The Last Great Road Trip
We're doing the Plymouth-Dakar
Challenge just in time!!! They are
building a road across the
Mauritanian desert. This means
that the great western portion of the Sahara desert will have a tarmac road
right through it in only a couple of years. You can read all about it in the
article from the IHT below. This is going to have so much impact that the
Standard 8 Releasing film company is creating a movie called "The Last Road
Trip: Paris to Dakar". You can read about it
at http://www.thelastroadtrip.com/
and watch the trailer at
http://www.hollywood.com/multimedia/detail/media/1719532
This could be us in our Cavalier!!
This could be us in our Cavalier!!
Here's the article from
The International Herald
Tribune (link to the original
below)
Shifting sands brings trans-Sahara highway
Somini Sengupta/NYT
November 25, 2003
Forget compass readings, camel caravans and disorienting, near-deadly jeep journeys through the world’s most fabled and forbidding desert. Soon it will be possible to take a leisurely drive along a paved two-lane highway from the spot where Europe kisses the tip of this continent into the heart of sub-Saharan Africa. That’s the idea, anyway. In theory, travelers along this would-be trans-Saharan highway will soon be able to ferry from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar, drive through Morocco and Western Sahara and cut across about 500 kilometers, or 300 miles, of Mauritanian desert. They could then drive south, either along the Atlantic Coast into Senegal or through the savannah into Mali, Niger and ultimately Nigeria, ending up in Africa’s most populous city, Lagos. Portions of this road exist already, through Morocco and all but a small land-mined portion of Western Sahara in the north, and from the southern Mauritanian frontier into neighboring Senegal. The most difficult stretch is under construction now, through the shifting golden dunes of the Mauritanian desert between the northern port city of Nouadhibou and the capital, Nouakchott. ‘‘This is the beginning of the fight against the desert,’’ said Ahmed Yahaya al-Fiki, a native of the Mauritanian desert and an engineer on the Nouadhibou-to-Nouakchott road project. ‘‘The desert is man’s foe. It kills.’’ In this epic battle of man against nature, nylon curtains have been erected to keep the dunes from swallowing up the road. The curtains need frequent repair because of the onslaught of the dunes. Desert-hardy trees, intended as permanent bulwarks against the shifting sands, were planted this year, but a great many have already given up and died. The extreme daily fluctuations of temperatures make the road shrink and expand to an extraordinary degree; a special roadbed made of layers of sand and seashells keeps it from cracking. Fierce sandstorms often darken the sky, tossing empty oil barrels across the desert and damaging construction equipment. Construction workers occasionally stumble across corpses lying in the sand, presumably dead from dehydration. The Mauritanian government hopes the road will draw tourists to its ancient cities and nature preserves, allow goods to flow more cheaply from North Africa and Europe and al low its fish and iron ore — the country’s main exports — to be carted easily into Europe. If the road succeeds, landlocked countries like Mali and Niger could reap the benefits of trade and tourism as well. But just as the new road will allow Europeans to come easily into Africa, so too will it enable destitute African migrants to travel in the opposite direction more easily — a prospect that concerns many European governments. Untold numbers of West Africans already use Mauritania as a transit point, risking their lives first to cross first the desert by foot and truck and then to traverse the Strait of Gibraltar in hundreds of small, overcrowded boats. The new road is likely to increase the flow. ‘‘Some of this inflow of immigrants will stay in Mauritania; others will simply go through, taking advantage of the road,’’ one Western diplomat here said. ‘‘All of us are concerned. But this goes with development.’’ The Nouadhibou-to-Nouakchott road, with a price tag of $71.9 million, is being financed primarily by the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, along with the Mauritanian government. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, ‘‘God willing,’’ added the Mauritanian director of public works, Cheikh Ould Sid’Ahmed. Another, smaller road is also under construction, linking southern Mauritania to Mali. It will cost about $21 million, Sid’Ahmed said, and is expected to be finished in March. Together, the two roads will connect North and West Africa. The job is far from being finished. In some portions of Mauritania, workers have so far cut only a path through the desert. Elsewhere, they have put down the first layers of sand and crushed seashells that make up the roadbed. In still other places, they have poured asphalt, painted traffic lines in bright yellow and opened the route to traffic. It has no name yet, but Sid’Ahmed suggested calling it ‘‘the road of challenge.’’ ‘‘There are many challenges,’’ he said, adding: ‘‘When it is realized, the whole world will be connected.’’ The prospect of that connection has already begun to transform life in the Sahara. Fiki, for one, has bought a patch of land along the road to build a gas station. Others, he says, have begun making inquiries about buying sandy roadside plots as well. And from the nearby village of Agneitir, Mohamed En and his nomadic neighbors have hauled their camels and goats to the road and put up a bright blue sign announcing the opening of the Auberge Agneitir. Water drew them here first, they said. A fresh-water well was dug this year by Arab Contractors, the Egyptian firm contracted to build this portion of the highway. For the nomads, it meant no more marching across 50 kilometers of desert for a bucket of potable water. What keeps them here now is the possibility of cold hard cash. En has built a small shop, with bottles of mineral water, fruit juice and spare auto parts on its shelves. One of his neighbors sells gas from a jerrycan. One young man, seemingly with nothing to do, hits up a camera-toting visitor for a small fee for snapping photos. For the moment, the auberge is a large tent crawling with flies and crick ets. The midday meal is a large plate of rice and goat and a yellow bucket of camel’s milk. For his part, Fiki is not the least bit concerned about whether the road will upset the Sahara or the people who have eked out a living on its edges for centuries. ‘‘This country is two-thirds desert,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s plenty of desert left.’’
Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=119012
Shifting sands brings trans-Sahara highway
Somini Sengupta/NYT
November 25, 2003
Forget compass readings, camel caravans and disorienting, near-deadly jeep journeys through the world’s most fabled and forbidding desert. Soon it will be possible to take a leisurely drive along a paved two-lane highway from the spot where Europe kisses the tip of this continent into the heart of sub-Saharan Africa. That’s the idea, anyway. In theory, travelers along this would-be trans-Saharan highway will soon be able to ferry from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar, drive through Morocco and Western Sahara and cut across about 500 kilometers, or 300 miles, of Mauritanian desert. They could then drive south, either along the Atlantic Coast into Senegal or through the savannah into Mali, Niger and ultimately Nigeria, ending up in Africa’s most populous city, Lagos. Portions of this road exist already, through Morocco and all but a small land-mined portion of Western Sahara in the north, and from the southern Mauritanian frontier into neighboring Senegal. The most difficult stretch is under construction now, through the shifting golden dunes of the Mauritanian desert between the northern port city of Nouadhibou and the capital, Nouakchott. ‘‘This is the beginning of the fight against the desert,’’ said Ahmed Yahaya al-Fiki, a native of the Mauritanian desert and an engineer on the Nouadhibou-to-Nouakchott road project. ‘‘The desert is man’s foe. It kills.’’ In this epic battle of man against nature, nylon curtains have been erected to keep the dunes from swallowing up the road. The curtains need frequent repair because of the onslaught of the dunes. Desert-hardy trees, intended as permanent bulwarks against the shifting sands, were planted this year, but a great many have already given up and died. The extreme daily fluctuations of temperatures make the road shrink and expand to an extraordinary degree; a special roadbed made of layers of sand and seashells keeps it from cracking. Fierce sandstorms often darken the sky, tossing empty oil barrels across the desert and damaging construction equipment. Construction workers occasionally stumble across corpses lying in the sand, presumably dead from dehydration. The Mauritanian government hopes the road will draw tourists to its ancient cities and nature preserves, allow goods to flow more cheaply from North Africa and Europe and al low its fish and iron ore — the country’s main exports — to be carted easily into Europe. If the road succeeds, landlocked countries like Mali and Niger could reap the benefits of trade and tourism as well. But just as the new road will allow Europeans to come easily into Africa, so too will it enable destitute African migrants to travel in the opposite direction more easily — a prospect that concerns many European governments. Untold numbers of West Africans already use Mauritania as a transit point, risking their lives first to cross first the desert by foot and truck and then to traverse the Strait of Gibraltar in hundreds of small, overcrowded boats. The new road is likely to increase the flow. ‘‘Some of this inflow of immigrants will stay in Mauritania; others will simply go through, taking advantage of the road,’’ one Western diplomat here said. ‘‘All of us are concerned. But this goes with development.’’ The Nouadhibou-to-Nouakchott road, with a price tag of $71.9 million, is being financed primarily by the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, along with the Mauritanian government. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, ‘‘God willing,’’ added the Mauritanian director of public works, Cheikh Ould Sid’Ahmed. Another, smaller road is also under construction, linking southern Mauritania to Mali. It will cost about $21 million, Sid’Ahmed said, and is expected to be finished in March. Together, the two roads will connect North and West Africa. The job is far from being finished. In some portions of Mauritania, workers have so far cut only a path through the desert. Elsewhere, they have put down the first layers of sand and crushed seashells that make up the roadbed. In still other places, they have poured asphalt, painted traffic lines in bright yellow and opened the route to traffic. It has no name yet, but Sid’Ahmed suggested calling it ‘‘the road of challenge.’’ ‘‘There are many challenges,’’ he said, adding: ‘‘When it is realized, the whole world will be connected.’’ The prospect of that connection has already begun to transform life in the Sahara. Fiki, for one, has bought a patch of land along the road to build a gas station. Others, he says, have begun making inquiries about buying sandy roadside plots as well. And from the nearby village of Agneitir, Mohamed En and his nomadic neighbors have hauled their camels and goats to the road and put up a bright blue sign announcing the opening of the Auberge Agneitir. Water drew them here first, they said. A fresh-water well was dug this year by Arab Contractors, the Egyptian firm contracted to build this portion of the highway. For the nomads, it meant no more marching across 50 kilometers of desert for a bucket of potable water. What keeps them here now is the possibility of cold hard cash. En has built a small shop, with bottles of mineral water, fruit juice and spare auto parts on its shelves. One of his neighbors sells gas from a jerrycan. One young man, seemingly with nothing to do, hits up a camera-toting visitor for a small fee for snapping photos. For the moment, the auberge is a large tent crawling with flies and crick ets. The midday meal is a large plate of rice and goat and a yellow bucket of camel’s milk. For his part, Fiki is not the least bit concerned about whether the road will upset the Sahara or the people who have eked out a living on its edges for centuries. ‘‘This country is two-thirds desert,’’ he said. ‘‘There’s plenty of desert left.’’
Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=119012
Posted: Tue - December 2, 2003 at 09:33 AM
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