Project Landrover the third

The Landrover, a reliable car. There was only one big problem, a problem ever since I had the car, the mounted 4 cilinder Diesel engine is not powerful enough, to be honest sometimes it was driving me mad. The car is equiped with a four speed gearbox and overdrive. The overdrive only worked downhill or with a strong wind from the rear, especially after I put a roof tent and a storing box on the roof rack. On dirt tracks the engine was perfectly alright but on paved roads especially in Europe it was a nightmare, not to mention towing a trailor. What to do. There were not many options. Selling the car and buying another one was out of question. The car is what I want to keep for the travells. The only option left was putting a more powerful engine into the car. But before we start with the engine buisness there were a couple of other things I had to do. Nothing mayor though but still it had to be done.

Let us start with the wooden box on the roof. This box was build last year with all sorts of left over plywood boards. It did a good job but the rain in Belgium was not doing it any good. And the wood was not protected anyway, so after a couple of month the whole thing started to fall apart. Luckily in Olen/Belgium I could use wood and all the machinery to work it. I used birch plywood for the outside and oak wood for the frame. I reckon this time it will last much longer. The whole thing is protected with three layers of oil used on boats. I reinforced the edges with aluminium. At the old box there was a lot of damage caused by branches. One of the problems tarvelling with a relativly small car is always the space inside the car. To win some space I figured out two things could be done. The cupboard for clothes could be extended all the way up to the roof and the big gas bottle could be replaced by a smaller one. No sooner said than done. I built the cupboard extension and the mount for the gas bottle with birch wood as well. It is amazing how much more space there is in the car after these changes, it is much better.

What I did as well was placing three gauges, one each for oil and water temperature and a voltmeter. Especially oil and water temperature are very important. The wood work were actually the jobs I did during a couple of weekends in Belgiums. All the other jobs were done in Spain. When we talk about Spain. The weather was not on my lucky side. We had a lot of rain, and in Spain we are not prepared for bad weather. The work is mostly happening outside, so the rain was slowing me down quite a bit . Anyway, back in Spain the first thing I did was going to the MOT. Having this done I replaced the suspension shackle plates with longer ones to give the car more ground clearence. And than back to engine. The engine I wanted to put in the car was taken from a Landrover Discovery. I heard from people they had put this type of engine in a Landrover Series III so I knew it was possible. First the engine itself. Friends of mine in France were scrapping down their Discovery and by coincidence they mailed me to ask me if I wanted the car and as a matter of fact I did. On the picture on the right is the car were the engine is coming from. Before I placed the engine in my car I overhauled it.

It got new pistons and bearings, new seals, the head was skimmed and the valve seats regrinded, a new cambelt and tensioners, a new fuel lift and a water pump, new head bolts, yeah, that´s pretty much about it. Overhauling the engine took me three days, interupted as well by the rain. After three days the engine was sitting there waiting to be put in. But first the old one had to come out. While the engine was off I took advantage of fixing some wireing. Than the engine itself. It was not easy. You have to imagine this engine was never built to be fitted
in an old Landrover Series III. On the pictures above left, the old engine is coming out, right, the "new" engine getting into the car. I was not planning to fit the Turbo charger which the engine is normally equipped with. For two reasons. The first is the torque which might be too much for the gearbox and the second is the space in the engine compartment.

This is maybe something I am going to do later, maybe next year. The almost only part which was fitting straight in was the clutch. To start with, the engine had to sit on it´s mountings. I was cutting both engine mountings brackets in the middle and was rewelding them in the right possition. A big problem was the bell housing, which had four studs in a different possition. I was drilling wholes putting threads and even made the bolts myself. Next problem were the manifolds. Both of them didn´t fit at all. At the end I made a couple of angles out of flat bar steel and used the original studs to fix them. I will not bore you by telling you every single problem I had, I´ll give a quick list what needed to be done. Throttle cable, cooling fan, fuel pipes, aircleaner, the batterie holder of one of the batteries, electric wireing, altinator bracket, not to mention all the tiny bits and pieces like connections, pipes, hoses etc. All in all it took me two weeks to get all the problems sorted. Sometimes I thought:"What have I started here", but than on the first test drive I knew it was worth it. I thought I am driving a different car. What a change. I couldn´t believe it. I should have done this already 10years ago. I was going uphill in forth gear where before I needed second. What I had to do after the first test drives was putting a colder thermostat and a different throttle cable which at the end I made by myself. One thing I have to say about my now custom-made car. I made all this possible with a very small amount of money. Sure, the easy way would have been to go to the shops and just to buy what was needed. But in Africa there is one thing which always stayed in the back of my head. The possibility to lose the car.

 Be it by accidents, mecanical faults, robbery or even worse. So, the reliability is out of question but the amount of money spending on a car is not. So I tried to find a balance between the both, reliability and costs. We will see in the future if it was a good choice. The picture on the left side shows the engine when finally everything was fit.
So far the engine, the next problem was the gearbox. Since a couple of month I couldn´t use the overdrive anymore. It was just too noisy. It was howling like hell. And the main gearbox and the transferbox were leaking oil. I found a gearbox in Granada. Same typ, 4speed gearbox with overdrive. Only the overdrive was a spanish built Toro overdrive which has the double size than the old Fairy one. I took the risk off putting the whole gearbox into the car and had a dissapointing result. Everything was fine but the second gear did not hold. It was jumping out all the time. There was no other solution then taking it off again and break it into parts. At the end of the day I broke both gearboxes into parts and used always the better parts of either to built one good gearbox. For example one gearbox had a bad mainshaft, the other one had bad synchro rings etc. It took me five days and a lot of thinking but than I had a nice working gearbox with new oil seals and gaskets. The gearbox sounded very good which means it didn´t sound at all, and that´s exatly what I wanted. No jumping gears, no howling, great. The picture shows the fitting of the gearbox. It had to be removed or placed through the right hand side door.

The drive unit done I could turn all my attention towards the welding. I decided to put a third jerry-can at the back of the car. So like the others I used flat bar steel and welded a holder. Second was the awning. I had one but maybe you remember the Landrover was hit by a lorry at the mauretanian border and the awning took most of the impact. I had exactly the same one than before but I wanted to have a different fitting. One more thing I had to do with the welding equipment. The bracket for the spare wheel on the roof needed an extra metal bar to be reinforced. The rear springs, I can´t remember how often I had them taken off to put more layers to get more ground clearance. This time I made it different. I put some new extra heavy duty springs and on top of it I reinforced them with two extra thick layers. Now we are talking. 100mm more ground clearance. I almost need a step to climb into the car now. Ok the suspension is a little bit stiff now, but rather stiff than too weak. Changing the springs I saw the suspension mounting in the car frame on the left hand side was gone. So, it needed changing which is always great fun. They need to be cut into two parts with a metal saw and than still they refuse to come lose.
Happy to have the main work done I was looking forward to go for some expanded test drives, I mean the engine had at least to run in a little bit before I could go on the journey. Not to mention all the little things they still could brake down or had to be improved, redone or changed completly. What I wanted was a good running engine to avoid trouble driving in Africa.
Apart from fixing the car, I decided to go with different or better equipment on the journey than last year. What I was really missing the last time was an air-compressor. On sand or soft ground it is best to release tyre pressure. That´s easy done, but what to do after hitting solid ground again. Exactly, a compressor is needed. After some researches I bought a solid not too expensive compressor which has to be connected directly at the battery. What else, GPS. The last time I did not have a GPS what so ever. People were recommending T4A which means tracks for Africa. T4A only works on Garmin GPS equipment. Ok, I bought a Garmin and the maps, but to be honest I was quite dissapointing. Most of the tracks I am planning to take are not on the maps. Looks like the money was not well invested. So far the preparations were more or less done. Yeah , sure, dirt tires needed to be back on the wheels, but actually the car was ready to go.

The link underneeth will lead you to Picasse photo gallery.
https://picasaweb.google.com/106213480355655195189/LandroverTheThird

Summer and Automn 2011 in Olen/Belgium

Travelling in Africa is not really cheap. Rather the opposite. After my first experience in Africa I definetly want a second. To do so I needed some money income. When I was in Zuigenchoir in Senegal I´ve got this mail from Charles in Olen, the place I worked last year already. Anyway Charles was offering me a job to build the "little bear". This happened at the end of March. Sure, Belgium was not just around the corner, but I told him I will be there at the end of May. But to get there I first had a long way home, (check:The long way home) and second I had to look after my place in Spain. So not really a big deal of time. But I made it. On May the 20th I arrived in Olen.I was planning to stay almost 5month, so this time I decided to take my bike as well. The bike is an old Honda XL500, great bike, I love it.

The only thing I had to fix on the car was an oil and filter change on the engine and the gear boxes. Nothing else to fix. Amazing actually after more than 17000km in Africa. Yeah, what I did was putting on normal street tires. I was not planning to go off-roading. And than where in Europe you would need a 4x4 anyway. I didn´t take the shortest road from Spain to Belgium. I passed by in Fillols in France. This is a small village located close to Perpignan in the french Pyrenees. Some friends of mine are living there. I know them from the time when I was staying in this area, fixing cars, tractors, machines etc. Coincidentally, just before take-off in Spain I recieved a mail from them. They asked me if I would like to buy their car, a Landrover Dicovery. And as a matter of fact this car is equiped with excatly the type of engine I want to put in my car. So I went there to have a look. First it was nice to meet my friends again after what; four or five years and second the car, the engine was still good, so we made a deal. I didn´t stay long at their place, which is very close to the Canigou, the highest peak in the area. I had to move on. The Landrover itself is a very slow moving car, but with a trailor...uphill, I was just waiting for some cyclists to overtake me. Like I said: On Friday evening the 20th of May I arrived in Olen.
Back in Olen, it didn´t look much different then last November when I left.
On the picture; on the left Charles in the green shirt, Nikolaas and me in front of the "big bear". The building I built together with Davy, Maurice and the help of two school-classes who had their practical week, last year.

Here is a little back up about the "Wereldwerf" in Olen. Charles is calling this place initiative-village. It is combining various project under one umbrella-project. There is an old peoples home, the herberg, a cafe which is turned over by Carina, Charles´wife, the hebbeding a wool work shop as well runned by Carina, a recycling wall,a wood work place, an organic garden and finally the future kindergarten the big and the little bear.
The place can be checked out here.
What we were doing was building the kindergarten. Charles is as well member of the WWOOF. I was member of the WWOOF last year. This is actually how I found this place. When ever possible, Charles is doing as much work as possible with volunteers. Sure, most of them are untrained workers, but they are all doing their best. Back to the subject: The kindergarten will contain two buildings the big bear and the little bear. Both together will host 23 children or maybe better babies in the age between six weeks and three years. Like last year I was employed to build. I will not explain step by step of the building, I´ll give just a general overview.
The base of both buildings are old office containers which were given to the project as a donation. We used these containers and built the actual building around it. Still using the containers as a base. Two pictures will explain better.

The 5 office container which was the base for the little bear

The meaning of Wereldwerf is something like world-yard. People turning up and working here from all over the world gave the place its name. This year I was working with people from New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Poland, Spain, Kanada, Ireland, Rumania, Minnesota and even Australia.

Two WWOOFers, Markos from Spain and August from Ohio

So, daily routine kicked in, which is to be honest, not my favorit. Charles is recalling everybody in the morning between 9 and 11 to the so called day-opening. He is doing so by walking with a bag-pipe over the grounds. I know now why this thing was invented by the scottish to scare the english off. It sounds horrible. Anyway, day opening starts with singing a russian song. I have to admit, I am not a singer so I was just listening. Afterwards everybody is telling about his or her yesterday, the problems people had or solutions what ever was on schedule. This is a nice way to start the day. Once we were almost 15 people at day-opening and even the song "moja galleta" which means something like many springtimes sounded really nice.
Deadline to open up the kindergarten was the 10th of October. But we didn´t make it. We had not many volunteers turning up this year. So the majority part of the job was done by myself.
To be honest, I loved doing this work. Especially working with wood and on top of it using my own creativity was great. I can´t remember how often we changed the building plans. But this is a good thing to do. Why would you go on building by the old plan when there is a better solution.
One person I have to mention; Hanneke, she will be the manager of the kindergarten for maybe the first year. In fact as long as it takes to get everything started. She is a smart
woman with a great knowledge of her job.
My time at the Wereldwerf ended at the last weekend in October. The building is still not finished but I had to leave. There are people waiting for me, both in Spain and in Africa,
and the car still needs a great deal of attention. So I left three weeks
later than planed. Did I mention Albert. He is a good friend of Charles and a very important person in legal advice etc. Anyway, he said: "I am sure we will see you again". Who knows, he might be right. There might be a new project, starting next year. If so I might join in again.
It was not easy to leave. On one hand I would have loved to stay but on the other hand I couldn´t. So a very big "thank you" to all the people who made my stay in Olen being a plessure.
And a special thanx to Carina for the lovely food.

Click here to have a look at some pictures on Picassa photostream.

Africa-trip 2010/2011, The long way home

On Friday morning the 25^th of March at 6.30 I left Ndongane to go back to Spain. I gave Deanne a lift into town. She wanted to go to Ziguinchor. In Carrefour we had to say good-bye. The stalls were already open, so I bought some bread and vegetables for the trip. The first 20km was one of this incredible bad pot hole road. Luckily I had to turn left towards Kolde. In Kolde I was gasing up. In Carrefour there was no fuel for the whole week. I managed to buy some fuel out of a can on the black market. But in Kolde it was easy, no problem to get fuel. In Kolde the pot hole road started again. It is so nerve recking to drive on these roads.

There is never a second of relaxing. Always looking out for the next hole. I was heading towards Tambacounda. 30km before Tambacounda they were redoing the road. About time I thought. I saw one of this totally overloaded lorries tipt over to the side. It would not have been a problem but there was a taxi just underneeth it. Bloody hell. The turn down to Kendougou was luckily before Tambacound. It saved me another checkpoint. The checkpoints were always before and after a bigger village or a town. I was familiar to this road. The surface was not too bad for the first time, but than again it turned into a pot hole track. My steering was doing really bad. Doing between 50 and 60 km/h the steering wheel went from one side to the other, very fast, and I couldn´t control it. To stop it I had to brake the car down to 30km/h. And it happened more and more often. I thought that maybe I should remove some of the shims in the swyvel housing. I stopped on the campsite de Mako again. But before I could relaxe I was taking the wheels off and checked for the shims. Even with all the shims removed the swyvel housing was moving without enough resistamce from one side to the other.

So this is something to think about in the future. Anyway, after some dinner I took a beer at the bar and went to bed early. I left very early the next morning. It was a three hours drive to the border. On the Senegal side of the border there was the same guy than last time, and again no problem at all. If Senegal would be like this guy it would be great to travell there. On the Mali side I asked a guy who was parked up in a 4x4 at the side of the road how to get to Keniéba. He just jumped in the car and led me all the way into town. Very nice. Though it was a company vehicle so it didn´t cost him any fuel. It is good to know where to go. I went to the police office to get my visa. For the laissez passer I had to go to customs. The laissez passer is 5000CFA. I didn´t take care, but normaly you get a receipt. The guy didn´t give me one, so I guess the money was just ending up in his pocket. Luckily nobody asked me for the receipt, no in fact they did when I left Mali later. The road to Bamako was still under construction. Some good paved bits mixed with same terrible dirt tracks. On half way towards Bamako I had to stop. The river Bafing was crossing my path. The bridge was not finished yet. Hmm, what to do. I saw a service bridge next to the one they were building. This one was used by delivery trucks etc. Ok, I thought, I need to ask. I walk into the building site asking my way through to an office, and voila two japanese guys were in the office. I asked them if I could pass the bridge and they said after 5.00pm I could do so. Cool I thought, cause if not it would have ment to go all the way back. I just sat in front of the car reading and waiting. I was just sitting there when a huge delivery truck arrived, and a guy with a key for the gate.

I told this guy about the agreement I had with his boss and he just told me to pass on. Great. On the other side of the bridge a brand new paved road was expecting me. I was driving until I passed Kita. By nightfall I was stopping in the woods for a bush camp. To Bamako the next day it was only a three hours drive. Exactly in the middle of town I had a puncture. It is not very funny to change a tyre on one of this busy roads in town, but I have to admit nobody was honking or getting close to the car. I just had some people watching me, waiting for a chance to nick some tools in a unwatched moment. I never let the tools out off my sight or my hands. It was only another 10min. to go to the sleeping camel. The rest of the day I was just doing nothing. And the heat. I thought it might be hot in Bamako, but not that hot, man, too much. Even at night it was not cooling down. I reckon I was never that hot before in my entire life. A spanish summer feels like a cool brise compared to this. Anyway I had things to do. The first day I went to the immigration for the Mali visa and the second day for the Mauritanian one. Mali as usual was easy. At the Mauritanian embassy they let me wait for 5 hours, and I was the only one sitting there. But hey, what the hack, I´ve got what I needed. To the Mauritanian embassy I had to take a Taxi. It was just too far to walk. I mean I walked half the distance and than hopped into a Taxi. It saved me half of the money. The third day in Bamako I was using to do some shopping, cleaning up the car etc. I could´t wait to leave this place. I was just constantly sweating. The nights were the worst. I always woke up after maybe 1 hour sleep. I took a shower twice a night. Terrible. I thought of taking a room with aircon, but at the end I didn´t. On Thursday morning I left arround 5.50am to avoid the traffic jams in Bamako. I found my way out of town very easy this time. In Kati I filled all my tanks and the jerry cans up. And than I went for it. At the toll station after Kati I went by accident on the lorry track what I thought is no problem. They could have charged me there as well but no. I had to go back to the right lane. But not without a police officer turning up asking me for my car papers. After I paid the toll I went for my documents, but no this guy was causing trouble. He wanted me to go back to the last police checkpoint, show them a peace of paper he just wrote, paying a fine and then come back for my documents. This was a typical situation only happening to people with white skin. Look, 80% of all vehicles in Mali are in a very poor condition. They would fail at any serious police check. But if a white guy is doing a mistake, even by accident voila, he has to pay a fine. Not nice but that´s the way it is. I managed to pass the border into Mauritania the same day. The border was easy. No problem at all. Sure I had to go for a laissez passer and insurance and I changed the rest of the CFA I had. The guy who changed my money made a mistake in my favour. He gave me too much. It was just the money I payed for the fine the same morning.Between the border and Ayoun el Atrous I was stopping for a bush camp. I thought maybe it will cool down at least a little bit but it didn´t. Since I entered Mauritania the landscpe was turning into a desert. Less and less trees and more and more sand. So I thought I might have this deserty cold nights but no, just a hot wind blowing during the whole night . I didn´t get much sleep and at the end I had some terrible nightmares and was waking up with a hard pounding heart. Good, next day. I left late, I felt exhausted. In Ayoue el Atrous I was gasing up and had a nice surprise. The fuel consumption went down to 10Liter a 100 km. First I took it easy and second I had the wind in my favour. Uff, and than the 200km to Kiffa. Pot holes...again. But very bad. I tell you pot holes are the worst. I prefere a bad dirt track than a paved road with pot holes. Just before Kiffa the road went back into normal condition. The passe de Djouk was a nice interuption of the monotony of the desert and the sand. Rocks, mountains and a very nice palm tree valley. Beautiful. I kept on driving until nightfall. Close to Sangrafa I had another bush camp. And again it was too hot to sleep. But I knew the next day I will make it to Nouakchott which is at the coast and therefor has cooler nights. Gasing up I had a even bigger surprise. Fuel consumtion went down to 8,92Liter. I still had the wind in my favour and all the pot holes where troubeling me to slow down. But the engine had some cut offs, so it might be time for a filter change. I arrived in Nouakchott in the afternoon which gave me plenty of time to find the lodge Menata. I stayed there the last time. I went into a fuel station, thinking I could gas up for the rest of the money I had. I told the guy to fill for 4000 Ouguiya. He tried to trick me. He just started filling and was waiting for a moment when I didn´t watch. He was putting the tab back and pulled it out again and kept filling. Not the first time they try this. He wanted 4000 and I new he didn´t fill more then 2200. I said this to him and I was just sick of him, I started to push him, telling him he is the one trying to trick me. At the end he gave in and took the 2200. Man, sometimes it is not easy. I found Menata quite easy. After three days driving and I don´t know how many nights without a good sleep and the tremendous heat I was at my limits. I was sitting down doing nothing. And oh wonder in the evening it started to cool down. I had to take a shirt and still it felt chilly, fantastic. And I slept like a baby. Still I stayed in bed quite long. Sure, it was not getting hot before 10am. What a relief. I decided to stay one day in Nouakchott. I met Cora the owner of Bab Sahara in Atar where I stayed for new years eve. The next day was service day for the car. I changed the fuel filter and cleaned the sediment filter and the air cleaner. The overdrive needed some oil and the vacuum pump some grease. The job done I washed some clothes and the rest of the day I took it easy. I took off early again the next morning. I was heading for Nouadibou in the north of Mali. The only interuption to the driving were the check points. The landscape was not changing much. Just sand and rocks. No city or village. Sometimes a few hatches on the side of the road. I arrived in Nouadibou at 4pm. And it was cold. Maybe it was just me not used to the cold anymore but I had to put a jumper and a jacket on. I was freezing. After one of my typical driving meals I went straight to bed. It was just too cold to sit outside. I couln´t remember Mauritania being that cold in December. Again I had an early start in the morning. I went for the border to Morocco.

The Mauritanien side was easy. Just the normal checks and stemps but than the Moroccans. They had some sort of huge scanner in one of their buildings. The normal procedure took already a long time but than the scanner. Every single car and lorry had to pass it. Luckily it was not very busy. I don´t know what they were looking for, cause on top of it I had the car searched twice. They are just overdoing it. And the best was this dump lorry driver. I was passing between two lorries to get to the scanner and he was reversing without checking his mirrors and guess what. He reversed into my car. Once again, the Landrover is a solid car. It took a few scraches but the lorry looked actually worse than the Landrover. Still it was not exactly making me happy. But what to do. The police asked me if I want to charge him, but than he was from Mauritania and than to wait for what. No I thought, this was bad luck but not really a big damage so what the hell. I was happy when finally after spending three hours at the border I could go on. I wanted to spend the next night in Dakhla. I arrived in the evening. I fixed the damage as good as I could. It looked already much better. The rest has to wait until I am back in Spain. Dakhla was somehow a very nice town. People were friendly and everything seemed to be very cheap. First I changed some money which got me a more than 10% better exchange rate than the guys at the border were offering me. The campsite was 2,70€ for the night. The only cheaper place was Casa Africa in Bobo Dioulasso. And the fruits and vegetables as well. I went in one shop where you chose whatever you like and put all together in one bowl. No matter if it´s oranges, tomatoes.....! At the end I just payed 36 cents a kilo. This is by far the cheapest shopping I had at the whole trip. And the fuel, 47 cents a liter. When I left Dakhla it was around 10am. The drive was rather boring. I still had the wind against me, but a strong wind. They do have checkpoints as well in Morocco but far less than in Mauretania, and the guys were all friendly, without any exception. I almost made it to La Ayoune. I wanted to sleep somewhere at the beach but all off a sudden there was no acces to the beach anymore. So by nightfall I saw a track leading to the inland, I just followed the track and after a few yards I stopped and stayed for the night. It was not the best place, still very windy, but it was good enough for one night. The next morning the wind had changed, and it was getting very warm. So maybe the cold I felt in Dakhla was not normal after all. Yesterday morning I felt very cold and I asked the guy if this temperature is normal and he ment yes, but who knows maybe it was not. La Ayoune was a very friendly looking big town. For me it seemed like the first outpost of Europe. La Ayoune looked definetly like an european town. Only the surroundings are different. It is a town built on sand and surrounded by sand. I was getting lost in town and was driving round in circles but at the end I found the right road. After La Ayoune it was the same scenario like before. Nothing else than rocks and sand. I filled up again, this time even cheaper. 45Cents a liter. I asked the guy were to find the last cheap petrol station. In the north of Morocco fuel is 50% more expensive so I wanted to fill up at the last possibility. I remembered a place close to Tan-Tan, El Quatia it was called. I stopped there on the way down. I was tired anyway and I decided to have a early stop today. The place is close to the beach. I took a walk down the beach and later I took a hot shower. They had brand new toilets and showers. The owner is from Mauritania and was quite happy when I told him some stories about his country. The next day I made it to Agadir. Tiznit which is 100km before Agadir is the point where Africa ends and Europe starts. The roads were getting busy, the stations looked like real stations and not just two pumps in the sand. I couldn´t deal with the traffic anymore. It was too much for me to have all this cars around me. Sure in the big towns there were always a lot of cars, but not on countrs roads. I felt quite insecure. Agadir was even worse. But I remembered a big supermarket in Agadir. I went inside and bought all sorts of useless stuff. The night I passed at the same campsite where I stopped on the way down. Again leaving early the next morning. I took the closest road towards Casablanca which was my desteny for the day. Casablanca is a boring place with only mad drivers. I didn´t like it at all. I just went on, it means I waited somewhere quiet until the traffic calmed down and than I went on to Rabat. I slep outside the mauritanian embassy. I knew this place and I knew when I get there at a Suterday night nobody will be there. And so it was. I was the only one. I had a fantastic sleep, but I have to admit I was getting to my limits. The next time I do this I will take much more time. Maybe three days driving and than maybe one or two days rest. But I had this job waiting for me in Belgium and I had many things to prepare. For this I just kept going. The next day was a Sunday and it looked like everybody wanted to spend it outside town in the greens. There were thousands of people in the forest around townI started on the country road towards Ceuta but after one hour I gave up. Too much traffic. I took the motorway until Larache. From Larache to Ceuta I took a very beautiful road to Ceuta. I didn´t know Morocco is that green and has got so much agriculture. Getting closer to Ceuta I was getting a little bit nervous. But the border was no problem at all.

 There was a guy turning up who wanted to search my car, and he asked me where I come from and I said from Bamako and he stood there open mouthed and let me pass. Ceuta, still in Africa but already in Spain. I wanted to sleep at the coast. There is a nice parking place but it was Sunday evening and all the youngsters were out showing off with their music equipment in their cars. It was useless. Somewhen after midnight I left and looked for a different place to sleep. I found one not too far off and finally was undisturbed. The next morning I went into town to buy a ticket for the ferry. Before the next one was leaving I had three hours time. I took the time and had a long walk into town. Back at the port I was waiting in the queue to pass customs when this french guy turned up asking everybody for some jumpleads. I asked him where his cars was parked and he showed me a blue Audi A3. Ok I thought why not. I gave him a jump start and he went into the queue before me. Customs was controlling with a drug dog and guess what, this guy was a dealer.

He had drugs welded into the back of his car and the dog found it. They took the car directly into the garage and took it apart. The best part is still coming. They, the customs, said, now you, me, are in trouble because you are his friend. And all this cause I gave this guy a hand. At the end they came with the dog and let me pass, but I thought, I came that far and than almost at the end of the trip you give someone a hand and thanx for this you are into trouble. So, this was the last time I helped someone. This was actually the only serious situation I had on the whole trip. After one hour on the ferry I hit eurpean soil. After a couple of hours on this totally overfilled motorways I was back home.

This link will you to Picassa photo stream.

Africa-trip 2010/2011, Senegal

Senegal, the country I didn´t want to go to. I heard so many bad stories about Senegal, mostly about the corrupt police. On the other hand I heard in the south people are different. So I was quite curious what would be happen. And I tell you this was the easiest border to pass. The guy was extremly polite. Maybe because he got some money from the guy in front of me. I just saw them exchanging money. Anyway, it took me not more than two minutes to get my stamp. He was not even asking me for a laissez passer or a carnet de passage nor did he look at the car. I could have had 10 people in the car without him noticing anyhting. And the road was a brand new paved road. On my way to Kédougou which was a distance of 130km I passed maybe one car and one lorry. The road was brand new, but still they haven´t finished it on the Mali side. So I reckon once the Mali side is finished the traffic will move into Mali on this road instead of going via Kayes. In Kédougou I asked for a camp side called la Girafe but they told me it is in Mako. It was still early anyway so I thought I could go there. The road was paved as well but with many holes or pot-holes if you like. Between Kédougou and Mako I saw a sign campement de Mako and I turned in. It turned out to be a very nice place. Ok, there were mostly hunters using this place for a stay but it was very well maintenanced and they had a pool.

Aahhh, this was just fantastic. I stayed at least one hour in the pool, great. Life sometimes has nice surprises. And for sure they had a bar with icecold beer. I thought of maybe staying a day longer. The river Gambia is just passing at the side of the place. Very, very beautiful. But this place is like so many others not at all busy anymore. It looked like it had better times. They had maybe 12 or 15 little houses to rent, all very clean and well maintenanced, just the customers were missing. After two nights at the camp-site I went on. My plan was to visit the Niokoto-Koba park. The owner of the camp-site ment the entrance is 35km ahead but I couldn´t take this entrance cause I had no ticket. Ok, I thought lets keep going. A few km later I discovered a guy who looked like some sort of gard. I asked him if he is selling tickets and he ment it would be better to move on to the main entrance of the park. This guy was already a little bit wierd. He was asking me what I´ve got in my car, but at this moment I didn´t think much. After half an hour driving I had to stop. A guy who looked like a gard as well wanted to see my papers and wanted to have a look in the car. I felt a little bit unconfortable. All this guys with their big rifles but still I didn´t think much. Short after this interuption I arrived at the main entrance. The first guy who turned up was telling me he is a guide. Good I said, but I don´t want one. I went into the office and the trouble started. The other gard was just calling telling the main entrance gard that I had refused him to search my car which was a total lie. I had my back door open to show him the car. So the other guy was really searching my car. At this point I thought already, what is this all about, why would I have my car searched when I just want to visit a bloody national park. Later I thought maybe they were thinking I was hunting some animals, anyway, after the guy had finished his search action I was already a little bit pissed off. Finally he asked me where I wanted to go and I explained him. I was planning to stay two days in the park. Than he said you need a guide and I said I don´t want one but if you want to visit the park you have to take a guide. Ok, I thought I was angry anyway and I told him to put his park where ever he would like to but I am not going in there when I have to take a guide. I went on and stopped in the next village to have some lunch. I found a „restaurant“ where I had a nice plate of meat with vegetables. In this village was a camp-site as well. I had a look but the place was deserted and they had no shade so I moved on. The next place I saw had some huge advertising on the side of the road. I had a look. This place, I forgot the name was a tourist rip off place. They wanted 2700CFA for the night which is still acceptable but I would have had to take dinner and the dinner was 6500CFA, no I thought. I didn´t like the place anyway so I kept going. The roads went insanly bad. They were still paved but they had more holes then pavement. It was incredibly tirering to drive on these roads. And I made my first contact with corrupt police officers, and not the last. Pardon my language but they are all wankers. It was always

the same game, they asked for some documents, either passeport or driving licence and just kept the papers trying to make me nervious, trying I said. Once I just said next to them starting to relaxe and talking silly stuff. As soon as they realize you are not scared of them and you show them you have time they don´t know how to handle you and give you the papers back. Some were asking directly for money. These are the once who check all the papers incluiding car insurance etc. I started to regret my decision to come to Senegal. How much cooler was Mali and Burkina. One of the guys I asked if he knows a camp-site and he ment in the next town there is one. Cool I thought, it was getting late anyway. I only had to ask once and than found the place. But they wanted 8000CFA . A normal rate is between 1500 and 2500 CFA. I really started to loose my temper. At the end I was yelling at the guy who was a miserable bastard anyway. I went back into town and spotted a blag sign. This is a local beer. It was a hotel with a nice bar and ice-cold beer. I asked the owner if I could park my car inside but he said the place is going to be busy later. At the meanwhile it was dark and I didn´t want to drive any further. Just next to the hotel I saw some police and I asked them if I could park the car around the corner where I spotted some abandoned houses but they said no. At the end I drove out of town and stopped at the first possible place for a bush camp. This day was the worst so far on my whole travells and I was regretting even more being in Senegal. I gave Deanne a ring. She is the woman running this project in a small village some where close to where I was. She explained me how to drive. Only another 6 hours from where I was staying. I left early in the morning. I passed the night undisturbed. It went on where it stopped yesterday. I was only stopped five times and had a car search only three times. Once I took a wrong road and had to go all the way back. Finally I arrived at a place which is called Medina Wandifa but by the locals only called Carrefour. I met Deanne and Aliou a guy from the village. Before we went towards the village she was presenting me to the chef de village who was living in Carrefour but somehow he was still the chef of Ndongane the village. It was only a five km drive on donkey roads to Ndongane. That´s the name of the village. In the village itself I had a very warm welcome. They were drumming and dancing for me and all the trouble I had over the last days was just drifting away. This was great. The day I arrived they had a big party anyway.

It started late and I couldn´t stand it. They had the music just built up next to my car and it was sooo loud and sooo bad. I waited a while and than put the tent down and drove out of town to get some sleep. The next day Deanne showed me around. They were building a school. The building itself was already standing but it was the finish which needed doing. Also the floor on the outside, which was done 6 month ago but already was totally cracked up by using not enough cement and no reinforcement. We wanted to start to work on Monday, but on Monday the village had a celebration so nobody was turning up to work. This was a good possibility for me to go shopping in Carrefour. I took Anna with me, a spanish woman who was staying in the village to visit Deanne. The rest of the day I spent preparing the work for the next day. I found a lovely parking space for my car underneeth a huge tree. The rest of the week I was working with two guys, one was Ibrahim a very tall guy and Moussad. But there were always some people turning up, mostly to have a look.or to give us a hand. What we did was priming and painting the walls with two coats of paint. We started to work at eight in the morning when it was still relativly cool until maybe eleven or twelve. 

Between twelve and four in the afternoon you didn´t even had do think about work. Too hot. Sometimes more than 40°C. After four it was still very hot but it cooled down slowly. On the weekend Deanne wanted to go Ziguinchor the capital of Casamance to buy material. Spontaniously I decided to join her. We took Anna with us . She is living in Ziguinchor. We took my car. The drive was horrible. We were stopped six times. And three times I had the car searched. Once they even searched my pockets. Very, very unpleasant. Once I had to open up my tent. This guy was showing off his authority. By the time we arrived in Ziguinchor which was only a 100km distance I was in not a very good mood. The area around Ziguinchor is very green and beatiful but it didn´t pay for the hustle on the roads. Later I learned they had an attack by some rebells only one week ago. But hey there were tanks all over the place. We spent the day shopping for the building . The heat was not as bad as in the village but the humidity was killing me. Ziguinchor is next to the river Casamance and for this reason very humid. After we put all the stuff in the car we went for a cold beer in one of the hotels at the river. Deanne´s friend in town is called Richard. He is a building constructor. I could have had parked my car in his yard but I was not very confortable with the guy and I decided to spend the night in an auberge. I spent the night in a real bed.  But hey, I couldn´t sleep. I was awake until four in the morning. So, at the end it was not a very good idea. Anyway I still woke up early and was already horrorfied about the drive back to the village. And this time with all the building material inside the car. I saw myself already taking the stuff out on every ceckpoint. We left Ziguinchor around 4Pm. The first time we had to pull over was still in town. Good start I thought, but the rest of the trip we went on undisturbed. Back in the village we unloaded the stuff and I head an early night. The next week I was busy with concreting and building a water deposit and I was showing the people how to build a wall etc.

The village Ndongane.

I spent three weeks in the village. The village itself is settled 5km off the main road close to a place which is called Bounkiling. My car was the only car in town. For transport they use donkeys and lately 2 guys bought a scooter. There was no electicity in the village. As soon as the night felt is was just pitch dark, except when the moon was rising. With the full moon shining it was almost as light as in day time. Deanne is leading the project in Senegal. A friend of hers is fundraising the money for the project. Though the budget is very, very limited. Every penny has to be turned over twice. But things are moving. So far they built the school itself and a well. For some of the villagers it is a good possibility to gain some money. And Deanne was paying them the double rate. When we talk about money. A guy working the whole day gets between 500 and 1000 CFA a day which is aquivalent to 80 cents and 1€50. Deanne was paying them 2000CFA a day. For us it sounds like it is nothing but for them is was a very good income. I remember, once Deanne had payed the guys after one week of work and the guys were really smiling at the 12000CFA they´ve got. (18€).

 It is not easy for me to decripe the life in the village. The women are doing the hard part of the labour. They have the kids, they prepare food, they wash, they fetch the water, in fact they do practically everything. The men are just sitting in the shade. Sure there is not much work but they would never ever go and fetch some water, this is womens work. The same with the cooking. They looked very wierd at me when they saw me cooking my own food. I just didn´t like their daily food which was cous cous with peanut sauce. They eat this stuff twice or three times every day. Over all I liked my stay in the village, the heat in the afternoon was not easy to deal with. Once I meassured the temperature in the sun arround 15.30. It was close to 55°C. In the shade stiil it was 43°C. But there was no shade anyway so 55 was the temperature I had to deal with. Even with lots of water I felt dizzy after one hour. It is hard to tell but there is not even a basic knowledge of how to rais a building. Some of the guys were „builders“ but they didn´t even know how to mix cement in the right mixture. They made some concrete blocs. I looked at them and thought this is just sand. I took one up and let it fall down from maybe the height of one meter and it just totally broke. But the guys were really proud telling me they used two tonnes of cement for the blocs. After calculating the weight of the blocs it turned out they had a mixture 7 parts of sand and 1 part of cement. Ideal is 3 to 1.

The same with the concrete. They get the gravel from somewhere behind the village only 50% of the so called gravel is soil. I had to tell them soil is not a good compound in concrete. You know things like that. I remember the first mix we did they looked at me like I have lost my mind. Cause for them I used far to much cement. But after the three weeks they themself saw the difference. It doesn´t mean they will change the way they work, for econmy sake. The same with the stealwork for the concrete. They normaly don´t use any and that is exatly the reason why everything is cracking up in no time. I don´t know if I helped them a lot but maybe the one or another thing is working out better.

And than the kids. I just felt in love with them. They are so great. They behave like little adults and not like kids. As far as I remember I heard maybe once a baby crying. These kids don´t cry, they don´t bag for toys or for sweeties for the simple fact there aren´t any. They live a life without toys, gameboys or television. I just feel sad for the girls. Most or them get married very early to someone the parents chose. This is were I struggle as well a little bit to see the point of education. The girls go to school and learn french for example and than later they are locked up in a village getting one baby after the other. It is still normal to have 6 or 8 kids with one wife. Men with money do have more wives and for this more kids. One guy having three wives and 20 kids is rather normal. To be very honest I cannot see a big change in the future for the people of this village. A good thing Deanne realised the last year was building toilets for every house. Before they just had holes in the ground and for that many infections. My leaving party was great.The women of the village made a trouser and a shirt for me. Very nice and very beautiful. I reckon this was there way to say thank you. I could not have no corversation with any of the women. They only spoke the local language. The main reason I had to leave was the laissez passer for my car which was going to be expired. On one hand I was sad to leave and on the other hand I couldn´t wait to get out of Senegal. Senegal is not a very friendly country and I can not recommend to go there. Sure the life in the village had nothing to do with all the corrupt police, the military pressence or the terrible roads. But I had it always in mind.

I left early on Friday morning the 25^th of March and took the long way home.

The link underneeth will lead you to Picassa Photostore.

https://picasaweb.google.com/106213480355655195189/AfricaTrip20102011Senegal#

Africa-trip 2010/2011, Mali the second

The border came in sight already at 9pm. The only problem I had was the police controll in Mali. It was the same guy who was responsible for the laissez passer. He found it suspicious me being German but driving a spanish plated car. First he had a quick look inside the car but than he turned up again and had a closer look. The only thing he did was messing up my car with his dirty boots.
It was a long driving day but at 5.30pm I went into Bamako. I wanted to stay at a different place. I heard something about a camp site called the sleeping camel. It was not easy to find. But after asking some people I was at the door.
One guy I asked was even calling the place to ask how to find them. And another guy on a moped was leading me at the end to the place. I was quite tired. Normal I reckon after almost 12 hours in the car. The sleeping camel was a very nice place. The best place so far. A little bit pricy but it is worth it. Many people were passing by. From a dutch couple for example I learned it is possible to get a laissez passer here in Bamako in the senegales Embassy. I couldn´t quite believe it. Everybody kept on telling me, Senegal without a carnet de passages is impossible. I gave it a try and voilá after one hour I had a laissez passer for one month for Senegal. The second important thing I had to do was the visa. At the border they just gave me a stemp but no visa, but they charged for it. So I had to go to immigrations to get the visa which was no problem at all. Bring in the passporte one morning and pick it up the next afternoon.
The polution in Bamako was not as bad as the last time or maybe I am getting used to it. But like the last time I enjoyed moving into town by foot. The sleeping camel was on the other side of the Niger so every time I went into town I had to cross the river. It was quite a long walk every time, but I still liked it. Only when I went to pick up my passporte I was a little bit late and I was in a rush. It is not a good idea by I don´t know how many degrees to rush into town. When I arrived I had to cool down for quite a while. Next lesson learned. Always take your time. The next problem was my bank card. The card was not working since the last time I was in Bamako. The card doesn´t even slip into the ATM. I tried several ATM´s at different banks but it was the same every where. It looked like the card itself was broken. So the only chance I had was using Western Union to have some money sent over. At the sleeping camel was an interesting mix of people. The owner was from Australia. A place which I can recommend.
I left the next morning which was a Saturday. I got up quite early and first I went to a Western Union place to pick up the money which was sent over. This seems to work very well. I just don´t know yet how much they charged for their service. Anyway I went out of town through Kati towards Kita. I expected a dirt track but it was a paved road. So it was an easy ride. In Kita the paved road ended. I was asking my way through town and at the end two kids were sitting in my car leading me. At the city limits I had to pay 1000CFA for some sort of I don´t know charge for passing the city. I found that very wierd. How ever, the first 100 km of the track were not too bad. Some of the road was still under construction. It ended in Oualia. All of a sudden the track turned into a donkey trail. The speed was dropping to maybe 10-20km/h. I didn´t even get to Bafoulabé were I had to cross the river. I was passing through same villages and asked everybody to make sure I was still on the right road. Just before nightfall I had my first bush camp and it was great. I just drove maybe 100yards of the track and stopped. I saw the most beautiful moonrise ever. I just stood there open mouthed. You have to imagine a country site totally quite, listening to nothing else but the sound of silence, and all of a sudden you spot a red light behind the trees which was the upper curve of a big, red full moon rising. Stunning. The whole night there was not one single soul approaching my car. Only once I heard this noise of footsteps coming closer, and I still haven´t figured it out if it was a animal or a human being. I was looking for the noise with a tourch but couldn´t find the source and than the footsteps turned into a different direction. I left early the next morning.

I met a guy who said it is better to go to Mahina instead of Bafoulabé. In Mahina I spotted some truck drivers and asked them for the bridge. There is a train bridge crossing the river which can be used by car. It turned out the place was a work shop and the mecanic needed a ride into town. He led me towards the bridge. This bridge didn´t look very save. The bridge itself is strong enough but with a car you have to drive on some sheet metal on the side of the rail. It made a horrible noise and the river is very far down, but the mecanic in the car didn´t look scared at all so I thought it might be quite allright. In the middle of the bridge some sort of gard turned up to tell me I can´t cross in the car. He asked for 5000CFA. I gave him1000 and kept on driving. The mecanic who wanted me to bring tools and to be his partner in his work shop showed me the way out of town. The track got really bad by now. I was lost several times. Once I ended up in front of a bridge which was not high enough for the Landrover, so I had to go all the way back to look for another possibility to reach the other side. In Galougo it went even worse. First I was lost again at the side of the rail. In the distance I saw two kids running towards me, I waited for them. The younger one was maybe only 5years old, his brother maybe 9 or 10. The young one hopped in the car and showed me the road. This was the worst I have ever done to the Landrover. I couldn´t imagine the car would do it.

I had to get out of the car severall times to look where it is best to pass. The older brother was telling me as well where to go and was even putting some rocks in place to make the track "smoother". I just recalled some guys I asked and they all said, it is a very bad track. When an african is telling you a track is bad it definetly is. I am still proud of my car, going uphill was murder. When the worst part was done I gave the young kid a pair of sunglasses (he had put them on earlier and he looked so cute) and the other one some CFA. The last bit to the chut the Gouina still took same time but soon I remebered the track from the last time and I was glad when Gouina came in sight. The first I did was pooring down some beer and looking for a place to park the car. It was very nice to meet some of the people again. The made quite a progress in restoring the buildings. (Look at the blog "Les chutes de Gouina"). The next day I spent on the car. The suspension mountings in the front springs was totally gone. Luckily I had some with me.It was also time for an oil change in the engine and in the overdrive. All the work done it felt good to be prepared for the next trip. But first I took it easy. The next four days I was doing some work at the project. I built a table and put three doors into place. On Friday the 25th the festival de Gouina started.
Some guys from Bamako turned up with music equipment. It was not the best festival I have seen but the atmophere was great. All the people from the nearby villages turned up. Some of them playing music themselfes. Some of the women helped in the kitchen.
The first night I was helping out behind the bar. All in all I had a great time in Gouina for the second time. On Sunday morning I left and gave Fatime who was doing the kitchen as well a lift back to Kayes.
Back in Kayes which takes always three hours to get there I dropped off Fatime and went into the lodge I was in twice before already. Somehow it is nice to know a place without looking for it first. But it didn`t take long before I got bored. I decided to go to Senegal via dirt tracks and to visit the national parc of Nioloko-Koba.

I left Kayes early on Saturday morning. I took the dirt track down to Sadiola. In Sadiola the south africans are running a huge gold mine. The track was not very good. The average speed an hour turned out to be not more than 25-30km/h. Just before Sadiola I stopped in village to buy some vegetables. It was a sort of tent with lots of people inside. They thought I am working in the mines, cause they asked me what sort of service I am working for. Anyway, first they tried to overcharge me and second what I found very rude was one of the woman asking me to give her my change. I said no, why would I do that and she said to show that I am a nice person. I mean this was not a woman who looked like she was starving, she was rather big. And I told her being a nice person has nothing to do with giving money but I didn´t want to be envolved in some silly arguments and I left.I went further down towards Keniéba where I wanted to cross the border but all I could do this day was just a little bit more than 200km. We talk about 9 hours driving. Once I stopped in the shade of a big bao-bap tree. I was not thinking much when a bee was flying around my head not easy to get rid of. In fact I had to kill her. The second one was flying straight into my eye and poked me on my eye-lid. Bloody hell you know how much this hurts, and I couldn´t get rid of her neither. I was running for onions, luckily I bought some at the unpleasant lady´s place. I cut one in half and put it on my eye. In the meanwhile the bees started to attack me. This might sound funny but it wasn´t. Later I found out the bao-bap tree was hollow with a huge nest inside and the bees attacking me were the gards. I threw everything inside the car and drove off. Just maybe 300 yards. Than I kept on going putting onions on my eye-lid. After 15min the pain went down a little bit. I was always checking my eye in a rear view mirror to see if it was going to swell up. Luckily it didn´t. Thanx to the onions. The pain though stayed for the rest of the day. I drove until nightfall and turned off the track for a bush-camp. Getting up I heard the sound of bees again. This time they were in my cleaning up bowl which was placed on the right hand side wing drinking water. But it was hundreds of them. It was impossible to approach them. Finally I got a stick and threw the hole bowl off the car. Later they just disappeared. So either you go up very early or you stay in bed until they are gone. Staying longer in bed seems like a good idea to me. Keniéba was just 30km ahead. I asked myself through to find the douane to get the stamp for leaving Mali. They were mouning about the missing stamp on the laissez passer. One of them was telling me I had to go back where I crossed the border to get the stamp. I almoststarted to laugh but for sure I couldn´t. This would have meant a one weeks drive. At the end there was a superieur turning up handling everything very professionally and finally I got this silly stamp. To the border to Senegal it was only maybe 15km. They are building a new road but I still had to drive on the old track. After crossing the river Gambia I was in Senegal.

The link underneeth will lead you to picassa photo store.

https://picasaweb.google.com/106213480355655195189/AfricaTrip20102011MaliTheSecond#