I wonder if Carol had problems with these border guards?
Welcome home team from Big Sis.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Day 14 through Norachott, Mauritania
Set off from dunes with sad green stationwagon and headed back to the road. Said goodbye to our guide at the fuel station where we discovered again that dollars are useless and we needed euros, iball is now skint!Convoy separated and glenn stayed with steve and they ended up towing using the red discovery all the 230km to Norachott, through various police checkpoints.
We found the recommended hostel on entering the city and established contact with the French proprietor who duely arranged for his friendly mechanic to come to help. Lovely place but less lovely moods amongst the team… Arranged to fix the car and got our mali visas before moving on out at about 3.45. caroline did her washing with a local girl (toddler) and was later found feeding her a kinder egg.
Stopped in the dunes again overnight about 7pm. Team getting very efficient in places! Chilli for supper! Little apprehensive about the border out tomorrow.
We found the recommended hostel on entering the city and established contact with the French proprietor who duely arranged for his friendly mechanic to come to help. Lovely place but less lovely moods amongst the team… Arranged to fix the car and got our mali visas before moving on out at about 3.45. caroline did her washing with a local girl (toddler) and was later found feeding her a kinder egg.
Stopped in the dunes again overnight about 7pm. Team getting very efficient in places! Chilli for supper! Little apprehensive about the border out tomorrow.
Day 14: Into Mauritania
Awoke this morning beside the frontier but the policeman we had spoken to was nowhere to be seen so we breakfasted and then felt bad and joined the end of the queue that had developed whilst we ate and packed away. At about 9.10 he saw us and waved us through the queue as a unit and we began the waiting game! Hand in passports and whilst they telex all our details to ‘HQ’ we wait. Collect in the vehicle documents, queue and the give little presents to all!! Next on to the border guards, all the car drivers had to and meet a man under a tree in the shade behind a wall to fill in details yet again….. And at last we were off into no man’s land off road in the sand, the boys were happy but no sooner had we radioed to ask Glen and James if drivers were unsure.. they got stuck in the sand! Fighting off guides on all fronts we drove on through and even did a good turn by towing out a car that had clearly rolled. Less difficult at the Mauritania border but more ‘helpers’ which got quite stressful. We managed the frontier formalities and visas and car insurance but the day was largely gone! We set off only to be stopped by very aggressive police controls and we got just a little exasperated.
Finally got a few miles under our belts and headed for a well known nature reserve at speed. Got local directions and finally found our way. Again sorted the entry fees to the park and was adopted by a lovely local a guide included in the price of camping. Great fun was had by all off road driving in the sand but sadly Steve’s motor overheated and has blown it’s header tank. Limped to an isolated camp dune and now need to return to the garage tomorrow early to get replacement parts rather than towards the beach to watch the birds. Our guide remains with us to eat and sleep but there are still some tensions in the group. A good night’s sleep may help.
Day 13: Arrve at Mauritanian Border
Too comfy so didn’t get away until after 9am! Bought bread on the way out of town and team got separated!!! Reunited and on our way. Drove a mighty long way with little of interest except coast, beaches and acres of desert! Paused for fuel twice and to play in the sand with more camels. Pete found some lovely fossils and sand blasted coloured pebbles. Thought that we might stop part way along the coast before the Mauritanian border but came upon it and ended up camping at the frontier. A little intimidated by the land mine fields so decided not to leave the road AT ALL, nasty little skull and crossbones signs!!!
Collected fisches on arrival so hope to be first through the border tomorrow after donating a few clothing bribes to my friendly border policeman and his two sons!!
We’ll see!
Collected fisches on arrival so hope to be first through the border tomorrow after donating a few clothing bribes to my friendly border policeman and his two sons!!
We’ll see!
Day 10: Western Sahara
What a frustrating day! Started efficiently at the sand dunes and packed up after a good breakfast of sausage, bacon and beans. Drove on, after Mike had a go at off road sand dune driving. Paused in Lalayounne and what was meant to be a 35 min pause, allowing shopping and visit to the internet turned into a 2 hour time loss as we all got lost on our way out!
Drove on, passed a fair number of police control points, usually very friendly, one even recognised my swiss accent!! Not the most interesting drive except we all saw wild camels and a gateway through swordfish and ostriches. Stopped at nearly 4pm at a nice camping in Boujdour.Charlie went fishing, some had rooms and others camped outside. Lovely meal with mango chutney followed by a bit of chaotic printing and a social chit chat before bed.
Drove on, passed a fair number of police control points, usually very friendly, one even recognised my swiss accent!! Not the most interesting drive except we all saw wild camels and a gateway through swordfish and ostriches. Stopped at nearly 4pm at a nice camping in Boujdour.Charlie went fishing, some had rooms and others camped outside. Lovely meal with mango chutney followed by a bit of chaotic printing and a social chit chat before bed.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Progress: escape to Ghana: GPS Wed 28 Jan 07:42
within "sight" of Accra; what a difference a good road makes !
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Tuesday 28 Jan 11:15 Ghana Border
Via text from Carol: all OK but stuck at Ghana border due to problems with paperwork on Glen's car. Hope to get going asap, and be with Sabre Trust before long.
Notes from Caroline (many thanks, great story, explains so much about border-cultures)
I HATE BORDER CROSSINGS!!
Border Crossings and Border Officials are very Forest Gump....'life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get!!' Some go relatively smoothly ( afew soft toys and some giveaway pens!) and others are a continual string of pay the border officials, pay the police and pay the customs..anyone give away a blackberry lately?
Not sure what technique will be used at this one. After difficulties at Rosso in Mauritania, where we were overcharged for insurance we crossed by a small ferry to the Senegal side where it was necessary for us to blockade the port, so no-one could get either in or out, to be able to remedy wrong doings. I felt very naughty having never burnt a bra or chained myself to a railing in protest in either this life or before! Unfortunately it didn't have the desired effect as it turned out that we were on the last crossing and vehicles that remained still for more than 2 minutes were subjected to a carwash by local boys trying to earn a 'cadeau!' after making a small offering to our little grubby friend with his bucket of river water, we then had to endure an additional 3 car washes from other equally keen youngsters! Some hours later and an escorted visit to an out of town cash machine, we were once again underway. Ham or cheese sandwich was about all that we managed out of the kitchen that night!
Notes from Caroline (many thanks, great story, explains so much about border-cultures)
I HATE BORDER CROSSINGS!!
Border Crossings and Border Officials are very Forest Gump....'life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get!!' Some go relatively smoothly ( afew soft toys and some giveaway pens!) and others are a continual string of pay the border officials, pay the police and pay the customs..anyone give away a blackberry lately?
Not sure what technique will be used at this one. After difficulties at Rosso in Mauritania, where we were overcharged for insurance we crossed by a small ferry to the Senegal side where it was necessary for us to blockade the port, so no-one could get either in or out, to be able to remedy wrong doings. I felt very naughty having never burnt a bra or chained myself to a railing in protest in either this life or before! Unfortunately it didn't have the desired effect as it turned out that we were on the last crossing and vehicles that remained still for more than 2 minutes were subjected to a carwash by local boys trying to earn a 'cadeau!' after making a small offering to our little grubby friend with his bucket of river water, we then had to endure an additional 3 car washes from other equally keen youngsters! Some hours later and an escorted visit to an out of town cash machine, we were once again underway. Ham or cheese sandwich was about all that we managed out of the kitchen that night!
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