Gwen in Africa

We entered Mali relieved to be back on the road again, our latest breakdown behind us. After having a coke in the border official's brother's shop, per recommendation of the border official, our passports and Carnet were stamped and we were on our way to Dogon Country. The ride out to Sanga on the southern edge of Dogon Country was very pleasant, and the road was in reasonably good condition from Bandiagara despite people warning us about the roads in this part of Mali. Dogon is one of Mali's premier tourist attraction, but the heat among other things meant one day was plenty for us to fully appreciate the unusual architecture and beautiful scenery on the escarpment. Our guide was the classic "English-speaker" who actually speaks no English whatsoever, so our only source of information about ... read more

Burkina Faso is the third poorest country in the world, but I'm not sure what factors are used to determine this. While it seemed no poorer to us than other poor African countries we have been to (for example, Cameroon, Uganda, and Malawi), we only spent time in the capital, Ouagadougou, and one night in Ouahigouya, also a large town. Hence, we did not see the "real" Burkina Faso, nor did we get the best possible impression of the country. Ouagadougou is a dusty, chaotic town, which is in a large part due to the central market burning down a few years ago causing the "central market" to be spread throughout the streets. For me, Burkina Faso was a disaster from start to finish. After our frustrating and extended breakdown in Nigeria, waiting for parts and ... read more

As much as we loved Nigeria, and our lack of harassment in the country must be record-breaking, it was still something of a relief to leave and really know that we had made it through. The Beninese border officials were so friendly and relaxed that they actually stamped us in without giving us a visa. I was rusty on the French, and was trying to ask how many days in Benin they had given us, but they just said, "You are tourists, you will be fine with this!" "Combien de jours?" "No problem, no problem! Haha!" It was a typical African confusion: they assumed they knew what we were asking, and the language barrier meant I could not make it clearer, so we figured they had given us a transit visa for 2 days and wondered ... read more

On the Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to Cameroon, I had the bizarre and probably once-in-a-lifetime experience of disappointment that I would only be on the plane for 4 hours. While in the air I could savour the thrill of embarking on the final West African leg of the trip- after about 10 months zig-zagging Africa, we were pointing the bike towards Europe- but once we touched down, reality would hit heavily as we tried to get the bike out of Customs and put back together (assuming the bike was actually on the flight, which we were not sure of). Eventually the descent into Douala was announced, the air hostesses stopped serving us drinks, and our plane skimmed low over some flooded, verdant fields and at the last moment cleared the lagoons to land on the ... read more

*Note: I learned how to post videos so went back and put one on my Uganda/Rwanda blog. It’s of a baby mountain gorilla- wicked cute, check it out! Ethiopia has been by far my favourite country of the trip, and despite seeing a fair amount of what the country has to offer- rock-hewn churches, beautiful mountain trekking, the other-worldly city Harar- there is far more to see here and I will absolutely be coming back one day! After stumbling off the truck, totally beaten down by the harsh travel experience of northern Kenya, we dragged ourselves through Kenya border control and walked to the Ethiopian side where the border was closed. We would have to come back at 3pm when it reopened. The next hour or so was spent walking up the hill that Ethiopian Moyale ... read more