Wischenwski in Mauretania – Country & Culture (January 2026)

Hello all!

Mauretania, a brand-new country for us. Honestly there was not much we knew before about that country in advance we started that trip. Arriving from Morocco to the second largest city of Mauretania, ‚Nouadhibou‘, it quickly became clear what we can expect: not a rich country, no big infrastructure, no big buildings, no overwhelming sights waiting for us to be visited. Only in the capital city of Mauretania – Nouakchott – there is some ’normal‘ city activity. But anyway, a vibrant city was not what we were looking for. There is one thing that Mauretania has a LOT of, and that is ’sand‘. Practically the whole country is a desert, it is the Sahara waiting for you, everywhere. For us that is great because this is what we planned to do: driving through the Sahara. So, we were enthusiastic about Mauretania!

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In Mauretania we could feel that the ‚Arabic/ Islamic Culture‘ that you find in the north of Africa is slowly switching to ‚Black Africa‘. Marocco is – compared to Mauretania – a rich country spoilt by tourism. In Mauretania you often see real poverty. A lot of children on the streets, all of them bagging. That already started in Marocco but in Mauretania it partly became uncomfortable. What do you do with kids that only approach you to ask for ‚cadeau‘ or ’stylo‘? Some of them throw stones onto your vehicle if you do not find an elegant way to get around with them. It took a while to find out that ‚real interaction‘ with the kids is a way to get away from the bagging. The kids really like to play, like to joke and like to be chased. That can be very funny when a bunch of little ones run away shrieking when you chase them 🙂 ..and they come back, over and over again so that you can chase them again and again (also funny for us!).

Unpleasant was the huge amount of trash that you find everywhere around the villages and cities. Especially the millions of plastic bottles that were flying around really were a pity. Welcome to the Plastic Age! From the culinary perspective it became very lean in Mauretania. Not much that you could buy: some bread, some vegetables (quality low), sometimes camel meat (but you would not like the butchery, thousands of flies…). Also hard to find a proper restaurant. Mauretania is very good if you plan to go on a diet :-0

Greetings from
Heike & Carsten

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