Don`t worry, we are safe, we managed to escape the certain death of being caught up in a Military Coup in Mauritania and eventually got our flight to that adventure hotspot of Gran Canaria last night. To be honest, if it was`t for someone telling us there was a coup happening we would have been none the wiser. A couple of 4x4s with some mean looking police on the street corners and everything shut for a day was all that I could see. It also sums up our luck that the day we booked a flight to leave they decide to have a coup, what are the chances. Our passage through the airport was smoothed over as part of the deal for selling the car with all questions over visas (ie where is your car that your visa has a stamp for?) politely disregarded at the airport, with assistance from a policeman friend of the cars new owner. Proper cloak and dagger stuff, hiding behind trees at the airport waiting for him to come out to speak to us and give us the ok. 

As we return to the normality and rather unexciting realm of europe Harriet the Chariot is preparing for her new life as a novelty taxi around the mean streets of Nouakchott. With a new engine she should be good to go, and provide a Mauritanian equivilent to all the stretch limos and Hummers roaming the street of the UK.