• Michael SpiesEagles fly, deserts call!Michael Spies
    Traditional riders greet us as we enter the town.
    Proud arabic stallionsRiders awaiting the president, like all powerful people 90min late!!!The old and the new!Camel riders lined upAnd the autocade arrives, and simply doesn't endTotal traffic chaos in this otherwise quiet villageA plastic camel to decorate the stand advertising the Mauritanian passport (no nomad has a passport)Everyone is excited and dressed at their bestNomads from all around the country have pitched tentMoustapha teaching me how to tie the turban he has just given meNow I am a real nomad, not only in our car!Each notable visitor has donated a camel or sheep to the festivities. This one is awaiting its fate.Walking his camel into town1Mr Turban, my new dressCamping nomadsWe visit the historical old town and are suddenly moved over for the president, who also wants to viEntrance to the old mosqueIs this the man?Who wouldn't move aside for the Queen!!!!View over the palm groves. The whole town is in music1Suddenly two women start to clap, after two minutes 20 are drumming and clapping

    Ouedane, "Festival du Patrimoine"

    December 18, 2025 in Mauritania ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    We arrive in Ouadane, one of the seven holy cities in the Islamic world and dating back to the 12th century, and are amazed by a bristeling excitement in the air.
    I open the window and ask a bystander
    "what is going on?"
    "The president is coming tonight to open a one week " Festival du Patrimoine" which happens once in 4 years.
    My god are we lucky!
    Promptly nomads on beautiful stallions ride through the main street to line up on the dust track leading into the 500 person town which now swells to 3000 overnight.
    Every home has set up a tent in their courtyard to rent out to the people staying over, and as with every good president, he comes with entourage of hundreds of ministers, ambulances, media. In the early evening a never ending autocade enters the tiny town causing total chaos!
    And then something happens that I simply cannot understand, for the evening and day that the president is here no one except his entourage and the media are allowed to participate. Everyone else is locked out by hundreds of soldiers and police.    Read more