West Africa Roundup

The first leg of our journey is drawing to an end as we head East from Ghana into Ethiopia. It’s quite difficult to reflect on everything that has happened up to now and summarise it in a paragraph. But I suppose one word comes to mind. Goat. The only constant over a journey that has spanned snowy mountains, sandy deserts, lazy rivers, open plains and paradise beaches has been the cunning, non-plussed face of the goat. No meal, no interaction and no landscape has been devoid of their vacant expressions and off-key bleats. Watching.Planning their next move. Islamic fervour,indifference or Christian evangelicals – the goat knows no religious affiliation. And has prospered throughout West Africa as a result of it. Self-immolations in Morocco, al-Qaeda kidnappings in the Sahel, election tension in Senegal, a military coup in Mali: all things that scared the bejeezus out of us but left the goat unflappable. He’s seen it all before. Food is scarce in these parts – where we have turned our noses up at another bowl of rice and sauce or fufu and fish, the goat has sat outside and indulged on the morning tabloid. Or a tube of Aquafresh.  Every rip-off and every selfless act of charity has had the goat as its overseer. He has watched us stumble our way through six countries and just whenever we have thought we had shaken him, a reassuring bleat has emerged from the buses hold or a gentle spray of chlorophylly urine has doused the window from the roofracks above. The goat has taken note and, although, a creature of few words, I suspect he would nod in approval and offer us these sage pearls: “Learn some bloody French”.

Here are some of the stats:

Monies raised to date: R20,100

Mileage: 10,148kms

Time on the road: 17 weeks

Modes of transport used: 13 (Car, Bus, Sept plus taxi, train, minibus, bush taxi, donkey cart, horse cart, cattle cart, pirogue, camel, bicycle, moped)

Countries visited: 6. Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana.

Occupied territories visited: 1. Western Sahara.

Countries in rebel hands on our departure: 1. Mali

Countries hanging in the balance despite our departure: 5

Names called: My friend, toubab, toubaboo, le blanc, le blanche, playboy, French military, Tellem, Texan, obruni, yova, asshole

Evangelicals accosted by: 6

Known convertees: 1

Proficiency of handling local transport:

a)      Before arrival of our mothers: 91%

b)      After arrival of our mothers: 17%








Check out the following vid that Tough Guy threw together about the last 17 weeks, it has the emotional resonance of a James Cameron epic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl6Qay9NTJI





Here are some extra pics from Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana: