Leaving Conarkry, the first vehicle I travelled in poisoned me with fumes, in the second car the wheels fell off! OK , I tell a lie, it was only the one wheel. I've left Guinea now, but this blog is going to about the journey from Conarkry across the country to the border with Mali. I also had to give up on this blog at the first attempt because of illness. FRIDAY 4th FEBRUARY At this stage I was still in the capital Conakry. I changed hotels for somewhere half the price I had been in the day before. The Hotel Galaxie also has a much better location - right in the centre of Kaloum on 5th Avenue. I wandered around and visited the Marche Niger. The market sells everything. In general the city centre juxtaposes ... read more

Tambacounda, is where I'm staying for the night. This town is a major crossroads between Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Gambia, and for the Niokola Koba National Park. Niokola Koba Park, is Senegal's major national park - its residents include elephants, lions, leopards, hippos, crocodiles, water buck, bush buck, kob, baboons, buffaloes, monkeys, warthogs, antelopes and hartbeest. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to visit the park or make my way to Guinea - I'll decide that in the morning. I'll go into more detail now about recent events: TUESDAY 25 JANUARY I left the relative comfort of the Hotel in Ziguinchor to make my way towards the Guinea border. The taxi driver that took me to the garage told me that I needed to go to Kolda first and then catch a connecting bus to Tambacounda. ... read more

I've been feeling sorry for myself for the past few days since my last posting. I've been in pain, with tooth ache! I apologise to any Dentists that might read this, but how many of us like the idea of visiting a dentist? The evening after my last posting on the 17th, I started to feel some intermittent pain. As the night went on it only got worse. I didn't sleep much. In the morning I asked Mo who runs the guest house for advice. He suggested some tincture that I could buy. I also asked where I could find a dentist - but I wasn't that keen on visiting one if I could help it! I don't like visiting dentist in the UK, let alone in a poor African country. A Dutch guy, who was ... read more

I am now in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. I left Saint-Louis on Sunday morning. When getting the taxi to the Gare for Dakar, I had to bargain, one taxi driver tried to charge 3 times the going rate. At the Station they asked the going rate for the journey but tried to charge me 500 francs for the rucksack. I refused, so instead of taking a collective taxi to Dakar I ended up in a mini bus. Thinking about it I was arguing over very small amounts of money - 500 francs is 50 pence sterling. Having opted for the cheaper mini bus I then had to wait an hour for the bus to leave. They don't leave until they are full - and full means over full. The minibus would have been comfortable with ... read more

I'm now in St-Louis Senegal, which was the old colonial capital. It still has a lot of the old French colonial charm. St-Louis was a welcome sight after the trip from the Mauritanian Border. I left Nouakchott in Mauritania on the morning of the 4th of January. We left Patrick and Chris behind. Patrick still wasn't feeling well - so he didn't want to travel. We caught a pick up truck to the border - the journey was relatively uneventful. The fun started when we got to the border. Leaving Mauritania can be expensive, the guards demand all sorts of 'taxes'. At the border we were besieged by touts trying to get us to change money. We waited. Crossing through a gate we handed our passports to the guard, who then passed them on to a ... read more