Sahara

Day 23: Zouérat to Azougui

I wake from a bumpy back-seat slumber to find we've stopped. Ahead of us figures in veils flit away from our headlights into a large, crisply flapping tent. Cassa has got out and is striding off into a grove of trees. We disembark. Stretch legs, yawn, drink some water. It's nine o'clock by my watch when Cassa returns with furrowed brow and motions us into the vehicles.

Apparently, a friend of his, who was to put us all up tonight in his 'Typical Nomadic Tent', has disappeared into the desert, as nomads do, and not come back.

So, off we go again. Back into the night.

Half an hour later, dots of light flicker in the distance. They prove to belong to a small encampment outside the little town of Azougui, which bears unlikely signs of tourist facilities. As we turn into the compound our headlights pick out a painted board, the name of an auberge and the reassuring words beneath it, 'Près de la Ville. Loin du Son Stress'.

It's not where we were meant to be, but no-one's complaining.

Azougui, Mauritania
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Camp-site accommodation at Azougui. At least we didn't have to put them up.

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PALIN'S GUIDES

Series: Sahara
Day: 23
Country/sea: Mauritania
Place: Choûm
Book page no: 83

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