Terjit-Chinguetti-Tanochert (Adrar Region, Mauritania)

Dec 12^th, 2010 - (Nov 12^th) Vexation. Frustration. Cerebral constipation. Anti-cooperation. This became the nature of our relationship with Ahmed. He was confusing the living bejesus out of us. We floated the idea of having our Dutch friend (Yoris) join us for at least part of our journey. He had hopped on the ore train from Nouadhibou and ended up hitchhiking his way to Terjit afterward. We had space in our Toyota Heliux, Ahmed would incur no extra cost that we could foresee, and Yoris' fluency in French would assist Ahmed as much as it would us. No problem, right? Wrong. 

Ahmed resisted. First he said something about insurance, claiming if something happened to Yoris he would be liable. Alllllriiiiight. Liable to who? Was he not already liable for us? What if Yoris had been with us from the start? What is the difference? I was mustering all my powers of empathy to see his point of view. He was not helping.

He mentioned phoning his sister in Nouakchott and asking her to speak with somebody for some reason to accomplish something (She was chummy with someone important). Then he mentioned a tax that had to be paid. As I tried to clarify and understand his position it slowly eroded until he finally told me it would be no problem. Huh? Tax you say? We were willing to pay it but he then claimed it was no problem. In the course of ten minutes he went from 'No F'in Way' to 'Ain't no thaaang but a chicken waaang'. Yes, I was bewildered. What else is new? It was impossible to accommodate him because it was impossible to determine what the hell he wanted.

Ahmed Kerfuffle of '10 (Ouadane & Guelb er Richat, Mauritania)

Dec 15^th, 2010 - (Nov 13th – 14th) We left Tanochert in the morning and continued through the desert to Ouadane, a desert outpost once a staging point for trans-Saharan trade. No one was particularly chipper. Ahmed was no exception. Had it not been for the consistent mesmerizing nature of the landscape I should think I would have been much more somber. However, not even Ahmed's relentless prevarications, protestations and bitchinations were enough to dampen my mood when presented with scenery that truly defies adequate description. Still, our cheerless leader gave it his all.

We arrived in Ouadane around 10 am in the morning and were under the impression that we would then be headed to the Richat Structure (Guelb er Richat). In fact, it was Ahmed who suggested this itinerary days before. However, after arriving in Ouadane he told us it was too late to head to Richat. According to him he normally leaves around 7 am to visit the crater and returns sometime around midday or early afternoon. Keep in mind that he once told us he never gets moving before 8 am. Why would he?

He was worried about going alone (i.e. one vehicle). He was also worried that the sand would be too hot making it difficult to maneuver through. Are you f***ing sh**ing me????!!!!! We had been driving through the 'hot' sand for six days. Not a word about this before and as far as the time of year was concerned November is relatively mild in relation to temperature. What the friggin hell was he talking about?