I can praise myself for a well-planned route, and the guide for a good performance. This trip could have been a little cheaper, it could have been much more expensive. Everything was comfortable enough, except that the car could have been more comfortable, the three of us in the back seat of a Toyota are cramped. You can find our guide on Facebook named Mohamed Ahmedou
As for the Sahara, this was my first serious acquaintance with it. As expected, Sahara was big, beautiful, very different and not so dehydrated. What was not expected was to meet frogs here. I have seen enough of the Mauritanian Sahara. Highlights: ore train, Eye of the Sahara and Ben-Amer, fortified cities, oases. Other parts of the desert, God willing, I'll see.
In general, Mauritania, as I saw it, is the Sahara with a small interspersed with cities. The cities are not interesting, except for a couple of mosques in Nouakchott (and the presidential palace, which is not allowed to be photographed) and four fortified cities marked by UNESCO: Ouadan, Chinguetti, Tichit, Oualata. Some roads (Nouadhibou-Nouakchott-Athar-Zouerate) are quite good, the rest are suitable for off-road vehicles. Lots of roadblocks. At each it is better to give a copy of the passport prepared in advance, otherwise the guard will take your passport to his closet and will copy the data into a notebook for a long time. The population is strongly religious, they stop to pray, where the sunset will catch. Alcohol is strictly prohibited. Everything was about as expected, I was ready for less comfort. Will I return to Mauritania? Hardly. Will I return to the Sahara? For sure.