GRAND RAID SAHARA DESERT, MALI and MAURITANIA

The word Raid is used in the Sahara Desert regions to describe a very serious remote Expedition. This is exactly what we set off to do and this particular Expedition was so remote that it was referred to as The Grand Raid!

I want to take a moment to explain to you, I have personally taken part in several true Expeditions throughout the African Continent, all of which have their own uniqueness, remoteness, rewards, and challenges. Once I started doing Expeditions in the Sahara Desert areas, I soon found out the true meaning of an Expedition. As we head off into the Desert one really realizes just how much you need to rely on each other and you better know who your travel partners are and make sure it is a cohesive group, because you will soon see that there is no help out there if any difficulties do arise.

The Grand Raid was set for 27 days of travel into very remote areas of the Sahara in the country of Mali and its neighbor to the west, Mauritania. As things can be unpredictable when traveling, we were supposed to fly from Bamako, the capital city of Mali to the world famous Timbuktu, but our flight was cancelled. This added and extra two days right from the start, as we had to drive up to Timbuktu. Yes, Timbuktu is a real place for those of you who are wondering.

Upon arrival at Timbuktu, I could really see why people talked of it as a very magical place. It is the last sign of any real civilization before venturing out into the Desert. It boasts the oldest mud/brick Mosque in all of Africa and it is quite a sight to see. It is a melting pot of many different cultures and is the home base for the largest Camel Caravans in all of the Sahara.

As we made our way out of town the next morning, within 5 Kilometers we were in the Desert. I had this feeling like "what have I gotten myself into"?as it was so remote. After a couple of hours driving through nothing but the most beautiful scenery I had ever seen, I was hooked. As I mentioned it was beautiful, quiet, peaceful, and full of many changes of the scenery. The first day we traveled through pure flat sand, over rocks, and drove past some very large Dunes. When it was time to stop and set-up camp for the evening it was quite different from any other camping I had ever done. We simply stopped the cars, got out and unloaded what we needed for the evening. There were no campsites, park fees, entry gates, ECT, just us. I climbed up a large Dune to watch the sunset by myself. It was simply amazing and as I sat there alone, I realized that if I were lost from the group, I would most likely only survive for maybe two days, that’s how remote it is out there.

Our next stop was the Desert Village of Araoune. The people of the village were very friendly and welcoming to us. Araoune is located on the route the Caravaners travel from Timbuktu to the Salt Mines of Taudenni. There is a well on the edge of the village, which provides clean water for the people of the village and the caravaners as they pass through. As is the case with Araoune most of the villages in the Western Sahara originated anywhere from the seventh century to the twelfth century. The Marabou is the village leader, similar to a chief. His relatives usually date back centuries, setting up the background for fantastic historic stories of the Desert past.

Also in these villages you will witness books from the old era. They are all original books covering every subject imaginable, from medicine to astrology. It was quite an amazing experience for me to hold such a treasure in my own hands.

As we bid our new friends a goodbye, we headed north towards the Salt Mines of Taudenni our next destination. Just some simple facts for you to digest. With our motor vehicles it, the trip from Timbuktu to Taudenni will take us about three days. It takes the Camel Caravans 16 days to go up and another 16 days return to Timbuktu.

The magnitude of the approach to Taudenni is simply amazing. We had spent the previous four hours driving at the speed of 90 Kilometers per hour due to the fact that we were traveling on flat packed sand. It was like a Desert race, as one vehicle would pass another, then again and again. Next we started traveling slightly up hill only to find on the other side one of the most breathtaking views I had ever seen anywhere in my travels. It was as though we could see forever. As far I could see, I made out something in the distance, it was an ever so slight view of Taudenni, however we were still 40 Kilometers away from the Salt Mines.

As we pulled into the area, we must have seen 400 to 500 Camels just there. It looked like a car park for Camels. This was the area next to the Mines were the Caravaners were camping and resting their camels. Most had just arrived from Timbuktu and were waiting to take on their load of Salt for the long journey south. Our trip leader, Alberto said that only about 50 or so westerners per year would have made the journey to Taudenni, so needless to say we were the topic of discussion for the locals. The salt is mined from the ground as they dig down about 10 meters. Observing the guys doing the digging, made me feel tired. This was some of the most grueling manual labour I had ever witnessed. The salt is cut up into squares about 2 meters by 3 meters in size. Each Camel can take only four of the Salt squares. It was quite a process to watch the guys load the Camels as I think the Camels knew how heavy the load was.

The next morning we said goodbye to our new friends at Taudenni and headed northwest towards the border between Mali and Mauritania. Now I could really sense that we were traveling into even more remote areas than we had up to this point. There were no roads, no tracks, just nothing and more nothing. The further we traveled in this direction the more relaxed I became, realizing I had never made the connection between remoteness and relaxion. The more remote, the more relaxed I became.

Our next stop was the abandoned Salt Mines of Thraza. Thraza was the working Salt Mine in the Western Sahara before Taudenni. It has been dormant for over 350 years. We spent most of the day exploring this old site. This was Alberto’s first time to Thraza and he stated that he did not think  westerners had been to this site since the late 1800’s. After experiencing what it took for us to get there, he could be correct with that info. The one remaining structure that can be recognized is the Mosque. You can also see where the mines were. Quite a distance from the mines were the remains of the village where the workers resided. We explored this area and found several beads and remnants of old pottery.

As we departed Thraza, our next stop was to find the border between Mali and Mauritania. Keep in mind there are no border posts or proper crossings out there. We had three different GPS with us. Since they would all differ slightly, it was quite a discussion as to who had the exact correct position of the border. Then as we continued driving we saw a row of rocks set-up in a straight line. Someone had obviously marked this stop as the line between the two countries. What a site!

As we entered Mauritania, we saw no villages, no wells, and no sign of civilization. Alberto stated that it would take us about five to seven more days before we would come to an area called Guelb El Richat.This is an amazing area of three natural craters. We had been driving through heavy rocks at a very slow pace for a few hours, and then we came to the rim of the first crater, what a site! We spent some time just taking in the views before making our way down into the crater. There is a road traveling through all three craters one after the other. At the end of the last crater as you come out there is a small café. They had cold drinks! These were the first cold drink we had since we departed Timbuktu some 2.5 weeks earlier. What a treat!

From here we made our way back to a bit of civilization as we spent one night in the town of Chinguetti. That was the first running water shower we had in quiet some time.

One interesting fact that I would like to share with you is this; from Timbuktu to Chinguetti was 18 days of travel, we did not see any other people or vehicles except for locals traveling on camels and we only saw a few of them!

As we departed Chinguetti our next stop was only a half days drive to the town of Tidjikja.This was our first major refueling stop in 19 days. As we pulled into the filling station, they were out of diesel fuel. We had to go see the mayor and ask him for help in finding fuel for us. We did finally get some fuel, but after a full day delay.

The next part of our journey was the last leg through the desert. As we departed Tidjikja, we quickly were in the remote Desert conditions again. After two days of beautiful scenery and no signs of civilization, we came to the desert village of Tichit. It was a decent size town and boy were we popular there. I do not think they had seen any westerners in quite some time. Seemed as though the whole village came out to see these strange folks. As we approached the village on of our vehicles developed a clutch problem. We hoped for the best, but it turned out to be the worst, the clutch needed replacement. So now picture this; no electricity, no hydraulic jacks, no power tools, but we did have spare parts and Mohamed our experienced mechanic. Given all of the not so friendly conditions I mentioned, Mohamed installed the new clutch in a half day or so and off we went!

The following two days was very rough travel. One of those days we only traveled 22 Kilometers in eight hours of driving. Then, here we are in the remote Sahara and way off in the distance I see something rather large. As we got closer it was a very large rock formation standing alone in the Sahara. It was an unbelievable site. We sent up camp and explored the area for the rest of the day. It was millions of years old and the historians say it was an island when the area was a sea.

Now we were heading south and coming to some of our last stops in the desert. Our first was the town of Walata. It is famous for its very beautiful building designs. Women in town paint the outside of their homes in vibrant colors accenting the beauty of the village. Walata was also the largest staging town for Camel Caravans of the past. These Caravans would travel from Walata up to Morocco and back.

From Walata we made our way to Nema a thriving town at the edge of the Sahara. We were fortunate enough to be in Nema on market day. A Sahara/West African market is very vibrant and colorful.

Upon our departure from Nema our next destination was the ancient village of Koumbi Saleh. Ruins of this village date back to the Stone Age. As time progressed, Koumbi Saleh became a large town and the center for Arab Traders. There was a considerable amount of gold in this area as well. The people would bring the gold here for trading and selling. The location of the village is at the edge of the desert and the start of the savannah, so based on this location it brought the Arabs and Blacks together.

As we departed this area, we headed south for the border between Mauritania and Mali. We crossed the border at Nara and began the last leg of our journey to our final destination Bamako. Bamako is where we started our journey some 28 days earlier.