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Part IVThe Nouakchott – Bamako

From Nouakchott to the Senegal river

We have been cycling now for one hour and still we are in the urban area of Nouackchott, gradually it is getting quieter. Then we enter the desert again. The closer we get to Snegal the more trees we see. Many ‘former' nomadic people live near to this road. We camp close to the rad and are soon discovered by the locals. They sit down and watch what we do till darkness comes.

When we pack the tent the next morning Saskia asks ‘what is this?' and she points at a small ligth trozn animal which wasq hiding under our tent. ‘a scorpion, I would not touch it, Sas!'.

We are in Rosso, some guys try to foul us by explaining that the border is difficult and we need to pay them so that they will help us. But that is not necessary. We cross the river with a ferry and the checkpoints are straightforward, no bribe is needed.

Senegal

We feel like as entering real dark Africa . This is a very different country. More agriculture and cows and less camels. We follow the Senegal river . Many villages and towns on this route but we see little of the river. Camping is difficult. Not that there is no space but everything is covered with thorns. Frequent flat tires are unavoidable.

Towards Mali the landscape gets prettier; many big baobab trees and some rocky parts. On the 15 th of January we enter Mali . The border police ports are not easy to find on both sites. To Kayes is a dusty gravel road. Not much traffic though after Kayes the road becomes a track towards the Felou waterfalls and after that it is more like a path. Sometimes a bit too sandy. We camp in the bush and hear the drums of the nearby african villages; this is wild Africa...

Diamou is a village next to the rail road, very nice landscape, beautiful plateau mountains all around and not far away from the Gouma Waterfalls. The rad is rough, difficult; even for 4 wheel drives. After some struggle we arrive at the waterfalls and dicide to stay her for a day. What a quiet and nice camping spot! We swim, eat, rest and watch the spectacular waterfalls, magnefique!

From here the road is sometimes hard to find: We follow cycle tracks of locals and often end up in small primitive villages where surprised people show us where to go from there.

In Bafoulabe we cross the river with a wooden canoe and after a few kilometers we camp under a big baobab-tree. Nice place. We start prepairing our meal: coucous, peas, tolate and a can of sardine all in one pan. ‘chuw', I feel a sharp pain in my temple. ‘Whoua' Saskia yells, ‘bees!!!!'. We dive into our tent and close it. Some bees have entered the tent and we kill them. The food is still on the stove and is going to burn if we stay here. The bees are sooming around our tent, shit what to do?? I dash outside, grab the pan and jump into the tent again. Pffff. Saskia has been strung twice and I once. We see a huge bee nest in the tree above us. I guess the bees did not like the smell of our food…. Gradually they become peacefull again and later thet night we can leave the tent safely again.

Except for donkey cars and bicycles, we do not see traffic for a few days, very stange. It is like going back in time, primitive Africa . We can cycle about 60 km per day as we often have to walk through sand or rough parts. We take water and food from the villages. Often there is a waterpomp in or near the village.

When we reach Kita the quiet days are over. We see cars and trucks again. Saskia has fallen sick and we stay for a day in the town. It has a nice surrounding area, rocky areas with caves and ancient rock paintings, so I spent the day discovering those.

A good gravel road brings us to Bamako ; a busy town with plenty of traffic and bad air.