Banc d’Arguin National Park

Posted on December 14th, 2009 in Africa, Mauritania by robjkentjr

After about a week of sand, the cold, dark blue water of the Atlantic Ocean was a welcome sight but we had one more sand dune to make it through before we could take a swim.  After that we enjoyed another couple of days lounging on the beach while fishing and bird watching.
We saw a pass in a large sand dune but were devastated to discover it was soft sand and swallowed the car up to the axel.  It took about an hour of digging and letting the tires down to get us out.
After our night stuck in the sand, we set out in the general direction the sign pointed to find the coast.
We ended up staying at the town of Iwik, which is a little fishing village that survives off a solar powered desalination plant.
A day’s haul of fish from one boat.  The catch from these rich fisheries mostly end up being flash frozen and shipped to Europe.
A late return from a day of fishing.  We did not see a single high capacity ship here; the entire fleet was all wind powered boats.
The sunset followed by an early moon.
David and Peta walking back to our camp in the desert.
Unfortunately, it was too late in the season to see the peak of migrating birds from the shore (we could have paid a fortune to hire a boat but passed).  After a night here we visited the two very similar cities of Nouadhibou and Dakhla.

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