Sahara Highway Mauretania?
 

Anyone have any news regarding the paved highway they are building through the desert in Mauretania? It's supposed to be ready for traffic in april.

I believe it may be more like the autumn for fully sealed but it is all 2WD-able piste.

Chris

We did Nouadhibou-Nouakchott two days ago. 120 kilometers of the entire stretch is not yet tarred, but the piste that remains is straightforward and fairly easygoing (corrugations because of the heavy trucks working on the highway notwithstanding). Many 2WDs do the run. You might get stuck in a patch of sand once or twice, but never deep in. Where it is tarred, it's really good and you can go full speed.
Karolien

Thanks for the news Karolien.

Ch

Karoline,
how about the weather in Mauri now? i check the yahoo weather. it says the Humidity in Atar is around 94%. how it is possibe that so high humidity in desert? anybody understands it?

Hi,

Atar is located in a series of mountains, not very high (around 400m), but their relatively small distance to the Atlantic ocean shore and the Sahelian belt (arond 500km) enables some rain once in a while.

See Sahara Overland II for some quality information about climate in the Sahara and the effets of latitude and altitude on climate.

Cheers,
José