We ended up staying in Serekunda one more day, we were lazy and decided to take a lazy day before heading upland. Serekunda was the longest we've stayed anywhere since Mohammedia in Morocco when I was sick. We needed the break, and we enjoyed Serekunda and our little motel. Our plan was thus: we would travel to Tendaba Camp first, then onto to Georgetown (now called Jangjang-Bureh). Just to explain the transport system a little - to catch a bush taxi (for long journeys) you must get to the right "Garage". Each destination has it's own Garage and they are almost [View Full Entry]

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After one night in Ziguinchor, where a large spider in the bathroom had me awake most of the night, we made our way to Kafountine, in the northern Casamance. We checked into another paradise - this time 'Le Paradise'. We were the only travellers staying here, and a couple of local fellows who we saw only briefly. It was like having the whole place to ourselves! The owner, Eve, claimed that the beach was 200m away and the town 800m. We found the town alright, but the beach was a lot longer away than 200m for us - we must have [View Full Entry]

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Yoff was a little disappointing for us, the beach was filthy and we were constantly hassled to sit in people's shade compounds on the beach. We left after one day and decided to pick up our passports with our Malian visas and head straight to Ile de Goree, south of Dakar. Ile de Goree is a short 20 minute ferry from Dakar and is a world away from the big city. It is a tiny island that can be walked end to end in less than hour, at a stroll. There are no cars on the island (yay!) which is a [View Full Entry]

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Our last night in Nouakchott we visited the famous fish market - Port de Peche. We took a taxi to the port and watched with amazement the hundreds of pirogues coming into shore with their daily catch. There are the fishermen, their on-shore helpers, women selling fish, fruit and drinks, children all over, donkeys and carts, and two Canadian tourists. It is an incredible sight that I am sure is not conveyed in the photos. We wandered through the fish market and saw all kinds of fish for sale, from very large cod to small sardines. Some fish are whole, other [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at the train station early (a small building beside the tracks constitutes the station), to be sure we wouldn't miss the train as we did not know exactly when it left. Our group of four grew steadily as other travellers joined us. Sylvia and Michiel are from Dresden, Germany (he is Dutch though), Marty is a fellow Canadian who is from Alberta, and three Japanese fellows also joined us. Sylvia, Michiel, Peter and I decided to pay for the journey and got passenger car tickets for 1000 UM each (approx. 4 dollars), the others chose to ride for free [View Full Entry]

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We left our hotel in Dakhla, Morocco in a hired car at 7:00 am. We stopped just outside of town to pick up 2 more passengers (thankfully not 4 more! we still haven't recovered from that ride!). Between Dakhla and Nouadhibou (Mauritania), it is about 350 km. We optomistically thought we would arrive in Nouadhibou around noon. We arrived at the Moroccan border at about 12:30 pm and for the first time, we weren't the ones to hold up our vehicle. We had a young Mauritanian fellow in our car (I call him "The Prince" as that was how he seemed [View Full Entry]

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Our last day in Tafroute we did not rent bikes (mostly because I was too scared of the cars and the narrow roads), so we walked instead. We headed off down the road toward another town and when we stopped to rest, a friendly local pointed out the famous Lion's Head rock. He said that the lion was called the protector of the valley. I'm sure you will be able to make out the lion in the photo. As I am cursed with my dad's need to never walk back the same way you came, we decided to make our way [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into Agadir after an interesting bus journey through terrain that is different again to what we have seen so far. It was also raining as we pulled into Agadir. Our hotel was in the budget area, as Agadir is a well known beach resort town and the beach is lined with large, expensive hotels and even a casino (no we didn't try our luck). The following day was overcast and muggy, but it didn't stop us from enjoying the day. Our day started with a cafe au lait and a croissant at the hotel restaurant. We were sitting outside, [View Full Entry]

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Ah Marrakesh ... a spectacle to behold! But first, our early rise from Fes and 9 hour bus journey to reach Marrakesh. One of the first villages we stopped in has one of the few ski resorts in Morroco. Ifrane is also a university town, and it had a very different look and feel than any other town we have seen so far. The roofs were all slanted and pitched, rather than the flat roofs we were accustomed to seeing. The houses also looked more North American than any we had seen before. The trip was long and we tried to [View Full Entry]

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We made it! We got a grande taxi just outside of town and shared it with two British fellows, Steve and Ed. We were unable to find out about the public transport, so we paid a little more, shared the taxi and arrived into Imlil in about 1.5 hours. The drive was not without it's breathtaking moments - like when our taxi took a wide turn on a tight corner only to find another vehicle coming straight at us as he was passing a car on his side of the narrow road with no shoulder and a steep cliff. The excitement [View Full Entry]

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