Day 33: Sous-Massa

Breakfast is served at 8:30, and the alarm goes off half an hour before – totally unusual :-)

Then we go to the nature reserve with “Jacky” and his ancient Honda. Launched in 1991, it is home to over 250 species of birds. However, we primarily see ostriches in a courtship mood. There are North African oryxes (Dax?) that are much brighter and less marked than their Namibian relatives. Between the eucalyptus trees they look almost like mythical creatures. And there are also gazelles that look a little different than in Namibia. Otherwise there isn't really much going on, but the landscape, which is largely dune, is enchanting and the peace and quiet is good for us. But calm is relative, because Jacky's car rumbles a lot.

It is sad to see that the large eucalyptus groves that were planted in the 1960s are gradually dying off due to the drought.

We are also learning today that houses, which often have an unfinished second floor, are built little by little as money becomes available. The reason is not, as we suspected, that there are no taxes to pay on an unfinished house, as is the case in parts of Greece.

In the afternoon we have to “work” a little. How often do we have to withdraw cash to the Mauritania border (limited to around 200 euros) for fuel and maintenance? We have to pay a surprising amount of cash and rarely have the opportunity to pull out the credit card – we remembered it differently. Where in Western Sahara are there reliable gas stations (including diesel) and opportunities to shop? How much money do we need to have on hand at the border to Mauritania for a visa and vehicle? What is the Mauritanian Ouguija worth in Euros or in exchange for Moroccan Dirhams? Which place could be our first stop in Mauritania, as we may have to indicate that at the border? It's a good thing that there are other people who record their journey even more meticulously than we do – you can find valuable tips in their blogs.

By the way: We are working hard to upload some photos from the camera in addition to the cell phone pictures – the WiFi is just pretty slow everywhere!!! But at some point there will be a few more great pictures to see here.

And oh yes: refilling the gas bottle part 2. Today Rashid gets four kilos into the 5 kilo bottle. So either we were almost completely empty or there was as much out as in when Ali tried :-)