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.

19^th January 2013

It has been many days since our last

confession.

We are still in Senegal but now we are on the southern side which is really a completely different place.  It is a strange arrangement to have a French speaking state that has an English speaking state (The Gambia) running right down the centre. It would seem that it was at one time  a very significant slave port for the colonial traders of all flags. However once Slavery was abolished in Britain, the British bought the port at the mouth of the Gambia River and established it as a haven for freed slaves.

The Gambia is heavily dependent on the tourist industry which is gradually developing with many business’s being owned by Europeans.

As we said in our last blog we were rather crestfallen to find so few fellow overlanders as we move down into rather less developed areas of West Africa. Some of the challenges will be greater and occasionally we would have to travel in areas where civil strife and other hostilities are going on.  We are very happy that we have now linked up with a very pleasant Belgian Couple, Helga and Wautar, who will go as far as Ghana with us, or that is the plan just now.

The area of Senegal that we are in is particularly beautiful. We are currently close to a beautiful beach with a peaceful river leading down to the shore.  It even has the wreck of a ship lying just on the shoreline. And we learn that it may be possible to make the next short leg of our journey by driving along the beach.

Dinners!

While in the Gambia we decided to eat out on occasion. Each was memorable in its own way.

Chez Leo. 

Well we heard a lot about the new hotel that had just opened so we decided to go an give it a try.  We had to drive several km along sandy tracks.  Mmmmm my favourite! Several sets of directions later we found it down near its own bit of beach. We were hungry and Leo’s evidently had aspirations to be posh.  The problem with posh places is that they tend to give small portions. Actually it was very tastefully decorated with no expense spared and the staff were well coached. It turned out that it had been open just 4 days. There were no customers. It had a lovely pool and a beautiful garden leading down to the beach.

We ordered and the staff gave very little information about what was on the menu I think they feared deviating from their script. To say that our waiter was attentive is to say something similar about fly paper. We found ourselves speaking very quietly as he was never more than about 14 inches (330 cm) away. As predicted we had a very well presented meal but we left still hungry and significantly poorer. I forgot to mention that while we were eating Le patron appeared in his swimming trunks as he wandered through the restaurant to take a swim.

Mamas.

This is a well-established restaurant run by a Swiss woman who has a highly recommended pork dinner on Sundays. We turned up with our two new chums from Belgium expecting this to be Sunday lunch The place look great and we went in and sat down to be told that they didn’t serve food until 7pm. This of course meant that we had to go and get something to eat until the evening. So we went and had coffee and cake. This was expensive but it was unreservedly the nicest coffee I have had in weeks, nay months! And the cake was pretty nice too.

Eventually we returned to Mama o find that they had kept our table for us and the pork was actually a spit roast pig that cooked to perfection and served as a buffet with all manner of good stuff. Wow what a meal! Really good!  Memorable, good company and great food,  Ah yes the penny has dropped we had great Pork with some ‘sprouts’.

Jambo Chinese Restaurant.

As we drove down the main street of this district Ping said “There’s a Chinese restaurant!” actually she did this every time we drove past over a period of several days.

So there it was decided we would have a meal there. As we were about to set off another of our friends said you really must go to the restaurant I had dinner at last night it was really fantastic  great food great wine and not expensive. So we said “Nah, its ok we are going to the Chinese restaurant”.

So off we set.  The place was really nice. Pleasant Gambian staff, lots of Chinese coming in to a private Karaoke party. The owners were very pleased to meet us and spoke Chinese with Ping they were charming to us and we were charming to them.  We were introduced to the people in the party and were mercifully not invited to take part in the karaoke. We ordered our food and waited and waited and waited then after about an hour, from time to time someone brought a bowl of soup or a plate of food,  none of which bore any resemblance to what we ordered . The food was truly terrible and came in such a random order that it was really baffling. Finally a plate of steamed greens arrived, but by this time we had lost the will to live but still found it a real struggle to complain as we had been in turn charmed and were charming to the owners. We paid up and went. Oh, I forgot to mention but the food at the party looked wonderful and at intervals The African staff would very pleasantly and politely enquire, “Was your food was lovely?

So there you have it. Eating out in The Gambia.

At the time of departing from the tourist centre of Gambia, we received an email from our friend Emma who told us of a friend of hers who is living in The Gambia. We made contact and set off to visit. However, we really had no idea how far into the country side she lives.  It took us hours to find her place and by the time we arrived there was barely time to be shown around her delightful rural homestead and enjoyed a delicious  Senegalese lunch before we had to set off again.

Snakes

The next day we went to a place that was very highly recommended as an important place to visit. It is known as the ‘Snake Farm’ in fact it is a project run by European whose mission is to protect endangered reptiles and to educate people  about the increasingly rare snakes and reptiles in The Gambia.  To this end, whilst he charges admission, Gambians can visit free.

Many Gambians have poor knowledge of the different types of snake in their country and treat them all as dangerous and will often kill any that show their face. In fact many of the snakes are not venomous even those that are generally very shy.  The Snake farm allows people to handle some of the snakes and teaches about the venomous ones in order to debunk many of the myths.  Some Gambians are also very afraid of  ordinary geckoes  which are of course completely harmless, unless you happen to be a mosquito in which case they are seriously bad news.

Do not disturb

At the snake farm we saw huge monitor lizards, chameleons, we got to handle some smaller snakes, as well as a huge Royal Python  who was about 3 meters long and was really almost too heavy to lift. Quite an experience!  I can now tell the difference between a Python and a Puff Adder. However I hope I never have to.  I have been wrong before. Then on to the border that takes us back into Senegal but this time on the Southern side (Casamance). At last we had a border crossing that was easy, speedy and very pleasant. We went to stay at a very interesting ‘Campement’ deep in the bush. It’s runned by a couple from The Netherlands. This place is particularly interesting as they have made some informal but well established links with the village. It was really possible to walk in the village without feeling that either they or we are being ‘paraded’ in some way. It was really very interesting. As we passed by the tiny school we were invited into the class of 7-10 year olds who it seems were quite excited at having visitors.

My new friend Monty

A short Cycle ride in the bush.......  Taxi!

We also took a couple of bikes along the sandy track to a neighbouring town. Only about 4 km but very hot and hard to ride as the sand was so loose.   We went to the ‘internet café’ which was neither a café,  nor as it turned out did it have internet!  A tiny room with a couple of computers and one plastic chair. We wanted to download our long overdue blog but it turned out that this was just too much for their system  and even replying to emails proved too difficult. Using a French keyboard  on an unspeakably uncomfortable chair in a tiny room covered in dust using a French keyboard that has all the letters jumbled up. In the end Ping decided that she was tired  that we should return with the bikes by taxi.

Ha! The taxis here are called Jakartas as they are motorbikes which are built in Indonesia. So with our bikes strapped across the motor bike and with Ping having never sat on a motorbike before, and with the tracks so sandy it is hard to say upright, off we went. It was an interesting experience.  The riders were remarkably skilled riding often only at walking pace on unstable sand  with a passenger and a bike with absolute confidence.

This really is the frist time Ping has been on a motor bike

The next day we took a long and exhausting walk over the midday period over the field to the coast. It was seriously hot!

On our return we packed up and left Bram and Monique’s Campement and moved further down the coast.  The drive was a bit shorter than some but the temperature outside was 43c and both fans were working hard to circulate the hot air in the cab.

The Joola Disaster

This Location is very important because as we were to learn, The beach  here was the location of the secod worst peacetime Maritime disaster.

We had noticed  as we left The Gambia that there was a small walled cemetery with a sign stating(in French) that it was to commemorate a ship that went down in 2002. We then crossed and travelled to the village where we were to stay. As we approached the village we found another similar cemetery. It stirred a memory in me and I made enquiries and found that this was the wreck of the ferry  ‘JOOLA’  which sank while overloaded taking with her a staggering 1830 souls. Possibly more as many passengers had no tickets and there is no record. So few of the bodies were recovered  that they number about 50 in the two cemeteries. I found this had quite an effect on me this really took place just a few yards from where we were.

Perhaps more important it emegerged that the police and navy  from both The Gambia and Senegal were hopelessly inadequate to respond in a meaningful way to this disaster. In fact local fishermen carried out the rescue in canoes and the official rescue began the next morning.

I suppose that my passion for promoting organised emergency services in developing countries is simply this;  In the west and other developed areas the fact is that if you need help generally help will come. However in areas like this there is often no help for you. For me that is the difference between the rich and poorer nations.   

Joola Disaster 2002

The Esperanto Lodge

We arrived at this most beautiful hotel but were dismayed to find that the only way in for trucks of our size was completely overgrown. So one of the staff cut it back! We are talking about 100 meters of road, one guy with a cutlass / machete in the intense heat. I have never before seen one man work so hard without any comment. When after about two hours we got to the gate we found the roadway was so unstable that we had to use 4x4 low gears and everything we had just to get in.

I had a major sense of humour failure I was tired overheated and cross that I may expect this kind of an adventure as an overlander but surely not just to get into a hotel.  However it was pointed out to me that it is truly beautiful, and it is. I have to say that I was simply unable to see that until the next day when I finally calmed down and cooled down. Lovely place lovely people and superb food. Would absolutely recommend it to anyone who just wants to get away. 

9th January 2013

Au revoir to Senegal!

(Au revoir as we will have to return)

sorry, access to Wifi is a problem - unable to download any pictures onto this blog

We had such a nice time in the Haven of the Zebrabar and St Louis was interesting.  We have now driven many hundreds of kilometres across Senegal and arrived at the Gambia. Senegal is a truly lovely country it has wild life in abundance, lively towns and some beautiful scenery.

As we crossed the country we had to camp out on the wild savannah land. I felt that we were really having a true African experience as I sat where we camped with a cup of tea in my hand. The sun was going down, I had just twiddled with our short wave radio (Thank you Soren) and as clear as day, a voice over the radio said “This is the BBC from London, and now Africa Today”. Really such a pleasure

The drive across the country was a good experience on the whole, if only because nothing went wrong. The roads were mostly good though many were not Macademised so a lot of dust.  Oh no kidding the dust was unbelievable. Bright red dust gets everywhere, including some places I didn’t know existed.  There came a point where we wanted to leave the main highway in order to avoid a wide detour. This meant taking a route marked on our map as a dotted line. In terms of easy navigation this is not a specially good sign.  It was clear enough and not too difficult to find. We passed through open countryside  and through villages where the road was still clear. After some time we came to a village where it was not at all clear which way we should go. In this tiny village we saw a few people gathered at the communal well. We asked for directions which we did not get much response, this was not surprising as I asked in French.  With the quality of my French this was never going to be very productive, coupled with the fact that, they did not speak French.  The main dialect spoken here is Wolof.

I am rather reminded of the Barclaycard advert where Rowan Atkinson speaks in a foreign tongue to a man selling him a carpet. His assistant, Bough, says “I didn’t know you were fluent sir!’ 

“Oh indeed I am Bough, sadly though, not in the same language’, he said.

Ping by this time had found some useful Wolof phrases in a guide book.  Needless to say, that just caused the puzzled expressions to broaden and increasing mirth of the local women.

So what were we to do? The road had vanished, we were performing to a group of truly incredulous people who were until our arrival, quite happily minding their own business.  We were starting to feel a little bit at a loss.

Enter a gentleman who, to my shame I could not remember his name, came up and said ‘Is there some way I can help you?  I just managed to avoid saying ‘no thanks we are managing just fine’! He introduced himself and asked where we are going. I showed him our map. This is the one with the dotted lines showing us where to go. He showed very little interest in it.  I swear he said ‘Ooh you don’t wanna do it like that, you wanna do it like this! Pushing aside our map he said noo! You need to take a different route altogether, and explained what we needed to do.  None of his directions appeared in any form on our map. It can be a little alarming to be in the middle of nowhere, or perhaps more importantly in the centre of someone else’s universe when you are getting verbal directions to move on. 

There are really a few things that are remarkable about this.

1.          It is beyond reason that anyone in this locality should speak English.

2.          When I congratulated him on his superb English, he shrugged it off. I asked where he had learned to speak it so well and in a matter of fact way he just said ‘in university’  it was a bit chastening.

3.          These new directions ultimately proved accurate and indeed saved us a great deal of distance.

4.          Most importantly for me neither he, nor anyone else along this section of the journey asked for payment for giving directions as being asked for money is something that we have had to become accustomed to in Senegal.

We bounced along our new route and every time we got to a village we just said the name of the next village we were heading for and amid some hilarity, someone would point vigorously to a gap between the traditional houses and off we would bounce once more until after about 40 km or so later, we popped out onto a nicely paved highway. We eventually arrived at the border with The Gambia.

Borders are funny places and West Africa is no exception. They can be, confusing even baffling with some bizarre bureaucratic practices. They can be time consuming so don’t arrive late in the day! 

The officials vary between genuinely helpful and pleasant to rude, overbearing and grasping.  Like any one, I want to pass through without any problems and we do tend to pay the local ‘taxes’ but I just hate cops who openly ask for money. And one such was at the border in The Gambia, we had already been politely asked for clothing and for paracetomol, but one policeman, whose function seemed to be to simply write one line in a book with our vehicle details demanded a payment of the equivalent of £40. At first I thought this was a real charge and wanted an explanation. However it soon became apparent that he had decided that we were good for it so he asked for an extraordinary amount. I was really dumbstruck but in the end had the presence of mind to ask for a receipt. He said we don’t give receipts. I said if I can’t have a receipt then I won’t pay and we left without any further protest from the greedy bastard.

We had to have an immigration officer to take us a couple of Km into town to get our passport stamped for reasons that I really cannot fathom. He was a delightful chap, who when I offered to take him back to the border he stoutly refused saying he would get a taxi.  You get to see why it is such a confounding experience sometimes.

The one important thing here is we are no longer having to survive on my terrible French as The Gambia is English speaking. I know it makes us sound like dreadful Brits abroad but it really is quite a relief.

We had to then cross the Gambia River by ferry which is a busy but ramshackle service.  Then as it got dark, we pulled in to the Gambia Highway Lodge where we parked up for the night and ordered a dinner which was served to us in the open air in the pitch dark.  We were sufficiently hungry that this feast of chicken leg, chips, spaghetti and bread was a real gourmet feast, and so to bed.

Breakfast was a strange affair. The Highway Gambian Lodge lacks a bit in facilities, but it has a dining room and breakfast was provided.  We were ushered into a large room which was full of people mostly wearing traditional clothes, although I couldn’t help but notice that at least 2 men were wearing outrageous Bob Marley outfits.

On the table were mugs laid out each containing a significant portion of powdered milk. There was a can of instant coffee and a large bowl of sugar on each table with long strips of teabags. As the room filled everyone seemed to know exactly what to do. They added coffee or several teabags to their mug added warm water and startling amounts of sugar. Some had six or seven spoonful, they then returned to their table and had their breakfast everyone had the same, an omelette, chips with a dollop of mayonnaise and bread. They ate and left. We were informed later that nearly every tribe in the region was represented here as there as there was a national vetinary training day being held. It was quite strange that we were accepted quite casually without any question asked and we felt we fitted right in; it was really nice.

The next was the fairly easy drive to Banjul punctuated with regular police checks. The officers were incredibly friendly but it was still a bit of a pain. Often the officers would tell us their first names and ask ours  and then let us on our way sometimes they wanted to exchange email address  it is all a bit surreal.

Just South of Banjul is a resort called Sekuta where we found a nice campsite.  We arrived on New year’s eve  where the owners Joe and Claudia put on a truly excellent Barbecue  It was just a little difficult because many of the guests here are German/Austrian and speak little English. It was asking a lot of them to maintain small talk the whole evening. I was tempted to type this despatch in Gothic script to give a flavour of the experience.

Here we met Bram a very funny Dutchman who lives in a traditional village in Southern Senegal.  He is very knowledgeable of the culture of traditional West Africans.  He took time to explain to us, something that has really troubled us for a while and that is why a lot of people are openly asking for money for no apparent reason.  I won’t recount the explanation which was so clear, here for reasons of brevity but suffice to say that we both feel very much easier about the whole thing

As we head further south and to warmer climate, insect life becomes ever more apparent, especially big mosquitoes and gnats, whose entire purpose is to suck the flesh off our meagre frames.  If anyone is coming out this way please bring more Jungle Formula Insect repellent!  In fact if anyone wants to make a special journey I wouldn’t say no.

It has dawned on us that having come this far, There are very few other long distance travellers. We attribute this to the various conflicts that are around this region. However, we have met with some pretty amazing overlanders such as Brendon and Oliver (brothers, cycling from Dublin to South Africa).  We thought what we are doing was pretty special, but try meeting these 2! We have been told that they have met up with a couple who are walking from Europe to South Africa! Imagine that!

We are in the process of revising our route, having discovered that it may be difficult to get a visa for Ghana and may yet be impossible to get one for Angola.  If you would all like to get out your atlas, you will see that if we cannot go via Angola then we may have to ship the van for some of the way.

The van has had a service, new fan belt, air filter changed, brakes adjusted and a good clean. We are travelling to the part of Senegal called the Cassamance to stay in Brams village, south of the Gambia. We are told it is even more beautiful and rustic with more wild life and a chance to sample a typical West African way of life.

If you now turn again to your atlas you will see that Senegal completely surrounds the Gambia. After a bit of touring we plan to move on to Mali.

We have become a little anxious about travelling when there are so few other overlanders but we have met up with a really nice Belgian couple Helga and Wauter who are going the same way so we have agreed to link up for a while and feel much happier for it.

More for another day.

I have to say it is fantastic that we are now heading for 5000 views of our blog and we have had some lovely communications from people we have never met. It is so gratifying and makes us very proud that other people should enjoy our witterings.

We both wish all of you a very Happy New Year.

Lots of love

Noel + Ping

Noelbow51@gmail.com   Pingbow54@gmail.com