Saturday, February 23, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dogon Country - Mali
In eastern Mali are the beautiful Dogon Villages. An 150km long escarpment cuts the Dogon country off from the rest of Mali. There are 40 villages that run along the escarpment. The Tellem people used to live there first high up in the rock, then the Dogon people moved in and took over the area. They still keep the houses preserved in the rock and use them for occasional village ceromonies, but they now live down below on solid ground!
Djenne, Mali - Unesco World Heritage Site
Djenne has the largest mud-built building in the world, a Mosque. (built in 1907) We were lucky enough to be invited inside for a look around before prayer time.
African Son - Bamako, Mali
Local musicians, African Son invited us for an impromptu concert in their village on the outskirts of Bamako.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Mauritania
The fishing beach in Nouakchott.
Thousands of fishermen bringing in their daily catch. All the boats so beautifully painted.
Back Home
Happy New Year!
We finally left Libreville and after long delays in Casablanca, we said goodbye to Pierre and made it back to the UK in time for Christmas. Haukur left for Iceland on the 24th and Palli and I had a lovely few days with my family down in Bexhill. We then managed to get Palli´s bike out of the depot at Heathrow, after shipping it from Libreville, and without a scratch on it amazingly.
So now we are back home in Iceland and after a fun new years we are beginning to realise that the adventure is really over. The perpetual darkness, rain and wind here is a good reminder!
Will start posting a selection of photos on here from the trip...hope you enjoy them!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Libreville
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!!!!!
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!!!!!
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
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