Update Trans Africa - Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso -
This is the next update of Nev and Kristy our team during execution of the expedition Oasis Trans Africa and some group members to their stories and tales of their adventure
SENEGAL - .. by Kristy ...
Entering in Senegal we crossed a bridge. On this bridge was a man of stone face that required 5 euros for the privilege of spending. We politely asked for what we paid and asked for a receipt. The price was immediately raised to 10 euros. This was the time when the warning bells began to ring. But apparently, we had our hearing aids refused and therefore did not notice their metallic sound. We eventually paid and parked 50 meters away. I entered our immigration with 22 passports. The people were all dig deep and delivery of local currency to the dollar for Mr. Immigrations red rubber stamp privilege. He took a look at my stack and barked € 10. I sighed, but agreed that there were 22 of us, after all. And so I sat patiently while he growled and stamped, and depressed people, and he growled and stamped a little more, and finally it was done. "10 euro," he broke again as I packed up all the passports, "ok" I said, handing over the money. But no, he wanted 10 euros each! I made excuses and rushed to the truck to find a growing commotion. A look at his face flushed Nev said it all: despite all that right person at the Embassy of Senegal in Casablanca had protested when she refused to issue visas we were non-residents, and took our "is There a non-resident law, we can pay "to mean" you try to bribe me "this was indeed a country plagued by money grabbing corrupt officials. And they had set their sights on us. they systematically tore apart the truck - the tents were outside, the kitchen was outside, toolboxes were out locals were laggards waiting for the opportunity to find something unattended inside, they.. been tearing our bulk foods on the boxes, bags of its travelers lockers, spare truck parts of their containers, and accusing us import with intent to sell, and not spend money to Senegal. They demanded receipts for everything. It was pretty tense. But in the end it all came down, so one of the locals informed us, was cold cash. There was a reason the guy customs incited this skulduggery was so well dressed. And it was his little charade to spit us!
Finally, after not directly purchase three new bright costumes complete with loud shirts and pointy at the end shoes, we were driven to St. Louis. The next morning we took the town by truck to change some money and stock up on fresh produce. As we entered the city, we were stopped by the traffic police manning a roundabout. They asked to see the truck documents, Nev products. There was nothing on purpose, but the cop swept watching carefully for misconduct cause a bribe. He pretended to find something on the order and began to demand payment. The day before a bitter taste in the mouth of Nev, he cut the engine and sat on their demands. It took an hour, but they finally admitted defeat and returned our documents.
feeling a little uncomfortable, we had hell of Saint Louis and headed to Dakar. Here we found no hassles, just a lively and slow Internet. After a quick look around and replenishment of products in local markets, we began the slow dusty trip to Mali
MALI -. Katie ...
We spent our first week in Mali driving along a quiet dirt road, bush camping in beautiful places, swimming in rivers, through small villages of mud hut, driven by children waving bare feet and shouting. It was a great way to explore the countryside, Non-tourist Mali at a relaxed pace. At a campsite along the river, we were concerned to discover fresh hippo tracks around our tents but no we visited that night - or not we've seen. We stopped in a small town grocery store and parked near the school. In a few moments we were surrounded by children that the whole school came out to greet us. They all wanted to have us take pictures and there were many fights as they jostled for a position of choice. When we showed them the picture they all fell out laughing before asking us to another ... and another ... and another. Teachers let them run wild for 10 minutes before they were all driven back into the classrooms by the bigger boys wielding sticks. It is not enough to deter them as one by one they slipped on the open door and running back on for more photo fun. It was clear there would be no more learning done until we left!
We arrived in Bamako, the capital, in time from a week to prepare, celebrate and recover from Christmas. Our home for the week, the Sleeping Camel, was ideal for this purpose, with a bar serving cold beer and wifi to contact home. Bamako is also a huge rabbit a market and most of us decided that a suit bought here would be the perfect fit for our African Christmas. We all had a great selection of equipment, find tailors and explain what we wanted in our bad French. The days before Christmas were the opportunity to experience the local nightlife that Mali is famous for. Music, dancing, drumming and drinking beer led to some finishing 6 pm for part of our crew.
Christmas day there dawned bright and sunny (like every day is in Mali) and we all donned our colorful outfits ready to begin the festivities. Our great leader, Kristy had thought of everything - a mini Christmas tree, Santa hats for everyone, trucks decorations, Secret Santa and of course a food show. We had a full English breakfast with banana pancakes in the morning, cheese, crackers and dips in the afternoon, and the climax - a huge pig on the spit with all the trimmings for dinner of Christmas. The pig took all day to cook and we spent time preparing food, eating, drinking punch and play games. We all went to bed that night with very full belly!
Mali was one of the highlights of this trip, but there were also disappointments. Most of us have followed FCO advice and not go to what is probably the highest point in West Africa - Dogon Valley. Some have their own way, but missed Christmas with the group. We also made our first attempt for a Nigerian visa and refused even though we dressed in our best clothes and jumped through all the hoops - after the embassy was sitting on passports for a few days and had called us and visited several times, we were told that we could not expect them to treat 20 visa applications in such a short time - they would need at least 2 weeks. When we finally got them to Ghana, he was in a matter of days (for a price of course)
BURKINA FASO - .. By Amy ...
Burkina Faso, six days a new year Eve party, waterfalls, village tours, beer and local crocodiles ... amazing! Bobo we pushed our way through a crowd of people at the "Grand March" where we made our food purchases. We stopped to stock up on rehydration salts, and then took a tour of the "Old Town". The highest point of the old town was obviously the local brewery, where millet beer is boiled in a large bowl and served to visitors in large clay bowls. In the evening, people crash into a vehicle carrying twice its capacity to deal with a local pub with live music.
Our New Year celebration was to take place at the Karfiguela Falls. Major projects include swimming in the falls and many games. The big party was almost thwarted by a bridge was out, making the road impassable for our big truck. The group stressed that we are going back in Nev assesses our chances of navigating the detour made by the locals. It will not happen; if we got stuck we would be there for hours to dig. Fortunately, just in the nick of time a young man on a motorcycle comes and swears he knows another path to the campsite. So, winding through sugar cane fields and dodging irrigation equipment, we followed all the way to our destination. Happiness! We put in our shenanigans ... two days of fun. . There are of course a part of the truck; this included celebrate the arrival of the new year in all time zones of New Zealand in Vancouver. Others fled to a village festival. In a section of the village about 50 people crowded around a "27 TV to watch a movie in another section there was a place full bar and dancing talking! The mothers dancing with their babies on their backs and all everyone in the city wants to dance with us. We danced all night to the modern French music before joining the people of the truck were still playing, that can stay up all night?
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Look out for the next episode and many other tales and adventures ahead of Africa soon!