Cameroon

          After 10 days I will depart Saturday morning from Cameroon to go on to Gabon. It's been cold - 70 degrees for the high every day. Glad I still have my jacket, because after the heat of the Sahara I am always cold.

         The roads that welcomed me into Cameroon were not what I had expected. The 45 mile ride took 2 days, and another day of rest when I finally saw a paved road. My workout program has now changed to picking up the bike during the day, and beers at night !

        I usually have no idea what day it is, unless its Sunday. Most people work 6 days a week with Sunday off. Saturday tends to be an early night because most attend church Sunday morning, but come the evening it's time to have some fun! I have a new friend who think I look like a robot when I have all my riding gear on. His daily prayer for me is: Lord keep Garth safe whenever he has on his robot clothes .. LOL .

Ghana and Nigeria

I just spent over a month in Ghana and loved everything about it. I would go back there again without question. Wait, everything? Okay, traffic sucks, so do most roads, hotels, and people relieve themselves everywhere in public. But the rest is good.

I was there for Republic Day, July 1. It's a long, long  party- like our 4^th of July. Lots of whites in Ghana, including Americans. Ghana is English speaking. In time I got used to the humidity and skin that feels as if it's covered with a sticky can of spilled coke. A beacon of hope for west Africa, Ghana is on the move, wanting change faster than its corrupt leaders can provide.  I see possibilities for a great future for the people. Like most places I have been to, cell phones are everywhere, people are very connected. - on top of global news, and politics.  The streets are full of vendors, way too many cars, and motor bikes. And happy faces always, and I mean always …. People were always stopping me on my bike to chat and have visits.  I used to just wave and smile when onlookers would scream, "Hey white man, " but after a month in Ghana, I would have to stop because I would sometimes hear, “ Hey Anton” or “Hey Washington” ... so another cup of coffee, or beer later I would be off again.

NOW !! well …..let’s go swimming

There is absolutely no way I can describe riding a motorcycle in Africa, and doing it in a city like Lagos, Nigeria with about 15 million other people! It is crazy! The bike fell in a hole yesterday.  Not my fault - the hole was covered flush with the top of the road with water. ( Google "Lagos News" for the rain report !!) The bike went down into the hole hard, but kept running submerged in a good 4 feet of water. Quickly people were there to push as I stood beside the hole and leaned down in it to throttle it back up onto the blacktop, and then I was off again.

Lanes do not exist really, and cars and bikes all fight for space. I have been wedged  between cars in traffic. The bike couldn't  fall over or  run into traffic. I've dodged oncoming traffic at 50 miles an hour as thousands of cars, tired of waiting in traffic, would cross over the median and drive on the wrong side of the road.  It is really like a real life video game of cars coming at you from the wrong direction, but it somehow works.

My face is so black after a day’s ride, I am wet from riding in knee deep water, but somehow I like it!!

It’s the high fives I get as I pass a buss , or people running after me in traffic just to ask where I am from, or the kindness of others to go in a 4 foot deep hole of water to help push my bike back on the road again.

Peter, the Slovenia rider is with me again, and follows with a smile, and a whole lot of caution!!

In the end - Nigeria known for its scams, dangers, and bad reputation. But it can surprise!  It did me.

Stay home if you haven’t been to Africa before, but if you’re a little seasoned, it can be fun !!

Photo taken by my friend from Slovenia

Voodoo Market

      
        I met Stephan, the Canadian truck importer, while he was "waiting for his ship to come in."  We decided to venture out and see what was at the Voodoo Market. We drove up to a fenced off area about a 1/2 block square, which is unusual for West Africa's open markets. We drove in and were assured we were at the right place.  Immediately, we were greeted by Joseph, who insisted upon a fee for guiding us, and just as quickly Stephan decided he has already seen enough. He jumped back into his car after assuring me he would park closeby and watch for me to meet up when I had had enough. This was no Pike Place Market like Seattle's market. With high humidity and heat it sure didn't smell like anything I had ever been to before. But I guess parking out on the street with its open sewers and seeing men and women regulary use them right out in the open was a better choice for Stephan than the market itself.

      With one quick look around, I knew I would be just fine. How could I not be? I was at a Voodoo Market! It's a "pharmacy" for natural healers to stock up on supplies. When our western medicine fails to work, a healer prescribes a mixture of bones to be burnt to a powder and then rubbed over three cuts made into the flesh.  I assured Joseph that I was feeling just fine, hadn't felt so good in a long time! I said I was only there as a tourist, no need to start a fire burning parts for ashes. After taking some pictures, I found Stephan and we decided on street food - chicken and beers.

Togo

Yee bay roh (Good Morning)
Making it to Lome Togo a week ago, this was my to do list:  hit the Voodoo market, make motorcycle repairs & service, and wait for the carnet ( a passport, but for the motorcycle) to come by courier from Ottawa.
The local bike shop did an oil change, recommended a can of fork oil for seals that leak, & new rear tire  - second one since March 4th.
 OOPS .. Driving his scooter with one hand and the other hand  holding onto my wheel to go have the old tire swapped out for the new one, the kid looses a bushing off the wheel. The missing bushing keeps vital metal parts from rubbing together that are not ment to be.  I figured out what happened after a few miles of riding and my ABS light went on. Rear brake pads are now shot as well as the ABS sensor. I have a bushing again, but am left to my own resources to deal with ABS / rear brakes.
  July 10th  I will continue on from Accra, Ghana with a fellow rider from Slovenia. We will spend a few days with 15 million other people in Lagos, Nigeria.  There I hope to get a visa for Cameroon and head east (see map) before taking an extended break again in East Africa.
When taking back roads, I sheltered at a village school to get out of the rain and that helped save the day. The evening gave me opportunity to learn a bit of the local language.
  Other languages so far include: Goonisee, Eve, Aeposso, Kotokoli, Amoussa, Kabye, Bambara, & Arabic. ( bad spelling I know, its my Saskatchewan education. lol)
These trips through some of the more remote areas can start with meeting a guy saying: " hey white man" and my reply : "yee bay roh"  usually ending a few minutes or days later with : goodby my friend !

I am staying next door to the : International Christian school of Lome.
Listening to children singing in choir often throughout the day !!

Mali's Music and Mines

     My ITunes now has enough African music loaded to keep any fading memories alive  for as long as I have ears.  Grammy award winner Toumani Diabate was a highlight, but more so was making many new friends in Mali. Locals are always very interested, and happy to have tourists around, making chance meetings sometimes difficult to end.

     Ibrahim Diabate was one of those chance meetings at the Diplomate in Bamako while listening to Toumani. We soon became friends and a few days later went to see his village, "Kela." The lack of running water or power didn't really mater. The women had cooked meals waiting, buckets of water filled to shower with, and a cooler with ice & beer nearby.   At night the village gathered and put on a traditional concert. During the day we went to the river for a swim, or visited his friends at the nearby gold mines.
The men were busy building a bar, now that huts for visitors have been completed. Next is a roof over a holding tank to collect rain water instead of pulling it up from the well.
        I learned that swiming in the Niger river is probably NOT the smartest thing to do,after loosing a few pounds to some virus. The gold mining as you see in pictures is not the big money operation of the Chinese or Canadians, but hundreds of families work together to make a few dollars in tough conditions.

Young men dig holes 200 feet or more in the ground, lower small pails into the shaft and drag them up. Young girls beat the pail of dirt with wooden posts so the older women can pan for any gold. Others work to keep shafts from filling with water, or from caving in.
      This is about 10 miles from the Guinea border.

Niger River, not a great place to swim

Mali & Mangoes

      I ni sogoma ( Good Morning!)   Like a bunch of girls on the school playground, loud screams rang out as the sound of my bike downshifting to a stop could be heard. I passed the group of girls about 50 yards or so away and found find my water before resting in the shade. Their day is spent trying to sell  baskets of fresh-picked mangoes to anyone they can manage to stop. It's a tough way to make a dollar in Mali where tons of unwanted mangoes rot under trees.
       I ate two, while we decided on a fair price and laughed over an exchange of words that neither of us could understand. The mothers and older women stayed at a comfortable distance, but they knew my stop would mean some money for the group. In the end I found the grandmother of the group, about three times the average age and asked her to be the banker, knowing I would cause serious inflation for the next guy to stop, if I didn't.
        My cheat sheet of Arabic words ended at Mauriania's border. I added to my list of new Bambara words while travelling through Mali. The friendliness of Mali made learning one of Africa's many languages a little easier. Unfortunately, before the next tank of gas is used up, I could be in an area where a different language is spoken.




Mauritania , somewhere around Ayoun

 

Bargaining for mangoes....

 

Life on the Bike



Another Wreck In The Desert



At the Port for the Day



Bringing in the Boats for the Night





Don't Grab the Diesel



Lawn Bowling? Don't know the name of this game.



Open Road

Just so you know....



Stuck in the Sand