11/3/05 - 11/6/05
Well what was originally going to be just two nights recouping turned out to be 4 nights. On the 3rd Anna started feeling dizzy and having some flu like symptoms so I quickly busted out my Malaria fact sheet and sure enough she was having several malaria symptoms. So we headed to the lobby of the hotel and asked if they could recommend a hospital so she could get checked for Malaria, oddly enough they keep a doctor on staff. So $12 later for the doctor to check Anna's blood pressure she assured us it wasn't Malaria and that Anna was extremely fatigued. So Anna spent the next 24 hours and sleeping practically the whole time.
I spent the next day icing my thumb which I swear kept getting bigger but Anna keeps telling me its the same size and hasn't gotten worse, Her eyesight must be bad from the fatigue. I have never had such a bad sprain, besides being swollen it is several pretty colors of purple and blue.
One good thing about paying for a nice hotel is you get CNN so once again I am up to date on all the current affairs and once again depressed that our president is such an idiot, oh how I miss the Clinton days.
I did catch a great one hour CNN special edition on the Bird Flu and how it is going to end the world. I definitely see that it is a serious problem and needs the worlds attention but after spending the last 6 weeks in Africa where so many people face disease every day and a simple year of no rain could easily kill whole villages I have a little different perspective now.
On the 4th while Anna was recouping I decided I would give the old girl a much needed bath (the bike not Anna) and get some minor repairs made, the fog lights had been damaged and a couple of bolts had vibrated out from the bracket holding the gauge cluster. As I sat at the stop light a block from the hotel I felt the two guys on the scooter sitting next to me staring at me, so I quickly said hello. One spoke English and was very excited about my bike so he quickly offered to help me find a shop to fix my problems. After a couple quick turns and down some side streets we found a scooter shop, or more like a greasy spot on the side of the road with a stack of old bikes and scooters, I even saw a couple old Tenere's at the bottom of the pile. After the bike was once again road worthy I asked my new friend, Philip, if he would like to actually ride the bike down the block and back, he almost jumped out of his skin with excitement and before I could hand him the keys he was already on the bike. After his trip down the block I believe he was the happiest person in all of Africa, he quickly insisted we go to his house before we go to the carwash. So after visiting his friends house, his cousins house, his other friends house, and finally his house where we ate some cornmeal with an eggbatter. He also showed me a photo album with several pictures of him in uniform, turns out he was a police officer and it was his day off. After leaving his house and a couple quick stops at some more friends houses we made it to the moto washing place where he gave very specific instructions to the 2 guys who were going to wash the bike. I am not sure what he said but it must of been something because they nodded vigorously and quickly set out washing every spoke and every spot on the bike several times, I quit counting how many times they washed the tank and seat ( I guess they were worried that it had gotten dirty over the last 30 seconds when the washed before). After paying $2 (including a $1 tip, hey I know it may have been too big of a tip but really the bike hasn't looked this clean since I rolled it out of the dealership in San Francisco) so anyways after paying the guys I decided I had better get back to check on Anna since it was almost dark and I had been gone for almost 4 hours.
By the time I got back to the hotel Anna was up and feeling much better. So we decided to go out and get some food at a restaurant that I knew made huge ice-cream sundae's. After dinner we drove by the train station and were quite surprised to see a huge crane lifting several derailed train cars up. Apparently the day before the very train we had been on derailed at an intersection (we were guessing it hit a car trying to beat the train across). I have worked many years around large machinery (oil rigs and fishing boats) so I have a healthy understanding of the forces involved but I was in complete awe at the magnitude of a derailed train, the tracks looked like limp noodles laying around the cars that were now on their sides several hundred feet away from where they had derailed. My awe was amplified by the fact that just two days earlier I had been a passenger in the rusted out cattle car. To put it bluntly, seeing this left no doubts about my mortality and how fragile life is.
On the 5th when we were planning on leaving I started to get very sick with flu like symptoms, I quickly explained to Anna that I was an expert on the Bird Flu from watching CNN and that I definitely had the Bird Flu. She didn't believe me. So now it was my turn to spend the whole day in bed and try to recoup.
The next day I was feeling much better and explained to Anna that I was one of the strong ones that was able to survive the Bird Flu, again she just shook her head. My thumb is feeling a little better, I can work the throttle and use the brake lever with just minor pain but blinkers and the ignition button still cause allot of pain. So feeling much better we checked out of the hotel and headed towards Segou.
Bamako was actually quite a nice city for West Africa, they actually kept the garbage to a minimum and planted some grass and trees which helps keep the dust down (also helped that the Niger River goes right through the city). The worst part was the air pollution, at night you could barely see the stars through the haze caused by all the two-stroke scooters zooming around. Not sure I would put Bamako as must see cities of the world but there are definitely worse places to hold up for a couple days.
11/6/05
After leaving the hotel we made our way to Segou. It was a fairly uneventful ride except for the passing of two road hardened Germans who where on the last leg of a 6 month Africa trip. They were riding a 600cc motorcycle and had allot of good information about what we should encounter down the road. They didnt have much good to say about Angola (bad roads and very expensive crappy hotels) so once again I am without a plan on what I should do after Cameroon. Option 1 is to ship the bike to Kenya and Option 2 is to take the road south through Angola. Decisions. Feel free to send me your opinions and thoughts on what I should do.
After reaching Segou we checked around at a couple hotels but they were a little pricey so I ended up talking to a local guy who said for $4 he would let us camp at his house. This was much better than a hotel since we got to meet his family and really see how they locals lived.
Todays Specs
Weather: 100F Sunny and Hot
Distance: 150 miles Bamako to Segou
11/7/05
From Segou we had two options we could head to Burkina Faso or stay in Mali a couple more days and visit Dogon Country. Unfortunately the expiration on our visa for Nigeria is getting close so we decided we would have to skip out on the scenic Dogon Country.
We decided to Bush camp a little ways before the Burkina Faso border. After cooking a pasta dinner and saying hi to the usual herder or passerby (who found us very exciting for some reason and would just sit there and stare at us for about 20 minutes before moving on, I guess for them a couple white people camping must look a little silly) we called it a night.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F Sunny and Hot
Distance: 150 miles Segou to bush camping before Burkina Faso border
11/8/05
After the packing up camp we headed to the Burkina Faso border. The border crossing was exceptionally easy and the men at the border were very friendly and pretty much welcomed us with opened arms. The Burkina Faso border actually looked like a real border crossing, official looking buildings with people in pressed uniforms.
At the customs office they had a large scale (probably used to weigh goods people are bringing across the border) so I figured I would give it a shot and see how much weight I have lost. I couldn't believe it when the scale said I weighed in at 168lbs with all my motorcycle gear on which means I am actually about 160lbs or so. This would mean I have lost over 15lbs in the last month and a half. I think if I keep losing weight at this rate by the time I reach Cape Town I will look like one of those bobble head toys.
First thing we noticed about Burkina Faso was the change in roadside cafe's, in Mali it was almost impossible to find one (usually sat in the dirt in front of a small shop) but here they are clearly marked with signs and all have tables and covered patios. This makes things allot more enjoyable when you stop to take a break and you can sit under an awning at a table instead of sitting in the dirt under the sun, I dont ask for much in life really just a nice place to drink a cold coca cola.
As we made our way to Bobo we came across a tractor hauling a load of hay that had caught fire and was now parked along side the road. The fire was quite impressive and the owner of the tractor was quite concerned about the fire spreading to bush alongside the road. I quickly got off the bike and went over to help him, trying my hardest to explain to him he should first disconnect the tractor then worry about the trailer and surrounding bush. The people here really have no understanding consequence, He really did not understand what I was trying to explain and went on putting the fire out around the tractor. I gave up and just stood back until the flames started to leap onto the tractor and then he realized what I was trying to say. By this time a few more people had shown up so as he dodged the flames he disconnected the trailer and 5 of us pushed the tractor to safety. After the tractor was safe we decided there was nothing more we could do so we continued on down the road.
We made it to Bobo by 2:00 so I decided I would change the engine and gear oil before finding a hotel. So with a crowd of at least 30 people (there was literally a circle 4-5 people deep around the bike) and two shell gas station employees who decided they wanted to help me I changed the oil.
We found a great little hotel called CasaAfrique where rooms where $8 a night with a couple restaurants down the street where we had a chicken dinner with fries and rice for $5. I am definitely liking the prices here more than in Mali.
I am constantly getting people offering to buy the bike or asking me if they could have it but to tonight I had the first serious offer. West Africa is pretty much ran by the Lebanese so tonight a young Lebanese covered in gold with six or seven guys following him approached and quite seriously asked me if I would sell him the bike right there. He was quite disappointed when I wouldn't enter negotiations.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F Sunny and Hot
Distance: 150 miles bush camping before Burkina Faso border to Bobo in Burkina Faso
11/9/05
After leaving Bobo it was a couple hours of uneventful ride to the capital city Ouagadougou where we only stopped long enough to eat some food and move on. It actually looked like a decent city, better than allot of the cities west of here.
About 4:00 we decided to look for a place to camp when we happened across a sign that said Crocodile Campment Touristique. It turned out to be a bungalow camping place thats day had passed, so for $4 they let us set up tent and use the showers. They tried convincing us that for $8 they would put a dead chicken on a stick and get 4 crocodiles to come out of the lake next to the campment and we could take pictures. I decided to pass on the whole crocodile zoo like spectacle and instead went over to the village next to the campment and sat with some young local guys who were playing some traditional drums.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Bobo in Burkina Faso to Crocodile Campment Touristique
11/10/05
I feel bad that riding across Africa is just another day, but really every day still holds new surprises and sights. Today we saw many cotton fields and mountains of cotton where it was being sorted and ready to be shipped to market. We stopped at one of the sorting areas and were happily greated and had 10 cotton pickers ready to have their pictures taken. I really felt like I was transported back to the South 200 years ago, there were no machines, all carts pulled by people or donkeys. It was pretty amazing.
We made it to Fado were we decided to try to find a place to stay for the night. I saw an american kid pushing his bicycle, turns out Bobby was a peace corps volunteer who let us camp in his courtyard. So after dinner at a local restaurant and sharing some good Africa stories with Bobby we called it a night.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Crocodile Campment Touristique to Fado in Burkina Faso
10/11/05
After our typical breakfast of an omelet (after this trip I believe I will never eat another omelet as long as I live) we said bye to Bobby, wishing him the best on his two year commitment in the peace corps.
We made our way to the border of Niger and the environment quickly changed. The civility that we felt along the road up to Fado quickly faded and it felt as if we transported back in time. The grass huts and people we passed looked like technology hadnt reached them yet.
The border crossing was as friendly and as professional as it was on the other side of the country. So after several handshakes and smiles we were on to the Niger side. The Niger side was also just as smooth, I had decided to skip getting a visa in Ouagadougou and just wing it at the border, it turned out to be no problem as they quickly issued me a visa on the border and we were on our way to Naimey. Before we left the border we sat and had tea with one of the border guards who was very pro-American saying that last year when the locusts destroyed almost the whole crop yield that America was one of the main countries to come with aid and food. His English was very good and he explained that when he was a child a Venezuelan women had came to his village and taught them English and Spanish.
We made our way North and quickly saw the landscape change from the savannah of the Sahel to more of desert looking Sahara. The scenery was quickly complimented with people in the desert turbans and camels replacing the donkeys for packing goods.
Once in Naimey we asked around for a place to camp and were quickly pointed in the direction of Tatayi, a nice hotel where they let us camp in the courtyard for $10. We made our way to the local open market where we bought fixings for a great salad and rice dinner for $2. A good salad isnt the easiest thing to find on this continent so we quite enjoyed our dinner tonight.
After dinner we looked at the map and tried to figure out how we could go the Nation Park W, where lots of elephants and big game are, and still make it across Nigeria before our visa's expire. Well to make a long story short, after some creative pen work we changed a few numbers and now we have an extra 8 days on our visas. So we decided to spend an extra day in Naimey then head to Park W and see some elephants.
Todays Specs
Weather: 95F Sunny and Hot
Distance: Fado in Burkina Faso to Naimey in Niger
