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Date: 18 February 1999
07:45
Subject: News from West Africa
Hello everybody,
Ninety seven days and 18'095 kilometres later we arrived well in Lome
the capital of Togo. On our way we used more than 2000 litres of diesel,
4 shock absorbers, broke one drive shaft, wore out 2 tyres, replaced one
cylinder head gasket, spent lots of money and drank a countless amount
of beer. Nevertheless we are still having fun.
A short account of the last two months:
Christmas and New Years we spent in Niamey capital of Niger. Herbert was
down with a stomach bug and developed a rather funny way of following
the call of nature in crowded places with no public toilets. Since that
day we don't have a dishwashing bowl...
In Niamey we also had a good encounter with the police:
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CHARGED FOR CORRUPTING
THE POLICE:
We were driving through town when we heard a whistle blow. The next moment
a police man jumped in front of our car and directed us to the side.
What happened next was a game we had played many times before and we knew
so well: The police man slowly walked over to our car looking very serious.
We on the other hand were trying hard to look innocent. In a loud voice
and with a lot of gestures he explained the crime we have committed: turning
without using the indicator. For us hardly a crime in a country where
most of the cars don't even have an indicator.
The sentence for our serious offence was either a large fine paid in cash
right then and there; the taking of our car into custody or torture in
the dungeons of the police headquarters. We pleaded for forgiveness and
put on our most innocent of faces. That softened the policeman's heart
and he suggested that we talk about the price. What followed was more
a scene from a Moroccan market - hard bargaining for a reasonable fine.
It didn't take too long. Fifteen minutes later we had settled for a fine
of a few CFA's (the currency in most West African countries). When we
handed the
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kids hanging around in Musas workshop
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money over he mentioned
that he had no receipt. We were not surprised. A few hundred metres further
down the road a car pulled in front of us and made us stop. A man in a neat
uniform walked up towards our car and identified himself as an officer of
the national security police. He said that he had watched us bribing the
policeman and was going to charge us for corrupting the police. Now I got
worried. After a long debate in which I struggled a lot in my rural French,
we settled on a deal: In order to prove that we were not guilty I would
have to go back to the policeman and return with either the money or a receipt.
As I walked back to where the policeman was I thought about this deal: he
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would never
give me back the money nor would he issue me with a receipt. So I took some
money from my wallet, returned to the officer of the national security police
and showed him some CFA's. He took the money, mumbled something about keeping
it as evidence and added with a broad smile: 'but I can't give you a receipt'.
'May he burn in Hell' - were my thoughts when we drove off.
Shortly after New Years we left Niamey and drove towards
Mali. We spent a few nights at the base of the massive walls of the Homborri
mountains. Ed February and Andy de Klerk opened a route there last year
(Harmattan Rodeo 8c+). We managed to do some bouldering and missed Fred
Nicole by only a couple of days. In Mopti we had the chance to see the
Paris-Dakar Rally and spent the night in their camp. It is impressive
to see the whole circus and the organization that goes into it.
MUSA - 'THE MECHANIC'
It was also in Mopti where we had our first lesson on how to become a
bush mechanic. On the way to Dogon country the bolts that hold the rocker
assembly on the cylinder head came loose. The threads of all four cylinders
were stripped! Four days we spent under the palm roof of Musa 'the mechanic'.
We helped and more often watched how he made four sleeves from a steel
tube used for domestic plumbing, cut threads and fitted them into the
heads. All done with a hand drill. There was no electricity! It is still
working (8000 km later) now. We had a good time with Musa. He is Muslim
and it was during Ramadan. So we cheered him up by reminding him about
the advantages of being a Muslim but he didn't share our enthusiasm for
polygamy. He also couldn't understand our interest in the sleazy bars
of Mopti. Despite the fact that he had never set foot in one of them,
he knew them all and could tell us if we'd been ripped off with the beer
prices.
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Musa choosing the right tools for the job
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STUCK
IN NO-MANS LAND
We had enough of the desert and were looking forward to the tropics. So
in Bamako/Mali we bought two very expensive visas for Guinea. We checked
out at the border post in Mali and drove a couple of kilometres to the border
post in Guinea. There they informed us that the border had been closed for
over a month now and that they wouldn't be letting anybody enter the country
now or in the near future. We turned around, anxious to see if they would
let us back into Mali since we already had an exit stamp from there. |
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street scene in Cote d'Ivoire
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HOUDINI - THE CHICKEN
In order to avoid stomach problems (it didn't work for Herbert - remember
the dishwashing bowl) we had been careful and wary about what food we ate
and followed the golden rules: only drink purified water, be careful with
salads, no ice cubes, meat only when it is well cooked (i.e. it looks like
shoe soles), etc
For weeks we had avoided meat for the obvious reasons. It is sold in open-air
markets covered with millions of flies while roasting in the sun. Potential
buyers take the raw chunks of cow-, goat- or sheep meat, turn it around
in their hands, evaluate it and if they don't like it throw it back onto
the dirty table. Not very appetizing. But after nearly two weeks we were
craving for some meat and the most |
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sensible
thing to do was to buy the 'Thing' alive. So off we went to the market and
with great enthusiasm we shopped around for a good fat chicken. After some
bargaining and prodding we walked off with a fat -and in our opinion- healthy
chicken. To make the handling of the chicken easier, the vendor had tied
its legs together so I threw the chicken into the car and off we went, into
the bush to look for a good spot to camp. Meanwhile, without us noticing,
the chicken had done a little Houdini trick on us and freed itself from
its ties. When we stopped and opened the door, it jumped out of the car
and ran - ran for its life. While we had been looking for our camping place
we had been discussing all the various options on how we could prepare the
chicken and now it was running off into the bush! We took up the chase.
A while later we were sweating and covered with scratches from all the thorn
bushes but had still had no luck. A local came by on his bicycle and at
first watched our efforts with great amusement before he joined in our hunt.
With his help we trapped the little Houdini quickly. From there everything
went quickly: one quick picture and then it lost it's head and then the
feathers. Anxiously we waited for our Houdini to roast. But what a disappointment!
It was inedible - the bird was as tough as Indian rubber. A real African
runner! |
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me cooking some steaks using the sand ladders as a braai gird.
(after our experience with Houdini we learned how to get fresh meat:
they kill the animals early in the morning on market day - get there
before the flies wake up!)
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We spent about 3 weeks in
Cote d'Ivoire were we found some deserted beaches, good food, wild roads
and good company. We met Christine and Patrick, a Swiss couple in an old
Land Rover, at one of the beaches. It was good to travel with someone whose
car was in a worse condition than ours (at least that's what we thought).
Herbert and I were rolling on the floor when we heard the story how Patrick
got his head stuck in the High Lift Jack and lost a tooth a day before their
departure. In France they had had to buy |
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earplugs because they got headaches from the engine
noise. These stories made us forget all our worries about our car. From
Abidjan we drove to Accra, Ghana. There we spent some time working on
the car as Land Rover parts are cheap in Ghana.
The plan for the next couple of weeks is to get to Cameroon. On the 27th
of February there are elections in Nigeria and by that time we want to
be out of here. In Cameroon we will make further plans as to how we get
to South Africa.
Right now we are enjoying the luxury of a camping site run by a Swiss
woman in Lome. Yesterday we had Fondue Bourguignonne. Life can go on like
this.....
So far so good. Besides some stomach bugs, hangovers and sun burns we
are quite healthy. We also have good tans (although when we shower it
always comes off).
I hope we'll get a lot of new messages and thanks for the ones we have
gotten so far.
Enjoy the work
Axel and Herbert
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in the rainforest at Cote d'Ivoire
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