A Curious Tale of African Cycling

Friday, 1 February 2013

Entry to the Thirder Worlds: Guinea Bissau & Guinea

What does one expect from some of the top 20 poorest countries in the world?

- Extreme poverty? I saw no hunger here except incredible natural resources. Fresh organic food of all types (fish, fruits, grains) can be grown locally and naturally. However this doesn't stop the World Food Program trucks from dishing out food for free while the local men laze around and 1000's of acres of unused fertile land remains unused.

- Bad Infrastructure? Astoundingly brutal roads (the bikes have been weeping daily from the punishment of rocks, rocks and more rocks or else crater potholes or otherwise deep sand) made worse as we naively elected for the scenic route. Electricity nonexistent in the villages, 4 hours daily in the bigger towns. Funny that people run up to you and boast about the tele in their village! (generators) ... Running water in the form of wells or rivers or in the evening time only in the city! We have joined the locals washing ourselves and our clothes in the rivers!

- Ridiculously Cheap Beer? Oh yeh - the larger Christian community of the former Portuguese colony of Guinea Bissau made it an amazing place to party - 70p a beer locally - Worlds Best Carnival I expect ... not to mention the fact that we saw pigs again!

- Poor Education? Many attendants in the shops can hardly add. Kids go to school to hang out while the military seem the worst educated and they control the country!

- Fragile Government? Of course. Everyone out for short term temporary gain. Stagnated investment. You arrive in the city centre in total disbelief that this could be it. A few normal buildings dotted among all sorts of erractically errected shanty like structures. In Guinea Bissau there was a total absence of initiative or belief that things will improve. Guinea not as bad.

- Outside Interference? Quite ironic that I come to Africa and afterwards cancel all my charity subscriptions. In the words of a international delegate here "Africa will never improve until all the white people leave" It seems political/business interests are using all sorts of organizations to perpetuate dependency here and prevent real sustainable development and progress.

- Non-existent Tourist Industry? Guinea Bissau gets only 5000 tourists a year. Most of the white people are Aid Workers, Diplomats or large multinationals workers driving around in fancy jeeps that seem to give the locals a distorted impression that all whities are millionaires. There's amazing things to see here but not a single tourist information office to be found. The mangrove plains of Guinea Bissau and the amazing, Avatar like, mountainous rainforest of central Guinea. Ollie met a few small chimps on the road. I met a big Daddy chimp (looked like an ape to me!) Scared the shit out of me! We are also experiencing celebrity status where ever we go. Up to 50 villagers have surrounded our tents on occasions examining us scratch our face.

- Extreme Social Disparity? You buy a roadside sandwich for 25p but yet the cheapest hotel in town is 50 euros

- Crime? Its far safer than Europe but unfortunately we did get robbed. Someone broke into our hotel room and robbed camera and laptop (sorry no photos this update :( We were staying in the Catholic Mission Guesthouse!

- Corrupt Police? Ha Ha ... Now for the funny part. To make a police report I first had to pay 20 euros. The following morning on returning to the police station, the first thing I had to do was to buy lunch for the InterPol guy. Then they wanted money to hang out in the restaurant and bars to see if they could find the thief! I even had an off duty Police Captain run up to me on the street and bring me to his car to say that he needed money for a mechanic. And then in the middle of all that the Immigration Police abducted me into a van to be whisked away to a different Police Station because I did not have the right photo copy of my visa on me! They did the same to Ollie the following day. Europe's not that bad after all!!

Moto's have replaced the horse and donkey down here - and the African Soccer Tournament is on at the moment (2 totally disjoint pieces of info I know)

Delighted to be joined by our new cycling friend - Cindy from Holland who as cycled and camped all the way on her own.
http://cyclingcindy.wordpress.com/

Trip total 7,754km. Starting to become a form of Bikram Cycling (sweat starts to pour off ya from 9am). Bikes starting to need some TLC. Bodies fine even after Ollie's few tumbles! ... evening climate is beautiful.

Leaving Conakry now and heading for Sierra Leone and Liberia - what surprises await us there!

Thursday, 10 January 2013

True Black Africa: Senegal & The Gambia

Like a beaconing lighthouse such the white man is a radiating symbol for cash in West Africa!

But not in a nasty or sinister way (its far safer here than in Europe) but the daily game of people directly or indirectly trying to wrangle money out of you becomes an interesting sport.

However, dig your way past the people coming to the roadside demanding money or possessions, the coincidental passers by offering help but with a whole cobweb of schemes to help themselves, the absence of any fixed/ published prices for anything and the countless bars filled with hookers, and you will find a people very relaxed, gentle, warm and with a special charm and style.

And who can criticise such actions in a world where only the lucky few have any sort of regular decent income – the rest left to manage and get-by, somehow, someway. In the countryside it seems simpler to survive off the land (allotted to you by the chief). In the cities and bigger towns one has to be more inventive. People rely on strength of family and community which are very real with many families live together in compounds. The critical monthly expense seems to be the 50kg bag of rice for around 25 euros. Then after that onions, fish, meat, vegies, other fruits, torch batteries etc. with no sign of demand decreasing with kids everywhere. Its hard to confirm what the average Joe Bloggs get paid here but seems to be somewhere between 50 and 100 euros a month.

Lots of notices of aid programs along the roadside and its seems plausible that the NGO’s have effected peoples mentality ‘westerners are vending machines - stick your hand out quickly rather than trying to help yourself’.

Ok, enough shit talk from me. Summary of trip since last blog (yes its been a while, I’ve been lazy)

Small unspoilt villages among the dunes in Southern Mauritania oozing with authentic community spirit
Crazy border crossing into Senegal at Rosso … hard to know where the border was and who to believe
Accidently cycling through Student Protest that was blocking the road (take better notice of cars parked funnily in future!). Suddenly being surrounded by a mob with rocks and having bike pulled from me!
Few days in old colonial town of Saint Louis with frantic fishing industry and reunion with freely available ALCOHOL – YES!
Getting hit by truck on road to Dakar … body and bike survived … bags and laptop got busted … a small price to pay.
Few days in Dakar over Xmas … big spread out city … lots of scammers … very good social scene … Senegalese big into their music especially reggae
New Year at Saly, beach resort south of Dakar … really nice
A night in village compound on way to Gambia
3 days in Serrekunda, Gambia … best place so far … English instead of French … cheaper than Senegal … less hasslers … good party scene … military rule makes it a very organised ordered place … they have a cleaning day once a month where the whole country shuts and police prevent car travel.
A night in very remote village on way back to Senegal

Our host Gibril Sonko from Bagiran - he's school teacher and village health rep - we had a feed from his orange tree on the right

A banana discussion

Crazy amount of languages down here … everyone seems to speak at least 3 or 4 languages sometimes up to 9 or 10 … Arabic for the mosque, French and then at least 2 local languages … Wolof very common along with Malinka and Diola … I’m still struggling with French!

Trip total 6,652km - we've slowed down a bit. Next stop Guinea-Bissau and then Guinea before humidity and rainy season start playing with us.

(Blogger website not liking me today - pics scattered arrangement .., tut tut)