Morroco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali on a 1200GS

[DakarBlues]

Amaury,

ton récit est à mourir de rire, cela me rappelle les voyages de la "Famille Fenouillard".
Ton Ride Report fera date, personne n'a encore raconté un voyage aussi humain, hilarant et complet.

Dans le wagon à bestiaux, tu me rappelles Fenouillard en Perse, cherchant le divan pour s'y asseoir!

Way to go

[rawdog]

Oh my that is so great.

[fullgs]

Originally Posted by Goride

This is actually my dream ride!!!
You are having my dream, sir! Enjoy!

It was also my dream, and it's still...

[fullgs]

Monday October 12 2009

After a so so night (spent exterminating myriads of mosquitoes) under the tent, we went on for laundry at a nearby pond.

Amaury cleaned the bike, me I was doing the laundry. Not much fun to use amuddy pond as your Laundromat.

Out train was scheduled for 16h00, but we were told that this train has no schedule, you see it when you see it!

After an hour the train station manager informs us that the train just left Bamako, so it might arrive around 20h00.

So we spent the afternoon with Ousmane and his family, it was really cool.

They are a very poor family but they welcomed us without hesitation and shared all their meals with us.

That’s the positive side of this “hardship”.

Women down here are incredible, they won’t take a break for a minute, they are so overworked and worn by numerous pregnancies they look prematurely old.

I gave them some perfume samples as present, they were delighted.

They don’t understand the fact that I have only two kids.

After a meal of oily pastas we went back to the train station. The train arrived finally at 23h15, welcome to Africa!


Amaury asked the men of the village for help, because it was necessary to manhandle all the 250 kgs of bike into the freight car.

Once the bike loaded, we found out there was no room in the carriages, so we had to hitch it (the whole trip for Amaury, half of it for me) in the freight train, in good company with sheep, chickens, roosters and all kind of crap!

With this sleepless night we move on straight to the next day, Tuesday October 13 2009.

Tuesday October 13 2009

This trip was hellish, the train was swaying a lot and spend the night on top of an onion bag was not at all my idea of coziness. Stench notwithstanding, with all these stinky animals, Burrrk, the more we go , the more I hate them

I was sore everywhere, back, buttocks,…

We were properly exhausted, indeed it’s very cool to spend your night in villages, but it’s not very restful.

At 2h00 A.M. the train stops at Bafoulabe to load some enormous cargo, so I flatly told Amaury no way for me to go back in there!

Don’t let this pic fool you, I smoked no potent weed!

So off we go at 3h00 A.M., I found a standing spot in the carriage. As soon as the train started moving one Transrail agent allowed me to sit, this was indeed the engineer’s spot.

That was cool and I was able to indulge into a 2 hours sleep.

Amaury: The remaining 200 kms would have taken two days, so we made do with the train. The 16h00 train left at 23h15 to arrive at 8h00, 8hours and 45 mins. For 200 kms (121 miles). Once the bike manhandled into the freight car, then it started being hard! The train is more akin to a tank engine (diesel fuel) than to western trains. Fortunately I was with the bike, 30 seconds into the trip the train was pitching so hard that the bike would have crashed. Fortunately I had secured it with two straps, otherwise it would have been holding it over the whole duration of the trip.

The first 2 hrs were kinda relax despite the animals that were pooping and peeing everywhere, I mean it. However, after Bafoulabe it turned into a bedlam! We stopped for 2 hours and they loaded my freight car to the roof. A dozen small motorcycles in a heap, tons and tons of rice, animals, even fish pallets.

The bike ended lodged between the side of wall and the rice bags. There were rice bags up to the saddle and some bicycles were balanced right on my windscreen!

Fabienne found a spot in the overloaded carriage. For me, I stayed in the freight car with the bike.

I was first sitting on the saddle, with a guy on top of the fuel tank and a woman was sleeping over the rice bags her head on the pillion, her nose in my butt. As you figure, it was impossible to stay like that for 6 hours, so I crept in front of the bike where was one of my Zega bags.

Problem is, a sheep was already there, too bad, I packed the poor guy a little bit under the bike.


Once sat on the bags, my back against the rice bags, with bicycles and chicken over my head, I collapsed and fell asleep, my feet on the muffler so as not to crush the sheep.

I was awakened by a moist and warm feeling, the sheep had gone to the bathroom over me!!! From that moment, I used the sheep as my floormat, so that it learns how to go to the bathroom while lying down! I went back to sleep, but it was to be brutally awakened by those roosters over my head, it took them one hour. When we reached Kayes, everybody unloaded but me; they had to unload chickens, roosters, fish pallets and bicycles before I could get out. We reached Kayes at 8h00 A.M. so it took the train 8h45 min to cover 220 kms (133 miles).

[gagnaou]

A trip like that sure makes for good memories, on so many accounts I bet!!!

Thanks for sharing with us!!!

[DakarBlues]

Originally Posted by fullgs

Don’t let this pic fool you, I smoked no potent weed!

This pic says it all!

Been on that train, haven't done that, even though I was in 1st class cabin (at the extreme tail of the train), I was just repainted black by the diesel fumes after just 100 miles!

[Tigrou]

Amaury, You really need to told me how many time it needs to go from Paris, to Rosso (straight line)

Like:

Paris-Barcelona
Boat to tanger
Tanger-casa-tan tan-llayoune - nouadibou-nouakchott
Rosso (or maybe 90 kms west of Rosso, Diam Dara)

many thanks

[fullgs]

Originally Posted by Tigrou

Amaury, You really need to told me how many time it needs to go from Paris, to Rosso (straight line)

Like:

Paris-Barcelona
Boat to tanger
Tanger-casa-tan tan-llayoune - nouadibou-nouakchott
Rosso (or maybe 90 kms west of Rosso, Diam Dara)

many thanks

Hi Tigrou
paris barcelona : 1 night

barcelona Tangiers : 24 hours (you arrive at Tangiers at 2 PM)

Tangiers - Casa : 3 hours, if the boat is not late and if you don't have any problem at the Tangiers custom you should do Tangiers - Marrakech (6 hours), have a stop at "Le relais de marrakech" its nice and cheap.

Casa (or Marrakech) - Tan Tan : 10 hours
"le Sable d'or(N28 29.522 W11 20.256)" is also good

Tan Tan - Laayoune is only 5 hours, you can easily go to Dakhla.
have a night on the kitesurfer camp (N15 54.740 W16 31.018), It was really good to rest here, and the food is awesome!

Dakhla - Nouakchott : 10 hours, if you take 3 hours to cross the 2 borders. You won't have more than 250 kms between 2 gas stations.

Nouakchott Rosso :2 hours, and 2 more to diama (It should be dry now)

So it makes 6 days from Paris to Rosso, or Dakar if you want to.
If you want to go to senegal, you'd better get your Visa in France, otherwise, if you stay in Mauretania, just get it at the No man's land Border.

Amaury

[Tigrou]

Originally Posted by fullgs

So it makes 6 days from Paris to Rosso, or Dakar if you want to.
If you want to go to senegal, you'd better get your Visa in France, otherwise, if you stay in Mauretania, just get it at the No man's land Border.
Amaury

Many many thanks Amaury
Have a nice race in Macau

[davidgibson999]

great report.
thoroughly enjoyed it.