Reisgids Mauritania 1

From Bradt, and written by Africa Sean Connolly, is the first English-language guide dedicated to Mauritania, one of an ever more exclusive list of countries where the Sahara Desert can be securely and freely explored. Straddling the west coast of Africa for 700km between Western Sahara and Senegal, Mauritania occupies the threshold between North and sub-Saharan Africa, but remains a world apart from either - neither Moroccan nor Senegalese, but with strong influences from both. The country is now on a well-travelled route for overlanders heading south from Europe to start African trips. But most burn through to the southern border, rather than sticking around. Those who do stay may marvel at stone-built oasis towns tucked into dune fields the size of small countries, admire wild geological oddities like the Richat Structure (reputedly home to the lost city of Atlantis), explore a nearly uninhabited, wind-battered coast where you can sail between end-of-the-earth fishing villages in the Banc d'Arguin National Park or spend the night camping and sipping strong green tea on a cliffside in a traditional bedouin-style tent.