Re: Paris Dakar
I have passed through Nouackchott a few times on ferry flights and was there when the 2002 rally was on. Our hotel (Mercure) was full of Rally team support staff. Our agent there; a French expat called Jacques was involved in the logistics support for the teams and the helicopters. Our main use for him was to preposition barrels of A1, and an electric fuel pump, for our next refueling stop en-route Bamako. This was essentially what he was doing for the Rally helicopters too; in fact we had to negociate timings to avoid overstretch.
Sadly, despite peering into the distances, we never did see the dust trails as we set off the following day!