We headed off from the Sleeping Camel into the Mali traffic. I think the government had made some law about 2 stroke motorbikes as the streets were clogged with thousands of near new looking 125cc KTM 4 stroke commuter type motorbikes. Not a 2 stroke in sight which was good for air quality but the large fleet of clapped out diesel taxis made up for it and I can only imagine what the city might have been like with 2 stroke smoke as well.. We made straight for the border entry into Guinea down a pretty good sealed road. After an hour or so we arrived at the Mali immigration post and completed our paperwork and moved to the Guinea border. Mali had been a breeze and the border officials were excellent and they all knew their jobs. Entering Guinea was a stark contrast.
At the Police stop I was given clearance for us and the car, but to get the stamp that would complete the task, I was going to have to pay a bribe. I discussed this best I could and decided to move to the next post and see how I went later. At the next post, I had to get the car import permit. I sat in the office of an older official who didn’t look up from the paper shuffling for what seemed like ages only to glance at my things for around 1 second and wave me out saying ‘no permit for your car.’ This was of course not an option for us at all and I attempted to find out why. This went on for some time but I couldn’t get any answer from him at all. So, I left his office, walked down to the office that also had CHIEF in the title and knocked and boldly went in. I was hauled back out by his assistant and made to wait and after a short time, I was called back in with the first officer I saw to put my case. Much was said, all of which I didn’t understand and I was told by the chief, OK. You can enter. Please follow him, waving towards the first chap I had seen. Back to the small office and the paperwork was completed and I was asked for payment. I knew the correct price and the bidding started. The first offer was 50,000 CFA! It took me quite some time but I succeeded and he agreed to take the actual amount that would show on the receipt which was 11,000 CFA. Haha I thought until I reached into my pocket and realised that I didn’t have the correct change and I had to give him more that the agreed price. It wasn’t much, around €1.50 worth but I wasn’t going to get the change that’s was for sure. I then had to go back to the police for the passport stamp and the all-important stamp on the back of the import document. This was nothing more than a good old fashion shake down. No one was exempt. I was in the queue with all the rest of the locals and we were all in line to get screwed. While I was having a pretty good argument with one officer, I suddenly heard some English being spoken. It was a cunning local looking guy saying ‘but I don’t have 2000 CFA!’ His guard shot back ‘not in English’ and the discussion went on. It was interesting as in a lot of places it’s only the obvious tourists that are targeted but here I was like everyone else but for some reason my tax was more than twice what they were asking from the guy next to me. All this really did go on for all too long and I used all the tricks I had. Sat in his chair and stopped him from doing his work, acted dumb, acted smart I even went to the car and attempted to just drive on through.… nothing worked and I had to pay the tax. OK, OK, OK… I paid and got the stamp. It was then I realised how much of a victory it was for this guy to take my money as he did the stamping and signature like he was signing a new amendment declaring him the ruler of the free world. I have no doubt it made the dinner discussion around the family table that night after he stashed his tax-free earnings under his mattress (to pay for car repairs due to the poor roads in his country...) OK, let’s get going then. Off we went only to be stopped a few hundred meters down the road in what must have looked like a real full on car chase. We had not gone back to customs and we were chased down the road by the customs officials on their motorbikes, well we think it was their motorbikes as they were all on the back as passengers and with 6 of them in all, we caused quite a fuss on the street. We turned around and headed back and parked in the compound. At this stage I was worried that I had caused such a fuss getting the car permit, they might be getting out the rubber gloves for an Africa style search of the car, and us… who knows what it was but no sooner had we arrived we were told to go and we were free in Guinea.
We had a campsite to go to that was listed on the iOverlander app but when we arrived and re-read the listing, it was really only suitable for a motorbike and we kept going. After a bit of searching, we decided to head for some TV and cell phone towers we could see at the top of a hill and followed the track to the top. After chatting to the friendly caretaker and providing some kola nuts and batteries for his flashlight we settled in for a peaceful night. It’s just as well considering what we had in store for us on the roads over the next few days.
When we had planned our route through Guinea, we decided to stay pretty much to the main roads and head all the way through the country. On our first day we managed to travel only 350kms in 10½ hours of driving. Of that, maybe 2 hours were done in 4x4 low range travelling at speeds under 25kph. Before we started this trip, the only experience I have had off-road driving was many years earlier in the West Australian mines and that was really tame compared to what we were undertaking right at that moment. The roads are truly unbelievable. No description or photo will reveal the true condition of these roads. They are absolutely, completely, totally stuffed! The roads have seen no maintenance at all from the time they were built maybe 20 or 30 years ago. Add to this the annual rainy season and the damage that can do and you have the roads in Guinea. Most of the main roads are not drivable at all in normal cars during the rains. It’s a real wonder that people drive the roads in normal cars at all, but we saw them. The pot holes would start as small cracks then develop unchecked into large craters that cover the entire road. The only way through is to inch your way down the hole and back up the other side or detour onto the shoulder and back. In some cases the shoulder was better than the road. Now it’s not just one hole every so often, its holes and craters every metre of the way, even entire sections of road washed away all together leaving only mud, clay and puddles up to 1 metre deep for many, many, kilometres at a time. This went on for a few days and we were just about getting used to it but our last day was a real day of off-road adventure without ever leaving the A6 and A8 main roads through Guinea! We have walked up better walking tracks than we drove that day and sometimes I found myself laughing thinking about what we were actually doing. The roads were so rough!! We crossed several bridges that were just a bunch of logs across a span. At one crossing, the back wheel slipped off a bigger log and the right front wheel came off the ground. We were moving just enough for the momentum to carry us forward and the car toppled onto solid ground but I had to inspect the car after that one (and the crunching sound must have been the logs not the car...) All said and done, it was a real great experience and a first for us both, but the best part was the way the car handled the roughest parts with no fuss or apparent strain at all. We even towed a policeman whose car was stuck in a stream crossing. It was what the car was built to do and it did it really well. It’s a shame we were so focused (and worried at the time) to stop and take more photos of the roads and some of the obstacles we faced. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of roads like this on this trip..
Not far from the border crossing into Ivory Coast, we visited an area where a population of Chimpanzees live. These chimps are famous and you might have even seen them yourselves. They are 1 of only 2 known populations of Chimps that have learned to use tools. These are the chimps that use sticks to ‘fish’ for termites. They poke the stick down a termite hole and when it’s covered in termites, they pull it out and they have a snack. They live in a small area of forest and are a small population in 2 groups. We arrived on Sunday and camped at the research institute and arranged a tour for the next day. It was expensive! It cost us 1,000,000 Guinea Franks which is around €100 but we were keen to see the chimps we had heard of before. Off we went into the forest with no fewer than 6 guides to see the chimps. Well, we wondered through the bush for hours and hours but we didn’t find the group. The guides were very disappointed as well. They have a 95% success rate finding them but no one works weekends so on Monday they have to find them all over again for the week. We also had a small problem finding Luxy when we returned from the trip. If we are staying at a camp all day, she will find a place to snooze for the morning and that days snooze spot was also a good hiding spot. We had to sit and wait for her to arrive back at the car before we could pack up and go. It meant a late arrival at the border crossing that day after another day of 4x4 fun.
The crossing into Ivory Coast was pretty normal. No one asked for money and everyone knew how to do their jobs. It was however quite a strange experience arriving at the border. The Guinea side had a small bit of concrete road that started at the gate and went about 30 meters into Guinea and stopped. The rains had washed away so much soil at the end of the road that we had to climb a very steep and short bank to just get to the road and border gate. No doubt the locals know about this and would get a good run up on the dirt road to launch themselves onto the concrete part but we weren’t in the know and I stalled the first time and was hanging half on half off and I had to select low range as a last effort to leave Guinea! I will never forget the roads there.

We are starting to see a pattern with road and living conditions vs corruption, lawlessness and poverty in the countries we pass through. Mali was a contrast to Guinea. We were faced with no corruption in Mali. We also saw that the roads were in good condition and the police were effective and trusted. In Guinea, we were asked for money by every official we dealt with. It was similar in The Gambia. The Gambia has a new President that may clear things up for them but Guinea has only ever had one normal election since independence in 1958 and in 2012 the current president postponed elections indefinitely so the poor record may well continue. It was in Guinea that we saw complete and total poverty for the first time. It was quite sad as the people that are affected are trapped in this cycle even though the country has huge resources at its disposal. All of this money is syphoned off by the government and nothing is put into infrastructure, education or health. To show control, the government employs a large army and police force but they are mostly idle and just for show. It is about as far from what we are used to as you can get. Nothing like travel to make you appreciate your home country…

​We stayed in Dakar for a few days to get the visas sorted out for Ivory Coast and Mali. Dakar was a bit of a surprise for us, and of course it was not the nice surprise one gets when they discover things were nicer than expected. As I had mentioned in the last blog, we started badly in Dakar with the hotel and we were desperate to see the good side of this city I had actually heard of before we started to plan this trip. I think most people have heard of the Dakar Rally before, I sure had. I had a vision of an international style city with wide roads and busy shops and of course with rally cars everywhere. The reality was about as far from my vision as it could get. Apart from a main boulevard along the coast, the streets were like most West African streets being narrow, busy and full of rubbish and people. We had our first accident on those streets and of course it was with a taxi.
We were waiting and waiting at an uncontrolled intersection.. well it was actually a roundabout but I had never seen a roundabout operate like this one. We were inching along in the traffic wondering what the problem was as I could see the road a few hundred meters ahead was not so busy. We soon saw the problem. The main road was in front and to the left, but the road on the left was blocked and the cars were inching across the roundabout and blocking it for people (like probably only me) from going straight through. From the time we had arrived on the African continent I had employed the ‘might is right’ technique for getting through intersections meaning I have a bigger car than you so let me go first and it worked really well up to that point. I inched out into the traffic that was moving about walking pace and was promptly cut off. Hmmm, I kept going getting further and further in to the roundabout that was a normal 2 lane roundabout with cars 4 and sometimes 5 deep, plus motorbikes... Directly in front of me were 2 taxis and I wanted to get into the 6 inch gap between them, and pass through to the now clear road ahead of us. A few more inches… Christine said look out, we are getting close to this guy and I am sure I would have said something like ‘well he’s going to wait for me now..’ and kept inching forward. At this stage I have to say I expect to get this car all the way around the world by road without so much as a scratch anywhere, but I have always been a bit of a dreamer and as I got closer and closer I could see this vision coming to an end here in Dakar. A few more inches… I could now see the driver in the taxi to my left, the one that was attempting to get between me and the clear road ahead. As we have a dark window tint, he couldn’t see us. A few more inches… It was a game of chicken that this driver didn’t expect to be playing with a near new Toyota 4x4 with Euro plates and I think I should have known better too but here we were in a hot and dusty traffic jam and all he had to do was wait 3 seconds while I slipped through and he would be no worse off for his kindness. A few more inches…. ‘He’s not stopping’ Said Christine now pretty much looking down on his car. Even though we were pretty much stationary, she grabbed at the arm rest and center pocket to brace herself for the inevitable contact and sure enough, bump… he hit us and we were wedged together now causing further traffic problems…
The taxi driver was quick to open his door, but rather casually walked to the front of his absolutely shitty taxi and said with arms outstretched ‘look at my car’ as if to say the small impact we had just had was responsible for the numerous dents and scratches from bumper to bumper of his car. We now had the window open and was telling him to back up so we could carry on, or at least clear this intersection. What we had managed to achieve was to now block any further cars from coming from the left and cars behind us were now weaving past us and to freedom. All the while the driver was no doubt thinking of the new car he could get with all the money he would extract from these crazy Europeans that dared drive on his road and touch his car. He was making for the passenger side of our car and was walking around. In front, and to the right, the road was now clear… I turned the steering to the right and hey presto, we were untangled. Although I never looked at his car and any damage he might have caused himself by hitting us, he has only hit our rather thick and solid steel wheel rim and when I turned the steering to the right his car rolled backwards into the car behind him. He hadn’t pulled on the hand brake and had to run back to this car to stop it moving. Hehe.. I just drove off and disappeared into the Dakar traffic never to be seen by him again. I was relieved to see no damage at all to our car other than a smudge of Dakar taxi yellow on the wheel rim that I wear with pride. Remember, when you get out of your car, always put the handbrake on.

After spending some time in the city, we headed to Lake Rose that’s a little to the north of the city. It’s a salt lake that is 10 times salter than the sea. We stayed at a wonderful campground with Kevin, Stephanie and Pim. It was great. The campground was an addition to what was really a small resort and it had a lovely pool and a restaurant and bar. It is owned and run by a French man and his family and it was a welcome break from the road and we had a great time with our new Dutch friends and shared dinners and drinks with them for a few nights. The salt lake was really great. We had never been in a salt lake before and it was really a strange feeling. I felt like I was wearing an inflatable suit and even my legs wouldn’t sink at all. Around the lake there are several small-time salt works where the workers take small flat bottom boats out and then they get into the water and dig the salt from the bottom of the lake into the boat. Its bought back to shore and piled up to dry, then bagged and taken away. The workers spend quite some time in the water. We had to get out after only 10 minutes as our skin was stinging and the salt was working its way into parts of our bodies that we would rather not have salt in, if you know what I mean... We later heard the workers use shea butter on their skin to add back the moisture lost to the salt.
We said our goodbyes to our travelling friends and we headed off to The Gambia. Gambia is a small ‘micro state’ that’s based around The Gambia river where it widens and heads to the sea. It’s an old British colony and our first English speaking country since we actually left England. Legend has it, the British sailed up the river and fired cannon balls off to either side. They claimed the land up to where the balls landed as British Territory and The Gambia was born. This is a country that has been in the news lately after having its first presidential election for a while and it now has a new president but the old one wouldn’t initially. It was funny to see the place after seeing it on the TV. They really do know how to make a non-story into something that the world might be interested in and the reality is the entire thing was pretty low key. I had heard that troops from Senegal were converging on the place and there was no stability but as Senegal surrounds the country, there are always troops at the border and according to the many locals I spoke to, it was more media hype than anything else.

On arrival, we passed the immigration office without problems and headed to the ferry to cross the Gambia river. It was interesting to be able to chat with the locals in English and I had a very long talk with one guy who followed the car along the queue all the way to the ferry. He was at least 6ft tall and maybe in his mid-20’s. He posed an interesting question. He wanted us to adopt him! He had earlier asked if we had children and upon learning we didn’t, he said that he could be our son. He sincerely said he would be a good son for us and would be no trouble. He would work hard and be very quiet in the car for the remainder of our trip back to New Zealand. I found myself saying ‘Oh, thank you but we are OK for children right at the moment’. I guess for him it was a serious question and later I felt guilty for taking it so lightly. I guess the French talking tourists may get a lot more of this and to shake your head and say we don’t understand could actually be a benefit.
We stayed at another very nice campground run by a German couple for a few days and after getting some shopping and supplies we headed off. Out of the city we could see that although this was a small country, it had been run very badly by the last president who had used it as a personal money making venture for the past 22 years. The roads were bad and the infrastructure was all in a poor state. It was also a country that proved hard to leave! We spent a day driving up the river and we had planned to go back into Senegal via one of the smaller border crossings. We entered the route into the TomTom and off we went. Well, the road we were following was on the mapping software but in reality, it didn’t exist at all. We ended up doing a few large circles and ended up in a field that looked like it was a grain field during the rains. A local came out but this chap, like a lot of the out of towners didn’t speak English. We managed to get him to understand we were looking for the border or frontier as they put it and he sent us in the right direction and after 30 minutes or so of off road and dirt track travel we arrived at an old rusted sign that indicated the border. Oops, looks like we have left the country without going through a border control and we didn’t get our passports stamped out.. Never mind, we headed to the closest town in Senegal and to the police and immigration post to get things sorted out.
We ended up in a really small town that had a police station and a few shops and that was it. The police officer/immigration guy was sure surprised to see us and after he got rid of the odd chicken and some people that were sitting in his office chatting, we think he thought he could finally be a real immigration officer and look at real passports from real travelers rather than the locals who will travel between towns that just happen to be in different countries. He would just wave them on and not look at any documents or paperwork, but this wouldn’t be the case with us at all. After an hour or so and many phone calls to his boss, we were told NO, you cannot pass into Senegal as you need to obtain a visa first. I could see this coming as I listened to him talk to his boss a few times and although I could only understand bits of the French he was speaking, I got the drift of it. New Zealand has a waver for this requirement but he was not going to go against his boss, so we headed back to The Gambia.. just lucky we hadn’t been stamped out or we could have ended up in a pickle for sure. We camped the night and went in for round 2 the next morning, this time at a larger crossing that was on a sealed road. The immigration officer still had a chicken but he also had a goat so we think he was much more senior. This time we had exited The Gambia correctly, but guess what… we were again denied entry to Senegal for the same reason. I went back to the car and thought about what we could do. I decided to call his bluff and went back and explained to him that I needed to call my embassy so they could help me make the crossing. I explained that I would need to tell them exactly where I am and I would also need his name and the name of his boss so our people could help. I was very polite and not threatening in any way. He rushed back to the office, not knowing I had no cell phone coverage and the ability to even make the call and called his boss. The only word I understood from the brief chat was attaché which is what they call the ambassador. He put the phone down and with a big smile said ‘no need to make your call, I have the approval to make a discretionary visa for you and your wife’. It took 3 minutes and we were back in Senegal and heading to Mali.

Much has been said about Mali and it has had some bad press lately with some pretty bad attacks on hotels where westerners stay and there was a fresh kidnapping not too long ago. The extremists in the north have had a hostage in captivity now for 6 years! This has had a real effect on the locals in the capital city Bamako. Before all this, Bamako was a real international city and would have been the first we would have visited since we arrived in Africa but the attacks in 2015 changed all that and now the only tourists that come to the place are the odd intrepid backpacker and the overlanders, because Bamako is still the best place to get the travel visa for Nigeria. It’s not fair on the locals of the capital because it’s a long way from most of the trouble and generally the people in the south of Mali, where the capital is, are very moderate and from different ethnic groups altogether. This is a real example of the problems faced when borders are drawn on a map without thought for the people living there. The trip to the capital from the Senegal border was a breeze with some of the best roads we have seen so far. While we were waiting for our visas we stayed at a hotel/hostel called The Sleeping Camel. It’s an interesting place that was once the Moroccan embassy and it’s next to the German and Senegal embassies so there are about 30 heavily armed police and military within 20 meters of the place all day and night. We feel very safe all be it within a compound more like a prison than a campground. The yard has enough room for 3 or 4 overlanders to park and camp, but with the temperatures hitting 38 to 41 every day and a minimum of around 35 at night, we ended up taking a room with air conditioning for most of our time there. It was mainly so Luxy could sleep all day in comfort though. Most of the other guests are UN police and military, aid workers and the people who remove land mines and they are there at breakfast and dinner with the full uniform on including all their guns. The place is owned by an Australian and an American, so I have been able to watch as much rugby as I liked! It’s a lot of fun! They have had bands and parties, they have quiz nights and generally try to forget the fact that the city is under military rule and in a state of emergency. Before the attacks in 2015, the hotel was very busy being one of the most popular places for westerners to meet and stay. The remaining hostage that has been held for 6 years now was on a trip that left from The Sleeping Camel so its famous for more than one thing here.
 
We have started to meet some more overlanders too. As The Sleeping Camel is the only overland camping area within the city we all end up here at some stage. We have met James and Patrick who are heading to Capetown on motorbikes. They are not travelling together but were here at the same time. We also really enjoyed meeting Mike and Sue from Canada who are travelling around Africa in a converted Land Rover army ambulance. They are an inspiration as they are both in their 70’s and have already been around South America 10 years ago. But the most amazing people we met were a couple from Japan who are driving around Africa in a 660cc Mazda van that was designed and built for city postal delivery work. Think a Nissan Cube only smaller…
The third passenger is also doing very well. Luxy has started to travel much better and will now walk around the back seat and sometimes we get to have her on our laps while we drive on the smoother roads. She is however feeling the heat and is pretty much laying around for 20 hours a day preferring to wake us at 4am when the temperature is down to the mid 30’s and she feels like running around again. She was completely comfortable with her harness on until she lost it somewhere at the Sleeping Camel… She has started to follow us when we walk around at wild camps, sometimes for 100’s of meters and she will mostly come when we call her. We will next look to getting her used to walking on the leash and being carried around amongst other people. We eventually expect to be able to take her with us sightseeing in a small backpack when she is sick of walking herself. Sounds like a hard job but the training is extremely intensive as she spends nearly every waking moment with us so we really do expect to be able to achieve this.
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Still a long way to go.