The Trans - Pictures in Gibraltar

So - its been a while. I've been a bit lazy since I left Africa...well, maybe not lazy. After all I did rush off to the US for a few weeks and then had to move into a new house. Yes - I have a lovely 3 bedroom cottage just outside Oxford all to myself!!! YAY!!! It's needed and well-deserved after surviving 9 weeks in Africa jammed together with 20 people!! Anyways - I'm slowly starting to go through my pictures again. I was going to do more today but my mom called, so blame her :P But here are my pictures from Gibraltar (which OMG I just realized is spelled with a "tar" not a "ter"), this is where we started the trip and well - saw lots of Monkeys :P

November 2011 - Gibraltar

Hopefully there will be more pictures coming soon!!

The Trans - Back in the UK

Well, here I am - back in the UK! I'm currently sitting in my car in Oxford waiting for the AA to arrive to jump start it (dead battery after all the time alone). But its amazing because its not even 9am and I'm already in Oxford sorting this out!! My flight landed at Heathrow at 6:20!! So in less than 3 hours I made it through security, got my luggage, jumped on a bus, got through morning traffic to Oxford then hopped in a taxi to meet my car!! Amazing! I thought I would be here until at least 11:00am!!

The Trans - The End: Accra Airport

Here I am - at the airport in Accra...its past my bedtime so hopefully we can board the plane soon and I can sleep!!

Today was my last day on The Trans. At about 8:30 this morning I gave my final hugs and watched the big yellow truck pull away for the last time!!

The Trans - At the Beach: One day left on The Trans!!

We arrived at the beach on Saturday! It feels amazing to be here!!! So relaxing...especially because I had a lie-in this morning and am NOT helping with the truck clean today. I have decided to follow our leaders example of the past 9 weeks and be a lazy American. So while everyone else was up at 7:30 to scrub pans and stuff in the parking lot of the hotel - I was sleeping in my air-conditioned beach hut! And now I'm sitting over a cup of tea and watching the waves - and the people in the group scrubbing pots in the sea. It looks like they are about finished with everything now. I'll be safe and be able to go lay in a beach chair soon!! BUT I am NOT going to scrub pans on the last day of my holiday!!! Just like I am not going to be involved in cooking dinner for everyone tonight because I think its my groups turn to cook again.

The Trans - Kumasi...boiling hot!!

I'm dying!!!  Its so bloody hot here!!!  Thank God I have a room with air-conditioning!!  I don't know how people are able to sleep in their tents - or sit around all day without being able to go hide in the A/C!!  It doesn't get this hot where I come from...I just can't handle it apparently!!!

So - today is our last full day in Kumasi...I had to help prepare breakfast

The Trans - Kumasi...5 DAYS!!!

Well, we are back in civilisation again, but I think the group is falling apart even more.  Its been a rough few days...but there was so much potential for it to be good...but it really hasn't been.  There's a lot to say so I'll try to make sense.

Let's see - the last post was crossing into Ghana.  So we bush camped that night and things were fine...I think.  It all started going wrong when we arrived at Mole National Park. 

The Trans - Ghana soon...only 9 days left

Well, we'll be in Ghana this afternoon!  That really makes it feel like this trip is ending soon - thank God!!

Over the past week while I was off the truck and having fun - i forgot how miserable it was to be on the truck.  Especially in the morning!  We had a really fun night last night.

The Trans - Back on The Trans

So - today is our last day as independent travellers. We are meeting up with The Trans in Ouaga today. I'm actually looking forward to it - if only to get out of Ouaga and to be able to travel in relative comfort!!

The Trans - Ouagadougou

So - Burkina Faso. After Mali this is a bit of a shit hole. It might be all of the traumatic African buses it took to get here or the bout of diarrhea I just had - but ugh....I am strongly disliking Burkina. I'll start from the beginning. Leaving Dogon Country in Mali. It was market day in Burkass (which is where we were trying to get to - so we could start our buses to Burkina) so our guide took us to the cross roads where everyone was waiting to go to market. So many people going! And its amazing because all the women just carry kilos and kilos of stuff in tubs on their heads.

The Trans - Final Day in Dogon

So - today we finished walking in the Dogon Country. It was the hottest day yet. Luckily we left a bit after 7:00 (we were supposed to leave at 6:30 but that's African time). We mostly walked along the flat at the bottom of the escarpment. Oh - I just remembered the market we went to yesterday in the town we stopped in. I bought another blanket (this one indigo) and I bought a head scarf type thing. The seller was shrewd!! I think it was 3 generations of a family selling the indigo stuff - granny was ready to sell to us at almost the local price but the youngest was having none of that and pushed her away!

The Trans - Dogon Country - Day 2

So I'm in love with Mali now!! And Mali loves me! Here I am a super model \ celebrity!! I walk through villages and the people flock to me! I am surrounded by children and the old ladies all pet me and tell me how beautiful I am. One even wanted me to bless one of the babies or something! Its amazing! My self-esteem has never been so high!! I am the ideal Malian woman apparently! LOL! And I've also learned I would make a great second wife. The first wife is chosen by the man's family and he doesn't really love her. She has to work hard and have lots of babies. The man then marries his second wife because she is really beautiful and she doesn't have to work hard and he likes her best. That's perfect for me! I like to be liked best and I don't want to work. Our guide (who seems to be looking for a second wife) was telling us all about Dogon men who have Dogon first wives and European wives for their second wives. These European wives come around 2-3 months a year and bring money and presents for the first wife and her children and the first wife does all the cooking and cleaning and work. Sounds amazing!!! Apparently I have 2 suitors already lined up because both the guide and the owner of the hotel here are looking for second wives and I got massages from both - and they were really sad I didn't want more massages after dinner. Ahh - it would be a hard life here in Mali!

The Trans - Day 1 in Dogon Country (or the day of goats)

So - I have survived my first day (well half day) in Dogon Country. Its been an adventure. There is no where to charge my mobile so I'll have to be succinct.

The day started out with an early departure from Djenne. We were out of the hotel at 6:30 and after rushing to get an omlette sandwich we were piling into our bus at 7:00. The "bus" turned out to be an old (old old old old) station wagon. They crammed 11 of us in there! 3 in the back (me, Eti and an old woman who bitched at us about taking up too much space while she was the only one with both ass cheeks on the seat!!) Then 4 men in the middle row and then the driver and a woman and her 2 children in the front!! No seat belts - hell the doors didn't even open from the inside. But it was only a 3 hour journey...so no worries. But about an hour into the journey a goat runs out into the road. The driver doesn't slow down because basically the brakes don't really work. So then the next goat runs out...he hesitates a minute, does a zigzag like he's gonna run back to the otherside then at the last second decides "No - I can make it across.". THUNK...nope - he didn't make it across. He was a goner. The driver didn't even flinch and we kept right on going. The old lady was upset that we didn't stop and put it on the roof!!

The Trans - Djenne Pictures

Most pics are the Mosque (largest mud structure in the world - I think). The others are around Djenne.
We just finished in Mali and have arrived in Burkina Faso. I'll try to update more soon!!

The Trans - A Day in Djenne

So - today we toured Djenne. We had an awesome guide - Amadou who took us all around town and told us a lot of the history. Djenne is very different from the towns I've been in so far. Its all built of mud. Their mosque is a UNESCO site and is the largest mud building in the world. We were also able to go inside it. Only Muslims are supposed to be allowed inside because a few years ago a movie apparently got
filmed in it, which upset a lot of the locals, so now non-muslims are mostly forbidden. But for a price - if you are nice - you can get in. So that was really cool. The columns inside are all made of mud as well. Every year the whole town helps to redo the mud on the mosque before the rainy season.

The rest of Djenne is children and goats. These people have lots of children and they all run around the streets all day! Along with the goats :P We had a little girl following us all morning that had a sad look that matched mine. She was a cheeky little bugger trying to sell necklaces or something. Eti ended up buying from her. Then this evening I saw her again. She was just so cute (especially since she had washed and put on clean clothes). She was with all her little girlfriends and while Michael (the American guy we met yesterday) was looking for someone to let us into the library - I chatted (using that word lightly as I don't speak much more French than some numbers and hello) with all the little girls. Then they counted to me in English and it was super sweet. But sadly I couldn't buy something from all of them so I could only buy and over priced necklace and bracelet from the cheeky girl and her loudest friend. And actually - I had to make Michael pay because I didn't have any small notes - oops :P Then Michael found someone to let us into one of the libraries. Luckily that person spoke Arabic (which Michael is studying) since neither of us speak French. So we got an explanation of the library, including the mud models of the old Mosque and the old architectural style along with the books that were hundreds of years old. It was pretty cool! I'm glad I was able to go with Michael to see that. Geoff and Eti went with our guide to another village but I was too tired and it was too hot.

The Trans - On the Road Again

Well-that was a LONG bus journey to Djenne! We got to the bus station before 7am and had a quick  omelet sandwich and then began the fight to get our stuff and ourselves on the bus. There is no orderly English queuing system here!! But we managed to push our stuff on the bus and then while Geoff and Eti watched to make sure no one removed our bags - I pushed myself onto the bus to get us seats. I don't know why everyone feels the need to push and shove and fight though?!? We all thought it was because there wouldn't be enough seats for everyone but once everyone finally got settled there were enough seats and we were all sitting next to the people we were travelling with. I guess the pushing and shoving adds to the excitement?!?

The Trans - Off the Beaten Path

So - I've been a few days in Bamako. Its been interesting. Its a rather dirty city. But I bought another  African dress thing - so that's a bonus.

Let me think - I believe the last thing I wrote about was New Years...but not much has happened since then. We arrived in Bamako and the campsite was super dreary after all the nice wild camps we had. Its just across the bridge from the main city (which is nice because its close) but that also means its noisy and its super crowded because this is where all the overland trucks stop! So there are a massive number of people here and the tents are all crowded on a piece of dirt. I was so depressed I immediately wanted to run away. But luckily they had 2 rooms available so I was able to snag one of those. Way better than sleeping in a dirt patch next to a bunch of people - most of whom I don't like!!!

The Trans - pictures in Mali

503 - Baobao tree (I think)

504 - a river (the Niger maybe)

505 - our approach to the river to cross over via ferry

506 - a Malian village

509 - Kris filling up the sippy cup with boxed wine

512 - the truck crossing a river sans-ferry

513 - my tent and mozzie net combo. 2 tents just for me.

The Trans - happy new year!

So - News Years eve was surprisingly good fun! We parked in a quarry after a super long day of driving.  We drove and drove on a shitty little road then we got a puncture in one of the tires so the driver had to sort that out. So we camped a bit later than planned - but we had lots of space and lots to drink to it was ok!

Oh we had to cross a ferry at one point too during the drive. That was interesting. Putting out big truck on the river on a shoddy Malian ferry. We survived and I have a few pictures.

The Trans - Mali

We've arrived in Mali. We crossed the border from Senegal yesterday.
It was the easiest border crossing so far - they didn't even want to
see any of us...usually they like to come on the truck and have a look
around.

So anyways - we've apparently decided to take the more scenic route to
get to Bamako. Which is really nice - but apparently it doesn't
include getting to stop at any of the scenic areas (like the big
waterfall we are passing for the second time right now!). And we
didn't get to stop for a swim in the beautiful lake we passed
yesterday - which since we are filthy and dusty it would have been
nice to have a swim and some fun. But we just drive by fun and then we
drive and drive some more...its way more fun to travel independently
and stop whenever you want. Why do I forget this everytime I think its
a good idea to do a group tour. Please everyone remind me never to do
this again!!
Anyways - we are driving through very different scenery now. I feel like I'm even more in Africa with savannah all around me and little villages of huts with excited children that run out when we drive by! We are trying to find the road to Bamako and got really lost yesterday. So we passed lots of cute little villages way off the beaten path (of course we can't get out and talk to anyone...) We were actually following a dirt donkey path yesterday I think. Luckily they must have realized we weren't getting anywhere and we stopped reasonably early yesterday and setup camp. It was an adventure driving though. We had the sides up and trees were coming in because we were properly in the woods on a small path. So there was a lot of ducking and shrieking at the end of the drive.