay Sheriff was very friendly and helpful and got us a solution to put all our cargo and 2 people inside a local bus pick up truck. The car now would only go with 2 people inside which would be much better to drive on the desert tracks and the enormous amount of sand also found on the way. each person paid 1500UM for the 440km journey that too almost 20 hours. For me, well, I was the one driving, but for the ones on top of the truck, that was a hard journey.
This is indeed the most impressive of all landscapes in Mauritania and indeed one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen ever on my travelling.

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