Hello - checking in from Dakar, Senegal.
Bit of an update. Did another route in Morocco, MS3 IIRC the one with the
feche-feche. We did the route the other way round starting at Rissani.
Not before being reminded by the gendarme that "this isnt England" when I didnt fully stop at a checkpoint. Thanks for stating the bleeding obvious.
Anyway, some pics:
T-Max in action
When we got the the notorious sandy section, some local guy kept telling us NOT to proceed this way, he knew a better way which was more south. But that didnt make sense as that meant going through MORE soft stuff. Anyway I was letting the tyres down when a group of 6 - 7 fully kitted 4x4's were waiting impatiently for me to get out the way. They blasted past ... and promptly all got stuck. They then got out and let their tyres down and finally got moving.
Was amazed how capable the car was, tyres down to 1 bar, didnt get stuck once just kept on going no matter where i pointed it
Was fun, could have spent ages playing there.
We overnighted in a oued.
Absolute
silence. Loved it.
Then we headed to Ouarzazate to meet up with Peter @ Bikershome. He kindly agreed to accept delivery of the airlift helpers. Top bloke.
Surprise, surprise, customs decided they were keeping them.
They didnt know what the hell these things were. We had to explain, then explain in writing, then repeat and repeat again. Easiest was to go to the DHL offices in Agidir and sort it out there. Top tip: Make sure the sender marks the value less than £50 if you ever need a part sent to Marocco, cause then it goes through no problem
Got down to Maroc/Mauri border where it turned out I overstayed my visa by 2 days. Loved the look on the guys face, when he realised he had already stamped me out before realising i had overstayed
Sucker!
This is where the requests for 'gifts' started.
Went through the stretch of 'no man's land' with the landmines. Not so bad. Loads of very clearly defined tracks. There are guides there offering their services, but not required at all.
Must say some people were driving off piste to get some other vans unstuck
Some guys needed to borrow the waffle boards .
Spent some time in Nouadhibou and then Noukchott. Mauritania is really nice. Only had 1 cop demanding a bribe of 10 euro for an "infraction". Could not get him to tell us what it was, but he was really pissed. Eventually he decided it was because I didnt have a p/copy of my passport. We just laughed in his face, and he gave up. The rest of the Mauri cops were gents.
Had what I thought might be the beginning of a sandstorm, but didnt turn out to be bad, just got really dark and everything was red
like an apocalypse
After that we headed to cross into Senegal. Heard horror stories of Rosso crossing so obviously we went via Diama. First part of track is being graded, and is nice. Last part is really badly corrugated. When it rains it will be a nightmare, but as it was dry we could just drive next to the track where the water would be.
Entry into Senegal was fairly easy, no money was asked for. It was quite pleasant and over in half an hour. It was to be the calm before the storm , officialdom-wise
Seems we've had the worst of the Senegalese cops. Complete bastards. Want bribes, due to silly 'infractions' . Customs officers want bribes to stamp our Carnet. Ok, thanks, we'll be off to Mali then
As usual, the regular folk are mostly cool, its their cops and government that ruin it for tourists. One cop in St Louis would be dealing with other things but when he would see us he would literally drop everything come running shouting for us to stop. Then he starts demanding money as we drove too fast/ too dangerously / didnt use indicator etc. Again he was so ridiculous we just laughed in his face until he let us go. Twice.
After a long day today trying to get people to do their jobs and stamp our carnet, and negotiating with countless people and everyone demanding a cut of the action I had had enough. Got to the car where the car minder demanded 100 000 CFA's (not even exaggerating) for looking after the car. I lost it. "You WHAT!? I MIGHT BE A WHITE TOURIST BUT IM NOT F****ING STUPID! F*** OFF!!" I never lose it in public but today was something else.
/rant
One way we've been avoiding the cops, is driving behind a truck or bus, really closely when we see them up ahead. Oooops, sorry officer I didnt see you!
All part of the fun, eh?
So hopefully we will get into Mali tomorrow and then will update again when we can. Airbags are in, car is leaking slightly from front diff area and the ol' transfer case leak too. but not s much that it needs much to keep it topped up. Oh and alignment is out but the last place couldnt fix it they reckoned they couldnt budge anything. Other than that the car is cruising nicely. Fridge running well keeping the beer & watermelon ice cold.
cheers...
