The World by Road 0 March 10 07-JAN-2008 22:05:00 Bulgaria was our first entry point into the EU and we were surprised to find it packed with random excitement. We met a guy working at the border,who invited us back to his house to celebrate St. Nikolas day with his family. The night turned into a event filled with food, entertainment and some brief lessons in Bulgarian history. It was refreshing to know that even though we had entered Europe, the random encounters we have had throughout the expedition were far from over. 0 March 11 08-JAN-2008 14:14:38 On our way to Sofia, we stopped for a few days in Polvdiv… a lively town full of history and culture. We had the chance to check out some Roman ruins and get a little bit of work done before pushing on to the country’s capital. 0 March 12th 14-MAR-2008 13:00:00 On March 6, 2008 the Thundra and Little Pepe rumbled down the streets on our approach to Dakar, Senegal. I guess rumbling into town is a bit of an exaggeration because we literally crawled into town at a snail’s pace due to the intense Dakar traffic. It took 25 days to cover the 3,500 miles (5,600 km) from Lisbon to Dakar and although we were the only official participants in the unofficial 2008 Dakar Rally, it still feels good to say that we did it. The sections of the The World by Road Dakar Rally (TWBRDR) though Western Sahara, Mauritania and the Sahara Desert itself were a bit challenging from time to time, both physically and mentally… southern Morocco and Western Sahara officially take the blue ribbon to date for the highest number of police/military checkpoints crossed in a given stretch of road… but it actually was not all that bad. We did drive under a few banners as we arrived in Dakar, but unfortunately, they were not for us. Instead, the banners were for the Organization of the Islamic Conference that was getting ready to commence in Dakar. The conference was being held at the Meridian Hotel in N’Gor which was about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying with Antoine, the friendly French fish biologist who rescued us at the Senegalese border and let us crash at his house in Dakar… another story. Dignitaries, heads of state, many of which are OPEC members, and other important people were arriving and being shuttled around this part of town, and as a result, the whole area was subject to somewhat predictable yet still seemingly random road closures and police checkpoints. It was obvious when we arrived that Dakar was franticly trying to put the final touches on a citywide facelift. It was also obvious that Dakar had come nowhere close to meeting its goals for infrastructure improvements slated to be completed in time for the conference. In fact, people were still working on public works improvements even after the first conference panels began discussing what ever it was they were discussing. Apparently, and this is all hearsay mind you, Senegalese officials had been given quite a large sum of money from Gulf States that was to be directed towards citywide improvements. Unfortunately, a lot of that money ended up in people’s pockets and any money that did go towards improvements looks like it went to companies that should have no business being in construction. It will be amazing if the work that was actually completed in time for the conference lasts through the year to the next one. Case in point: they were going to lay concrete sidewalks along the main boulevard leading from the airport to the conference venue. Well, time ran out, so to show their benefactors that they had put the money to good use, workers were pouring concrete into forms that were simply set on top of uncompacted sand. No prep work, just pour it, paint it and move on. The job was done so poorly and hastily, that sections that had been poured only weeks before had already started to crumble from the weight of pedestrians and cars. Personally, I would have rather just spent the money to clean up the sand rather than pour a sidewalk that will consist of rubble in a few months, but hey, as long as it lasts long enough for the delegates to walk on it! Anyway, I can sense that I have digressed from the main point of this entry which was to let you know that we won the TWBRDR and in a year when the official Dakar Rally was canceled, we blazed on! 0 National park, What A Difference a Gate Can Make 14-MAR-2008 14:33:00 When picturing a national park, most of us probably think of rangers that help to protect the wildlife and answer visitors questions about the surrounding area and the flora and fauna that reside there. As you get farther and farther from the main tourist tracks in the world, the standard and definition of national parks changes dramatically. In Mauritania there is a park called “Banc d’Arguin National Park.” It is a World Heritage Site, and like many other World Heritage sites we have visited on our journey, it has a long way to go before one could call it protected. It does, however, offer something that no other national park has that we have been to…vastness. The “entrance” to the park is a GPS coordinate listed on a small map provided by the park office in the small town 200kms away. This map has a list of GPS coordinates that we tested before we left for the park, of which over 30% of them were incorrect. We knew this going in, but figured that we navigated Mongolia with just binoculars and compasses so with the GPS…how could we go wrong? The local population is only approximately 500 Imraguen tribesmen that live in seven villages within the park. We visited most of these villages and with so few people inhabiting over 12,000 square kilometers of space with no real infrastructure, it is safe to say you are on your own if something goes wrong. For three days we navigated the park, digging out of sand traps and motoring over sand dunes with a moderately accurate map and a couple of boards to help drive over soft sand. I would not call this the most stunning or spectacular national park in the world, but it does offer a playground for a real deep in the dunes style Sahara experience. We left the park at the end more dehydrated and dirty than any of us have ever been in our lives, nearly out of gas, with sun and wind burns, but for three days we gave the largest desert in the world our best and came out triumphant., You would think that the similarities between the countries here in West Africa would far outnumber the differences, but for me, nothing could be farther from reality. Driving from Senegal to Mali and most recently into Burkina Faso has been interesting because although the terrain and topography is very similar in the areas we have been, the culture seems miles apart. Almost immediately after crossing the border from Senegal into Mali, I got a sense that Mali was different. Not that I did not enjoy Senegal, but I immediately got a warm feeling from the people we saw in Mali as we drove down the road and the people we met as we stopped for food and fuel. The same held true when we crossed the border into Burkina. I guess that is why they are different countries… different cultures, different attitudes and different people. Sometimes the change is good, sometimes the change is bad, but if there is one thing that remains constant on this trip, it is that change is never that far down the road. 0 What A Difference a Gate Can Make 27-MAR-2008 10:20:06 You would think that the similarities between the countries here in West Africa would far outnumber the differences, but for me, nothing could be farther from reality. Driving from Senegal to Mali and most recently into Burkina Faso has been interesting because although the terrain and topography is very similar in the areas we have been, the culture seems miles apart. Almost immediately after crossing the border from Senegal into Mali, I got a sense that Mali was different. Not that I did not enjoy Senegal, but I immediately got a warm feeling from the people we saw in Mali as we drove down the road and the people we met as we stopped for food and fuel. The same held true when we crossed the border into Burkina. I guess that is why they are different countries… different cultures, different attitudes and different people. Sometimes the change is good, sometimes the change is bad, but if there is one thing that remains constant on this trip, it is that change is never that far down the road. 0 Everyone Should Have An Entourage 27-MAR-2008 10:50:08 I do not know about you, but every now and then, I wonder what it would be like famous. I wonder what it would be like to have a crowd of people follow you around, to have people come from miles just to catch a glimpse of you. Well, I guess I got a pretty good dose of that in Mali. We left the hustle and bustle of Mali’s capital city and headed out to a small village about 300 kilometers away from Bamako and on the road to the middle of nowhere… Timbuktu. The small village we stayed in, N8, was just outside a bigger village, Niono. I do not know the significance or the nomenclature of the village… maybe it is because it is the eighth village you pass as you head north from Niono on one of the many irrigation canals fed by the Niger river, but nonetheless, this is where my entourage was waiting. Within minutes of our arrival at N8, curious villagers gathered around the trucks, wondering just who it was that had pulled into their village. It did not take long before half a dozen kids exponentially grew into what seemed like hundreds. Everyone was smiling and wanted to shake our hands or give us a high five. The situation became even more chaotic when we pulled out the video camera to shoot some footage of life in the village. The people of N8 are seem happy and at first glance appear to be healthy, but N8 is a poor village and there is definitely the sense that people here are living day to day. It also became pretty obvious that people in the village, especially the younger children, had not seen too many white people. It was also obvious that not too many of them had seen a TV, and definitely none of the children had seen themselves on TV, which made us all the more popular. In fact, it was actually pretty hard to get any shots of actual village life because everyone wanted to look through the video camera. Even though trying to film in the village was a bit difficult, all of the smiles and laughter made up for it. It did not take long for us to make many new friends in the village, and we were a huge hit with the children, especially after I attempted to play soccer with a few of them. I guess it is the thought and effort that counts because after my failed attempts at trying to juggle a soccer ball, I could not go anywhere for the rest of the time we spent in N8 without at least three children holding my hands and another 20 to 30 following right behind. Everyone was willing to help us out and even the simple task of going to the village well to fill up our water containers attracted a large crowd of children. If anyone was annoyed at our presence, it might have been some parents who did not appreciate the distraction we offered to their children who were busy with the day’s chores, but even they looked on with great curiosity and cracked a smile when they saw us walking by… it was hard to miss us because we had so many kids in our entourage, we actually kicked up a sizable cloud of dust! When we did finally get a chance to sit down and take a break from the sweltering heat of the day, the younger children would scramble to find a spot on our laps or beside our chairs. Famous celebrities might get annoyed with all of the attention surrounding them, but for us, our 15 minutes of fame in N8 was worth every minute of it. 0 Challenge of the Week 27-MAR-2008 14:04:00 I am starting a new series of blogs called “The Challenge of the Week.” Back in the early days of the expedition, I tried to spend a good 20% of the time trying to present the real side of this expedition that most people do not know. After a couple of weeks of presenting these problems to people, I started to get numerous emails from the viewers telling me that I need to lighten up and that I am taking everything too seriously. That was back in New Zealand and since the audience comes first these blogs went away. Now that we have been on the road for over a year and are in Africa, I think it is time to resurrect these blogs. Why? Over and over we hear things like, “That is the sweetest job on the planet.” or “How do you get a job like that?” I will not deny that no place or job exists that I would rather find myself in right now; however, this romantic notion of driving around the world is far from what is conjured up in most peoples heads. In an average week much more of our time is spent doing things like fixing holes in tires, changing oil, getting visas, and researching than it is spent seeing the sights, drinking beers, or taking strolls on the beach. Now once a week or so we are going to try to keep you updated on the latest challenges we encounter. Not only will it give a more accurate representation of what we go through each week, but hopefully it will give you a window into what the lives are like for the the locals and the problems that they deal with. This week the challenge has been visas. The visa of note most recently is for Nigeria. While in the USA, all embassies seem to be required to post up to date information and at least maintain a basic website, abroad it is a whole different ball game. In Bamako, Mali our plans originally set us to get Niger visas. We knew that in Niger we could get our Nigerian visas, but when we were in the Niger consulate I decided to ask, “Is there a Nigerian Embassy in Bamako?” Bouey replied, “No, I already checked.” So I insisted, “Let’s ask the nice lady here, maybe it was not listed.” There was a secret little unlisted Nigerian embassy in Bamako after all. We use a few different methods to plan out the web of visas that we must get to keep the trucks moving. The two most used are the Lonely Planet guidebook and a website called http://embassyinformation.com/. Most of the time these are accurate, but when you are in a city that has less than 30% of its streets paved, it is safe to guess that these modern methods may fall short. So once you find out that there is an embassy, then you must find out where this embassy is. Is there a directory for Bamako? Ha. You are lucky to find a street sign, let alone a book listing the locations of everything in town. I managed to get the phone number for the embassy and gave them a call in hopes to get directions, but the connection was so bad I could not hear anything the man on the other side of the line was saying. All I could make out was…”find a taxi and ask them.” Out on the street there are always a plethora of taxis waiting to get your business. We had to ask about 4 taxis before one admitted to not knowing where the embassy was, but would be willing to drive around and ask people until he could find it. This gentleman was a true asset to Bouey and I on this day of visa fun, and after a while I think he started to feel like part of the team as he got an idea of what we were dealing with. He drove the streets of Bamako asking person after person for the location, all of them pointing in some different direction. After about 45 min, we managed to find the long dirt road to nowhere that was marked as the way to the goal. For most of us when we think of embassies, pictures of fortified buildings with armed guards come to mind. Nigeria does thing a little bit differently. Half a mile down the road leading to the embassy there is a little maze of small streets that leads you to entrance, the whole time doubting that this could possibly be the right place. Even the cab driver was still asking for directions when we were only 50 feet away from it. Then I hear Bouey yell out, “There it is!” “Where.” “Right there.” My little American eyes are not trained for this, but see for yourself if you would notice this embassy… We made our way inside and the man at the “gate” immediately said, “You must be the guy I talked to on the phone earlier.” Clearly this embassy is not often very busy. We were told to sit down in the front room just behind the white door you see above. Two mangled chairs with a half broken blades exposed fan set the mood for the waiting room, along with broken window on the wooden door. We were told to sit down and wait. A nice young lady came out from around the corner about 10 minutes later with forms and instructions. To keep things simple we needed the following items within the next two hours: 1. Our passports 2. Photocopy of our passport 3. 2 passport sized photos 4. Photocopy of our Mali visa 5. Photocopy of the title of the car 6. Photocopy of the Carnet documents, front and back 7. One four page visa form for each of the four of us. 8. 55,000 Francs per visa After a little pleading, our situation was left to this…If we could simply get all of these materials by the time they close this afternoon, we could get the visas at 3 pm tomorrow. Not before 3 not after 3, if we were late we would not get the visas until Monday. So now the clock begins, we must come up with all 8 items within about 1.5 hours, the temperature outside is a comfortable 106 degrees, our taxi has no AC with black interior, and our ATM cards only work in one of the banks in the whole city. First, we went to get the money. This one worked out easy, there happened to be a branch of the right bank randomly around the corner. Next comes all the photocopies. In Africa photocopies are a big deal and there are little shops all over…easy. Ha, Ha. The power for our entire section of the city was out. Our cab driver drove us all over in the hopes that one place would have power. Finally we gave up and decided that all the power was out on that side of the river. The only place for copies was 5 km across the river and into the center of the city. We raced over the bridge and made the copies, at the same time filling out the visa forms. Where have you traveled in the last 6 months? Where are you going after Nigeria? How much money do you make? What is your profession? It is just Bouey and I, so we are trying to fill out 4 of these forms while bouncing around on the dirt streets. My handwriting looks like a 4 year old with the turbulence. Then we get the my favorite question of the day. Have you ever forged or fraudulently filled out papers to get a visa in a foreign country? Um…not in the last week other than on the form I am filling out right now for Brook and forging his signature. Just in time we raced back to the embassy, dropped off all of the papers and documents, and were informed again that if we were not at the embassy at 3pm sharp tomorrow, we would not get our visas until after the weekend. It turned out to be a pretty interesting afternoon, but certainly not a relaxing walk around the local park. Each day we deal with something like this, sometimes fun, sometimes ultimately frustrating. This day worked out at the end, but countless days are just as full of action and end with disappointment. There is not anything much more draining than running around like this all day only to accomplish nothing. Each day that we deal with the embassies or getting the cars fixed we realize just how difficult it is, not only for us but for the locals. Just another day in the life on The World by Road. Oh and one more thing, most of this day was conversed in languages we do not understand. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0