Ah lads, where do we even begin to summarise the past 2 weeks? Since our last blog, we've had 2 border crossings, seen a LOT more desert, tested the resilience of an Capall and met many interesting people!



We're currently in dusty, hot Tambacounda in Senegal and it really feels like we're surrounded by images of the "Africa" that one imagines when you heard that word; We're out of the Maghreb, past the Sahara desert and are now immersed in greenery. We've seen our first African monkeys, are surrounded by women carrying babies on their backs and buckets on their heads and the boisterous warmth of the people greets us everywhere.



On our last day in Western Sahara we covered close to 400 km. We came upon a man walking along the road in the desert. He didn't look like a camel herder, and the passing cars didn't stop for him. We stop to chat and offer him some water and food. He was a small 64 year old Tunisian man. I asked "Where are you walking now?" "Mauritania" he replies, in earnest. We've just seen a sign say it's 334 km to the border.......!!!! He explained that he was robbed somewhere in Morocco, and so had to walk to Mauritania, where he had some friends. If only we had a sidecar we could have given him a lift. Hopefully someone else did!



We spent 5- 6 days in Mauritania. Desert every inch of the way until close to the Senegal border. Beautiful driving along with soft sand as far as the eye can see, camels and small settlements appearing quite frequently. It's hard to comprehend how people live there. What's also hard to comprehend is seeing a lone image on the road in the distance, and you think "Oh, another motorbike". No, it's a man cycling a bicycle through the Sahara!!! Pushing the boundaries of adventure travelling I would think! Filled with feelings of laziness and guilt we stopped and offered some of our precious water supplies. "Sahara beautiful", he says as he tells of his plans to cycle to South Africa! He's not even sweating, or out of breath. Respect.

We've slept in a range of interesting places:

• A Berber tent at the Western Sahara/Mauritanian border


• Pitching our tent in the soft sand of the desert sleeping to the sound of camels (Noisy creatures that Mike aptly describes as sounding like a cross between an anxious donkey and a squeaky wheelbarrow!)


• A mattress on the roof of a hostel in Nouakchott, Mauritania
• We got to Kaolack, Senegal late and every hotel was full because of festivals. A hotel owner who spoke English with a New York accent, gave us a mattress on the roof terrace and allowed us stay for free, with free breakfast in the morning.

Memorable encounters have included:

• I went to a shop to buy bread and ending up sipping Mauritanian tea in the local shop while discussing Chris de Burgh with a local man in broken French (mine, not his)!


• Mike was sitting on the bike at the only shop for 200 km on the main road through Mauritania. 12 holy men men in full white robe approached, shook hands and broke into song.


• I was sitting on a bench in St Louis. Suddenly a small girl of 3 is shaking my hand. 2 seconds later: 14 girls aged 2 to 16 are sitting around me. My hair's plaited before I can catch my breath. I'm sprouting newly-taught Wolof (one of the Senegalese naitonal languages) phrases and the grils are hysterically laughing at my poor pronunciation!
• We stopped in Louga, Senegal for lunch. Everything was closed for preparations for a religious festival. We were waved across the road to a bunch of people sitting under a canopy. Within minutes we're surrounded by kids and then I joined the women and was invited to stir the massive pot of rice and beef. Mike spent the hour taking pictures of the kids and showing them the photos on the camera.

Okay, as seems to be the way of it, the only internet cafe we've found in a week is closing now so I must sign off.

Talk to you from Mali with more details

Edge of the Continent

Hi,

Just a few photos to keep you going.

We're having problems with the internet connection here so can't upload more.

We've travelled just under 1000 miles since we last wrote.

We've stayed in Agadir, Tan-Tan and Boujdour and tonight we're staying in Dakhla.

We've followed the coastline and for the last 3 days we've been riding with the Atlantic on our right and the Sahara on our left!

Photos nor words can really do justice to the awe-inspiring vastness of the desert.

Much of the desert so far has been what's called Hammada which is a dusty stony harsh landscape.

We've seen huge canyons, vast flat plains stretching to the horizon and herds of camels.

The road has been great but today, we took the bike off into the sand and rode parallel to the tarmac, just for the fun of it.

It's getting late now so we'll sign off.

Take care.

Hotel with secure parking!

Rolling out of the foyer backwards in the morning.

Wildlife. And camels.

Playing in the sand

Where the desert meets the ocean.

Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh

We're finally getting some decent miles under our belt and seeing more of the country.
We've now travelled 2355miles from home.

We were up early on Monday morning as we had to be at the Mauritanian embassy in Rabat to submit our visa application .

After manouevring the bike out the hotel front door we set off amid a torrential downpour.
All the guidebooks recommend dressing reasonably smartly when visiting national embassies, but luckily for us, the Mauritanian official seemed perfectly happy to deal with two sodden dirty bikers.

After a very pleasant day strolling through Rabat, we picked up the Mauritanian visa at 4.30 and reached Casablanca at 5.30pm.

Casablanca was a short stop as we left the next morning heading for Marrakesh.
We deliberately stayed off the motorway and it was a great decision.
The road surface was silky all the way and we crossed wide flat plains occasionally interspersed with smooth constant radius curves through hills.
Berrechid and Settat were two fabulously maintained towns we travelled through where the French influence of wide palm-tree-lined boulevards was obvious.

We're now in Marrakesh and it makes reality of the Moroccan Tourist Board advertising phrase, 'A Feast For The Senses'.

Place Djamma-El-Fna is the central square and from dusk it fills with food stalls and their associated smells and smoke, musicians, street entertainers, story tellers, and snake charmers.

My favourite memory of the last few days came while we were in Settat.
We stopped to chck the map and an old man came over and volunteered directions for Marrakesh.
Then he sent us on our way with a cheerful 'Bonne Route', as we have heard so many times, and with a slight bow, 'Allez avec plaisir'.

In the words of Willie Nelson.....

On The Road Again

It's 6.30pm; we're in the centre of our first capital city of the trip; African rush hour is in full swing; we're stopped at a busy junction; horns are blowing; mopeds are buzzing; pedestrians are flooding the road; what road-signs we can see are in Arabic; Linda's scanning for anything resembling a street name that's on our map, which she's holding on her lap; I'm trying to figure who has right of way......and the traffic lights are broken!

Ha ha, this madness is what it's all about. This is what we came for!!!

We're now in Rabat on the western coast of Morocco and after our 11 days sojourn in Chefchaouen we got moving again this morning.
The last week has been a strange mix of ups, downs and a lot of waiting.

We spent last weekend in Meknes and Fes.
As Linda described, Meknes was a wonderful transport back in time.
Fes was the same, just on a bigger scale!

If the best way to see a country is to meet the people, then the best way to meet the people is to look for a service which usually only locals need.

On the day we left Limerick, the zip in our tank bag split and has been a bit of a pain since.
We reckoned that if we could get it fixed anywhere, it would be in the busy backstreet stalls where everything is mended and nothing is disposible.
After a bit of a search, we met a lovely quiet man who runs a small wooden-doored stall, stuffed with zips, button and fasteners; we call it The Zippery.
A little chat about our problem and following 20 minutes of deft fingerwork, our bag was like new.

We returned to Chefcahouen and to our injured Capall on Tuesday.
We were waiting for 1 parcel of parts from Ireland and 1 parcel couriered from the UK; both of which would have needed to have been collected at the post office.
Tuesday - nothing; hang around and revise plans.
Wednesday - hopes were raised by the arrival of the Irish parcel although nothing from the UK. Hang around and revise plans.
Thursday - hopes were knocked back down with no parcel from the UK. Hang around and revise plans.
Friday - Excitement as the UK parcel arrived at mid-day.

Suddenly, Friday became busy.
The next 2 hours were spent searching for a garage with a bearing puller and press large enough.
We eventually found one 3km outside the town and during a funny chat with the gregarious owner, we swapped the bearing, spacer and seals.
As I said, using a local service is the best....!
Linda and myself spent the rest of the evening putting the bike back together and taking the tent down.

We covered 170miles today and right from the camp-site gate we had mix of glorious sunshine, beautiful views and challenging roads!
We travelled from sinuous curves in the Rif mountains to large expanses of flat plains towards the coast.
Roads were interesting and testing including one section where Linda had to get off so I could 'paddle' the bike as it squirmed about in a muddy track.

The junction scene at the beginning of this post was what greeted us when we got to Rabat and it was all topped off by the fun of getting An Capall up two steps, in the front door of the hotel, down the corridor past the reception desk and into the inner court yard where it's safely tied down for the night!