The Great Niger River Boat Trip – Part 3
Day 7: 12th Feb 2010 Ou tu vas comme ca? – Bee island – Frogs and splashes Nearly a week into the trip, about 100km downstream of Faranah, getting close…
The Great Niger River Boat Trip – Part 2
Day 4: 9th Feb 2010 Quiet morning – shallow maze – near-disaster – crocodile island Following a quiet morning on the river where progress was slow but steady, the afternoon…
The Great Niger River Boat Trip – Part 1
Day 1: 6th Feb 2010 Departure – 3 beers – Boh’s helping hand – will we make it to Bamako? It’s Saturday in Faranah; our boat is built and afloat…
The Birth of Joliba II
(Joliba Fila – Joliba meaning ‘Great River’ and Fila meaning ‘2’ in Manding) Travels down the Niger River – 350km, Faranah to Kouroussa (Guinea) 6th – 22nd February 2010 The…
Freetown to Faranah – Bangs, Bees and a Boat
Leaving Freetown We had arrived in Freetown on the bustling streets of Kissy Road in the East End lined with stalls selling everything from second-hand shoes to fake Sony radios;…
Long Road to Freetown (Part 3)
And finally….the final part of the journey, from No Man’s Land to Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. Noises in the Night Camped in No Man’s Land, I woke numerous times in…
Interview with Brian from Korean-World
I’m hoping to do a podcast interview with Brian in the coming months, but for now the internet connections in this part of West Africa are too slow. So, for…
Long Road to Freetown (Part 2)
This second part of the journey from Labe to Freetown, takes me from Kindia to the border with Sierra Leone, where I camped the night in No Man’s Land. The…
Long Road to Freetown (Part 1)
This is the first of two updates about the journey from Labe in Guinea to Freetown in Sierra Leone. This part takes me as far as Kindia, where I had…
6 Months of Statistics – The Road to Freetown
I’ve been on the road now for 6 months (I can hardly believe it!), so I thought it was time for a little update in numbers. Total distance cycled: 9219…
The Best of Times, The Toughest of Times (Part 2)
3 weeks, 4 countries, 7 boat rides, 1200km cycled. There have been good days and bad days, the best days and worst ones. At times it’s been tough and tiring,…
The Best of Times, The Toughest of Times (Part 1)
A lot has been and gone since the last update… 3 weeks, 4 countries, 7 boat rides, 1200km cycled. There have been good days and bad days, the best days…
No Rush in Senegal or The Gambia
Soulful St. Louis Arriving in St. Louis was the best introduction to Senegal I could have hoped for. We crossed the bridge from the mainland having weaved our way through…
Route Map and Current Location
I’ve finally got round to loading up my GPS tracks online. So if you’re interested in my route so far and my current location… here it is! I’ll be keeping…
In Search Of Beer – from the Sahara to Senegal
Since my last update in Nouakchott, where I signed off at the point of disembarkation of the iron-ore train with decision to take a bush-taxi to Atar in the depths…
The Great Mauritanian Train Ride
This is Africa After spending the best part of a week travelling through the desolate desert, arriving in Nouadhibou was an assault on the senses…. it felt like we had…
A Whole Lotta Sand
Day 1 – Slow start Not even half a day in reality. By the time we’d had breakfast, packed our panniers, checked emails and then carried the bikes down the…
Trans-Saharan Crossing Begins
Gateway to the Sahara Guelmim, the ‘gateway to the Sahara’ as it is known, which hints at it’s former importance as a trading post on the caravan routes of old,…
The Coastal Road
Climbing the argan tree The landscape from Essaouira to Agadir was dominated by the Argan tree, which is indigenous to this region and similar to the olive tree. I passed…
Beside the seaside
Having survived the desert, I was dropped off in Rissani – a small, friendly town with little to distinguish it except that it lies practically on top of the site…