The Last Post

It's the end of the road; 4 continents, 28 countries, 27 passport pages, 11 flights, 12,000 km by overland truck, more than 50 modes of transport (probably), 4,000+ blog hits, 101 blog posts, 3,500m of water pipes laid, volcanoes, glaciers, mountains, waterfalls, world heritage sites, gold medals and much much more along the way.

I have to thank my parents & friends for being there when I pop home in between legs. But, most importantly I have to thank all the amazing people I've met along the way that have shaped my travels & entertained along the way, some for just a few hours, others for friendships that will endure. I won't name names (you're the ones still reading this) but thank you again for one amazing journey.

Gorée & a Big Statue

Isle de Gorée

Isle de Gorée completed the circle from the start of the trip in Ghana ten weeks ago. It's an old slave holding island, a staging point on the way to Europe.  It also happens to be very photogenic, with no cars on the island it would be peaceful if it weren't such a tourist spot full of hawkers.

Isle de Gorée

Isle de Gorée

Release of the Slaves

After a last supper with Jimmy, Hatter & Osamu there was still time for a final stop on the way to the airport.  Another example of extreme piece spending, the $27m statue of African Renaissance, which also tops a recent list of controversial statues on the bbc travel site.

Statue of African Renaissance 

Dakar

And so we roll into town for my final stop of the year - Dakar, capital of Senegal.

Dakar panoramic

Presidential Palace, Dakar

A stroll around town revealed we were in the similar place to Accra at the very start, since indeed, Accra. Both are very different from most of the West Africa we visited, there are thriving businesses, large markets (not so unusual) and signs of affluence in things like the cars. It wouldn't have been a surprise to find a McDonalds or Starbucks here.

Dakar cathedral

The memorable highlight however was all down to random chance. Accompanying Ida to the Ethiopian embassy we had a few hours while waiting for the visa to be issued. Across the road from the embassy was, not only the Supreme Court, but also Magic World.

Where the magic happens

It looked a little empty and having bought our entry tickets a walk around did little to dispel the doubts, building works, empty rides & no people. After an attempt at a refund we were accompanied to the ride of our choice and it was started up for us. Yes, we has a whole theme park (more or less) to ourselves.

Riding the caterpillar

Riding the ghost train

Birthday beers

Another insight into the world of overlanding is the importance of finding ice along with beer to stock the bar. Previous attempts, often made more difficult by such limited French included some free ice from a (closed) restaurant and ice at the boarder.

delivering the precious cargo

As the official barman of this leg the responsibility was weighing heavy as we pulled into town for the final bar day. Since we'd already been there the previous day beer was not a problem (unlike some of the Islamic stops en-route) a local chap was most keen to help us find whatever we were looking for, although it wasn't entirely clear he understood what this was. Indeed this proved to be the case, after a few blocks in the midday sun we got to a wholesaler of drinks. They seemed to understand the repetition of glacé (the only word I know for ice in French) and off we went asking a few people along the way, with only a minor retracing of our steps we reached a retailer. The lack of electricity of fridge units didn't seem promising and again we were thwarted, he'd been on the search for a glaciér - an ice box. But finally the penny dropped & off we went again to about 1 block from where we'd started 20 minutes previously. In through the back of a house and some 20cent blocks of ice - victory for the persistent overlander.

A gentle drive up to the coast, within a couple of hours of dakar and a beautiful spot for celebrating our last night of the trip with the whole group, and my birthday.  Thanks especially to Ida, Annie & Rowan for the presents and Annie for producing both a cake and custard!

Pool & Sea in one shot

Senegal second coming

From The Gambia we needed to take a ferry to get back into Senegal - cue a 4 hours wait in the heat as the ferry drivers bashed into posts and the usual crazy sights and sounds were on full display.  The snake charmer even managed to co-ordinate his outfit with the JCB as he piped music from his mobile phone through a loud speaker, balanced on his bike.

charming

it's only leaning slightly to one side

deferrying

Time lost in on the ferry meant a final night of bush camping, one of the may things I'll miss from the world of overlanding as the cook groups came up with an amazing variety of dishes from the base of tomatoes, onions, aubergines, carrots and rice.

Final bush camp

For those unfamiliar with bush camping, it essentially involves driving until it's close to sunset & stopping on the flattest, hopefully slightly secluded spot on the side of the road and transforming the contents of the truck into a kitchen worthy of the budding masterchef teams.
Those of you who took an earlier leg will a dwindling number of non-fat chairs and a new set of rather colourful 3 bowls.

Sine Saloum delta

Another boat trip with the chance to spot some birds, have a swim from shell island and some see some large boab trees were the highlights of the next day on the Sine Saloum delta.

Great Egret

Boab fruit

Boab tree 

Ready to land

Sunset through the Boabs

More twitching

From Bintang we journeyed just a couple of hours upstream to Tendaba.  The birds were even more abundant so here's just a few select pictures - I may have taken a few more...

Sunrise on the river Gambia 

Yellow crowned gonolek

Pelican

Malachite kingfisher

Blue Breasted kingfisher

After a bit of a break in the afternoon - it was too hot to do anything other than sit by the river & try & stay in the shade, it was back on the river for a spot of fishing.  Well, there were fish jumping around but all we had to show for our efforts was Scott's broken line and Tony's big branch that he captured from the depths.

fish weren't taking this bait

The final night here was marked not only by an 8-0 win for England over the mighty San Marino, but some of the local villagers coming over to sing and dance.

Dancing, Gambian style

Twitching in The Gambia

Entering The Gambia for the few days on the river.

riverside cottage

First stop a cheeky little upgrade to a room on stilts, even on an estuary to the river Gambia the tides were significant. At night the waves lapped below the room, in the morning the smell outside of the mud was not quite so pleasant.

Morning view from the balcony

Alexis and I chartered a little boat for an hour of pre-sunset twitching. There were only a few different species so even a novice like me could recognise the darter from the cormorant by the end of an hour.

Black Kite

Flamingo

Pied Kingfisher

The next morning was a bit more of the same, sunrise over the river and the same sorts of birds but heading up onto the extremely wide river Gambia.  Our guide, Omar, also pulled out one of the many jellyfish as they floated past - funny that no-one mentioned them when the group went swimming.

Tern

Egret

Jellyfish

Casamance region

The Casamance region of Sengal that has been off limits for tourists or a few years so it's a privilege to be able to visit, spending a couple of days camping on the banks of the river and taking day trips on the boat.

We were staying at a Campemont owned by a nice french chap called Luc.  He has rebuilt the place & intends to pass it over to the locals once he's earnt his investment back.

camping on the river

Pelican

Pied kingfisher

The first day we went out to the nearby island, Ile de Karobane

 for a walk around an abandoned church (except for the bats), past the mosque, a few birds and an afternoon 

Heron

Church

Back in the afternoon for a bit of book reading and a beautiful sunset

sunset at Campemont Villageois

The following day we journeyed further down the river to Point St George for a long walk in the baking hot sun to a very large tree.  Since health & safety doesn't exist in this part of the world we were able to climb a ladder around 15m into the tree for a view over the canopy, there was a safety line, but they didn't have a harness and the platform is rotten so we didn't risk standing on that..

We tried a little rice wine from the hard(?) working locals before heading back or lunch and some afternoon (unsuccessful) manity spotting.

Tree ladder

Rice wine

Fishing

 The way back we were treated to dolphins playing off the side of the boat

Dolphins

Dolphin

Into Senegal

Sometimes on an overlanding trip you need to make some tough decisions.  Having crossed the boarder from Guinea Bissau to Senegal, negotiating multiple police checkpoints (including one within sight of the previous one) we made it, bribe free, to Kabrousse on the west coast.

Choice number one, where to swim:

pool..

..or beach

On the beach were a variety of items, some more common than others - depending on your expectations of a beach.

stingray

cows

palm tree

local boy (in the photograph)

After a couple of relaxing days on the beach the furthest we'd ventured was an hours walk to the neighbouring fishing village.  That meant walking past the old french sunbathers at the club med resort and finding a man named Luna who not only convinced us to come back for dinner that evening but also gave me a personal guided tour the next morning.

Fish drying

The men go out and fish, coming back in around 11 am when all the women will come down to the beach.  There is a large building which is the creche and the rest of the women set to work drying the fish with salt.

Baby shark

The snail in the region are pretty huge and the shells are used in the concrete mix for the buildings, the village is still being rebuilt after being destroyed by rebels in the late '90s

snail shell mountain

Luna and a fish