Take On Africa

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Officials in Uniform
My first full day in Nigeria was a long one. All 161km of it. The day was broken up with checkpoints. 21 of them. But no-one wanted to see my passport. Customs men wore grey uniform. Police were in black from beret to boots with automatic rifle slung across the shoulder. Immigration had [...]

I arrived at the border to Nigeria, wondering just exactly what would be in store for me. I cautiously changed my remaining CFA into naira, the Nigerian currency, expecting to be fleeced on the exchange rate or conned with forgery’s. On the contrary, the rate was good and I have since spent all the naira [...]

A little less cycling, A little more sight-seeing
Firstly, apologies for lack of photos in these latest updates - internet is lethargic here and I need to get some km’s underway today. In the next week or two there should be another photo set on flickr so until then, you’ll have to imagine what you can [...]

Love lost in Kpalime
Over the border into Togo I flew down the hill into Kpalime. Another town in Africa. My introduction to Togo. Friendly people. French-speaking. I checked-in, showered and sat down in the hotel courtyard with a beer to celebrate a new country. Soon enough I had company. Yana spoke to me as if [...]

The third update in the Ghana trilogy and we see the bike making a comeback. The long awaited reappearance!
No more excuses for staying in Accra. Time to put the panniers on the bike and wheel the bike out the door. Start pedalling. Direction north (yes I know I eventually need to start heading south if [...]

This is the long awaited update of my last days in Ghana before I returned to England for a holiday and to get a new passport.
Hopefully you won’t have to wait so long for my take on Ghana part 2.
Road to Larabanga
Yet more corrugated roads. It is impossible to describe the effect that trying to [...]

Entry into Ghana was overshadowed by leaving Burkina Faso, which I was a little sad to be leaving.
But the immigration officials were friendly enough. While one slowly and meticulously filled out my immigration form (I could have completed it in a fraction of the time, but time is no matter here), I watched cartoons on [...]

Ouagadougou – Bobo – Banfora – Bobo
Any Which Way
Leaving is always hard. It’s not that I fear the open road. I don’t fear the unknown. On the contrary. That’s why I travel. That’s why I travel by bike. But no matter how much I know I will love the freedom and the new experiences, leaving [...]

Leaving Mali
Leaving Mali was tougher than I thought. Not due to any particular attachment, although I did enjoy my time there. It was the wind and the rough, corrugated, roads. Mostly the wind though. It tried it’s hardest to blow me right back into Mali, even after I’d got the Burkina Faso entry stamped permanently [...]

It’s been so long since the last proper update I hardly know what to write about. I guess the simplest thing is to start from where I left off…. and that was in Bamako having recovered from the previous weeks’ exertions paddling down the Niger river. That was over six weeks ago.
Bike Ride from Bamako [...]