2nd February 2013

Life on the road:
The journey so far has been an amazing one, we have recounted adventures and incidents that are funny (at other times not so funny), but the everyday ‘housekeeping and daily living' need to have a mention in this blog. I have enjoyed driving the van in parts of Morocco and Mauritania, but I do find that I am better at and enjoy the ‘administrative’ aspects of the journey such as managing the finance, planning the route, negotiating with officials, sorting out the documentation as we go through each check point, dealing with the countless number of people from officials, to the local vendors, all just being interested in what we are doing, and of course, there is the general day to day running of the house on wheels.

For a start, I am just so impressed and thankful at Noel’s ability and skills in keeping Pegasus 2 on these roads. Potholes and bad roads take on a whole new dimension when travelling at 5-10 km/hr, accompanying this are the suicidal drivers coming at you from all directions, the prevailing cloud of fine red dust that gets everywhere, the regular checkpoints from the gendarmes, customs or immigration, and not knowing where we will end up most evenings. Most days, the van will need a thorough check (such as nuts and bolts intact, lights and windscreen wipers working, correct tyre pressures in case of further punctures) By the way we had our 8th puncture today.

        Changing tyres again!

Washing
Getting a daily shower is not a certainty, so where we can,
we make full use of proper shower facilities at some of the
wonderful campsites/hotels that we have described on previous blogs. When wild camping in the bush, our portable shower tent works a treat, we have even been able to warm up a large bag of water on the dashboard of the van in order that we can have a hot shower! However, keeping clean even after a nice cleansing wash is really difficult. The heat, dust and grime get to your skin before you know it.

                             Bathroom in the bush

Laundry
A bucket with a sealed lid, is filled with water, detergent and clothing before we set off, and this will be well shaken and stirred by the end of the day on these bad roads. This just needs to be rinsed out, depending on the availability of water. Noel is frustrated that I am constantly boiling water to disinfect the tea towels – This is something that I have to do! 

Meals:

Self-catering is best when we are on the road, just need to be a little bit more organised and prepared.  We usually shop in the local markets where most staples such as eggs, rice, lentils, dried milk etc are available. Fresh meat is harder to come by. Pork was not available from Morocco to Northern Senegal, and it is sometimes hard to discern the type of meat being sold. However we’ve had some delicious vegetarian cuisine, Noel is converted! Bottled water is available in all markets – I have strong reservations about the amount of plastic bottles that are discarded all around us.

                                             Shopping in local market

 Keeping groomed

I would love a pedicure, and a haircut, I did manage to get a haircut in the Gambia but it is unlikely to happen again soon, so will have to make the best of it. Cutting Noel’s hair (the little that he has) will provide good entertainment for the village children.

Communication

Email, texting and phone calls are all affected the by the availablilty of electricity,  sometimes speedy and reliable , at other times take hours to upload . The fact that you are reading this is an indication that there is some communication even in the most far flung corners of the bush. We have a GPS machine (which I am still not too sure how to work, Noel wouldn’t go near it) which will I hope tell you where we are in case we need someone to call the Falmouth coastguard!

Some comparisons with the overland trip to India in 1979

Doing West Africa is hard work, maybe it is because we are 35 years older than the when we last went overland through Asia. There is a danger that we tend to hark back to those days but it is sometimes the ‘you can do anything spirit’ that is really good for us. Not being able to speak French has been a real obstacle bu I am amazed at what can be achieved with 2 words of French and a smile. 

Health and Well being

Being considerate as a visitor in a poor country with little infrastructure (eg not using more water than is necessary) is also something that we would not have thought much about in 1979. We didn’t use to worry about ill health or injuries either. On this trip,  concerns about ill health or sustaining injury of any kind is at the front of our minds. We are vigilant about anti-malarial precautions and being careful about every bite and sting.  This comes from knowing about the consequences of ill health in a country where health care provision is quite limited and it would be selfish to deprive the local people of the minimal provision of health care should we need to use it.

Bureaucracy and patience 

Civil unrest and conflicts have necessitated that we make detours and in order to do this we have had to make application for visas. Doing this in cities like Conakry and Rabat have taught us a thing or two about coping with bureaucracy! We were in the Cote d’Ivore embassy in Conakry for 5 hours, we had thought this was just to hand in our application, it involved a lot of photocopying and scanning and use of a new biometric  computer system that the officials had not quite got the hang of. In the meantime, we sat and gazed at the faded poster on the wall  giving instruction on  what, was an acceptable passport photo.  There was a lot of conversation in French which did not specially aid communication. After an hour we were under the distinct impression that we might get our passport stamped this day. But after 5 hours we were told that this would all be sent to Abidjan and we could collect in 2 days!

Friends

So far, the trip has its  high and low points. From our blog, you will probably picked up the difficult and often frustrating aspects which can make us wonder why we are doing this. The high points are the constant reminder that we are just extremely lucky to be able to  experience the kind of journey that not many people will have the chance to do. We have seen  amazing scenery and met some incredible people (some will become good friends, others just passing through) but mostly kind and helpful. We are missing our folks at home, so keep the emails coming.

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

30th December 2012

St Louis Blues.

19^th December to 26^th December

We passed through the Senegal police bridge toll and then to the customs officer. He kept us waiting for about 45 minutes and then told us that he had no authority to allow us to bring in our van for more than 2 days and we would then have to go to the customs at Dakar docks some 400 km away to get our Carnet de passage stamped so we could continue. This is more than a serious inconvenience ,and quite unnecessary it is really difficult to make the journey in the time allowed and if we got stopped by the police exceeding that time we could have our vehicle impounded.At the superb Zebrabar, south of St Louis, Martin, the owner was able to use the services of a ‘helper’ to secure us a further 5 days but the services of the helperwas not free. Since then, a new ‘regulation’ was introduced and we got our Carnet stamped at the border here without any need to travel to Dakar.

                    St Louis 

As we had a few days we also enjoyed the charming small city of St Louis, once the centre of the French Aero Postale Service, a network of sea planes that provided an airmail service all around Africa and much of the world. There isn’t much to say beside that this city seems to have many of the charms of an African city but less of the pressures.

 

We have been here for over a week, spending Christmas here was a real treat! The Zebrabar is set in the National Parc and it is not uncommon to see all manner of exotic wildlife, fabulous birds, troops of Barbary apes, and more reptiles than you can shake a stick at. We’ve been on a boat trip around the park, Noel was rather nervous at the boat being so low down in the water but the lagoon was quite shallow. ‘Tosh’ the dog, accompanied us on the boat with his Dutch owners, Mike and Marion. Also with us were Lorenzo and Kevin our biker friends whom we met in Mauritania.

 

Kevin and Ping with the boatman

 

 

Tosh being carried on to the boat

We had a wonderful Swiss Christmas dinner hosted by the owners of the Zebrabar, Ursula and Martin, in the charming dining room – the palm tree decked with tasteful Christmas tinsel, tea lights and candles all made it quite festive.

 

                                     Happy Swiss Christmas dinner

It is so beautiful, relaxed and tranquil here, whilst we are cacooned in this paradise, we are aware that out of here, there is real part of the country where the poverty, dirt, dust, awful badly maintained roads and stench of rubbish seems to be all around. There is the ever presence of plastic bottles, blue plastic bags, anything plastic piled along the road side, skimming on the surface water of the lagoon and living amongst this are smiling, helpful people just trying to scratch a living eg selling you 4 cloves of garlic for 100CFA (about 5 pence) or the local fisherman trying to flog their daily catch at inflated price to the tourists.

 We have another puncture(#6)!, so it is another visit to a “pneu” shop. We may need to buy a couple of new tyres, but we might do this when we get to The Gambia, which is our next stop (and they speak English!).

Happy New Year to you all, keep the emails coming.
Ping and Noel

 

22nd December 2012

We are now in Senegal.  I have no wish to create any jealousy, but, as I write we are settling down for the evening in this wonderful tranquil surrounding of the Parc national de la Langue de Barbarie. It's an ornithologists' paradise. Cormorants, pelicans, hornbills and loads of other exotic birds are all around us.

We’ve had a day where the high temperature  was up at 45c.  There are people somewhere over in the distance enjoying a Senegalese sing song. The Imam has just called the faithful to prayer, the evening air is warm and fragrant, the beer is cold and the company of other travellers delightful.

It has, however, been quite an experience getting here.

Gone Fichen!

High Street Noukchott

Try driving through that!

We had spent a couple of days on the Atlantic beach in Noukchott the capitol of Mauritania where we set off from the city which is like the biggest cowboy town in the world. We headed out of town amidst dense traffic, chaos and grinding poverty.

 As we drove down the highway we encountered frequent police road checks. One of the things that we were advised to have with us is a supply of a document known as a’Fiche’ This is a sheet with all our details laid out together with copies of passport etc. the idea is that it saves the need to write them out long hand each time we go through formalities. However as we encountered increasingly frequent police checks we found that each one asks for a fiche. It seems that they collect these pieces of paper to prove that they are doing their job.  It has now become a routine, we see the road check coming up wind down the window we hand over the fiche. The officer would take it, ask a clever question in a dialect of French which we don’t understand, we would act embarrassed and they would then send us on our way. Since we Entered Western Sahara we have got through 25 of these papers.

We were heading for the border with Senegal, we had read a lot about the area of the border. It is reputed to be full of corrupt officials, thieves, vagabonds and ‘helpers’ all deeply committed to getting money out of the innocent traveller , as they have what they believe is a captive audience. I was particularly anxious to avoid this really difficult hassle.

We had been told of an alternative route but still with the proviso that there are spotters with binoculars who if they see travellers avoiding the frontier they will send out ‘guide’ to bring them back to the fold.

Lost in the Desert

 

The alternative route is not sign posted. We had explicit directions from a professional guide. He told us that this was a good road easily passable and it is easy to find. We should drive 140 km from the capital and the road would be on the right. It is plain to see, no mistake, a good road. Well, we drove 145 km and there on the right was a wide road it was not macadamised but it was quite well graded. We drove this road for about 10km and it became a difficult drive. I stopped a guy driving a camel, he has a kid under his arm who was bleating in protest, presumably having formed the view that he was destined for the pot…… who knows. I asked the man ‘Is this the road to Daima?' he looked surprised and told me that it is the road for the Atlantique. He was less convincing when he drew me a map on the sand, showing that we could take a side turning that would take us to the border which we already knew was about 80 km away. We drove on and eventually saw a very rustic looking road going off left. We asked a driver for directions and I really could not understand his reply but he seemed to think it would be a good idea to take the turning. So we took it. After a while it became less of a road and then became a sandy track.  We know it was sandy because for the first time we got well and truly stuck in a trough of sand!  I engaged the 4 wheel drive we couldn’t get free. I engaged the diflock still no joy. We got out the sand ladders eventually using both sets and we were still stuck. With hindsight I am sure that our inexperience was a real factor. But nevertheless stuck is stuck.

 

Our friends at the Zebrabar said that's not stuck - it's nothing!

Before we left I had deliberated long and hard about whether or not to have a winch fitted, very expensive and not so simple to use. In the end I had a winch fitted on the simple basis that if we need it once only it will have been worth it.

Back to the desert we were stuck in I felt I had explored all options  I payed out the winch cable and fixed it around an Acacia bush and we winched ourselves out. Fantastic! As we drove away I noticed that I had dropped one of my diesel gloves, oh never mind.

Ping then said ‘I dropped a loaf of bread and I forgot to pick it up. Oh well.

Off we went it was a really difficult drive lots of loose sand and steep inclines we then came to realise that we were losing a clear track, now dodging around the numerous thorn bushes. I am still picking out thorns from my clothing and I am unable to wear my shoes as the soles are full of steely thorns that come right through.

On we went and as the sun started to go down we had to stop for the night and we realised that we were pretty uncomfortably close to being lost in the bloody desert. Despite having 30 gallons of diesel and about the same of water and plenty of food we started to fantasise about calls to Falmouth Coastguard!

Overnight we decided that we could either continue on in the belief that it would eventually pop out somewhere useful, maybe........... Or go back. We opted to retrace our steps in the morning.

Morning came and I made a recce on foot to find that our tracks were barely discernible, but managed to find them retracing our steps was ok for a while. We had travelled about 20km into the desert. Travelling SW so we found what tracks we could and used the compass, after a while the tracks disappeared altogether and we had to rely on the compass.  It was clear that we had to find our way over a ridge which was very sandy at the top and so impassable,  constantly making foot recce we eventually found a way over it was quite difficult and we really didn’t know where we were. Suddenly we saw some tyre tracks  and as we got close, Ping noticed they were our tracks from the night before. It was an amazing feeling. Then it dawned on us that we would encounter the same trough that we had been stuck in the previous day.  Sure enough Ping spotted it just in time for us to stop. This time I was able to drive around it but not before I sawed down a couple of bushes. As we passed the trough, Ping said ‘I see the bread is gone'.

By this time we kind of knew what we were doing and easily used the track. Just before we reached the road I heard a loud whistle and could see a shepherd on a ridge waving vigorously at us.  I stopped got out and went to greet a strange man who was unmistakably wearing my diesel glove! He said in in a language I don’t understand. I think he said "Excuse me but I think you dropped this mate"!

                                                    
                                                           The Shepherd who found

                                                                         

                                                                     the glove

And handed it back to me amid much hand shaking and back slapping we drove on back on to the road and then back to the highway. We decided that this time we would just brave the onslaught at the first border.

As we drove on after about 20km we found the correct road much further on than we had been told it was not easy to spot and was till a quite difficult drive for about 70 km. We reached a town and then drove through about 50km of National park with a truly awful road and suddenly we were at the border.

Here were a couple of cars passing through no hassle just a few officials to bribe, er sorry pay taxes to pass. And we breezed out onto the Senegal side.

 

Then onto the highly praised Zebrabar where the camping is well managed the beer is cold and the family who run it are so pleasant helpful and good company. We plan to stay here for Christmas before we move on to The Gambia and beyond.

Happy Christmas!

 

We did give Christmas greetings in our last entry, but as we write this on the 23rd December it seems right to just say Happy Christmas and very best wishes for the New Year.

 

Do please keep your emails coming It always so good to hear from home even trivial waffle is appreciated.

noelbow51@gmail.com  pingbow54@gmail.com

 

Lots of luv

 

Noel +Ping