Climate

We travel from October to April, period ideal to discover the Mauritanian desert.

 Average temperatures (maxi/mini in °C) in Adrar/Tagant:

Desert climate of Saharan type. The low latitude and moderate altitude (maximum 800 meters) generate a winter climate softer than that of the central Sahara. Strong variations between the day and the night. The dry climate makes the temperatures very bearable.

The rains, exceptional, generally occur in summer: however, a downpour can never be excluded. Relatively frequent wind.

Ecology

The safeguarding of the environment

The vastest desert of the world, the Sahara, occupies about two thirds of the territory and does not cease gaining ground. One can say that Mauritania is a vast plain covered with rocky remains and dunes. The country has two important rock solid masses: Adrar in north and Tagant in the center. These broad sandy plates seldom exceed the 600 meters of altitude.
The mountainous reliefs are used as refuge with the muffles and the raptors. The fennec, lynxes of the desert, hyenas and jackals are predatory desert and semi-desert zones. Rare gazelles, antelopes or hares live where the vegetation is the least sparse. It is nevertheless very difficult to observe these animals. At the interior of the grounds, the vegetation is limited to some flowers, of the scattered grass tufts and the thorn-bushes.

The acacias are the rare trees which manage to survive under such conditions. We count on you to let natural spaces which you cross as clean as possible, including the camping, by always carrying a small bag for personal waste. At the stages, we advise you to save water and to avoid soiling the water points in particular with the products of hygiene (soap, freezing shower, etc). It is preferable to treat water using pastilles (standard Micropur) rather than to buy many plastic bottles which will come to be added to waste. Moreover, at the inhabitant, when you profit from electricity, it is often a chance, think of saving energy. We in addition invite you to consult the ethical charter of the traveler who will be given to you with your plane ticket.

Vestimentary respect

On a journey, downtown, in the villages, or even during excursions, it is essential to carry a vestimentary behaviour adapted to the culture of the country. Not only, that supports the contacts with the local populations, but it is also the means of protecting itself from the heat of the sun, the wind and the insects. The too short clothes, too stripped, too moldings, are very often badly perceived and can shock the local populations and teams which accompany us. In addition, the full clothes are more comfortable on a journey. The criterion of what is done or not as regards clothing varies from one culture to another; it is not always simple to decipher them. In the desert, where the population is mainly Moslem, to wear shirts with long sleeves and trousers wide. To avoid low-necked Tee-shirt, shorts and shorts.

Purchases of food & drinks
 

If you pay more expensive products current (even if that represents only one small sum for us westerns), you are likely to cause a "inflation". This phenomenon being repeated with each passage of tourists destabilizes in the very short term the economy of the place or the site. The local populations suffer from it then inevitably. Therefore, yes for the purchases in the small shop, but at the price more close possible of the market. Even thing for the purchases of food directly near the inhabitants: it is necessary to try to buy at market prices local, and to check that will not involve a lack of medium-term food for the family which sells her production. To have an idea of the real price of a food product, do not hesitate to question several salesmen, but especially local purchasers.