Hi,

I did the Road Nouadibou/Noakchot recently and few kms after Nouamgar, in the tide road, we saw an Italian broked bus, all painted with nice graffiti’s, lefted on the beach.
Apparently it has been abandoned recently. Any book guide makes any reference to it.

Does anyone know details of that trip? What happened to the people that were in the bus?

Regards
Paulo Santos

I dont know if it is the same bus but according to the Gendarmarie in Toolit the bus broke down because they drove it into the sea or something like this. It may have broken down and they couldnt get it onto the dry sand before the tide came in.

I suppose the people got away OK, there is a lot of traffic ón this Nouamghar-Nouakchott piste.

Thanks for your reply Kevin.

Do you know anything else about the trip. Where did they intend to go? The nationality of the travelers? How many were them? If they continue the trip, and how?

I'm really courious about this subject because I imagine it as a great group adventure!

Regards

I did the Atlantic Route only twice , Iam planning to do it in November this year a third time.
But somebody will go with me , with a 18 ton Daf Truck .
You said , you saw a bus , broken down on the beach .It drove trough the water ... Stupid..?
But how about a heavy vehicle , like my truck ?
Will it be possible to use the Beach Route???
Perhaps it will be to heavy ?
In that case , I will have to use the Route Camions" , in the inland.
But will my MB 190 D manage that Truck Route , in the inland ?
Perhaps I have to take a Guide ....
The last time , I did it alone , with a friend , with my GPS .
It worked out very good , aspecialy , as we wanted to stay a day or two in the desert .
And those Guides , they want to go home , most of the time , as quick as possible .
So , do you know about truck's , travelling along the beach /
Greetings ,
Peter

I did the Atlantic Route last year with my Dyane (2 cv). South of Nouamghar i saw overloaded big camions 6x6 on a beech. They didn’t have any problems. They wait till low tide and then full gas. When is water coming back is better to find the place for camp rather then driving further. You can see how far can water come. We camp somewhere in middle on a beech (before big dunes). Good spot for fishing!!
I think is it good to take a guide or be in a company with one motorbike or 4x4 (they can scout passages for camion) or more. If you have enough hands you can carry a mountain. :-)
Maybe is now bigger problem to find a company, because convoy is no more obligatory. But the Atlantic Route is like pilgrims road, full of traffic, especially in this time.
zdravo
Gregor

No "psantos4", I don´t know anything else about the people or whatever, sorry. I´m going down again in mid-October so if you want then I´ll try to find out more about them.

Peter Peters; I doubt if anybody drives into the sea deliberatly, unless they are trying to get rid of the last bits of "best Moroccan". Most of the time it happens that s large wave comes in, splashes under the car and screws it up in some way or another. It could also be that they got stuck in sand or the "mud algae" that exists on the last 100km bit. If they did get stuck or had a breakdown then they probably didn´t have enough time to free the car before the tide came in. After all the times that Idrove this I think that at least 80% of all cars that don´t make it are wrecked on the beach section, and this usually in the last 100km.

If you do take the "piste de camions" then you are obliged to take at least 30kms if not more on the beach. Trucks do it all the time so itt shouldn´t be too much of a problem. Either way you will have serious problems with the 190D on the Truck Piste. If you do pass Nouadhibou then it is worth going to the office of the Parc National and asking for permission to take the truck through the Parc.

The most difficult part of the route beach section is the part from Toolit to Nouakchott, but you can avoid this by driving off at Toolit and taking the Truck piste from there. The piste is really shit, there is very little sand and a lot of potholes and washboard, but take your time and it isn´t such a problem.

Just to add that I saw a Merc 190D with serious problems just after Nouamghar (south direction). The tide was rising, the sun was already down, and the driver, to avoid the waves, opted by driving through some rocks and got stucked. It had to be roughly pulled out !!

So be careful with tide and don’t drive at night. But in a truck, minor rocks won’t be a problem!!

José

__________________
Desert Crocodiles of Mauritania: http://cibio.up.pt/crocodilos/en

When we went down in Dec, we were sharing a guide with an overland truck. 1) at nouamagar where you join the beach, another overland truck (Scania 2 axles, double rear wheels with rear difflock) had tried to go out of the village just behind the beach and got stuck. 2) we got the overland truck we were with stuck trying to pull the first one out. 3) the sea came round the beach and flooded the area. 4) it took about 5 -6 hours to free the overland truck we were travelling with 5) went through the night on the first overland truck - even with 75 people 2nd overland truck (merc, 2 axles, double rear wheels, rear diff lock) and LR110, we couldn't get it out. 6) there was a small truck on the beach completely stuck that had been swamped by the sea 7) we went down the beach with very little trouble with the truck and LR, saving grace for truck was they could use sandladders to get out then we picked them up so when they started they could keep going, other trucks having more problems with getting free, stopping for ladders, getting stuck again. 8) first overland truck finally got pulled out 3 days later by a 6 wheel drive dumper truck and it had to work to do it. 9) also pulled the other truck off the beach 10) we were thrilled to find out the swamp that we spent 24 hours in trying to free the 1st overland truck was an old cemetry. If you know how to drive offroad then no problem, our friend in the 2nd overland truck did and we went through in 3 days (inc helping other truck), pretty easy, thro park and then down beach. If your not so confident then inland route might be better. Other truck didn't know how to drive offroad and took 14 days to go from Noudibiou to Nouachott.

We have been warned! Thanks Tobias, perhaps someone could put up GPS points of the dangerously mushy soft patches.
Just a thought about the bus; a couple of years ago my partner had never seen a tide come in, or imagined that it could be that powerful. She's Italian, Italy is surrounded by a big lake without tides; maybe they just didn't know.
Luke

Luke, the "mud" patches that I was referring to have no specific place where they show up. What happens is that the algae or seaweed ends up on the beach, rots and then lies just on the surface of the sand or more usually just below it. Technically speaking it is not "mud", I just referred to it as that.You will know youre in it because of the smell of rotting eggs that it produces (methane I suppose).Even 4x4's have big problems getting through this. Because it is tidal influenced it can show up anywhere, but usually in the section from 50km north of Toolit to about 40km north of Nouakchott, butr can vary. The easiest way to avoid it is to let another vehicle depart before you, and to see his tracks in the sand. In general the higher you go on the beach the better it is, though here the sand is usually much softer. The "mud" is not there everyday, I guess about 25% of the time or so, so you may not meet it at all.

Tobias may have been playing about in a natural mud flat, some of which do exist in the area. These are usually worse than the algae as they are much bigger.

Thank everyone !
Some usefull information I received .
Kevin , I doubt also if somebody will drive on purpose into the sea .
But I remember one time , my friend w2as driving , he enjoyed himself so much , he went swerving and making curves trough the sand on the beach. One time he went so enthousiast , that he drove trough the waves , making a big splash and almost did kill the engine .
Lucky as we were , the engine just coughed and went on. I had quite an argument with him , he did not do it again!!
Thanks for the information.
Peter Peters