Road to Bamako

Beautiful gravel piste next to main road

As I said before my mission for the road between Gambia and Bamako was to find some good gravel roads.  Up to the border it was mostly tar, but did find a few good gravel stretches.  Bliss!! And a few bad streches. Fun.  But nothing to hectic. Leaving for the border, I went to the police station to make sure there is a frontier post to stamp passport, documents etc, and according to the police man everything gets stamped at the border.

Gently!!

It was a quick 100km to the border, just a boom across the road, and a very nice policeman stamped my passport.  Again no hint at bribes.  After he stamped my pasport I showed him my bike documents and he said, that I need to get them done at customs.  On enquiring where customs is he said it moved to the previous big village 50km back on the road just done.  AAAGHHH, in spite of my enquiries a 100km detour there and back.  Only in Africa.  Customs was easy, the guy has never seen my bike's document.  I had to explain to him what to do, and then he still did it wrong.   Loving this.  There was no frontier post on the Mali side, had to go look for customs, and the police station in the first big town.  Quite hard to find, but people very friendly and helpfull.  Again they helped me quickly and no hints of bribes.  I am currently really lucky with the borders and police blocks.  Don't know whats happening but am loving it.  Just have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that things are building up to a horrible one somewhere along the way... Only time will tell.

The road from the border was all new good tar.  Where is the gravel everyone promised?  And the uncompleted bridge?  Luckilly for me there was a detour route running next to the new tar.  This was what the vehicles used while they where building the tarmac, and was all beautifull perfectly rideable gravel streches.  Whoop, whoop.  I spend half the day riding next to, or criss crossing the main road on the gravle pistes.  Had the strangest looks from the locals though,  no one could understand why I was riding next to the new road.   I was loving every bit of it.

Safely on board

Just as I was starting to think about stopping for the day I reached the unfinished bridge.  The only way off crossing was by pirogue,  with steep sandy sections going up and down the river bank.  Luckilly there was a huge bunch of locals all willing to help.  I unloaded the bike, and they then carried my 200kg bike onto the pirogue.  Scarry to trust my life line to others but all went fell and we quickly reached the other side.  By the time I  finished loading up my bike on the other side there where about 20 locals around my bike, all very curious and friendly, wanting to chat and know my plans further.  This was great.  Loving it to the max.  The best was when I took my camera out.  Pandemonium followed.  Everyone wanted to be in the centre off the photo.  Great stuff.

Across the river

Not long after the crossing I had to stop for the day.  Was getting dark and there where huge rain clouds on the horison.  Found a great spot and had my tent up just in time.  The storm breaking just as I climbed into my tent.  Cold tinned sardines for a combined lunch and dinner.
I am pretty sure I heard some footsteps outside my tent during the night, but was to sleepy to be bothered.  No tracks the next day though.  Maybe just dreaming or some animals.  Who knows.

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The next day my plans where to shoot through early to Bamako.  Try and get to the Burkina Fasso embassy before noon so that I can hand in my visa application.  No such luck.  Coming into Bamako was exceptionally bussy, the road jam pack with trucks and hundreds off scooters zipping all around.  Definately the worst I've seen in a long time.  I reached the embassy just after noon and they where already closed for lunch, and I had to go back at three.  Which I did, and had the worlds grumpiest woman help me.  She explained that they only accept passports in the morning and you then pick them up in the afternoon or the next day.  I thought it was Thursday and said I will be back tomorrow, at which point she said: ' Today is Friday, we only open on Monday again.'  AAAGGGHHHH.... IDIOT!!

Where to camp?

Luckilly a bit off begging helped, she phoned her boss and he said she should accept my visa application.  I had my visa by 18:00 that evening, her boss actually came back to office to sign my visa. Wow.  Result. At the embassy I also ran into the Belgian dude who is doing the same trip.  How lucky can you get?  I now met both bikers who are on my time frame.  There are a few bikes a month or so ahead or behind,  but don't think to many.  Amazing how rumors spread about other bikers.

Great camp spot

Except for Angola, the Nigerian visa is my biggest nightmare.  The SA government screwed the Nigerians during the Soccer World Cup, and now Nigeria is getting their sweet revenge.  I've met people along the way who had to wait ridiculous amounts off time, or had to pay huge sums for their visas.  I tried to apply in the UK, and had my application rejected three times already.  OUCH!!  My job for this morning was to go and apply for said visa.  It was with great trepidation that I walked to the embassy.  To my utter astonishment, they where supremely nice at the embassy.  All smiles, and very helpful.  I even paid less than the Belgian for my application.  BUT, and a BIG BUT, I don't find out until tomorrow afternoon if it has been successfully   Fingers crossed my run off good luck continues!!!