We left Nouakchott (NKT) early on Weds 1st September and headed south for Senegal. We wanted to get the border crossing out of the way as quickly as possible! First we need to get some petrol for the bikes, which proved to be a more difficult task than either of us had anticipated, when we eventually found the only 'Super' seller in NKT we realised I had spent all our oogs (the local currency) phoning home the night before.....ooops! Too lazy to ride back inot the city, we managed to get the worst exchange rate for dollars ever seen, since records began and we were on our way!
As soon as we left NKT the scenery started to change......there was a bit of grass and then even some trees! By the time we reached Rosso and the Senegalese border it was lush green countryside.
To be honest the least said about the border crossing the better. We had read advice from previous travellers about how to get across without being conned out of all your cash and patience. After 5 hours we were through the otherside, out of Mauritania and into Senegal. We still had some of our cash, but had lost so much of our patience we had to use some of our left over cash to buy more!!! All I can say is that I hope there is a special place in Hell for the touts who hang around borders and i hope it is REALLY hot!

By the time we left the border, it was 6pm ish and we started to make our way south to St Louis, where we had been recommened a great campsite. We had been told about it by an overlander in Casablanca and he said it would be just what we needed after the border! He was right! We arrived after dark at ZebraBar about 20kms south of St Louis. Freindly faces greeted us as we came through the gate tired and jaded, Martin the owner and Guido a biker, both Swiss and Arne another biker from Germany, and we soon had cold beers and good conversation to take our minds off the day we'd just had!

The next morning we woke to find we were on a beautiful island (riding through water the night before, should have given us a clue!) in the middle of the Parc National de la Langue de Barbarie. It is beautiful, with sandy beaches, blue sea, palm trees and lots of lots and lots of crabs.

Arne turned out to be a mechanic and so had a go at fixing some of Pauls spokes. He found more were broken than we originally thought and snapped one trying to tighten it....... our fate was sealed, we would have to hang around until some replacement spokes were sent from the UK.

We had been travvlling for almost a month and had covered 5000 miles without a break, so this was a welcome excuse to stay put for a while, chill out and get a tan!
We have been here for 10days now, still waiting for the spokes! Paul decided to take up windsurfing and has become quite good.

Although in the beginning he fell off quite alot and kept hitting the water head first, which has given him an 'ear canal infection'(.....his diagnosis!), so now the sea is off limits and he has taken up fishing instead. His first attempt at sea fishing in a kayak, went quite well, but he had to cut it short due to sea-sickness! Subsequent river fishing in the kayak has proved less sickly, but produced a similar amount of fish.......none!

While Paul has been engaging in all these activities I have been working on my tan, which is going pretty well! I wouldn't normally allow bikini shots to be placed on the web, but it proves to our parents that we are still eating well!!!

The local land crabs are keeping us company, while we stay in St Louis! We have one who lives in our luggage and keeps an eye on both of us during the day and then rummages through our possesions throughout the night, keeping us awake! The National Park is mainly for the protection of birds and so there are lots of herons, and other such bird like creatures ( i think you can see we are experts on birds now!).

We have also seen the tail end of the massive swarm of locusts, which has been rampaging through West Africa.
I think they had become a little bit tired of rampaging by the time we saw them, but it was still very impressive and they pack quite a punch when you ride through them....and leave a bit of a mess!
So next once Pauls bike is fixed we are heading to Dakar......to complete our own little Guildford - Dakar rally and then on the Gambia, Southern Senegal and then Mali. We are still in discussion about whether to go to Timbuktu......not sure if I can hack all that sand again! Paul has got plenty of time to try and talk me around though!!!!