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- In today's episode, I leave Morocco and enter Mauritania, one of the least densely populated countries in the world. And we both want today to just be over. Of course, every day out here is filled with micro adventures, and these next couple of days are going to be no different. Paradise. (laughs) We start off with the border crossing. Well, I'm just about to cross into Mauritania, however, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get turned around because it is late in the day. It's almost 5:00 PM. The border closes at six. I highly doubt that they're gonna let me through. (soft music) (speaking in a foreign language) Okay, the police officer that said that the border crossing is still open. So I'm gonna, I just need
to print out my Mauritania visa. Once that's done, let's see. (soft music) (speaking in a foreign language) Okay, so this gentleman has printed me the paper, the visa. He doesn't normally print things apparently, but he did print it for me and he didn't want any money for it. So that was very sweet. And oh my god, this might just work. You know, I had so many bad things about this border crossing that like, you know, people arrive really early in the morning at like eight or 9:00 AM takes them like eight or nine hours to cross, and it's just a nightmare. If this works out for me,
if this works out for me, this is ridiculous. Arriving just before closing time and hoping for the best, very typically me. Okay, so I just passed through the very first gate and the officer there looked at Vilk and he was like, is that a Malinois? I was like, oh no, it's not a Malinois. I was like, kind of. And he was like, oh, I love those dogs. They're so amazing.
I have one. He showed me pictures of his Mallinois puppy, which is so adorable. And yeah, now I'm through to the next spot. So let's see what happens here. I should probably put the camera away though. It took a little while to get all my documents stamped and Odyssey had to go through a giant vehicle scanner, which checks cars for any illegal items, I'm guessing, guns, drugs, and human beings being trafficked. Eventually I got stamped out of Morocco, but that wasn't the end of the process. I almost can't believe it. I think I must have gone through the Moroccan side in record time because that took me exactly one hour.
And right now I have to drive over to the Mauritania side and do the Mauritania border process. But before I do that, I have to go through no man's land. There's literally this stretch of about three to four kilometers that's just over two miles of a road that doesn't technically belong to anyone. And it's chockfull of landmines and trash and yeah, it's a little eerie to be here, honestly. Just look at this.
(eerie music) Hey, there it is. The Mauritania side of the border. Well, I don't have any footage of the Mauritania border crossing because a border official deleted all my phone videos from that day. I wasn't even filming any buildings or people just myself talking, but that was still enough to set him off and almost get me in trouble. But eventually I got through.
My gamble, i.e. arriving at the border just before closing time paid off, and it only took me two hours to leave Morocco and to Mauritania. I can't believe it. At first sight, Mauritania may not look too different from the 500 miles of desert that preceded, but I know just how special it is. I've been here before. I rode the infamous iron ore train, stayed with a nomadic family in the desert and fell in love with this little known, totally underrated gem of a country.
I've been wanting to come back ever since with my own truck to explore a little deeper. But unfortunately, my first hours on the road turned out to be more than I bargained for. My plan had been to cross the border Guerguerat and drive south to the Mauritania city of Nouadhibou to spend the night. But things don't always go according to plan. Day one in Mauritania and I'm already breaking my number one rule, which is do not drive in the dark. Well, unfortunately, I haven't had much luck finding good places to stay. So I've ended up in this situation.
One wild campsite that I spotted actually ended up being rolled off and inaccessible. And then I went to an established campground where there was like six dogs just barking at the car and at Vilk and he was barking back. It was fucking chaos. There was no way that was gonna work. So now I'm cruising around in the dark in Mauritania where there is potholes and goats and rocks on the road. I'm grateful that I was able to cross the border today, but I guess the downside is that I'm now driving in the dark looking for a place to stay.
I've only ever broken my golden rule of not driving after dark while on an expedition like twice. But sometimes you just need to stay calm and adapt your plans to your reality. Bad news, this campground doesn't exist. It's supposed to be there, but there is just the beach. It looks nice enough, but I don't really know what the rules are here about around camping at the beach near a city, and I don't want to get the knock at night. What is the alternative? The alternative is to drive an hour north in the dark in a new country. Get there at 10:00 PM
I am just so tired and I know Vilk is completely fed up with today. Yeah, I know you're fed up, huh? And we both want today to just be over. Well, I don't think I'm gonna have any luck finding a campsite around the city here. So let's go and drive for an hour until we get to the dunes where there is definitely wild camping. That's why we don't drive after dark here.
(eerie music) The thing that's probably the most scary about driving at night here is the other cars. So the road is quite narrow and in some places it's covered with sand on the side, and then the drop on either side is quite rough and high. And when cars come from the opposite direction, they're passing by really close. You know, I'm really trying my best to stay right on the edge of the road, but I have no guarantee that they will. So it's a little terrifying. I do not want to be doing this ever again. So basically I had found a location on an over landing app that I claimed to be a quiet, wild campsite behind a big dune.
I was headed there since that was my best shot at finding a safe and peaceful spot for the night. But actually getting there wasn't so straightforward. Are we offroading in the pitch black? Yes we are. Why not? In the desert in a new country? Without knowing where I'm going. Why not? Because some person on an over landing app says that there is a good spot to camp nearby. Do we trust them? Not really. Do we want to trust them? Yes.
Okay, we've made it. I can't believe we've made it. Or actually, I actually managed to find a spot to camp that feels good. We're in Mauritania. We're Mauritania. (Vilk barks) What did you find, buddy? Why is that? Did you have a long day? Are you just. It's just plastic buddy. (laughs) Oh my God. I think we're both so exhausted that we're losing our minds and I feel like I've just lost my mind because this place looks freaking unreal.
We're camped in the embrace of a massive dune. I know you can't see this right now. I'm gonna have to show you tomorrow morning. I can see this place perfectly well by the moonlight 'cause you've got a beautiful full moon, but I don't think the camera can capture it quite as well, so. (soft music)
Good morning from Mauritania. We're here. I can't believe it. So last night didn't exactly end on a super high note. However, I think I ended up in just the right place because when I said that I'm sleeping in the embrace of dune, this is what I meant. Hey buddy, Vilk. How do you feel about this place? (soft music) Wanna run down the dune? Yeah? You wanna run down? Wanna run down to the truck? Okay, let's go.
We made it. Good boy. So while my coffee's brewing, I thought I'd show you guys my like morning nutrition slash supplement routine. Don't worry, none of this is sponsored at all. I'm not even gonna show you any brands. I just wanna share with you some of my boujee ways. This is just self-care on the road basically, but I thought it might be quite interesting since it's one of the very few routines that I do have while traveling.
First and foremost, for immunity, bee pollen and honey, I mix those two with warm water and mix for a nice beverage every morning. Then I've got Maca. Maca is basically like ginseng. It's this Amazonian super food. I got this one in the Colombian Amazon. And basically this I use to help me elevate my mood just to feel bright and fresh and positive every single day. And then I take a spoon, a big tablespoon of olive oil every single morning. This one's from Morocco and then I've got these two supplements. I'm gonna hide the brand on these 'cause it doesn't matter.
Creatine for muscle growth. Yeah, and collagen for strong bones and joints and hair and nails. I'm not sure if it really works on my hair and nails, but I like to think that it works on the other things. So there we go. This is my supplement routine and it's one of the few ways that I'm able to actually keep up some kind of routine on the road. So that's nice. (bright music)
Honestly, I think one of the best things about taking all of these supplement things is that because I mix them all with water, by the time I have my morning coffee, I will have drank like half a liter of water and that's gotta be a good thing, right? Another part of my routine out here is having my morning coffee and journaling. So much happens every single day on the road, and I just wanna make sure I remember as much as possible. I know that these journals will eventually form the backbone of my next book, which I'm already ideating in my head. Yes, I know my first book hasn't even come out yet, but it is coming so soon.
Anyway, it is time to leave the embrace of the dune and officially start Mauritania leg of Expedition Sahara. This is my route plan over the next couple of days. First, I plan to spend a night camping at the Atlantic Coast and then drive to the Capitol Nouakchott where I'll be able to pick up a drone to document the rest of the journey. Okay, I've just found a shop. I'm gonna stop here, get some bread, maybe a cold drink, and then we'll keep going. We'll keep going south.
Well, this is a pretty interesting spot. Okay, unfortunately, this place only has rice and meat, no bread, no drinks. They said that the next store is in Chami, which is 50 kilometers away. How are you feeling about all this, buddy, huh? It's so crazy. (speaking in a foreign language) All right, let's get to that store. Mauritania is fascinating. It is 90% desert, and so I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that it's one of the least densely populated countries on Earth.
This place definitely has a kind of a wild west vibe to it, which is really cool. It's really interesting. You can fit the whole of the United States east coast inside Mauritania, but it only has 5 million inhabitants. Mauritania is a very interesting place to drive around in because, oh God, the potholes are so deep, not because of that, because you're literally just driving through these big empty stretches of desert and then once in a while you'll pass by a settlement and there's just some makeshift shacks, you know, maybe a shop, maybe not, maybe a mosque, maybe not. But you're kind of like looking around and you're like, what? Who lives here, you know?
It makes you wonder like who lives out here so far from any shops from urban centers? Just along a very, a very empty stretch of road in the desert. Okay, I made it to a store, also a gas station. Let's grab some cold things. Oh, this looks really good. Look at this amazing bread that they have. This is actually surprisingly good choice of all kinds of delicacies. Oh, they've got Fanta, they've got melon milk. (speaking in a foreign language)
(soft music) All right, we made it out of town, and I'm currently headed that way towards the ocean, where I hope it's gonna be a little bit cooler and where I'd love to spend the night. But the track that leads there is all sand. Some of it packed. Some of it's soft. Either way, we're gonna have to air down the tires.
Okay, all done. Let's keep going. I know that some of you might wonder, how on earth do you navigate when you're in the desert and there's no road? Well, in this particular instance, I knew I had to head west, so I had my map out with the compass right there, and I tried to follow all tire tracks that headed in that direction. It's not an exact science, but I love the challenge. And eventually I got to the coast.
Well, the first proper campsite in Mauritania. It's pretty spectacular because over there you can't see it, but I can over there is the Atlantic Ocean. And we're gonna go for a swim in just a few moments. But first I'm gonna open up the awning to give us a little bit more shade. And then we're gonna go swim. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes to all of this. (bright music) Oh wait, I forgot. I have to lift the roof first, otherwise I won't be able to open up the rooftop tank.
This is amazing. I am jumping right in. (laughs) Paradise. Come on. Vilk is like, I don't know about these waves. They look suspicious. (laughs) What a treat to just be able to chill in the water after so long in the desert. Vilk and I loved it so much. And in the next episode, I get my hands on a drone again, which means I'll finally be able to show you guys the true scale of these places.
And of course, I'm about to experience another breakdown more on that next week. (bright music)
