hi !!

http://img454.imageshack.us/img454/6...urmine1pn5.png

Apparently 1 week ago , a French Nissan Patrol with 2 people on it , has hit a antitank LandMine in the Spanish Road (10 Km East of the Mauri BorderPost. )

A man was dead , and another very seriously injured.


so It seems that the mines were real .. after all... Scary , as most of us have been driving trhought there quite recklessly .

Javier

Yes, they are very real. More info here :-

WSO| Landmines

Hello,

and here You will find all about Landmines etc. in Africa:

www.desert-info.ch :: Thema anzeigen - Minen/Landmines/Des Mines - alle/all/toutes infos

Koordinates for Google Earth and GPS..... and much more.

See also the other threads in "Minenarchiv" I have prepared.

Best wishes

Ulrich

P.S.: If someone has new data, pleas sent me, I will update all data in our forum.

ulrich.hanel at skydsl.de

Very scary...as I passed through there in December. I remember seeing the burned out cars and realized with a lump in my stomach what that was all about...stick to the tracks in no mans land...

Pic of the road for future reference...

mtb_better_road.jpg

__________________
edde
93 BMW K75s
www.motoedde.com

hee
maybe it is a stupid question. But what is the Spanish road? ANd that nissan drive on a tank mine on the main road between morrocco and mauritania.? Or did they take a other little piste? there is a map at the link. but it is too little for me.

bye

hee
i think i know where it happened approximately if I compare the map on the internet and google earth. google earth: N; 21.20.44.00 and w; 16.56.18.00 that is the end off a little piste from the bedouines tents which lead to nothing.

bye

Regarding the stories about the French 4x4 blown up by land mines in Mauritania in Feb 2007 - we would like to set the record straight. We were part of a party of 3 vehicles in an overland drive from France to Togo. Our car is a Land Rover Defender, the other 2 being a Land Rover Discovery and a Nissan Patrol. The couple involved in the tragic accident were our travelling companions, Georges & Bernard. They were not driving the Nissan, but were in the Discovery. The Nissan had been sold in Togo, and the crew of that car had returned to France by plane. We left Togo to drive back to France with Georges & Bernard, but after 3 days we split to go our own way because we considered that they were reckless in their route planning, demanding we attempt extreme off-road raids, and proposing that we return to France via Algeria (against all advice because of the high risk of bandits)
We continued alone through Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania & Morocco. At the frontier between Mauritania & Morocco we paid a guide 20 euros to take us across the mine fields (this is absolutely essential). The track there is at best not clear, and with blowing sand, quite often becomes obscured. Georges sadly was not one to take advice or pay for a guide. This was evident on our southbound trip when he refused the offers of a guide and crossed the mine fields unaided. Tragically on his return trip he got lost and drove onto an anti-tank mine. We received news of this by text after we had arrived safely in Western Sahara. Georges suffered burns, and his friend and passenger Bernard died of internal haemorrage all because of the reluctance to pay for a guide. We know know this region reasonably well, and have many contacts with police & customs officers in the countries we passed through. If anyone wants up to date advice please feel free to email us.

How tragic to go over a landmine.

But I thought, its all tarmac between Morrocco & Western Sahara and upto Noudioubou.

It's good to get the full story behind this tragic event - it appears the guys were reckless in the extreme and paid the price.
I've only done it twice (1999 and 2006) but IMO I still feel the record should be set straight for this popular crossing so people are not freaked out. It is much much more staightforward than it was in the old convoy days and, unless we are talking about some other parallel route, the current crossing of the few kms along the stony limestone track of No Mans Land between Maroc to Mori does not require a guide. There were none around last October anyway, only a few chummy Mori money changers halfway along the track in Merc 190s. Perhaps guides/hustlers are more common when going north. I am sure someone here could come up with waypoints for end of tarmac in Mk and the start or tarmac in Mori to set peoples' mind at ease.

Chris S

__________________
Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Hi all,

I'm quite astonished to read about this tragedy.
In my mind (I passed there in august '06) it was so simple and easy to pass from Mk to Mori, following the natural route that it seems umbelivable... [but it's true of course :-( ]

When I'm back home, I'll search for last wpt of that leg... (or track file if preferred, if someone tells me how post it to the forum)

Ciao
Ag

This seems such an odd tragedy. As Chris says it would be pretty difficult to stray from the tracks at the normal border point - last couple of times I've made this crossing we were queuing behind silver-haired tourists in motorhomes or towing caravans!

In December there was even a herd of camels roaming unattended in no-mans land which made me think the mine risk was overstated - perhaps not the case.

__________________
Pictures, Mauritania 2011

I think it would be appropriate to clarify the exact location of this accident. It can't be the place most of us would identify with the familiar locations at the border.

When I did the last crossing in 2006 on the way south via Bou Lanouar, it was so uneventful (except coaches and camper vans stuck in sand) that it's hard to imagine it would be a dangerous place. People were using different paths across the no-man's land and some of them were even camping there.

Look up the location on google earth and you will see that the track is clearly visible even from space:

End of tarmac in Morocco
21°21'42.82"N , 16°57'38.11"W

Start of tarmac in Mauritania
21°19'59.97"N , 16°56'48.71"W

__________________
----------------
Roman (UK)