tangiers to niamey in 80 days

not quite a trip around the globe, but a trip all the same. the lasttime i updated this blog,i had made it to bamako, on the banks of the incredible niger river.crossing the pont d'oie,i took one look at my feet and realised that biking to burkina fasowasn't going to start thatday - in the space of a couple of hours, both feet had ballooned intothe size of watermelon. after20 stubborn kilometres, dismounted in the southern suburb of senou.after finding a pharmacy, someantibiotics and a place to camp (the mayor's 'salle d'entertainment'),simply stopped and let timedo its thing. five days later, and with feet that were recognisable,scrapped the plan to bike toburkina faso, and instead hitchhiked into a different world. burkinafaso ranks as the 3rd poorestcountry in the world, but nowhere do you read that its people are thehappiest! biking from the fabulouslynamed capital, ouagadougou, to the niger border, it was impossible notto smile the whole way. infected bythis enthusiasm, spent an incredible week camping 'en brousse', starlittered sky that blows me away everytime. have abandoned cooking, as it is far cheaper to buy street foodoff some incredibly tough women...a plate of rice costs between 5 and 15 cent, and tastes better thananything dublin has to offer.
from the 3rd poorest country into the 1st, niger and its capital,niamey. with the intention of only stayingin niamey one or two nights, this 'plan' has been truly scuppered bythe chad visa application. according to theweb, getting a chad visa in niamey should take one day. arriving atthe embassy, now nearly two weeks ago was like stepping into a kafkanovel. scary, confusing, and as of now, with no end in sight.
sometimes being forced to stop is a good thing. have found freecamping with jesus - some friendly peopleunderstood the plight, and 'in the name of our good lord', have agreedto help out. the centre of town isdominated by two markets, the petit and grand, where you can buyanything. here's a diary entry from sunday 9/11/08:
another morning in niamey, who knows how many more? the evening moonis filling out with every passing day. alot, alot of mosquitos in thistown. breakfast and plantain by the petit marche. illegal tradersbustle by the taxirank. the very poor, eyes fixed to the ground search for fallennutrients. return to the plateau, where peopletake fish or meat with their daily dose of rice or haricots. moneygramand western union hoardings are morefrequent than roadsigns. the sweet bread has to be scrutinized for flyfragments. behind the grand marche, menwork like egyptian donkeys - is like the set of spartacus, albeit moreblack than white. chinese motorbikeseverywhere, toyota starlet taxis imported from switzerland, ! , redwhite and black cornmeal dough called To.pots made from pumpkins. boys pulling gallons and gallons of yellowcoloured water tanks. disabled everywhere.polio rampant. boys and bigboys play fighting on every corner.beautiful, smiling children. western supermarketsfor the expats who buy fruit that's available outside fresh for atenth of the price. ngo's everywhere. confused over languages: djerma,hausa and french all cobbled together, leaving me lost; french is hardenough. grandchildren leading the dignified and frail, often blind.open butchery and headless chicken dancing. distant drums as the pinksky gives way to darkness. hello tent. the homeless look for shelterin their dreams.

where to begin

firstly sorry about the huge delay.

have just made it to bamako from dakar in a bus journey of 1500km that remarkably took 60 hours. the less said about that the better.

made it thru beautiful, gapingly hot mauritania... sand dunes that look like fluffy melting ice cream - like a dream. people however were all on edge - 2 weeks earlier 13 soldiers were found beheaded in the desert: different rumours, some say al qaeda, others that the army was taking too much of an interest in the illicit desert drug trade. who knows.

hitched for free to the senegal border, which was negotiated somehow without paying the demanded bribes, and into a world of green. cycled from rosso to dakar in about a week - some crazy nights - stayed in a village chief's house - he of 4 wives and 50 children: bizarre. another night on the banks of the senegal river. beautiful.

from dakar, a sprawling, if charming mess hae made it to bamako. going to bike it to burkina faso ... though have been warned that there are alot of "animaux sauvage" en route, so camping might need to be aborted.

hopefully update from WAGA::::

dakhla

sorry for the absence of updates. ive been literally in the middle of nowhere. from essaioura biked 12 days straight to a little town called Daoura > 1 shop, a few onions and plenty of dates. i packed my bags with enough food for 3 days, and just went into the silence of the sahara.

so so quiet and peaceful. was even able to, without the weight of the bags, do some off road biking in the sand dunes in the morning and at sunset. really incredible days.

since laayoune, ive been hitching and cycling. now in dakhla. next step is mauritania...

tip toe ing to black africa ///

difference between europeans and africans

for the past few weeks i've slept in people's fields. people have brought me food and water nearly everyday. not once as anyone asked me to leave; to give them money.

in europe, if an arab guy camped in someone's garden, the curtains would be drawn and te police called.

about to enter western sahara ^^ excited and nervous...

sunset

random camping - between casablanca and safi

easing up in essaiora

all well,

resting in essaiora after 8 or 9 days cycling. going to rest up for a few days.

glad to hear all's well at home,

am having the time of my life. loving living the outdoor life - so wonderfully simple. moroccans are like laid back french people - very generous and chilled out. am living on about 3/4 euro a day. biggest expense is water... much more than bread!

josef, the german guy, has a cooker, so at night we have rice with vegetables. life with someone else makes everything easier; stuff like swimming - which i'm doing at every opportunity. the sunsets and stars at night have made camping beat any 5* hotel...

found a friend

have made it south of casablanca. the road is good and the wind at my back. met up with a 23 year old bavarian guy who has come down from germany by bike. he's on his way to senegal _ so until then, we're going to ride together. he's even more relaxed than i am...

ramadan starts today. have to eat on the qt

have been cmping under the stars for the past week, and swimming in the sea as often as possible.

gotta run. will post photos as soon as i can

early days

early days

in order to get the boat to africa, i took a train from malaga to the
dodgy departure point algeciras.

there one has 2 options - tangiers or cueta. cueta is a spanish
controlled city that borders morocco on all sides; infamous in recent
times for people trying to jump the (very) high walls and claim asylum
there.

arriving in cueta about 9pm i wasn't in the mood to free camp and
found a much filthier hostel instead.

entering morocco the following morning was pretty surreal. i appeared
to be the only one going in, while trying to enter cueta was a
stressed out line in the hundreds. police screaming, batons atwirling,
all very real.

i instantly hit some pretty big hills and some ominous signage -
"attention vent fort" et "attention brouillard souvent." thankfully,
there was no fog but plenty of wind. descending back down to sealevel
was a pretty nerve wrecking 30 minutes. some 80kms later, i arrived in
bustling tangiers. found an atm and the first of many boulangeries...

i then went down to one of the beaches where i met a local guy, abdul,
who lives in england - he was staying with his sister and her family.
he invited me to stay with them and i was treated to moroccan
hospitality and more food than i was able to handle.

i've since made my way down to a town called larache - a dusty old
fishing village. on the way here i was bombarded with free watermelon
and grapefruit - they kept me going in the unforgiving heat.

all is well. loving and hating being on the bike - at times, there is
nothing like the freedom it gives; other times i want to throw it into
the sea.

paul

safely in spain

bike arrived with me on the flight from dublin - always a plus.

spending my evening strolling the sun kissed streets of malaga. tomorrow is onto algeciras and the 70 minute boat to tangiers.

tick tock...

hello world

on monday (25/8/8) i arrive in malaga, spain. from there, i'll catch the boat to morocco. i'm travelling by bicycle, with a fair share of hitchhiking thrown in.

there are no time constraints on this trip; it will end when it ends. initial, very loose plan is to bike through morocco, into mauritania and beyond. camping all the way.

i'll blog as and when i can. till the next time...