Heading north again!

Sadly the day had come where I had to go north, Julian came with me as we were booked on the same flight out of Marrakesh. I was sad to leave Gianni who had been such a wonderful funny friend, a gentleman & travel companion but as ever with travelling, you have to part at some point! Gianni was heading to Senegal then Mali with the hope of getting to Niger & down to Togo. I've had one e-mail from him since but hope to see him here in France with his wife this spring on his way home to Italy in the van he left in Meknes.

I went out into the street to find a taxi parked directly opposite, I asked him for a ride to the cinqueme district to find another taxi to take us to NBD, Abdul had told us that we could get to NBD for 6,000UM in a mercedes, less in a pick up as was the norm in Mauritania.

Opening the taxi's rear door I said to Julian, lets put our packs in first, then jump in. He put his pack in and jumped in after it. Gianni was watching this from the gates, now doubled up in laughter, he couldn't believe that a guy would not even offer to help me with my pack, much less just ignore the fact I was there at all; it was something that had been repeated so much during the trip and Gianni had commented on it many times. My stomach still wasn't good but I managed a wink and giggle at Gianni whilst trying to open the boot, my mind was almost made up - that I would continue alone unless his attitude changed.

Arriving at the 5eme taxi rank I ran into the most difficult bunch of drivers - they wanted 10,000UM for each of us. I haggled & haggled and then gave up. A pick up arrived with some police on board, so I asked them what the going rate was, they weren't too concerned but the driver of their pick-up was, he told me to jump in whilst yelling abuse at the taxi drivers on my behalf. He took us down to the pick-up taxi rank where we had several offers of a lift to NBD, including another Mercedes that was there who would take us for 5,000UM each. A done deal, we hung around until the driver found 4 more passengers (and two children) and our taxi of 9 passengers left northbound.

As soon as we left Nouachkott my stomach starting turning nasty, I had cramps every 10mins or so and I just wanted to lie down somewhere and sleep, but I had a 5/6hr taxi ride to contend with. Halfway there we stopped at a police post, I asked Julian to open the door as my door didn't have a handle nor a window winder so that I could do it myself. Nothing happened, he was in the front seat sharing it with another guy, I asked again, almost pleading as my stomach was causing me agony and he jumped out and yanked the door open, saying 'is that fast enough for you madam?'

That was the final straw I'm afraid, I was in pain and had been for a few days and I never had a word from him to question my well-being, even with my eye earlier in NBD. I told him straight, that I would be continuing to Marrakesh alone and he would have to find his own way there. I knew that was going to be an ordeal for him, he had language difficulties as well as being unused to travelling this way despite his constant reminder that he had travelled to over 40 countries, it seems that he had previously travelled with organised groups (as in an e-mail prior to the trip he was talking of going with Dragoman tours to Mali).

We set off again racing towards NBD, on arrival I asked the driver to drop me at La Baie du Levrier, Ali's place as I knew I would be looked after there if this problem continued. Julian took up the offer of a ride into town and I asked him where he wanted to go, he didn't know, but I presumed he would go back to Imal Camping, as I got my pack out of the boot Julian had started to walk through town, I tried to say goodbye but it fell on deaf ears.