November 9th - Beer in St Louis

Our rest day in Mauritania's capital was lovely. We had a swim in the sea (in all our clothes obviously...). We also saw the fishermen bringing in their daily catch in their long boats that they had to pull up the beach. The boats were all decorated beautifully. After that we went to a supermarket for the first time in weeks which made me surprisingly emotional. I can't believe all the times last year I didn't have a cup of tea because I couldn't be bothered to walk 300m to tesco. We had weeks in the desert of mainly eating cous cous/stale biscuits/stale bread and to be suddenly presented which such a vast array of food was very overwhelming! We spent lots of money. We also got taken (with Gaby and Werner) on a tour of the city by the campsite owner who spoke flawless english. We saw the country's only fire station, and got a flavour for the city. In the morning it was a very very sad goodbye to Werner and Gaby, who we've spent 6 nights camping with, in 3 countries. They're amazing people on an amazing journey and they've given us so many luxuries over the past few weeks! Their website is www.gabyundwerner.de

November 6th - Nouackchott to a police checkpoint - We left Nouackchott with a great plan to cycle round the coast and avoid the chaos of cycling through a city of 2 million people and lots of donkeys. Sadly due to a massive disagreement about which way we should go (I was right just sayin') we ended up not only cycling through the city, but cycling through a slightly dodge seeming slummy area where the road was mainly sand. We shouted at eachother a lot and eventually managed to fight our way round the cars/donkeys/goats/children and on to the main road south, out of Mauritania. Almost immediately the desert ended and we were cycling through Savannah, filled with small villages. As we cycle through the villages hundreds of children run to the road and shout "Donnez-moi un cadeau" or an alternative. Sometimes it's the very ambitious "Donnez-moi ton vélo". These shouts often seem quite aggressive and I doubt they ever have any success. It's lucky they're so rude because otherwise I would feel terrible as these children have nothing and I have so much. We spent the night in a police checkpoint with policeman who were exactly the right level of friendly.  Interested but no marriage proposals (this is rarer than you'd think, I'm absolutely inundated by proposals) They gave us goaty pasta which we all ate in a circle with our hands. I've really gone off forks.  It was a very interesting day of cycling, with lots of animals and a varied landscape.

November 7th - Police checkpoint to Senegal - We weren't planning to arrive in Senegal that day, so we had a very relaxed day of riding, stopping often to chat to people, making coffee, having a mid-day nap. The road was very bad with lots of patches of sand that we had to push through, until suddenly the road became absolutely beautiful - thanks to the EU for building it (EU <3 <3 <3). We made cracking progress and arrived at the border with loads of time to cross. Sadly this then became a complete nightmare. We'd heard lots about the Rosso border and it was all bad, but the reality is really really bad. We were dived upon by hundreds of men trying to persuade us that they would help us through the crossing. They grabbed our bikes, grabbed us, grabbed our passports, stood really close. The border crossing involves a ferry which would have been lovely in the evening light across the river, but instead all these people were pretending they were on our side. We got to the other side and it turns out there was only one place to stay and it was really expensive and really horrible. Really really horrible. BUT we always hate our first day in a new country.

November 8th - Rosso Senegal to St Louis - We left Rosso nice and early and had a lovely easy ride to St Louis through gorgeous green land. Grass!!! It's been so long. It was so easy Mum kept falling asleep and veering across the road. We stopped with some policeman and had biscuits, water and a very interesting chat. On our way into the city we bumped into two Canadian cyclists who were just leaving and heading for South Africa! They'd been in St Louis for 9 days. Everyone seems to have more fun than us. They told us where to stay and we headed for it, before venturing out to town for some food and sightseeing. Cities are very hassley and St Louis is no exception. We just stick out so much and everyone thinks they can make money out of us. It's a very interesting and diverse place though. My favourite bit was having our first beer in 6 weeks. So cold. So good.

Today we are having a rest day in St Louis, exploring the city and chillin' (not literally it's like 35 degrees) on the beach. Tomorrow we're heading south for some more rest in a national park full of birds.