We are still in Libreville, i have sold my motorbike, but we are waiting for the jeep to be sold....anyone out there who needs a great right hand Land Rover Discovery in Gabon please get in touch asap...or we are stuck in Libreville for Christmas!!!!
We will not make it Mikongo now to trek into the jungle in search of gorillas, but might yet go to a nearby reserve where there are rumoured to be elephants and water buffalo, its not over yet!
Promise to post some photos on here soon, when we return to the UK - never seem to have much luck downloading them in Africa.
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Paradise Found
After another long ride on half tarmac, half not tarmac roads from Yaounde, and stopping along the way to eat lunch at a roadside cafe where we tasted Boa snake and crocodile - both looked great on the plate in some black sauce but neither tasted of anything in particular - we made it to Kribi. We found a wonderful place to stay in, the Tara Plage Auberge on the edge of the forest with a large beach all to itself, hammocks hanging from trees and one step from the shore bungalows to sleep in and immediately jumped into the warm sea, Palli and I in our bike gear (they needed washing anway) and all decided that we should stay there forever!
Well, at least 2 days anyway....
In between relaxing, swimming, drinking and eating the best shrimps ever we managed to fit in some filming for Courier and a wonderful canoe trip up the river Lobe to visit a Pygmy village. On the edge of the river in the forest we met 20 or so Pygmies who performed some traditional dances for us with songs and drumming and after giving them some cigarettes, sweets and some money of course we took our pictures with them (even I looked tall!)
We then made our way back down the river and paid for our canoe ride, where we got totally overcharged (8000 CFA per person instead of 5000) walked back along the beach feeling rather annoyed but passed the beautiful Lobe waterfalls, which are small falls crashing down into the sea.
Sadly Monday arrived too soon and reluctantly we packed up our stuff, left paradise behind behind and rode away to reach the border of Gabon. (After being told that we would need to collect the Gabonese visa in Yaounde on Monday we luckily managed to pick it up on friday after a 3 hour wait at the embassy before leaving for Kribi. )
We didnt make it to the border at Ambam on Monday as the road east from Kribi to Ebolowa (170 kms) through the stunning rainforest was nothing but thick wet mud.... the rainy season had just ended in Cameroon. We spent many hot sweaty hours splashing through deep puddles and pushing my bike out of the mud a few times.... my bike chose this day to have some problems with not starting and cutting out alot.
At one point the road had completely washed away and while some local men seemed to be doing their best trying to pour dry mud into the gap we had to negotiate our way around it, i dropped my bike coming a bit too fast back onto to dry mud, but unharmed except for my pride we carried on ready to see what was next.
Next was an overturned lorry stuck in thick mud, with many other lorries backed up behind it.
The many people standing around, who were waiting for a crane to come from Yaounde and pull out the lorry, all assured us that other vehicles had been passing between them for the last 2 days with "no problems" at all!!!!! Ha ha ha, if there is one phrase thats really starting to irritate me on this trip its "no problem".
But not one to give up easily and after watching both the jeep and Palli pass through, the jeep needing a push, I rode on.
Almost through the gap between the lorries when i got stuck in a hole. Palli rushed to my aid and we managed to turn the front wheel back in the right direction, i revved hard and with Palli pushing we got the wheel out of the hole only to get it stuck again ontop of a mud ridge with the back wheel stuck on top of another behind...and my legs dangling down in the middle. In one of those laugh or cry moments i laughed, gave in and let Palli take over. A second later he manouvered my bike out of the mud and we carried on breathing sighs of relief.
Enjoying splashing through puddles by the end of the day and covered in mud once again we made it to Ebolowa (meaning 'rotten monkey') for the night and cleaned off with bucket showers...yes, that's cold dirty water in a bucket style!
Tuesday, we set off early for the border having been promised tarmac roads and crossed the border easily. We were asked for a carnet for the vehicles, but admitting we didnt have one for any vehicle the customs man was not sure what to do about that, so he just let us go, no fine no questions asked and we made it to Bitam, the first town in Gabon in time for lunch.
Totally proud of ourselves for reaching our final country on this adventure we celebrated with large cokes, steak and chips!
We continued through the rainforest to Mitzic where we found a rather dingy hotel to stay in, rather unaptly named 'Bel Air', with no running water, no food and some rather nasty looking bugs in the rooms.
Wednesday, and we continued towards Libreville crossing the Equator again- a tough day - no breakfast or lunch much to speak of, over exhaustion of the last 3 months starting to hit me and the road varying between bad and very bad. But we did stop for over 3 hours in the sweltering heat in the forest and film the last scene for Courier - with some rather hilarious moments of endlessly waving flies away from our faces.
With Libreville only 100 km's away we spent the night at a very nice friendly hotel called 'Les 4 Freres' in Kango. The boss Paul made us feel very welcome and even gave us some fresh shrimps for free with our dinner.
Slept, fed and watered we set off for the last ride to Libreville, which was a terrible road and included a stop and a fine by the police for not having local insurance for the vehicles....oops, it ran out a week ago. But the price rapidly dropped from 450,000 CFA when we said we only had 40,000 left in our pockets, which was not a lie and they took the 40 looking very pleased with themselves, and waving it proudly at trucks passing.
We got away lightly all things considered, and we have not had to buy a Lasse Passe for any of the vehicles in the last 3 countries and been extremely lucky that we have not had one fine or bribe throughout the whole trip....well Palli gave his sunglasses to one policeman and Haukur gave a couple of postcards from Iceland but thats it, not bad really.
So if you are not exhausted yet by the length of this blog, i'll just let you know that we are in Libreville, at Hotel Bananas, looking into selling the jeep and bikes or shipping the bikes home (not having much luck so far) and hopefully once we have all this sorted out we can go to the Mikongo centre at the Lope Nature reserve and trek through the jungle, before getting on a plane home on the 23rd.
But right now we are all feeling extremely pleased and proud of ourselves for making it this far. Since leaving Morrocco we have had no major problems - no breakdowns, no accidents, and amazingly no punctures all trip, we have all been ill only once with stomach bugs and apart from being covered in insect bites we are all still standing!
Unbelievable!! What an adventure!!
Well, at least 2 days anyway....
In between relaxing, swimming, drinking and eating the best shrimps ever we managed to fit in some filming for Courier and a wonderful canoe trip up the river Lobe to visit a Pygmy village. On the edge of the river in the forest we met 20 or so Pygmies who performed some traditional dances for us with songs and drumming and after giving them some cigarettes, sweets and some money of course we took our pictures with them (even I looked tall!)
We then made our way back down the river and paid for our canoe ride, where we got totally overcharged (8000 CFA per person instead of 5000) walked back along the beach feeling rather annoyed but passed the beautiful Lobe waterfalls, which are small falls crashing down into the sea.
Sadly Monday arrived too soon and reluctantly we packed up our stuff, left paradise behind behind and rode away to reach the border of Gabon. (After being told that we would need to collect the Gabonese visa in Yaounde on Monday we luckily managed to pick it up on friday after a 3 hour wait at the embassy before leaving for Kribi. )
We didnt make it to the border at Ambam on Monday as the road east from Kribi to Ebolowa (170 kms) through the stunning rainforest was nothing but thick wet mud.... the rainy season had just ended in Cameroon. We spent many hot sweaty hours splashing through deep puddles and pushing my bike out of the mud a few times.... my bike chose this day to have some problems with not starting and cutting out alot.
At one point the road had completely washed away and while some local men seemed to be doing their best trying to pour dry mud into the gap we had to negotiate our way around it, i dropped my bike coming a bit too fast back onto to dry mud, but unharmed except for my pride we carried on ready to see what was next.
Next was an overturned lorry stuck in thick mud, with many other lorries backed up behind it.
The many people standing around, who were waiting for a crane to come from Yaounde and pull out the lorry, all assured us that other vehicles had been passing between them for the last 2 days with "no problems" at all!!!!! Ha ha ha, if there is one phrase thats really starting to irritate me on this trip its "no problem".
But not one to give up easily and after watching both the jeep and Palli pass through, the jeep needing a push, I rode on.
Almost through the gap between the lorries when i got stuck in a hole. Palli rushed to my aid and we managed to turn the front wheel back in the right direction, i revved hard and with Palli pushing we got the wheel out of the hole only to get it stuck again ontop of a mud ridge with the back wheel stuck on top of another behind...and my legs dangling down in the middle. In one of those laugh or cry moments i laughed, gave in and let Palli take over. A second later he manouvered my bike out of the mud and we carried on breathing sighs of relief.
Enjoying splashing through puddles by the end of the day and covered in mud once again we made it to Ebolowa (meaning 'rotten monkey') for the night and cleaned off with bucket showers...yes, that's cold dirty water in a bucket style!
Tuesday, we set off early for the border having been promised tarmac roads and crossed the border easily. We were asked for a carnet for the vehicles, but admitting we didnt have one for any vehicle the customs man was not sure what to do about that, so he just let us go, no fine no questions asked and we made it to Bitam, the first town in Gabon in time for lunch.
Totally proud of ourselves for reaching our final country on this adventure we celebrated with large cokes, steak and chips!
We continued through the rainforest to Mitzic where we found a rather dingy hotel to stay in, rather unaptly named 'Bel Air', with no running water, no food and some rather nasty looking bugs in the rooms.
Wednesday, and we continued towards Libreville crossing the Equator again- a tough day - no breakfast or lunch much to speak of, over exhaustion of the last 3 months starting to hit me and the road varying between bad and very bad. But we did stop for over 3 hours in the sweltering heat in the forest and film the last scene for Courier - with some rather hilarious moments of endlessly waving flies away from our faces.
With Libreville only 100 km's away we spent the night at a very nice friendly hotel called 'Les 4 Freres' in Kango. The boss Paul made us feel very welcome and even gave us some fresh shrimps for free with our dinner.
Slept, fed and watered we set off for the last ride to Libreville, which was a terrible road and included a stop and a fine by the police for not having local insurance for the vehicles....oops, it ran out a week ago. But the price rapidly dropped from 450,000 CFA when we said we only had 40,000 left in our pockets, which was not a lie and they took the 40 looking very pleased with themselves, and waving it proudly at trucks passing.
We got away lightly all things considered, and we have not had to buy a Lasse Passe for any of the vehicles in the last 3 countries and been extremely lucky that we have not had one fine or bribe throughout the whole trip....well Palli gave his sunglasses to one policeman and Haukur gave a couple of postcards from Iceland but thats it, not bad really.
So if you are not exhausted yet by the length of this blog, i'll just let you know that we are in Libreville, at Hotel Bananas, looking into selling the jeep and bikes or shipping the bikes home (not having much luck so far) and hopefully once we have all this sorted out we can go to the Mikongo centre at the Lope Nature reserve and trek through the jungle, before getting on a plane home on the 23rd.
But right now we are all feeling extremely pleased and proud of ourselves for making it this far. Since leaving Morrocco we have had no major problems - no breakdowns, no accidents, and amazingly no punctures all trip, we have all been ill only once with stomach bugs and apart from being covered in insect bites we are all still standing!
Unbelievable!! What an adventure!!
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Cameroon
Over the past 3 days we have ridden almost 1500 km's from the north to south west Cameroon, and apart from extremely sore bums from too many hours sat on the bikes the whole ride has been amazing.
Cameroon is beautiful, i cant get enough of it - driving through huge forests and mountains in the north and tropical forests further south it really is stunning. Passing through many small villages along the way and as ever being the days entertainment for the locals. Just stopping for petrol is a huge occasion and numerous people stop working and gather around us at the petrol pump!
The combinations of shock, wonder and huge smiles on peoples faces and waving as we wizz past is brilliant. People of all ages completely stop what they are doing and stand for ages staring open mouthed in our direction.
Imagine how people react when I take my crash helmet off and see I'm a woman...some do not believe it at all, some just point and exclaim "woman", and over the past week I have been adressed as Palli's son, twice, and been offered marriage by a woman police officer.
Not sure if it says more about the lack of woman biking in Africa or my new dirty, smelly traveller look!!!
Our visit to the beautiful Waza National Park north of Maroua was quite eventful, we saw giraffe, antelope, warthog, and many birds including vulture, unfortunatley no elephants or lions but we did spend all day with the tracker looking for them. The park is very overgrown and not really set up for tourist safari's. The roads in the park are few and not in a good condition, so we spent alot of time driving through very thick vegetation. Our tracker explained how the government gives no money to the park or the guides that work there and protect it. The 29 guides work 7 day and night shifts at a time and not only guide/track during the day but also keep guard at night for the frequent poachers. In 10 years over 200 elephants from the the park have dissapeared due to poaching.
After being on safari in Kenya years ago i have seen how wonderful it can be - national parks there not only catering to tourists but catering to the animals that need protecting. It is shocking to witness in Waza the lack of infrustructure in a place that really deserves it and also one where i am sure the country would benefit from in the long term.
But i digress....after Waza we hung out for a couple more days in Maroua, celebrated Pierre's 25th birthday by being totally lazy, ate lots, did some much needed bike maintanance and thankfully some laundry..also desperately needed!!
We then set off after an almost tearful farewell from our wonderful guide Augustin (if anyone is visiting Cameroon he is the man to contact - i will post some more info about him at a later date, but for the time being he can be found at Hotel Le Sare in Maroua) south to NGaoundere then east to Bertoua, and onto the political capital Yaounde where we are now, waiting to collect our visa for Gabon.
We will try and go to the coast over the weekend and visit Kribi, a paradise beach, to top up our suntans, which now look more like fake tans as we seemed to be bleached from the orange dust and sand from the roads over the past few days. Cold showers just dont seem to get rid of it!
After Kribi, back to Yaounde to collect the visas and then off to Gabon, hurray!!!
Cameroon is beautiful, i cant get enough of it - driving through huge forests and mountains in the north and tropical forests further south it really is stunning. Passing through many small villages along the way and as ever being the days entertainment for the locals. Just stopping for petrol is a huge occasion and numerous people stop working and gather around us at the petrol pump!
The combinations of shock, wonder and huge smiles on peoples faces and waving as we wizz past is brilliant. People of all ages completely stop what they are doing and stand for ages staring open mouthed in our direction.
Imagine how people react when I take my crash helmet off and see I'm a woman...some do not believe it at all, some just point and exclaim "woman", and over the past week I have been adressed as Palli's son, twice, and been offered marriage by a woman police officer.
Not sure if it says more about the lack of woman biking in Africa or my new dirty, smelly traveller look!!!
Our visit to the beautiful Waza National Park north of Maroua was quite eventful, we saw giraffe, antelope, warthog, and many birds including vulture, unfortunatley no elephants or lions but we did spend all day with the tracker looking for them. The park is very overgrown and not really set up for tourist safari's. The roads in the park are few and not in a good condition, so we spent alot of time driving through very thick vegetation. Our tracker explained how the government gives no money to the park or the guides that work there and protect it. The 29 guides work 7 day and night shifts at a time and not only guide/track during the day but also keep guard at night for the frequent poachers. In 10 years over 200 elephants from the the park have dissapeared due to poaching.
After being on safari in Kenya years ago i have seen how wonderful it can be - national parks there not only catering to tourists but catering to the animals that need protecting. It is shocking to witness in Waza the lack of infrustructure in a place that really deserves it and also one where i am sure the country would benefit from in the long term.
But i digress....after Waza we hung out for a couple more days in Maroua, celebrated Pierre's 25th birthday by being totally lazy, ate lots, did some much needed bike maintanance and thankfully some laundry..also desperately needed!!
We then set off after an almost tearful farewell from our wonderful guide Augustin (if anyone is visiting Cameroon he is the man to contact - i will post some more info about him at a later date, but for the time being he can be found at Hotel Le Sare in Maroua) south to NGaoundere then east to Bertoua, and onto the political capital Yaounde where we are now, waiting to collect our visa for Gabon.
We will try and go to the coast over the weekend and visit Kribi, a paradise beach, to top up our suntans, which now look more like fake tans as we seemed to be bleached from the orange dust and sand from the roads over the past few days. Cold showers just dont seem to get rid of it!
After Kribi, back to Yaounde to collect the visas and then off to Gabon, hurray!!!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
3 Countries in 2 Days
After leaving Niamey we stopped by the village of Koure, found ourselves a guide (compulsory) and headed off into the girrafe park. It was great, we hadn't gone far at all when the guide spotted one munching away on an acacia tree, then another and a little further away a mother girraffe with its baby. Wonderful. We decided to stay in the park that night and after putting out our sleeping bags settled down to watch the sunset.
A long day followed, too long infact and a lot of it on piste road (pot holes as big as a house and sandy, gravelly corrugation) but we made it to Maradi as planned, completly exhausted, with no energy to even complain about the cockroaches in the bathrooms!
Rested, we set off to Zinder, again alot of piste but less km's, so we made it to Zinder with some of the afternoon left. A guide immediately sprung upon us and announced that today was a special day in town, the opening ceromony of a festival was taking place and the Sultan of the town and his ministers would be in attendance...and the highlight - a blind competition! Whatever that entailed we had no idea but we all hopped on the back off moto-taxis and wizzed off.
A huge crowd was already gathered when we arrived with many offical looking poeple in great outfits sitting down listening to a man giving a speech to the local TV cameras.
Then the main event.....5 blind people, from of a very large group of blind people, were led into the middle of the area, told to kneel down in a large circle and when they were all positioned correctly a live chicken was thrown in to the middle of them, the 5 blind people then frantically tried to catch the chicken, one man caught it almost immediately (the winner being the one who catches it first) The crowd then errupted into loud laughter as the four others were busy scraping around on the ground still trying to catch it.
I thought I had seen a lot of things already on this journey but that, well that just topped it all!!!!
We then had a guided tour of the palace of the Sultan before sunset, then sorted out some necessties - buying fuel, changing money into Nigerian Niara, stocking up on water...
Next morning we set off to the border town of Diffa, where we stayed the night amid cockroach infested bathrooms and lizards to wake us in the morning!
So to the border. An easy exit from Niger and 20 metres further on an extremely friendly welcome into Nigeria. We gave Pierre a break from being translater for a while and enjoyed being able to chat in English. The border was quick and painless and we were not even asked about the Lasse Passe for the vehicles. So with confirmation from them that the road onwards was good all the way to Maidaguri we headed off into Nigeria.
Well the good road turned very quickly into an absolutely terrible road....a sandy bumpy track became thick sand with occasional streams to cross and 3 hours and only 30 km's later we made it to the tarred road.
I have never felt so exhausted trying to ride the bike through sand like that - I could have wrung my t-shirt out with all the sweating! The bikes are too heavy for such conditions...and my legs are too short to push myself out when I get stuck!!
But another challenge overcome and we found our hotel in Maidaguri....a rather hilarious totally un-renovated or un-touched place since the early 70's.
After some money and currency dealings the next morning (its impossible to use Mastercard anywhere in Africa, even with banks displaying MC signs and there are limited Visa ATM's) we sped off to the border at Banki to cross into Cameroon.
We got stamped out of Nigeria with no problems but with no Visa in our passports for Cameroon we were escorted to the police station and told that we would have to stay the night in Banki and then be police escorted to the next large town in the morning as it was getting late and not only would the visa office be closed but they could not guarantee our safety if we continued!
So we holed up in a campement, ate some rather awful chicken and played cards to keep our spirits up and hoped morning arrived sooner rather than later.
Which it did, so we collected our (very serious) police escort and drove with him all the way to Maroua.
Passing through great scenery along the way....mountainous and green.
At the immigration office, after being told we had insulted the Cameroon people by arriving in the country with no visa, we waited a few hours until we paid up and got the stamp.
After all this excitment we thankfully checked into the nicest hotel we have stayed in all trip.....monkeys and Ostriches in the garden, a swimming pool, a great restaurant and bar and a huge en-suite room for 4 for the bargain price of 7 euros per person! Yes!
Not to be too idle though we hooked up with a guide who chatted with us about an itinerary for the next couple of days if we stayed in Maroua.
We all agreed to a visit to a village amongst the Mandara Mountains, Rhumsiki and a days visit to National Park Waza.
We have had a great day today (thurs) at Rhumsiki, a beautiful place, surrounded by huge volcanic rock formations and in the village we met lots of the locals; potters,weavers. The highlight for me was meeting the village fortune teller/witch doctor who told our fortunes using a pot of sand, some carefully placed stones and a live crab thrown in on top. We each asked one question of him, he spat a few times on the crab, asked the crab our question, threw it in the pot and waited....a moment or two later he took the crab out of the pot and listened to the crabs answer....all i can say is that was one hell of a wise crab.
So tommorrow we are off to Waza to see some big game and then Saturday we will continue south through Cameroon. Next stop the town of Garoua, then N'Gouandere.
with love to everybody....xxx
A long day followed, too long infact and a lot of it on piste road (pot holes as big as a house and sandy, gravelly corrugation) but we made it to Maradi as planned, completly exhausted, with no energy to even complain about the cockroaches in the bathrooms!
Rested, we set off to Zinder, again alot of piste but less km's, so we made it to Zinder with some of the afternoon left. A guide immediately sprung upon us and announced that today was a special day in town, the opening ceromony of a festival was taking place and the Sultan of the town and his ministers would be in attendance...and the highlight - a blind competition! Whatever that entailed we had no idea but we all hopped on the back off moto-taxis and wizzed off.
A huge crowd was already gathered when we arrived with many offical looking poeple in great outfits sitting down listening to a man giving a speech to the local TV cameras.
Then the main event.....5 blind people, from of a very large group of blind people, were led into the middle of the area, told to kneel down in a large circle and when they were all positioned correctly a live chicken was thrown in to the middle of them, the 5 blind people then frantically tried to catch the chicken, one man caught it almost immediately (the winner being the one who catches it first) The crowd then errupted into loud laughter as the four others were busy scraping around on the ground still trying to catch it.
I thought I had seen a lot of things already on this journey but that, well that just topped it all!!!!
We then had a guided tour of the palace of the Sultan before sunset, then sorted out some necessties - buying fuel, changing money into Nigerian Niara, stocking up on water...
Next morning we set off to the border town of Diffa, where we stayed the night amid cockroach infested bathrooms and lizards to wake us in the morning!
So to the border. An easy exit from Niger and 20 metres further on an extremely friendly welcome into Nigeria. We gave Pierre a break from being translater for a while and enjoyed being able to chat in English. The border was quick and painless and we were not even asked about the Lasse Passe for the vehicles. So with confirmation from them that the road onwards was good all the way to Maidaguri we headed off into Nigeria.
Well the good road turned very quickly into an absolutely terrible road....a sandy bumpy track became thick sand with occasional streams to cross and 3 hours and only 30 km's later we made it to the tarred road.
I have never felt so exhausted trying to ride the bike through sand like that - I could have wrung my t-shirt out with all the sweating! The bikes are too heavy for such conditions...and my legs are too short to push myself out when I get stuck!!
But another challenge overcome and we found our hotel in Maidaguri....a rather hilarious totally un-renovated or un-touched place since the early 70's.
After some money and currency dealings the next morning (its impossible to use Mastercard anywhere in Africa, even with banks displaying MC signs and there are limited Visa ATM's) we sped off to the border at Banki to cross into Cameroon.
We got stamped out of Nigeria with no problems but with no Visa in our passports for Cameroon we were escorted to the police station and told that we would have to stay the night in Banki and then be police escorted to the next large town in the morning as it was getting late and not only would the visa office be closed but they could not guarantee our safety if we continued!
So we holed up in a campement, ate some rather awful chicken and played cards to keep our spirits up and hoped morning arrived sooner rather than later.
Which it did, so we collected our (very serious) police escort and drove with him all the way to Maroua.
Passing through great scenery along the way....mountainous and green.
At the immigration office, after being told we had insulted the Cameroon people by arriving in the country with no visa, we waited a few hours until we paid up and got the stamp.
After all this excitment we thankfully checked into the nicest hotel we have stayed in all trip.....monkeys and Ostriches in the garden, a swimming pool, a great restaurant and bar and a huge en-suite room for 4 for the bargain price of 7 euros per person! Yes!
Not to be too idle though we hooked up with a guide who chatted with us about an itinerary for the next couple of days if we stayed in Maroua.
We all agreed to a visit to a village amongst the Mandara Mountains, Rhumsiki and a days visit to National Park Waza.
We have had a great day today (thurs) at Rhumsiki, a beautiful place, surrounded by huge volcanic rock formations and in the village we met lots of the locals; potters,weavers. The highlight for me was meeting the village fortune teller/witch doctor who told our fortunes using a pot of sand, some carefully placed stones and a live crab thrown in on top. We each asked one question of him, he spat a few times on the crab, asked the crab our question, threw it in the pot and waited....a moment or two later he took the crab out of the pot and listened to the crabs answer....all i can say is that was one hell of a wise crab.
So tommorrow we are off to Waza to see some big game and then Saturday we will continue south through Cameroon. Next stop the town of Garoua, then N'Gouandere.
with love to everybody....xxx
Thursday, November 22, 2007
No stopping us now!
After four long and hard days in Ouagadougou, we finally came to a desicion. Our days were spent in absolute confusion mainly, one minute convinced we could not make it to Gabon and the next positive we could. All that and the 3 boys with stomach bugs and in bed most of the time.
With a lot of help from some african guides and talking to officials and embassies we have decided to cross the South of Niger, into the north of Nigeria at Diffa where we can drive through to the Cameroon border at Banki in a day or two at the most. We will then drive through the whole of Cameroon and into Gabon.
We left Ouagadougou yesterday morning (weds) and drove nearly 600 km's, crossed the border into Niger, no problems there, and made it to the capital, Niamey, where we successfully got the visa for Nigeria this morning.....well i say no problems....not for everyone else but if you are British....that'll be 100 euros thanks. As the consul put it 'the colonial master has money' ....i felt embarrased but paid up of course with a sweet smile!
So we are now about to eat lunch sitting on the beautiful lush green banks of the Niger river here, watching the locals do their laundry, and then we will set off to Dosso, where we sleep for the night, passing and stoppping a small village on the way to see some giraffes....cant wait.
Then cross the whole of southern Niger in the next few days and cross into Nigeria next Monday or Tuesday. Exhausted just thinking about it!
xxxx
With a lot of help from some african guides and talking to officials and embassies we have decided to cross the South of Niger, into the north of Nigeria at Diffa where we can drive through to the Cameroon border at Banki in a day or two at the most. We will then drive through the whole of Cameroon and into Gabon.
We left Ouagadougou yesterday morning (weds) and drove nearly 600 km's, crossed the border into Niger, no problems there, and made it to the capital, Niamey, where we successfully got the visa for Nigeria this morning.....well i say no problems....not for everyone else but if you are British....that'll be 100 euros thanks. As the consul put it 'the colonial master has money' ....i felt embarrased but paid up of course with a sweet smile!
So we are now about to eat lunch sitting on the beautiful lush green banks of the Niger river here, watching the locals do their laundry, and then we will set off to Dosso, where we sleep for the night, passing and stoppping a small village on the way to see some giraffes....cant wait.
Then cross the whole of southern Niger in the next few days and cross into Nigeria next Monday or Tuesday. Exhausted just thinking about it!
xxxx
Monday, November 19, 2007
Waiting at the Border
Friday afternoon is prayer time, not much to do but sit,wait and catch up on some much needed sleep.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
A Different World
We have now left Mali (sadly) and crossed the border into Burkina Faso yesterday, however my last blog post was so brief i will back track a bit....So we left Nouakchott in Mauritania and attempted to drive the 600 or so km's to Ayoun el Atrous the town before the Malian border in one day, we were doing well and enjoying the changes of scenery, from the dust, sand and dunes the landscape became more savannah like, endless....occasional rolling hills, the roadside littered with dead cattle in various stages of decay, cows and goats drinking from waterholes, huge herds of cattle crossing our path....it was like being in a nature programme, just needed David Attenborough's voice to narrate, it was perfect. We had about 90 km's to go to Ayoun when my bike ran out of petrol, we filled it up from one of the the jerry cans and were all ready to set off again, but the bike wouldnt start, battery dead....again! Jump-started the bike and continued for a bit but the long day was beginning to wear on us and luckily within a few km's we saw an Auberge on the side of the road and quickly turned into it and tucked ourselves into the tent for the night.
Next morning, we jump-started my bike again and decided the bike needed to be looked at before we went much further. We drove into Kiffa where some very handy mechanics, looked and listened to my bike, all agreed it was the battery and promtly removed it, bought a bottle of new acid, emptied the old and re-filled! Within about half an hour, new acid charged the bike was running again!!! Not sure thats how we do things back home, but who cares!
So back on track after lunch, and off to Ayoun, where we stayed for the night.
Next day we crossed into Mali with no problems at all. All of us of course very excited on entering the next country and all before lunchtime! Well the excitement was rather short lived - 50km's from the border and about to take the turn off to Bamako we were stopped by the police and invited to the customs to show our vehicle documents and buy the Lasse Passe (a kind of passport for the vehicles)....no problem we thought, we had had to do that in every country so far (just not 50km's into the country). What we had not thought about was that it was now friday lunchtime.....prayer and rest time for most muslims....the customs man in charge will be back at 3 we were told! Ah well, Bamako would have to wait another day.
So after getting our vehicles stamped into the country we drove into the town of Djema and found a place to stay - and we were now in Mali, they had cold beer- heaven!
What they also had hopping around the courtyard and into the rooms all night were frogs! My irrational fear caused quite alot of laughter all night and finally had Palli sweeping our room with a broom after one was seen hopping under the door!!
The following morning we set of to Bamako, a good road for most of the way, except for 40 km of red dusty gravel, which was challenging to say the least but we coped ok and stopped for a bite of melon afterwards in a lively village along the way, where we became (as usual by now) the spectacle, being the only whites to be seen around and our motorbikes as always attracting much attention!
We arrived into the city just before dusk and the shock of being in a city was quite something after driving through empty countryside and quite villages for weeks. Mopeds everywhere, crazy driving and smog. After settling into an auberge on the edge of the Niger river we re-gathered our energies and headed into the nightlife of Bamako to find some great Malian music.
We went from groovy bar, then listened and danced to a great Malian salsa band (Haukurs dancing caught everyones attention!!) and then a Malian club with singers, a great night and where we met 2 malians who invited us to listen to some African music the next day, which we did.
Abdroman (one of the guys) also invited us to let him be our guide to the Dogon villages.
So we headed off with him towards Dogon country, stopping in Segou and then Djenne - the most beautiful town that can only be reached by boat and with the largest mud built mosque and then onto Bandiagara and the Dogon villages.
This area is truly amazing and beautiful, the people are wonderful, friendly and charming, children holding our hands all day... we have all found it very hard to leave. I never thought a place or people would have such a profound effect on me, and has certainly thrown up alot of questions for me. People live here with no electricity, no clean drinking water, no medicine and totally live off the land and away from any Malian laws or rules. It is very humbling to see and experience life like this. We helped to treat 2 people, (with some antiseptic and bandages that we have with us) with terrible sores on their legs and i can only wonder how many other people needed such treatment.
We visited 4 villages, did some climbing and some rather adventurous off roading in sand....and then agreed that Burkina and the rest of the trip was beckoning, so we left Dogon said our goodbyes to Abdroman and have arrived in Ougadougou, in Burkina Faso.
We will stay here over the weekend, maybe take a visit to the crocodile lakes near here tomorrow and then go to some embassies on Monday and Tuesday for visas and answers to some question we have. We have some big desisions to take about where to go next, time is ruuning out to get to Gabon and we must choose the safest, quickest and of course most enjoyable route we can.
Will keep you posted!
xxxx
Next morning, we jump-started my bike again and decided the bike needed to be looked at before we went much further. We drove into Kiffa where some very handy mechanics, looked and listened to my bike, all agreed it was the battery and promtly removed it, bought a bottle of new acid, emptied the old and re-filled! Within about half an hour, new acid charged the bike was running again!!! Not sure thats how we do things back home, but who cares!
So back on track after lunch, and off to Ayoun, where we stayed for the night.
Next day we crossed into Mali with no problems at all. All of us of course very excited on entering the next country and all before lunchtime! Well the excitement was rather short lived - 50km's from the border and about to take the turn off to Bamako we were stopped by the police and invited to the customs to show our vehicle documents and buy the Lasse Passe (a kind of passport for the vehicles)....no problem we thought, we had had to do that in every country so far (just not 50km's into the country). What we had not thought about was that it was now friday lunchtime.....prayer and rest time for most muslims....the customs man in charge will be back at 3 we were told! Ah well, Bamako would have to wait another day.
So after getting our vehicles stamped into the country we drove into the town of Djema and found a place to stay - and we were now in Mali, they had cold beer- heaven!
What they also had hopping around the courtyard and into the rooms all night were frogs! My irrational fear caused quite alot of laughter all night and finally had Palli sweeping our room with a broom after one was seen hopping under the door!!
The following morning we set of to Bamako, a good road for most of the way, except for 40 km of red dusty gravel, which was challenging to say the least but we coped ok and stopped for a bite of melon afterwards in a lively village along the way, where we became (as usual by now) the spectacle, being the only whites to be seen around and our motorbikes as always attracting much attention!
We arrived into the city just before dusk and the shock of being in a city was quite something after driving through empty countryside and quite villages for weeks. Mopeds everywhere, crazy driving and smog. After settling into an auberge on the edge of the Niger river we re-gathered our energies and headed into the nightlife of Bamako to find some great Malian music.
We went from groovy bar, then listened and danced to a great Malian salsa band (Haukurs dancing caught everyones attention!!) and then a Malian club with singers, a great night and where we met 2 malians who invited us to listen to some African music the next day, which we did.
Abdroman (one of the guys) also invited us to let him be our guide to the Dogon villages.
So we headed off with him towards Dogon country, stopping in Segou and then Djenne - the most beautiful town that can only be reached by boat and with the largest mud built mosque and then onto Bandiagara and the Dogon villages.
This area is truly amazing and beautiful, the people are wonderful, friendly and charming, children holding our hands all day... we have all found it very hard to leave. I never thought a place or people would have such a profound effect on me, and has certainly thrown up alot of questions for me. People live here with no electricity, no clean drinking water, no medicine and totally live off the land and away from any Malian laws or rules. It is very humbling to see and experience life like this. We helped to treat 2 people, (with some antiseptic and bandages that we have with us) with terrible sores on their legs and i can only wonder how many other people needed such treatment.
We visited 4 villages, did some climbing and some rather adventurous off roading in sand....and then agreed that Burkina and the rest of the trip was beckoning, so we left Dogon said our goodbyes to Abdroman and have arrived in Ougadougou, in Burkina Faso.
We will stay here over the weekend, maybe take a visit to the crocodile lakes near here tomorrow and then go to some embassies on Monday and Tuesday for visas and answers to some question we have. We have some big desisions to take about where to go next, time is ruuning out to get to Gabon and we must choose the safest, quickest and of course most enjoyable route we can.
Will keep you posted!
xxxx
Monday, November 12, 2007
Mali
Just a quick update......We crossed the border into Mali on Friday and have spent a couple of days in Bamako, quite a crazy city. Met up with some Malians on Saturday night here and yesterday they invited us to listen to some great African music, we had our own private concert in a tent in a small village on the outskirts of the city , it was truly unforgettable. Today we leave and head east for the Dogon villages and are taking a man from there with us to be our guide for a couple of days. We will then head into Burkina Faso and onto the town of Ougadougou.
xxxx
xxxx
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Sandy & Sweaty
Cant tell you how hot it is here in Nouakchott, the coolest place is this internet cafe! With over 35 degrees plus in the shade and with a hot sandy wind blowing its exhausting just to sit. Sleepless nights just pouring with sweat.... mmmm, its lovely!
So, we are in the capital of Mauritania and planned to leave yesterday, head eastwards and then down to the border of Mali but of course things are very different here and the simple issues like exhanging or withdrawing money takes a long time. There are no cash machines in Mauritania, there is one in the city here but it's not open until December! The banks will not change our Moroccan money into Mauritania currency so we have spent quite a few hours transferring money via Western Union and in the Bureau de Changes exhanging our emergency euros! And when the person in charge feels like a break, well, you just have to wait until they have finshed. However we did manage to get the Visa for Mali this morning and insurance for all the vehicles for all the countries we will now travel through, except Ghana, so that's a huge bonus and hopefully will save some time at the borders.
We are all quite pleased to be away from the hassles from people in Morocco, people there are very pushy, not really taking no for an answer and the invites of "come and look in my shop, just look, no pressure" was becoming quite tiresome.
People here so far are quieter, calmer and seem just genuinely interested in who we are and where we come from.
Although the incessant barking of dogs in Morocco has been replaced by the honking of car horns, here in the city at least....its relentless, and seems rather pointless, our taxi driver to the fish market seemed to be beeping just for the fun of it, but with no clear rules of the road maybe it helps somehow.
We are looking forward now to getting to Mali- to visit the Dogon Villages, listen to great music in Bamako at the weekend and I have to admit buy a nice cold beer....its been a while! We have been drinking gallons of coke instead and a trip to the dentist when we return is not out of the question!
Thanks to you all for all the messages you send, keep them coming and yes, thanks I am feeling much better. Love and sweaty hugs to you all x
So, we are in the capital of Mauritania and planned to leave yesterday, head eastwards and then down to the border of Mali but of course things are very different here and the simple issues like exhanging or withdrawing money takes a long time. There are no cash machines in Mauritania, there is one in the city here but it's not open until December! The banks will not change our Moroccan money into Mauritania currency so we have spent quite a few hours transferring money via Western Union and in the Bureau de Changes exhanging our emergency euros! And when the person in charge feels like a break, well, you just have to wait until they have finshed. However we did manage to get the Visa for Mali this morning and insurance for all the vehicles for all the countries we will now travel through, except Ghana, so that's a huge bonus and hopefully will save some time at the borders.
We are all quite pleased to be away from the hassles from people in Morocco, people there are very pushy, not really taking no for an answer and the invites of "come and look in my shop, just look, no pressure" was becoming quite tiresome.
People here so far are quieter, calmer and seem just genuinely interested in who we are and where we come from.
Although the incessant barking of dogs in Morocco has been replaced by the honking of car horns, here in the city at least....its relentless, and seems rather pointless, our taxi driver to the fish market seemed to be beeping just for the fun of it, but with no clear rules of the road maybe it helps somehow.
We are looking forward now to getting to Mali- to visit the Dogon Villages, listen to great music in Bamako at the weekend and I have to admit buy a nice cold beer....its been a while! We have been drinking gallons of coke instead and a trip to the dentist when we return is not out of the question!
Thanks to you all for all the messages you send, keep them coming and yes, thanks I am feeling much better. Love and sweaty hugs to you all x
Monday, November 5, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Mauritania
We crossed the Mauritania border last night!!! After 4 very long and tiring days driving down the entire coast of Western Sahara; which is stunning...and very windy; we made it to the border. We had actually planned to cross this morning but suddenly found ourselves at a military post (of which we had come across many) and realised the border was 60kms sooner than we had thought! So 3 hours later with not a single problem with visas or insurance or bribes we safely crossed and made our way to Nouadhibou and camped up for the night.
Carring on further south later; heading towards Noukachott to obtain further visas.
All well; but the bugs have started biting!!!!!
Carring on further south later; heading towards Noukachott to obtain further visas.
All well; but the bugs have started biting!!!!!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Off Roading Into The Sahara
We headed down into this valley in southern Morocco renowned for its natural beauty and mountainous surroundings that leads through Ouarzerzate and Zagora and down towards M'hamid, a gateway to the Sahara. According to several locals the 200 km stretch between M'hamid and Foum Zguid was a fairly easily crossed desert piste that was worth taking for its awesome views of desert dunes.
We hadnt made it as far as the desert dunes when, on a mountain road n ear Zagora the jeep blew the head gasket again! Then again it did last blow it on the M25 in London so the new one lasted a good 3000 miles. Of course we quickly met some locals who arranged for a Land Rover specialist, the wizard, to pick the jeep up, tow it to Zagora and give it proper fix. So a couple of days later, with the jeep not only fixed but improved by the Wizard and with off road tyres fitted on the bikes we headed off across the piste into the desert but decided against taking a guide as we had just spent so much money on repairs that we couldnt afford one!
We had only gone a couple of kilometers in ridiculously difficult sand that pretty much had Palli and Caroline both exhausted so we decided to camp there for the night and enjoy the sand dunes before turning back around ther next morning.
The next morning, after a brilliant night under a starry sky, a full moon and real feeling of freedom in the middle of this amazing landscape, Caroline awoke with a severe stomach ache, vomiting and unable to ride. Then we ran into a local guide who told us we had strayed off the right path and that a couple of hundred meters away was the right track that was only an hours drive to where an encampment was, midway to Foum Zguid. So we put Caroline in the jeep, ignoring her pleas to get back on proper road, becouse us men knew that turning back was too costly an option to consider, as it would mean several hundred kilometers added to our journey. Left Haukur guarding her bike, armed with a phone, food water and the DV camera, and the bike keys(in case he could learn to ride it by himself), and then Palli was to return for the other bike(and Haukur) a couple of hours later in the jeep. Needless to say this plan went completely wrong, the track was extremely difficult to cross on the bike especially with heavy sand dunes intermittently crossing the otherwise reasonable rocky track making the bulky Africa Twin more than a handful to manouvre. Then we were lost, had no idea were we were, with the track splitting into several directions and temperatures rising, the bike getting completely stuck in sand, one hour quickly became three. We then decided to abandon our plan after a ""suggestion" from Caroline and find a guide to take all of us back to Haukur and get back on the main road. Which we successfully managed to do with Palli ferrying both bikes across the dunes. We stayed a night in M'hamid before taking the long way round to The Western Sahara.
So back up north for a few hundred km's and then across to Agadir, a problem with C's bike on the way for good measure which we got fixed in Agadir and 2 days later set off a fresh down south and into Western Sahara. We are half way down and after camping near the dunes last night we are hoping to head across the Mauritania border in the next day or 2.
So with sand in our eyes and everywhere else....fingers crossed.
We hadnt made it as far as the desert dunes when, on a mountain road n ear Zagora the jeep blew the head gasket again! Then again it did last blow it on the M25 in London so the new one lasted a good 3000 miles. Of course we quickly met some locals who arranged for a Land Rover specialist, the wizard, to pick the jeep up, tow it to Zagora and give it proper fix. So a couple of days later, with the jeep not only fixed but improved by the Wizard and with off road tyres fitted on the bikes we headed off across the piste into the desert but decided against taking a guide as we had just spent so much money on repairs that we couldnt afford one!
We had only gone a couple of kilometers in ridiculously difficult sand that pretty much had Palli and Caroline both exhausted so we decided to camp there for the night and enjoy the sand dunes before turning back around ther next morning.
The next morning, after a brilliant night under a starry sky, a full moon and real feeling of freedom in the middle of this amazing landscape, Caroline awoke with a severe stomach ache, vomiting and unable to ride. Then we ran into a local guide who told us we had strayed off the right path and that a couple of hundred meters away was the right track that was only an hours drive to where an encampment was, midway to Foum Zguid. So we put Caroline in the jeep, ignoring her pleas to get back on proper road, becouse us men knew that turning back was too costly an option to consider, as it would mean several hundred kilometers added to our journey. Left Haukur guarding her bike, armed with a phone, food water and the DV camera, and the bike keys(in case he could learn to ride it by himself), and then Palli was to return for the other bike(and Haukur) a couple of hours later in the jeep. Needless to say this plan went completely wrong, the track was extremely difficult to cross on the bike especially with heavy sand dunes intermittently crossing the otherwise reasonable rocky track making the bulky Africa Twin more than a handful to manouvre. Then we were lost, had no idea were we were, with the track splitting into several directions and temperatures rising, the bike getting completely stuck in sand, one hour quickly became three. We then decided to abandon our plan after a ""suggestion" from Caroline and find a guide to take all of us back to Haukur and get back on the main road. Which we successfully managed to do with Palli ferrying both bikes across the dunes. We stayed a night in M'hamid before taking the long way round to The Western Sahara.
So back up north for a few hundred km's and then across to Agadir, a problem with C's bike on the way for good measure which we got fixed in Agadir and 2 days later set off a fresh down south and into Western Sahara. We are half way down and after camping near the dunes last night we are hoping to head across the Mauritania border in the next day or 2.
So with sand in our eyes and everywhere else....fingers crossed.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Morocco
So much to tell since last time and writing on an english /arabic keyboard this might take some time! Here goes...We finally crossed into Morocco from Marbella last Thursday (11th). We headed into Tetouan in search of some lunch and of course, green eyed, fresh off the boat we immediately got swept away by the first moroccan 'guide' on a motorbike who showed us the only open restuaurant in town (it was Ramadan) He then took us through the Medina and the Kasbah and so on....4 hours later after tea with his brother and visits to all his local salesman friends we headed out and onto Chefchaouen.
We camped out for a couple of nights in this beautiful town in the Rif mountains and enjoyed the friendliness and hospitality of everyone we came across, especially Abraham who could not kiss us enough. Palli, Magga and Haukur delved into the world of Star Wars and bought wonderful Jalabahs. Now the force is definately with us!
After doing some filming with Osman, a Moroccan farmer we had met there 6 years ago we made our way to Volubilis, a world heritage site, with ancient roman ruins. We spent the night at a Gite, shared the most enormous dish of couscous and then toured the ruins in the morning.
Then onto the Cascades D'Ouzoud, a natural paradise with huge flowing waterfalls and beautiful walks into deep valleys.
Here we said our goodbyes to Magga, who had to return to Iceland. (Thanks for coming this far with us Magga and see you at home in the New Year)
We explored , and walked, and lazed about and ate, and then after a great storm on Wednesday night, the beautiful cascades became a chocolate brown river ( much to Pierre's delight!).....but decided to take another day there to do some filming and then got on our way to cross the High Atlas mountains yesterday.
Unbelievable views, breathtakingly so. The road seemed endlessly higher and higher, reaching over 2.5 kms high. Phew! Haukur could not bare to put the video camera away it was all so beautiful.
But the sun sets quickly here so we headed down the other side to the large town of Ourzarzate, where we are now.....the doorway to the desert.
Still considering various visa issues about crossing into Mauritania- all guide books say we can buy it at the border, various Moroccans say only in Casablanca, Casablanca office just closed down, traveller reports from March said they bought at the border, we just heard the law changed in mid september- visas only issued in Rabat (north morocco). and now someone crossed over 2 weeks ago and got it at the border, so thinking we will take our chances to cross. Still need to cross the Western Sahara first so a few more days to decide!
Well with all these exhuasting things to think about, we are all off for a good wash and a rub down at the local Hamam!!!
We camped out for a couple of nights in this beautiful town in the Rif mountains and enjoyed the friendliness and hospitality of everyone we came across, especially Abraham who could not kiss us enough. Palli, Magga and Haukur delved into the world of Star Wars and bought wonderful Jalabahs. Now the force is definately with us!
After doing some filming with Osman, a Moroccan farmer we had met there 6 years ago we made our way to Volubilis, a world heritage site, with ancient roman ruins. We spent the night at a Gite, shared the most enormous dish of couscous and then toured the ruins in the morning.
Then onto the Cascades D'Ouzoud, a natural paradise with huge flowing waterfalls and beautiful walks into deep valleys.
Here we said our goodbyes to Magga, who had to return to Iceland. (Thanks for coming this far with us Magga and see you at home in the New Year)
We explored , and walked, and lazed about and ate, and then after a great storm on Wednesday night, the beautiful cascades became a chocolate brown river ( much to Pierre's delight!).....but decided to take another day there to do some filming and then got on our way to cross the High Atlas mountains yesterday.
Unbelievable views, breathtakingly so. The road seemed endlessly higher and higher, reaching over 2.5 kms high. Phew! Haukur could not bare to put the video camera away it was all so beautiful.
But the sun sets quickly here so we headed down the other side to the large town of Ourzarzate, where we are now.....the doorway to the desert.
Still considering various visa issues about crossing into Mauritania- all guide books say we can buy it at the border, various Moroccans say only in Casablanca, Casablanca office just closed down, traveller reports from March said they bought at the border, we just heard the law changed in mid september- visas only issued in Rabat (north morocco). and now someone crossed over 2 weeks ago and got it at the border, so thinking we will take our chances to cross. Still need to cross the Western Sahara first so a few more days to decide!
Well with all these exhuasting things to think about, we are all off for a good wash and a rub down at the local Hamam!!!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Sunny Spain...still!
You remember when we said we were going to travel through west africa...well what we really meant is we are going travelling through Spain!! Yes, still here, but sooo close to Africa.
Travelling further south through Spain the battery on Palli´s bike exploded.While Palli and I waited at the roadside, Magga, Haukur and Pierre drove off to get a new battery from the nearest Honda garage 25 km´s away. However, on their return, all eager to fit the new battery in the bike and speed off, we carefully read the instructions to find that only after 2 hours of putting the acid into the battery and 10 hours of charging it would we be able to go anywhere at all. So leaving Pallís bike covered up on a slip road we left to find the nearest town to stay for the night, get the battery charged and have the jeep checked over for a few minor faults on the way.
Next morning Palli and I set off to find his bike and fit the new battery. Passing the jeep on the way out of town we saw that our Michelin Desert bike tryes and been stolen from the top of the jeep. The security wire we had wrapped around them had been cut. After a few tears we tried to get the bike started with the new battery...no such luck. The day was then spent with Benito, our friendly hotel manager who hired a van to collect the bike which weighing 250 kilos was no small feat trying to get the bike up into it. He also contacted a friend of his, a Honda motorcylcle mechanic in Jaen (nearest big town) where he drove with us, found us four new tryes for our bikes and stayed while the mechanic explained what he thought the problem might be...basically the blown battery ruined all the electrics...the alternator suddenly sent too high voltage to the battery and boom! ´Being a Friday, we would have to wait til at least Monday or Tuesday to get spare parts and fix it.´
Ok, plan B....after reporting the stolen tryes to the police...in a mime and pictionary type of way, which was hilarious, we decided to use the days to go and explore the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Found a lovely camping place in the mountains where we stayed for a couple of nights, did some filming and spent some time relaxing in Alhambra, where we took a night visit of the palace there...absolutley breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful. Then moving on to find the hippy commune, ´Benificio´ in the Alpajurras mountains, south of the Sierra Nevada, that Haukur had read about in Lesbok!
Encountering along the way a problem with the breaks on the jeep , just to keep us on our toes!
Found the commune in a very beatiful setting but kinda wishing we hadn´t....Haukurs advice for anyone visiting this place...´just don´t´!! Or at least, take your shoes off, dont eat meat, dont drink alcohol, dont wash and preferably start talking to yourself alot!
We did actually spend one night there by the camp fire with the locals and explored the area a little but eager to move on and after checking the breaks were fine we set off to collect the bike from the mechanic back in Jaen and then wizzed down to Marbella. Losing each other on the motorway after all of us missing a rather tricky turn off and then unable to find H,P & M, who had found a nice spot on the beach to camp, Palli and I gave up after six hours on the bikes and with bums aching and phone out of battery we found ourselves a hostel and re-united with the gang this morning.
We will spend the day planning the next few weeks and sort out bits and pieces and hopefully cross over into Morrocco in the morning.
Someone once said.. ´its not the destination, it´s the journey....´
Travelling further south through Spain the battery on Palli´s bike exploded.While Palli and I waited at the roadside, Magga, Haukur and Pierre drove off to get a new battery from the nearest Honda garage 25 km´s away. However, on their return, all eager to fit the new battery in the bike and speed off, we carefully read the instructions to find that only after 2 hours of putting the acid into the battery and 10 hours of charging it would we be able to go anywhere at all. So leaving Pallís bike covered up on a slip road we left to find the nearest town to stay for the night, get the battery charged and have the jeep checked over for a few minor faults on the way.
Next morning Palli and I set off to find his bike and fit the new battery. Passing the jeep on the way out of town we saw that our Michelin Desert bike tryes and been stolen from the top of the jeep. The security wire we had wrapped around them had been cut. After a few tears we tried to get the bike started with the new battery...no such luck. The day was then spent with Benito, our friendly hotel manager who hired a van to collect the bike which weighing 250 kilos was no small feat trying to get the bike up into it. He also contacted a friend of his, a Honda motorcylcle mechanic in Jaen (nearest big town) where he drove with us, found us four new tryes for our bikes and stayed while the mechanic explained what he thought the problem might be...basically the blown battery ruined all the electrics...the alternator suddenly sent too high voltage to the battery and boom! ´Being a Friday, we would have to wait til at least Monday or Tuesday to get spare parts and fix it.´
Ok, plan B....after reporting the stolen tryes to the police...in a mime and pictionary type of way, which was hilarious, we decided to use the days to go and explore the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Found a lovely camping place in the mountains where we stayed for a couple of nights, did some filming and spent some time relaxing in Alhambra, where we took a night visit of the palace there...absolutley breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful. Then moving on to find the hippy commune, ´Benificio´ in the Alpajurras mountains, south of the Sierra Nevada, that Haukur had read about in Lesbok!
Encountering along the way a problem with the breaks on the jeep , just to keep us on our toes!
Found the commune in a very beatiful setting but kinda wishing we hadn´t....Haukurs advice for anyone visiting this place...´just don´t´!! Or at least, take your shoes off, dont eat meat, dont drink alcohol, dont wash and preferably start talking to yourself alot!
We did actually spend one night there by the camp fire with the locals and explored the area a little but eager to move on and after checking the breaks were fine we set off to collect the bike from the mechanic back in Jaen and then wizzed down to Marbella. Losing each other on the motorway after all of us missing a rather tricky turn off and then unable to find H,P & M, who had found a nice spot on the beach to camp, Palli and I gave up after six hours on the bikes and with bums aching and phone out of battery we found ourselves a hostel and re-united with the gang this morning.
We will spend the day planning the next few weeks and sort out bits and pieces and hopefully cross over into Morrocco in the morning.
Someone once said.. ´its not the destination, it´s the journey....´
Monday, October 1, 2007
Sunny Spain
After a couple of very wet days and a little misery in Claviers where Pierre´s mum lives... some sightseeing in the mountains and filling up the jeep with all kinds of medical and first aid equipment... we headed south out of the mists and cold and found the sun in Sete, just past Montpellier. All pitched our tents together for the first time, cracked open the gas cooker and settled down for a night on the beach around the campfire....yes! We finally began our journey.
We then crossed over into Spain on Saturday, and stayed the night in the most picturesque, qauint town of Cadeques.
So for the next couple of days we will head towards southern spain and try to cross over to Morrocco on Wednesday. So we are all in high spirits, the sun is hot and we are on our way...
We then crossed over into Spain on Saturday, and stayed the night in the most picturesque, qauint town of Cadeques.
So for the next couple of days we will head towards southern spain and try to cross over to Morrocco on Wednesday. So we are all in high spirits, the sun is hot and we are on our way...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Snow
After spending a night in Honfleur, northern France, and then a rather long morning trying to get the jeep out of a very tight parking place! ...we headed south to Roanne. Where we have had the jeep suspension done and a few other bits and pieces. We have been staying with Pierre`s father and last night visited his sister and her boyfriend (the mechanic) and had quite a wild night there! So while we waited to get the jeep back we have had plenty of time to recover from that! We are now about to head further south towards the Pyrenees where Pierre`s mother lives and where we can pick up our satellite phone. But would you believe it...it has been snowing there today. We thought we would be heading south and into the sun. So with the floods in Africa and the snow in France, who knows what tomorrow will bring....exciiiting!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Leaving!
I almost dare not write this entry but it looks like we are ready to leave. I bought a new bike...a Honda Trans Alp 600 cc. Its lovely and I actually feel more comfortable on it than the last one...at least my feet touch the ground!
We got back the jeep from the mechanic yesterday, in working order, the roof rack was fittted expertly by the lads, shelf unit in the back fitted, and a brief practice to see if belongings fitted in.
A few adjustments on the bikes, Palli and I packing til 2am and a few more items to get this morning but after this blog i will and book the ferry across to France......and we are off!!
Yippee!!!
Send out all your good thoughts x
We got back the jeep from the mechanic yesterday, in working order, the roof rack was fittted expertly by the lads, shelf unit in the back fitted, and a brief practice to see if belongings fitted in.
A few adjustments on the bikes, Palli and I packing til 2am and a few more items to get this morning but after this blog i will and book the ferry across to France......and we are off!!
Yippee!!!
Send out all your good thoughts x
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Haukur skrifar
I don't have an Icelandic keyboard so for now I shall blog in English since Icelandic written in the English alphabet looks silly.
Just over a month ago I arrived in England and lived with Palli in his theatre company's flat in Eastbourne, East Sussex for the first two weeks. I recorded a few of the Rude Mechanical Theatre Company's shows in August and we started the principal photography for our feature film, Courier, on the 16th of August. After the last show of the season we moved to London to live in a micro-studio apartment in Stockwell, between a Portuguese Deli which made delicious chicken and had a barbecue going all day and night, and a Jamaican barber which specialised in dreadlocks and braids. Our windows opened to their backyards, they provided no view but we could smell the flaming barbecue and listen to reggae all day.
The shoot in England was successful though we had a few setbacks, mostly with the jeep breaking down, first on the M23, the day we bought the Land Rover, my first day on the English motorway. The engine mysteriously slowed down and choked halfway from East Sussex to London and I had to maneuvre the jeep from the central lane to the edge of the road. I walked a few hundred feet away to look for a sign, holding the camera bag. Then I decided to document what was happening since we are also making a documentary. As soon as I had the camera in hand a police car came to inspect me. I assured them I was a tourist and showed them the Land Rover, they were quite suspicious of me and my story until I told them I was Icelandic, then they just smiled and shook their heads.
After four hours standing on the side of the motorway the car dealer came smiling and called the AA, some mechanic came ten minutes later and fixed the car in five minutes. Apparently some wire was loose in the engine.
The next week the central locking failed and it can't be locked manually but that is all being sorted at the moment.
But at least we managed to shoot the motorcycle chase in downtown London without any police interference or major accidents. We shot it from countless angles, from street corners, from the back of Palli's CBR and from a Vespa (belonging to Gisli Orn Gardarsson) which Gotti, Pallis friend, was driving in front of Ricci and Palli. Ricci Harnett is an actor who is starring in a film called The Rise of The Foot Soldier and was premiered the day after the chase in 150 cinemas in England. He was still eager to do his own stunts just for the heck of it. He and Palli were both couriers, working for a company called One for the road, about seven years ago.
So we were in high spirits on the last day of shooting last sunday, on our way back from London to Bexhill where we're now staying when badabingbadaboom the head gasket blew and eventually Palli and I left the Land Rover south of London and rode down on his bike. The next day Palli got some recovery company to move it to the mechanic in East Sussex but the recovery vehicle funnily enough broke down, then Palli joined the AA but they said they couldn't get there until three hours later so he drove south again to negotiate with the car dealer, then the AA called and said they'd be there in fifteen minutes, Palli went back and then they were gone, then eventually an AA man came on a small van. Palli was disappointed and said: I envisaged a big lorry which could carry the jeep in the back and the AA man retorted: Well I envisaged this would be a great job, but it ain't. So he towed the jeep with Palli inside all the way south, then Palli and Caroline went back on her bike to pick up his bike and then badaboom as you've heard, she was hit by this Peugeot.
So we've been lucky in a way since we're all right but from another point of view we've had a few disasters and we haven't even left England yet, which counts as bad luck I would think. But fall er fararheill as we say where I come from.
So we will probably leave England on Saturday, will keep you posted.
Haukur Valdimar Palsson
Just over a month ago I arrived in England and lived with Palli in his theatre company's flat in Eastbourne, East Sussex for the first two weeks. I recorded a few of the Rude Mechanical Theatre Company's shows in August and we started the principal photography for our feature film, Courier, on the 16th of August. After the last show of the season we moved to London to live in a micro-studio apartment in Stockwell, between a Portuguese Deli which made delicious chicken and had a barbecue going all day and night, and a Jamaican barber which specialised in dreadlocks and braids. Our windows opened to their backyards, they provided no view but we could smell the flaming barbecue and listen to reggae all day.
The shoot in England was successful though we had a few setbacks, mostly with the jeep breaking down, first on the M23, the day we bought the Land Rover, my first day on the English motorway. The engine mysteriously slowed down and choked halfway from East Sussex to London and I had to maneuvre the jeep from the central lane to the edge of the road. I walked a few hundred feet away to look for a sign, holding the camera bag. Then I decided to document what was happening since we are also making a documentary. As soon as I had the camera in hand a police car came to inspect me. I assured them I was a tourist and showed them the Land Rover, they were quite suspicious of me and my story until I told them I was Icelandic, then they just smiled and shook their heads.
After four hours standing on the side of the motorway the car dealer came smiling and called the AA, some mechanic came ten minutes later and fixed the car in five minutes. Apparently some wire was loose in the engine.
The next week the central locking failed and it can't be locked manually but that is all being sorted at the moment.
But at least we managed to shoot the motorcycle chase in downtown London without any police interference or major accidents. We shot it from countless angles, from street corners, from the back of Palli's CBR and from a Vespa (belonging to Gisli Orn Gardarsson) which Gotti, Pallis friend, was driving in front of Ricci and Palli. Ricci Harnett is an actor who is starring in a film called The Rise of The Foot Soldier and was premiered the day after the chase in 150 cinemas in England. He was still eager to do his own stunts just for the heck of it. He and Palli were both couriers, working for a company called One for the road, about seven years ago.
So we were in high spirits on the last day of shooting last sunday, on our way back from London to Bexhill where we're now staying when badabingbadaboom the head gasket blew and eventually Palli and I left the Land Rover south of London and rode down on his bike. The next day Palli got some recovery company to move it to the mechanic in East Sussex but the recovery vehicle funnily enough broke down, then Palli joined the AA but they said they couldn't get there until three hours later so he drove south again to negotiate with the car dealer, then the AA called and said they'd be there in fifteen minutes, Palli went back and then they were gone, then eventually an AA man came on a small van. Palli was disappointed and said: I envisaged a big lorry which could carry the jeep in the back and the AA man retorted: Well I envisaged this would be a great job, but it ain't. So he towed the jeep with Palli inside all the way south, then Palli and Caroline went back on her bike to pick up his bike and then badaboom as you've heard, she was hit by this Peugeot.
So we've been lucky in a way since we're all right but from another point of view we've had a few disasters and we haven't even left England yet, which counts as bad luck I would think. But fall er fararheill as we say where I come from.
So we will probably leave England on Saturday, will keep you posted.
Haukur Valdimar Palsson
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
**?!!*?"*!?**?!!**
Just when you think things cant get any worse...they do! The jeep finally got road rescued yesterday afternoon from London, but the rescue company did not bring a proper pick-up truck so Palli had to leave his bike there and steer the jeep while being towed back to Bexhill. (Thats after the first companys' pick- up broke down on their way to the jeep!) So at about 7.30pm last night Palli and I both set off on my bike to collect his bike. On our return journey about 100 metres after setting off, each on our own bikes, a **!!!??*** arsehole in a car pulled out of a side road right infront of me and I smashed into the side of him, did a perfect somersault over the handlebars and head butted the tarmac.
After giving the driver a barrage of insults (i even swore in Icelandic at him) the police came, i checked myself over at A&E (a few bruises & sores) got my very smashed up bike rescued and rode back to my Dads.
So one bike and one jeep down, the adventurers are licking their wounds and wiping away tears to face another day in England.....
After giving the driver a barrage of insults (i even swore in Icelandic at him) the police came, i checked myself over at A&E (a few bruises & sores) got my very smashed up bike rescued and rode back to my Dads.
So one bike and one jeep down, the adventurers are licking their wounds and wiping away tears to face another day in England.....
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Delayed
We have postponed the departure for a few days...some problems with the jeep..some parts that we need have not turned up and then today Palli, Haukur and Pierre went up to London to sort out a few things and the engine over heated on the motorway...ooops, hoping it makes it back tonight to get it to a mechanic first thing in the morning. Also, Palli and I were changing the oil and oil filter on my bike last night, which was all going extremely well until Palli used a bit too much excertion tighting the last screw back on and snapped it in half...half stuck in the hole...so now my bike needs a mechanic too! We are now planning to leave Tuesday evening but we shall have to see how long the repairs will take....hey ho...its all part of the adventure...isn't it??!! Keep smiling xx
Sunday, September 9, 2007
At last!
Finally, here it is as promised the african blog! So much to tell already and we havent even left for Africa yet. Palli had a great summer working on the tour around southern England of 'Five Get Famous' I spent most of the summer staying with my sister and her family in Twickenham, which has been wonderful to spend so much time with my family for a change, I have also been doing various temp jobs..receptionist work mainly. Palli and I both bought our motorbikes for Africa earlier in the summer, a Honda Africa Twin for Palli and a Honda Dominator 650 for me. I have been practising alot to get my confidence up...it needed boosting especially after dropping it 3 times on the way home from buying it. No bones broken luckily, only the bike mirror. The bike is very tall and heavy but I am getting used to it and I'm sure it'll be no problem to ride through the deserts and jungles now...ha ha ha !!
So with our jobs over and after much producing and planning (and quite a few dramas, sleepless nights and the flu) and Haukur arriving we began filming 'Courier' . Its been going really well, everyone has been very supportive, we've found great actors & locations and we are all excited about how its looking so far....and we've not even been in trouble with the police once...yet! Many moments though of standing on streets, or wizzing through central london on the motorbikes, hoping not to get noticed. It amazing how inconspicious we have all become...always on the look out for those men in uniform. So we have 3 more days of filming to go, then 4 days to concentrate on getting ready for the trip and then we're off.....we have the jeep, Pierre arrived last week and Magga will join us here in the UK next friday. Can't wait!
So with our jobs over and after much producing and planning (and quite a few dramas, sleepless nights and the flu) and Haukur arriving we began filming 'Courier' . Its been going really well, everyone has been very supportive, we've found great actors & locations and we are all excited about how its looking so far....and we've not even been in trouble with the police once...yet! Many moments though of standing on streets, or wizzing through central london on the motorbikes, hoping not to get noticed. It amazing how inconspicious we have all become...always on the look out for those men in uniform. So we have 3 more days of filming to go, then 4 days to concentrate on getting ready for the trip and then we're off.....we have the jeep, Pierre arrived last week and Magga will join us here in the UK next friday. Can't wait!
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