24th January 2012

The Music of Zhiginchour.

Zhiginchour is the capitol of the region of The Cassamance in the southern part of Senegal.  We stayed at  very pleasant Cassamance Camperment which is kind of a hotel cum campground run by a French lady and her Senegalese Husband.  It is well run, not expensive and they are such helpful people. It is almost always the case that there are minor matters to be sorted out when we stop at these places. Even a bit of shopping can turn into a drama if you don’t know your way around. Pape the owner was incredibly helpful accompanying us to do such tedious tasks, making it so much more manageable.

On one occasion we ventured out alone and got stopped by a policeman who was rude and abrasive and demanded to see our insurance. He was surprisingly diligent as he noticed that our insurance ran out a few hours later . His rage at being done out of his ‘on the spot fine’ was ill concealed as he had to tell us where to go to get it renewed. We left him foaming at the mouth on the roadside. Pape came to the rescue by taking us to the insurance office. We went back to the place where the cop was, with the earnest intention of blowing raspberries at him but he was no longer there. Damn!

The highlight of our time was without doubt, the music.  Pape told us that he played in a local band. They had a big concert on our last night. It was really good.  It turns out that they are a really quite well known band and that the leader who plays a Senegalese instrument known as a Cora, which is very loosely a kind of harp.  He was really good they had a traditional drummer who was equally good, throughout the evening other well known players came up and did a little turn much to the approval of the audience.  It was a truly unforgettable evening.

Before we move on to Guinea,we were told that there was a good chance of seeing Manitees basking at low tide at a place called St George's point in the south western corner of Senegal. However we only got a few Km when our friends' truck became stuck too often in the sand of the rural track that we were driving on. In the end they decided to abandon the trip and we agreed to return with them, but
not before our public performance . We had used a lot of our equipment in the process so I insisted that we tidy it all away  and clean up. This was all done outside the village shop just as kids were turning out for school. We had deflated our tyres  to cope with the track and they had to be re inflated with our electric pump.

I had not expected people in wheelchairs to turn up to get their tyres pumped up it was a rather odd scene but we were glad to help. The school kids very much enjoyed seeing these dirty sweaty 'toubas' (white folks) performing a community service.

Now we have really left Senegal!

Our Plans.

We crossed from Senegal in to Guinea on 21st January, exactly three months since leaving London.

Just to be clear this is not Guinea Bissau or Equatorial Guinea.

It seems very important to use this entry to tell what our next plans are.  We are aware that a lot of people are aware of the strife in Mali and are becoming concerned for our wellbeing.

Although we had our frustrations in and around Senegal, we are now entering the real depths of West Africa. In some ways,we may start to find the travelling becomes even more challenging.

                          

Problems in Mali.

The incursions of Tuareg militants into Mali have been going on for about a year. It has always been our plan to avoid the country. Recent escalation as a result of French Military intervention has been dramatic but in fact the nature and location remains largely unchanged.  The North of Mali is definitely unsafe and the further North the more dangerous the situation. However this is a huge country, bigger than France in area. The further south you go the more stable the situation. The capital Bamako is being made the command base for the international military forces and as such is considered to be quite safe. We have been listening to the BBC World Service as well as getting information from other travellers who have made enquiries about travelling to Mali, and have been told that the borders are closed - so we may not be able to go there even if we want to.

Rest assured, we will consider the alternative to Mali ie travelling via the Ivory coast, Ghana Benin and Togo. If we are able to do this it will make it unnecessary to go to Burkino faso.  And so we will continue along the coastal route.  We have learnt that it is likely to be difficult to get a visa for Ghana. If this is the case this will be a great disappointmoent but it may make for difficulty in passing through the region. All in all we will have to see but rest assured that we will take no unnecessary risks.

Belgian aid has been granted.

We have teamed up with our Belgian Friends for the duration of this leg of the Journey and all being well we will have their company until we get to Abidjan in Ivory Coast. This means that while we pass through some more difficult locations we will not be alone.

Actually they are good company and very resourceful. They are busy scoping out the route for their business venture which is to provide adventure tourist a taste of overland travel and some remote locations. They have really worked out a different kind of  tour  all sounds very promising.

   Bush fire on the road to Guinea

The crossing into Guinea was an entirely pleasant affair with all manner of checks on both sides of the border and a huge amount of apparent duplication, but pleasant good humored officials throughout. The whole thing took more than three hour but was a very happy time.

Millionaires.

We found ourselves to be millionaires when we changed currency. There are so many noughts that we found ourselves in possession of about 1.5 million Francs. Then we filled up with diesel and that was the end of that.

The only fly in the ointment really was that we got caught up in a French rally across west Africa and about 50 hugely expensive  4wheel drive cars ploughed their way down the same road through the border and we then competed with them for somewhere to spend the night.Overall I wish they would go away and leave us alone.

So there you have it, we are quite safe  camping in the wild in Guinea  and the first impressions of this country are very pleasant.

We will at all costs avoid the trouble spots  but for a range of reasons we have had to revise our route quite dramatically.

Since I wrote the last sentence we had a night of bush camping which was made extraordinary by the fact that I was sitting in almost complete darkness when the most remarkable thing happened.

Honestly it was really like this. I was sitting there and out of the darkness came a rather grubby hand  to be shaken  followed by seven others  eventually I became aware that 8 local kids I guess about 11 or 12 years old had come to greet us see what we were doing and presumably report back. They came up, hand shake, curtsied and then went over to our friends' truck and did the same thing they then stood silently and stared for ten minutes at a respectful distance away , bid us good night and disappeared.  I have to say that my battle weary heart melted just a bit by this lovely display of interest and courtesy.

The next morning was disrupted by French 4 wheel drives being driven at breakneck speed to rejoin their rally chums and then after a humongous bowl of porridge we set off.

We are now aiming for a town about 250km away.  We have been informed that after about 70km the good road would become quite difficult but as with so many things we were unprepared for what was actually the case. We drove about the 70 km of perfect blacktop well maintained and smooth as a baby’s bum. We came to a village and as we passed out of the village it became the roughest unmade track we have experienced so far. 

                          
                          Just one of a thousand potholes!
                          This one is good and shallow!

We have driven on for about 5 hours and then a ferry crossing it has been unbelievable in that 5 hours we covered about 40 km. After the chain ferry, where we were negotiating the exorbitant fee they stopped in midstream while we haggled . 


After that I felt completely rinsed and as soon as we were able we stopped in a little track just off the main road.  As I write, it is still light, my friend Wouter has been greeted by a single member of the nearby village so we expect more visitors as soon as the word gets out.

The red dust is back.

We have now completed the difficult road up to the city of Labe. About 300 km of unmade up road which was taxing requiring high levels of concentration. Very demanding on the vehicle not to mention just plain hard work.

The worst of it though is the huge amount of red dust that has built up everywhere it is just horrible. The whole of the outside of the van is covered there is a thick layer over absolutely everything including inside the cupboards. We have managed to clean up enough to sleep tonight but tomorrow starts a major clean up. Everything out and cleaned. It’s a big job and I have no doubt that we will be repeating it in the not so distant future.