The north of Guinea is known for its spectacular waterfalls; one of the nicest is Sala which is around 30km from Labe. Leon, Jim, Simon, Blanco and I spent an enjoyable couple of days camping at one of the viewpoints above the waterfall. We were told that locals fear the djinn who they believe are [...]
By the time we had obtained our Guinean visas, packed and finished saying our farewells to Milky and his family it was late afternoon. We drove into the dark and then tried to find a place to camp. After searching unsuccessfully for more than an hour we passed a bar and decided to stop. There [...]
Milky invited us to camp at his family’s mango plantation on the outskirts of Bissau. We pitched our tents in a beautiful spot beneath the outstretched branches of the giant trees. In the night we woke to the crashes of mangos raining down from above, exploding as they hit they ground and pelted our tents [...]
When crossing an overland border in Africa the standard procedure is first to visit the immigration office and obtain an exit stamp in your passport to show that you have legally exited the country. Next you visit the ‘Duane’ or customs office and obtain an exit stamp on your Passavant or Carnet De Passage to [...]
We left the Gambia with Chi and Jim (of the famed 6 day Diama border standoff). We decided to take one of the smaller borders between The Gambia and Senegal in the hopes that Jim could avoid a repeat of his earlier standoff. Our plan started well, we got to the border early and quickly [...]
I first met our friend Ebrima on a beach in Dakhla, Western Sahara. We got chatting and soon he was telling me his life story. He told me that he came from a small village in The Gambia. He used to make some money going out into the bush to chop firewood but the government [...]
We left Dakar with Chi, a new friend, Marco and a savage hangover after our leaving party. By midday we starting to flag in the heat. Fortunately when we stopped for lunch we were spotted by Pablo, possibly the most French Frenchman I have ever met. On hearing about our trip he immediately invited us [...]
We spent our first few days in Senegal near to St. Louis. After the rigours of crossing the Sahara it was nice to be able to relax (and have a beer!) The outskirts of St Louis is mostly densely populated slum housing and rubbish strewn streets. The centre of town which is located on an [...]
The border crossing between Mauritania and Senegal is supposedly the worst in West Africa. I have heard Rosso, the main border described by travellers as as ‘the armpit of the world.’ Famously difficult and corrupt it is reportedly impossible to navigate without paying a ‘fixer.’ For this reason we decided to opt for crossing the [...]
From Nouadhibou we travelled around 500km to Mauritania’s capital of Noukshott. It was a long and beautiful drive through the vast sun bleached desert. Whilst much Western Sahara looked the same, during the drive across Mauritania the landscape changed many times. We started off driving through desolate flat white plains, they felt eerie and other worldly. [...]
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