Beach Highway, Mauritania

Nouakchott passing Nouamghar and Bank d'Arguin Park, going through the legendary Beach Higway after Nouamghar.

The first 300 kilometres to the fishing village of Nouamghar are the most difficult. If you drive too far west the sand gets very soft, if you drive too fareast you have to handle deep truck tracks. (Note that trucks take a different route from cars and 4WDs). About seventy kilometres before Nouamghar (KM238) you have to cross four dunes. The first one is especially difficult. Two-wheel drives can only pass with very low tyre pressures.

From Nouamghar you have to drive on the beach, which is only possible at low tide. If the tide is really low you can drive all the way to Nouakchott. If the tide is too high you have to take the improving inland piste that starts atthe fishing village of el-Mhaïjrat, about 50 kilometres south of Nouamghar.

We had to wait a one hour until the tide went down enough to be able to make the beach piste until NKT. At the moment there were a french van, dutch car, german camper 4WD, spanish car and suisse 4WD. All wainting for the same.

If you have problems on the beach you’d better fix therm fast, otherwise you’lllose your vehicle. Even with a 4WD it is not always possible to get onto the dunes beyond the high tide mark.

2 trip coming from Nouakchott to the border, beach highway South-North

Here is on my second trip back from Nouakchott. I went direct from Nouakchott to the border without going to Nouadhibou.

On the picture you can see cars from the challenge Plymouth - Dakar (www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk) going to NKT.

The Challenge is to simply drive the route from Plymouth to Dakar (on a limited budget) with the principle aim of helping some Charitable causes in Senegal and The Gambia

beach highway, mauritania