Cycling around the world: VLOG 12 - ACROSS the SAHARA - Mauritania

We have been cycling in the Sahara for months, and the desert felt never-ending. We still had 700 kilometers left, but we were about to cross to a new country, Mauritania. There's the Mauditsky Chakya Gai. For a rest day before crossing to Mauritania, we are staying here at this hotel. We've been here for two nights, and now it's the second morning, and we are starting to pack our things. This is very important. This saves our life, really. We have a cold water to drink always, thanks to our winter socks. And then, the main room. That is basically a mess. It was so good to rest here. We've been just covered in the sand when we arrived. But the good news is, we have almost 100 kilometers to Mauritania. It's summertime, so it's really hot in the Sahara now. We would like to cross it as soon as possible. We were battling with wind, sand, and heat every single day. It is a second sandstorm today. And it hurts when the sand hits the skin. It's a raining sand. On the last day in Morocco, the weather felt cooler. We were close to the sea, and the sky was full of sand, blocking the sun. This was enough for us to let our guards down and not cover up properly from the sun. In the middle of the desert, even warm yogurt feels cooling and so tasty. Yeah, tonight we will sleep here, and tomorrow we cross to Mauritania. Life is good! Can we just look at this amount of tea to the amount of sugar? So you would put like this much sugar in each cup. So we came here to the border last night. We had a snack and we went to bed, and then both of us got a fever. And it was quite bad. I don't know what it is and what we can do. We can stay here and rest, because our visa is running out, obviously. I don't know. I have a throat pain and I feel I have a fever. I would like to check the body temperature. I'm sweating so bad. Do we have that ginger oil? Yeah, I think. We are not sure if it's a wise decision to cycle really today. This wasn't a part of a plan, to be honest. I took some Guarana. I feel better. Let's go towards Mauritania. It took a while for us to realize that the fever was probably a heatstroke. After the border we had 50 kilometers to cycle to the next place where we could rest. But first we had to cross the no man's land. This is no man's land between the Moroccan border and Mauritania. About 3 km wide, a car graveyard full of garbage. I need to find out which is the right road. I think this is the road. Half of it is paved and half of it only a piste. We had been told to keep to the beaten track in case of landmines. We are getting almost to Mauritania. We both are just walking with the power of painkiller. We got the Mauritanian visa. Let's do the last part of the crossing. Today these gentlemen were going towards Nogashido. They offered us a ride thanks to them. It's a great help because we were really dead. This one maybe you can tie it. I have this one also. A 400 km car ride across a landscape that felt like nothing but sand. 2500 km cycling in Sahara was enough. It was interesting to see life in this part of the world. Small houses in the fields of sand. People were farming animals like camels and goats. And selling petrol and groceries to passersby. The last time you saw us was two days ago. When we were packing up our bikes on the trailer. To drive here to the capital of Mauritania which is called Nouakchott. I think Nouakchott if I pronounce it right. I'm a catastrophe with these names. Two days is not enough for us to learn the name of the town we are in. But Nouakchott. When we unpacked the bikes it was a bit scary to see what conditions they were in. Because so much sand going around. So many bumps in the road. So we were really just hoping that the bikes are fine. And a quick check when we unpacked them. They seemed ok. This is our horn. It's time to be a mechanic. I love that. And Matilda also. She's really really good. Whenever I'm in trouble she always helps. That's very true. Let's take a look at the bikes. This is what they look like. The bicycles are totally covered in sand basically. What to do? It's a part of the game. My brakes were a bit funny. But we hope it's only some sand stuck somewhere. Problem solved. We need hot water. Let's go and boil water basically. So we are getting there. We have around 250 more kilometers to Senegal. We are ready to go. Thank you. It was really nice to be here. Thank you. Bye bye. So we are off. Nouakchott was full of color and cultures and we loved it. But in Mauritania slavery was criminalized only a bit over 10 years ago. And the segregation is still tangible in the culture. We felt it in the air especially in Nouakchott. This was upsetting to realize and a culture shock to say the least. We are around 25 to 30 kilometers out of Nouakchott. Towards south, Senegal. And this is quite a typical village. There was a shop just next door. We bought some stuff to eat and they told us we can have this room to rest a little bit and to have our food. It's really nice. Outside is everywhere sand and wind. Next shop, how many kilometers? 100 kilometers next shop. He said it's 100 kilometers to the next shop and to the next maybe village. It's 40. Along the road we have been offered not only food and a place to sleep but sometimes even gifts like clothes and shoes. Usually we deny as our bicycles are already heavy but sometimes it feels too impolite not to accept. And if we do, we give it forward to someone who needs it more than us. We don't have water, we need to get some water. We get some water from here and then we are off towards Senegal. This is the one yesterday with the donkey they brought. Thank you. Thank you so much. We have some friends who are joining us for a ride for a while. They save the water inside of those big bags for their animals here. Here are the donkeys again. Life is like this here. They often carry here water with the donkeys around. Hello. Donkeys are getting beaten up here really well I have to say. We could have soaked this one in the water but we really didn't find the water today so they let me use our drinking water. Better? Cars are here incredible really. They look amazing. They have so much accident they look like they are going to fall apart. But they work very well, no problem, they go. Most of the time. Most of the time, yeah. Often we have seen them on the side of the road, somebody fixing. But they remind me of our cars in Finland almost. It was a little bit similar I have to say. We have our lunch today here. Our lunch is tomato, onion, egg, so that means omelette. Omelette is ready, we make our coffee and we rest a little bit and then we go. After midday the sun is very very hot so we try to rest. So we can be here for maybe an hour or an hour and a half and then continue and hopefully it is a little bit cooler to cycle. It doesn't taste like an Italian espresso. Hot water mixed with something. Isn't it amazing? This cools down so good. Back to the road, 80 more kilometers to the next town. Bye bye. Dunes are amazing, just so magical and so beautiful. So yesterday we made about 60 kilometers before the sunset got us. And luckily we were close to this village. So we could ask from these house owners and they were kind to let us stay here in their yard. Can pack the tent and head off. I really would like to have some fruits. The story is I'm really hungry. Yeah but we have some bread and some hummus. Now our route is getting away from sea. When we get away from sea that means weather gets warmer. It's really nice to cycle in Sahara in the side of sea. Yesterday we cycled only like 25-30 kilometers. It was really hot and somehow really difficult to cycle. So when we reached this town we just found this restaurant and then decided to stay when they offered us to sleep here in the house behind us. It's nice to rest in a town where you don't need to carry around so much food. You can just stay in one place and go to the shop whenever you get hungry. Now we need to buy some food again before we continue. There will be some villages but often the selection in the shops in the villages is a little bit narrower and it might be more expensive also. Here is our shower. It's toilet and it works really good. It's nice to have some different bread than the baguette we have been eating for the last week. But this tastes a little bit like mold. I need to do my pull up. So we have around I think 80 kilometers to the border of Senegal. It's quite hot. It's probably almost 40 degrees so we needed to have a rest in the shade for a while. I think slowly by slowly Sahara is ending. It's been a very very nice experience to cycle Sahara but it was enough. How is it? It's ok. Alright. We can do some laundry. Thanks to these guys they gave us water. This is really dirty. Look at here. Now sun can warm up this water so it will clean the clothes even better. We have the natural olive soap. We can maybe put that one I was thinking. In Morocco they have this traditional black soap which is made of olives. And it's mostly at least natural ingredients. It's really really nice and soft for the skin and everything. And also really good for washing clothes. We bought some of that before we left Morocco. We don't know if we will find something similar elsewhere. Under Presumed Bio. In Morocco they use it traditionally for their traditional bath. It's like a moisturizer for the skin at the same time. So I don't know how happy they would be to see us washing our clothes with it. But it's really effective. So I just put it over there in front of sun. And this is what happens when you don't have any internet and you're in the desert. You end up doing woodwork. This is my kuksa, koosa. Traditional Nordic cup. And this is my kuksa. As Matilda's it's totally handmade but still it's not done. Then will come one layer of linseed oil mixed with coffee. Just on the outside. And then I need to work still inside. I have to rub inside a lot. This is a fantastic thing to do. I really love it. This water is well warm. Thanks to the sun. This will go around the world. Already have traveled from Finland to Africa. How much? Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, we go and eat omelette now. That's good. Thank you. Bye. You will find it. We have around 60 kilometers to Senegal's border. It feels really good. We hope everything goes good in the border. Sometimes they try to ask for some bribe. Of course, we're not going to pay anything. As you can see here, nature is just getting more and more green. Here is almost like a forest. By the way, these trees, these ones have quite a nice spikes. It's not the best combination with my crocs, but it's okay. I think one of the highlights of Mauritania and Western Sahara has been this part. Just really, really beautiful. We are off to go. The town before the border. It was amazing to follow the transformation of the nature and the landscape. As far as we were getting south, the landscape got greener and greener. The colorful villages and trees on the orange dunes made it a beautiful and interesting ride. Suddenly in five kilometers, we are out in a different world. Look, here is amazing. Everything is green. It smells so nice. It smells of plants and trees and forest. This feels so good. We've seen monkeys and this African wild boar, which I don't remember the name. It's a hog or something. They told us we can camp in a gendarmerie tonight. Good morning. Yesterday we slept in a yard of a police station. We have around 40 kilometers to the border now. We will cross this national park and it's very exciting to see the wildlife. Yesterday, for example, we cycled only 30 kilometers and now we need to do 50. And the border crossing and then, of course, on the other side of the border, find somewhere to sleep and everything. So we need to be much faster than we have been lately. Towards Senegal. The road is not the best, but we need to make it before the border gets closed. Hello. Hi, everyone. Thank you for watching the video. We hope you liked it. If you want to follow our adventures, you can do it on Instagram at Nomad's Trails. And make sure to subscribe here on YouTube if you don't want to miss our next video. If you enjoyed our videos and you like what we are doing, you can support us by ordering one of our postcards. Links are below. But having you all here is a fantastic support. And thank you. Thank you. See you in the next video. Bye-bye. I love it. Out of Sahara. Do you smell the grass? It's amazing, yeah. It's life. Life.