Paris Dakar パリーダカール サハラ砂漠横断の旅

Over the past two months, we have traveled from Paris to Dakar, covering over 5,000 km.

This trip was first conceptualized as another French speaking holiday to go to Morocco and Senegal. I wanted to go back to Morocco, as I was there only for a few days last year attending a conference. M.FR, on the other hand, wanted to go to Senegal for good music. Then, he thought of this “great” idea of going overland through Mauritania combining our respective preferred destination, which was for me a crazy idea initially, given the threat of terrorism, long ride, heat etc etc. After meeting some people during the trip, everyone seems to think that it was fantastic plan, so I finally gave in and decided to go along with it.

Here is the “trajet” of the whole trip of our Paris Dakar. (FYI Paris Dakar race has been moved to South America, after tourists got shot in 2009 in Mauritania) As you can see, a wide variety of modes of transportation were applied.

Paris

ê overnight train

Barcelona 3 nights

ê  train

Cordoba   1 night

ê  train and ferry from Algeciras

Tanger, Morocco   3 nights

ê  train

Fes  3 nights

ê  Driving (Rented a car)

Volvilis  2 nights

ê  Driving

Maknes  passing through

ê  Driving

Rabat  2 nights

ê  Driving

El Jadida 1 night

ê  Driving

Essouria 3 nights

ê  Driving

Agadir 2 nights

ê  Bus and grand taxi

Sidi Wasek 2 nights

ê  Bus and grand taxi

Tantan Plage 1 night

ê Overnight Bus

Dhakla 2 nights

ê  Shared taxi

Noadhibou, Mauritania 2 nights

ê  Bus

Nouakchott 2 nights

ê  Shared taxi

Saint Louis, Senegal 6 nights

ê  Hired vehicle

Lompul 1 night

ê  Hired vehicle

Dakar 6 nights in total with 5 nights of annex trip to Casamance in the South

It looks like a backpacking type of trip, but none of us actually had a backpack. In fact, I had a huge red suitcase, which even contained things like a hair-dryer (only used once during the entire trip, though) and several summer dresses. M.FR was not too happy with my luggage, as he likes to travel light. After two months, he even has grown attached to and was fond of this travel companion of ours.  We didn’t “rough it” too much, by staying in each place a minimum of two nights in most cases and choosing middle level comfortable accommodations. Had neither bed bugs nor smelly bathroom experience. It was never too hot, since we always had a nice breeze from the Atlantic Ocean. We did not get mugged, kidnapped, stuck in a sandstorm or fell ill with malaria fortunately.  Nonetheless, it was still a huge adventure. During the course of our travel, we lined up at 7:30 in the morning in Rabat to apply for a Mauritanian visa, witnessed a huge tense fist fight on a long overnight bus where police was called in in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, drove 5 kilometers of land-mind no-man’s land between Morocco and Mauritania and maneuvered through notorious Rosso border. We narrowly escaped getting an expensive fine for allegedly passing a red light by negotiating with a police officer, cornered by vendors and ran over a tiny bird.        

I can’t document the trip in detail, but I hope to write about some anecdotes and highlights.    

This was by far the longest travel and covering the most distance in my life. It was really once in life time kind of experience.