Day off – Simon is knackered!

Lisa writes:

Today I stayed with Kat at Bonaba Café (with the Landy It was easier for them to stay at Bonaba) whilst Simon and David went into Dakar. The day was hot – I’m glad I wasn’t going into a hot and very polluted city today in full motorbike kit!

Simon writes: Rode in with David to apply for our Mali visas and easily found the Mali embassy in Dakar at N 14º 41. 291 W 017º 28. 238.

Once again, the traffic was horrendous and David was happy to be on the bike instead of struggling in with the Landy! However, I don’t want to do this too often – it’s just not fun!

Lisa writes: Simon and David were back much later than we’d anticipated but after a nice cold beer they’d revived a little and we stayed on to enjoy a meal with Kat and David. Spag. cabonara was the meal and it was my turn to cook.

We haven’t been able to get to an internet café as frequently as we would like – the journey into Dakar is horrendous! Its completely mad – half dead horse and donkeys competing with mopeds, scooters, vendors who jump out at you selling everything from peanuts to plastic hair slides (I’m trying to get Simon to buy some for his now very long and girly hair!) and then there’s the local ‘buses’ – people hang off every inch of them – jumping in and out whilst they are still moving – sometimes right into your path. Today Simon has, once again, gone into Dakar – this time to collect our Mali visas and passports – cost being 22,000 each.

So, whilst he is fighting with the traffic, I am sitting on the edge of Lac Rose admiring its distinctive ‘pinkness’. The sky is a clear blue and a constant wind is blowing which keeps the temperature comfortable – otherwise it would be too hot to sit in the sun for long! The other day we were complaining we were both cold – the temp. must have dropped below 25 degrees! - Sorry for those of you reading this who are experiencing freezing temps! How on earth will we cope with a real winter?

We have a few more days here until we are able to make a move – of course we are waiting for the end of the Pairs- Dakar Rally – hoping that Elisabete and Charlie and the Trifene 200 team make it through. These are they guys we met in Merzouga, Morocco and who taught us sand/dune bashing. We are also waiting for my new fork seals (hopefully the right ones this time!) fork oil and a new rear tyre for Simon.

The route from here…? we heard from the Dakar Rally organisers that they had been warned against Mopti/Dogan territory in Mali and so have cancelled those stages of the rally. We have checked with the Mali embassy but they say there is no risk to tourists…but…we hear that the Algerian kidnappers who held the German hostages for so long have moved down into this territory….a worrying and sobering thought. Anyway, we’ll have to wait and see ‘cos we still need to go into Mali whatever! We have also considered going into Guinea Bissau and Guinea Rep. But have heard differing accounts as to conditions in both of these countries i.e. road conditions and police corruption. On the grapevine we have heard of demands for money at every checkpoint and your papers being held until you pay…

Anyway, we don’t’ have to make a decision yet as we can pick up a visa for Guinea Bissau in Casamance.

The place is still quiet! We had expected there to be loads of people here ready for the ‘big day’. Anyway, we walked along the beach today and it is just so beautiful – the waves are consistently huge and there is always a haze from the mist of seawater thrown up when they come crashing down. We walked a long way waiting to see if anything would happen today but at around 3pm we decided it would be best to walk through to see David and Katja. Just before we left the beach we stood and watched a fisherman stalk the shore, net in hand, skilfully looking for the tel-tale signs of the shoals movement. In a flash of the eye the net was cast and the full net brought to shore. It seemed rude not to buy at least a few for dinner! So 7 still wriggly, flapping fish were bought for 3,000 CFA (about £2.80). Dinner doesn’t get much fresher! However, no one apart from Lisa would touch them – so gutted and de-scaled – they were made ready for the BBQ by Mrs T while David and I headed into Rufisque where we bought 16 large beers for only 500 CFA (about 50p) each…much cheaper than the campsites! for added excitement David decided he'd rear end a brand new Merc' 4X4. The subject of insurance was mentioned fleatingly but with David's onward journey to South-Africa explained the Merc driver simply shrugged his shoulders and wrote the incident off to bad luck.

The night was much, much longer than we’d all anticipated, with an impromptu disco thrown in and us all dancing with the 7 Senegalese brothers who now run Bonaba café. We ended up returning to Palal at 3am!

With Simon tired but now fine (no food yesterday as he couldn’t keep any down) we went into Dakar.

At the Meridian we found Simon P. and the Dome gang at the poolside where we spent the rest of the day catching up with Simon P’s and Nick Plumbs Paris-Dakar trials and tribulations whilst having a few cold beers and snacks.

Unfortunately no Dakar kit was available as all had been sold out…but it was too expensive anyway as 18 euro for a baseball cap was a little over our budget!

20 to 22-01-2004

23-01-2004

 OK – so now we are both really fed up at not being able to locate this parcel. So, today is yet another day of hunting. DHL – no traceCustoms – no traceParcel Force – no helpMotorworks – unable to get an more information than above as others are not being very helpful!

We end up going into the airport at Dakar and physically hunting it down. Simon, with the help of airport officials and a ‘very nice man’ called Wolf from Lufthansa airline tracked it to the airport post office…who miraculously said “Yes, we have seen this parcel…last week (!) It will now be at the local post office parcel depot in Dakar”. The questions ‘Why?’ came into our heads but we didn’t ask but dashed off to this post office in downtown Dakar…who were closed for lunch.

Waiting outside we, once again, became the centre of attention but its at times like these that your patience begins to wear thin, however, keep smiling as people are genuinely interested and when surrounded you want the crowd to remain happy! Once inside the post office the parcel was found easily. It had been there since Monday 19th! Why? Why hadn’t it been delivered to the address on the box? Why did we have to pay 10000 CFA to have it ‘released’ as they had been ‘holding’ it for a week? Why did they hold it when the delivery address on it was VERY clear!? We were now starving as this had all taken well over 5 hours so, stopping at a small French restaurant before making the journey back to Lac Rose we pondered these questions…will we ever know and will we get a refund on our £100 of carriage that we had paid as it had never reached its final destination!?

24-01-2004

The morning didn’t start early but by 10:00 am we were both up, Lisa still feeling a bit ‘off colour’ but a huge improvement over last night, which scared the hell out of me. The speed of Lisa’s decline from unwell to unconscious was alarming.

Lisa spent today doing a few little jobs and resting in-between, whilst I created a website for the ‘Palal’ as a thank you for the discount they’ve offered to apply to our bill.

Website stuff, a bit of diary writing and getting both of us re-hydrated. Not one of our busier days. Although we have decided that we’re both feeling well enough to travel and so at 5pm we started packing up and loading the bikes in readiness for the ‘off’ tomorrow.

By 10:30am the bikes are laden, the tent packed and the bikes checked over and almost every member of staff had independently come to say goodbye.

We’ve met some great people here, not least of who is Issa, the grandson of the owner who genuinely wanted to make our stay here a good one. The hospitality and friendliness of this place is heart warming, so to leave and not get a photo of everyone would have been a big no-no. Within minutes the front gate was bustling as our new friends jostled for good positions in front of the camera. With two ‘clicks’ from the camera and handshakes and hugs exchanged we were off leaving Lac Rose behind us. The moving air circulating through our suites was a welcome break from the stifling heat. Some 20mins later we arrived down at the now familiar Rufisque T-junction but this time turned left and headed back up the main road which had brought us to Dakar some 15 days earlier. According to our Michelin 953 map we should be looking for a ‘lovely’ asphalt main road heading down to Mbour and then carrying on to Kaolack as we make our way to the Gambia. Unfortunately Mr Michelin is a little premature and in fact indicates the road they are beginning to build at present! So, our easy day of riding on asphalt has been exchanged for hard tracks, soft rutted sections chewing into the huge hanging plumes of lingering red dust kicked up by massive over laden trucks that pass at speed in both directions. As the day went on so did the road and so did us getting covered in a thick layer of red dust. We were breathing it, and eating it – it was heavily lining our nostrils – our goggles had a thick layer – absolutely everything was covered.

We were also getting de-hydrated as it was impossible to stop and take water as often as we needed and impossible to drink from our water straws as we were going along as all concentration was required for the road. At around 6pm we decided that we’d had enough and pulled off into the bushes at the side of the road in order to find a discreet place to bush camp away from the piste. By this time we had not even reached Kaolack and were a little disappointed at the progress we had made today. After fighting through the bushes and making sure we were far enough away from the road and unable to be seen we set up the tent as the sun was going down. A dinner of rice, tin of corn, tuna and soy sauce was thrown together and just finished before the MSR stove decided to give up the ghost. We are having problems at the moment trying to keep it clean as the fuel quality is shit and keeps clogging it up practically everyday. We think we may have to stop using the fuel and buy some paraffin instead…what on earth is this fuel doing to the bikes!