Gael Warnings in West Africa.

Indeed Ed, thanks for the reminder. Do you think 2 kilos will be enough?

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Not sure that'll be enough Jim. You know how sought after it is in Mauritania �� Hope you're having a fabulous time ��
 
Harking back a couple of days, we crossed this impressive bridge just after Rabat. Keen eyed viewers will spot Jim to the right
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Not sure that'll be enough Jim. You know how sought after it is in Mauritania �� Hope you're having a fabulous time ��
Yes Ed, better now that I'm putting more fuel in the bike than air. Here's hoping the repair holds.

I think you may need to post a link to your RR for the tea innocents here.

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Just a quick update to say we are now in the desert just about to enter Western Sahara. All well with the bikes. Heading further south today.

The guy with the jemmy, bounced on that bar but still did not loosen the nut.
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600km yesterday and only 5 Fiches used at the checkpoints, good result. Road was a mixture of excdllent new road and the rest under upgrading. This included many offroad stretches of temporary road. Stayed in a wooden cabin at a kite surfing resort. First experience of sand riding and probably not the last.

According to these stickers a few other travellers have been on this route. We saw a bus going between Dakhla and Marrakesh and asked a local how long it took and he said "muchas horas". One of the phrases of the trip so far!
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Leaving Dakhla this morning under overcast skies. The bikes were soaking from overnight dew. It stayed cool for a fair bit of the trip, barley 20C. We had our first, and probably not our last call into a closed petrol station, no problem the next one is only...160km up the road. Maybe we should ease off the speed to make sure we get there. Although not at the border, we used this stop to fill any remaining extra tanks to be prepared for the 500km Mauritanian stretch.

Of course it had warmed up to over 30C when we got to the border. The Moroccan side was administrative but fine and we departed for the no-mans-land to the Mauri border. Hallelujah, there was a new tarmac road. A few hustlers surrounded us but we accelerated away down the smooth tarmac. However it only lasted half the distance and then we returned to the sand and rocks, oh joy. Simon seemed to navigate the big GS without problems and I took it at my own pace. There was a tricky moment while overtaking a lorry an I ended up in deep sand and struggled to remain upright, but succeeded and soon was parked up in the Mauri border post. A guy tried to latch on to us but we dismissed him and he got bored. All the officials were pleasant and we plowed through the police, visa, customs, police again and finally insurance. We had to assert ourselves to maintain our position in the queues, as locals are not shy in pushing in.
Although without problems it is an exhausting process in bike gear and we were glad to get on the bikes and ride away.

The photos below give a flavour of our day. We left our accommodation near Dakhla, passed a significant milestone and entered the tropics, a came across sand being blown on to the road, some UN vehicles behind Simon at a fuel stop, the famous Mauri ore train, fully loaded and with 3 engines, another animal road block and finally some scenes from wonderful landscape we passed through.
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Today was a great day in the desert. Up to now the weather has been kind to us with overcast conditions and temperatures around 30C. Today in Mauritania it was different, a real Saharan experience. We rode 480km and for many hours in temperatures over 41C, with a max over 43C. This is so hot you have to reduce ventilation and not increase it, although counterintuitive. Even opening the visor to drink from a Camelback was like having a hairdrier in your face, but it was essential to drink. We were fortunate that the service station had petrol and allowed us a short rest.

What the photographs can not capture is the feeling of travelling by bike through this landscape in the heat, with sand as far as you can see and massive skies, for me, it was a truly spiritual experience.

One special thing happened, where a dust devil began rotating in front of us and then moved on to the road and as we rode through, quite magical.

The service station in Mauritania is known and feared by adventure bikers who travel the west coast of Africa. It is the only service station between the two Mauritanian cities which are 300miles, (480km) apart, in the middle of the desert. The reason it is notorious, is it only has petrol sometimes, which is not a good thing in the middle of a desert.

Some say you are not a real adventure biker until you call in and there is no petrol and the next supply is 150 miles away. Today there was petrol, but not when I called 3 years ago. It is quite something when you pull in and the man says "pas d'essance", right Edventure? So far I'm running on 66% oui and 33% non.

Some views of the day...
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Jim has done a great job in conveying the essence of a demanding but, ultimately, satisfying day.

The heat was intense but as we approached Nouakchott we began to get the cooling effect of the sea quite rapidly which after 5 or more hours at 40 C+ was very welcome.

The day also had some minor technical challenges on my GS which I have posted a request for help on the Technical section.

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At a non technical level, in the soul in Marrakech I succumbed to the attractions of a heavy leather bag (pictured along with the guys who sold us bread and water before we set off today), supposedly made if dromedary skin, which does a good job of holding a 5 litre jerry can of petrol, 3 litre water bottles, my cooking stove and gas and various other sundries. It's a contrast to the red Ortlieb bag that has accompanied me on previous expeditions. In my idle thoughts as we ride through the desert, the Victorian traveller lives on...all that is needed now is a copy of Baedeker's Guide!

As a first timer in Nouakchott I am impressed - low rise, bustling but friendly, even has its own version of John Lewis:

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Just been to Mali consulate. Met the consul in person who talked approvingly of our Irish passports (there are reports on HUBB of French being refused visas) so hopefully in an hour will collect the visas.

On the way spotted this lady preparing her wares
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Today a day of paperwork and trying to check my bike on our rest day.

Walked a mile down to the bustling Marche du capital. IMG_8017.JPG

However it seems alternator belts are sold in another specialist market another mile away! In he searing heat I decide that can wait until tomorrow, since we cannot get Carte Brune insurance until then anyway. (Friday is a half day here for religious reasons).

Spot a handy supply of vache qui rit cheese, the cheese of travellers in this part of Africa.
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I observe also that tiled garages are popular here:

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Crossed a football field whose surface was probably not FA approved

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You can just about make out the goalposts at the end.

On the bike front, the GS battery connection are good and the level looks OK so time to 🤞🏼. Good to have Jim as a travel companion as his technical knowledge and ability far exceed mine!


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And cannot believe I have ridden this far with the Tucano muffs and gaucho on the bike
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I doubt they are really designed for the tropics but the shelter from the searing 40C winds has probably been helpful.

In fact the handlebar muffs have been on the bike continuously for nearly 10 years, including across Syria and down to Wadi Rum in Jordan, and in the Iranian desert, so they may stay on a little longer!




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I've been offline for a day and in fact was out of commission for all of yesterday after a chicken skewer meal at the "Top Fresh" restaurant in Noueckchott, clearly I'll not be recommending it on Trip Advisor. In the meantime Simon has been running around getting visas, chasing insurance, buying a spare alternator belt, shopping and looking after me, all in 40+C temperatures. A great partner to have.

Before taking to my bed I tried to buy a sim for my spare phone the day we arrived here. The security guard recommended a young lad selling from a stall near the hotel. I approached him and it seemed that he could sell one for about £6. I had a long discussion with him in our limited French. I was trying to establish whether it would allow me to have access to the internet. He seemed to assure me it would, so I agreed to have it installed. I handed him my phone which needs a pin to release the sim compartment and another for the SD card. This is when things got interesting.

He first poduced a bent keyring which was clearly to large for the hole and would not release the catch. Then he searched around in his drawer but could not find anything which would work. You might think a pin was a requirement of someone selling phnne sims. He then started to look on the ground, which really puzzled me until he came up with a wooden match. He broke it in half and chewed the end and tried to insert it into the hole. After some fiddling miraculously the catch opened and the SD card was revealed, sadly not the sim. He then tried with the sim compartment but it seemed the match only was up to one opening and he gave up. I then said I'd take the phone into the hotel and release it with a needle from a sewing kit and he seemed to approve of the idea. I returned with the sim compartment open and we inserted the sim. It worked in connecting me to the phone network but not to the internet. He took some time to understand the problem and then involved a guy sitting under a tree nearby. He had better French and we discussed the problem. It seems I would need to purchase additional credit to allow internet access. At this stage, after a day riding across the desert I lost the will to buy a sim and retired to the hotel with its air conditioning and WI-FI. I will revisit the purchase of a sim later this evening.

Once I surfaced this afternoon I and had a bit of energy again I was keen to have a look at the Sena intercom in Simons helmet. He'd complained that one speaker had failed and on investigation one if the fine speaker wires had come loose and after it was handled a few times both wires had become detached. I had a 12V soldering with me and began a repair. Just at this point a guy arrived who was proposing to sell us a carte brune insurance for Mali, Senegal and Gambia, and other countries of course. Simon then went off with the guy and I set up to solder.

To protect the battery I wanted to have the bike running before plugging in the soldering iron which was 20w. To test the iron I started my bike and it began to warm up. I could just reach the helmet on Simon's bike and soldered the wires.

All looked fine but when Simon had finished with the insurance discussion, (which I'm sure he'll describe later) we replaced the speaker but it did not work. We tried a few times with resoldering but no joy. My conclusion is that the channel may have failed, possibly with the wires touching or grounding. Sadly Simon will only have one speaker operating for the rest of the trip. An unsatisfactory outcome of the attempted repair.

A few further photos below, including Simon sampling the swimming pool.
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