Mauritanian Adrar
The area
Mauritania is a surprising country, at the gates of the Sahara, as big as twice France for only 3.6 million inhabitants. It’s an astonishing encounter between Maghreb and Sub-Saharian Africa, a country marked by its ethnic diversity but united by its religion. One of the latest countries where you can still taste the infinite spaces, the illusion of unconditional and limitless freedom.
Adrar is an area located about 450 km north-east from the capital Nouakchott. It’s an ideal area for outdoor activities with sublime landscapes, endless fine sand dunes, winding canyons between tabular plateaus, oases of greenery nestled between black sandstone cliffs … A dry and warm climate in winter which allows you to fill up on vitamin D but beware of cool nights !
Security in the region
Even if Mauritania, an Islamic republic, shares borders with Mali and Algeria, it’s a country that lives in peace.
The efforts made by the Mauritanian authorities in cooperation with France have paid off. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs no longer advises against the destination. Since 2017, tourism has resumed. This France 24 report sums up well the situation. The return to the set after the report is also informative.
It’s important to remember that the country has not seen any attacks since 2011. Area in which we are organising the Raid has never been touched.
During our reconnaissance in March 2018, we met Mr Guegan the French Consul, the Wali Cheikh Abdallahi Ewah (discover our meeting with the Wali of Adrar, in video) and Mr Frison French military in Atar; all of them are unanimous, all indicators are green to welcome mountain bikers in Adrar. Security in this Mauritanian area has been reinforced :
- By a consolidated but discreet military presence (Mauritanian and French).
- By improving the telephone network.
- By a permanent monitoring of the local authorities.
This security by the authorities is largely reinforced by the overall vigilance of the entire population, which shows total benevolence to tourism and welcome to visitors. The Mauritanian nomads renowned for their hospitality show a spirit of openness and tolerance like nowhere else !
