Ouagadougou the noo!

Yo dudes - well, gosh its been a busy week or so. If I hadnt had Timmy the dog for company and lashings and lashings of homemade ginger beer, I dont know what Id have done. Actually, the only lashing Ive had was a verbal one from the customs official in Timbuktu for not having the paperwork for Naartjie in order, but thats another story.

So, whats been going on? Well, I escaped Nouakchott and got to Bamako in Mali in 2 long days with some more clandestine bush camping en route. Mali is ace, as we would have said in 1986. Here are 4 key things I observed there:

1. Mali is a nation of motorcyclists - which was a nice surprice. Everyone seems to have a bike of some sort, be it a Chinese copy of a CG125 or a metallic pink moped that isnt a copy of anything. Cool.

2. Beer is plentiful and quite cheap. Cool.

3. Claire will kill me for saying this, but Malian women are very beautiful. I dont think its so much about how they look, but the graceful way they glide along when either walking or on pink mopeds. They even look graceful when carrying a bucket of water on their heads. Cool.

4. There is a really big river in Mali that is confusingly called the Niger [which is also the name of a country]. Someone told me that it doesnt flow into the sea, and instead has an inland delta, whatever that is. Im not sure I believe them - its extraordinarily big, so the water must go somewhere!

Anyway, we [me and Naartjie] rode from Bamako on to Segou, Mopti and Douentza, before taking the hellishly-corrugated 200km piste up to Timbuktu. I have to confess that Timbuktu was a bit of a disappointment, though I did see the house were Gordon Laing, Queen Victorias envoy, stayed for 3 days in 1826 before the locals killed him. There was also a big mosque made of mud that they have to rebouild every year. And lots of souvenir sellers. And not enough tourists for all the souvenir sellers!

After that, it was a ferry back across the Niger [did I mention how big it is?] and home to Douentza, where I stayed at the excellent Chez Jerome run by an ex Paris-Dakar Rally racer called, erm, Jerome. On the way back to Doutentza, on the Tibuktu piste, where there had been almost no traffic, I met another British motorcyclist! His name is Paul Hurcomb, and hes also heading South. Bizarre. Anyway, were planning a meet up later this week to reminisce about mushy peas.

The next day, I did an awesome piste from Doutentza to Koro along the side of the Bandiagara escarpement and through Dogon country. The Dogon villages were amazing and the ride was a real high-point.

Now its Burkina Faso [formerly Upper Volta for the older reader]. Currently waiting for a visa for Ghana [wasnt in the original plan, but I quite fancy a change from trying to speak French]. The exotically named capital, Ouagadougou is pretty cool, though I did get lightly run over by a moped this morning.

Hope all is well and, if anyone is still reading, cheers!

(Btw, the pic here is of the result of some slightly over-zealous parking by a lorry getting onto the Timbuktu ferry.)

Piste again!

Wahey! Well, we made the piste from Nouadhibou with 250ml of fuel to spare... It was a great ride, with a section of dunes Id been dreading proving to actually be a more or less gently undulating sand sheet, though it did go on for 50 miles. Since then, its been food poisoining, bike repairs and sleep. Now in Nouakchott, Malian visa in hand.

Tomorrow, we blow this popstand and its next stop Timbuktu (unless I get lost). More news to follow. A :-)

En Mauritanie!

Hey up! First, thanks for the posts - its great to hear from everyone. Missing you all, though to varying degrees!

Yesterday I finished the butt-numbing 1500kms from Agadir through Western Sahara, so Im delighted to be reporting from the green and lush town of Nouadhibou in Mauritania. Actually, the only green things here are the national flag and the meat. On the good side, the border crossing from Morocco is bordering on slick, compared to how it was first timle I came here - only 1 1/4 hours for the whole thing, as opposed to 6 last time. The journey through Western Sahara is just as empty as ever, though there now 3 petrol stations between the Dakhla fork and the border - a fact that will be of interest to precisely nobody! Spend a great night on the beach in on the way down, with Naartjie disguised as an old carpet in the interests of keep a low profile.

Today Im setting out on the 540km piste to Atar - this being the longest single offroad stretch oif the journey. There is now fuel at Bou Lanouar, I hear, so that takes the edge off my fuel-range worries. Next post, hopefully, with dramatic pics, from Atar or Nouakchott. Stay tuned :-)

Out on the Piste!

Yo dudes, well as promised Im writing with tales of unplanned excursions into the scenery! Starting to learn that motorcycle overlanding and desert biking are different and not entirely complimentary activities! Having had reasonable success on some open trails in Eastern Maroc (as the French call it) I thought Id tackle the 250km run from Rissani to Zagora. Everything was going fine til I realised that Id forgotten to fit my offroad tyres. The simple act of remembering this fact sent me and Naartjtie flying into a heap on a sandy berm. That was fine and, dare I say to be expected, except with all the gear, I could hardly pick him up. Anyway, first crash over - almost a baptism - I carried on, knackered and concentrating on not falling off again, as it was sore. Alas, minor considerations such as navigating went out of the window and, before long, I realised I was on the wrong track and heading in the wrong direction. Sadly, there is no TomTom in this neck of the woods, so the only thing you can do is turn round and go back to the place where you were last not lost. Except, I didnt. Instead, (to my eternal shame) in my addled state, I asked my newfangled routing-GPS to plot an intercept course over the seemingly flat plain to the next correct waypoint on my route. Alone and off-piste! What a pillock!

Anyway, before too long, I was marooned on a plain, surrounded by uncrossable wadis and completely lost. Yep - the GPS told me exactly where I was, but without good terrain info on my map, that was no help at all! So I learned the hard lesson, as one German rider I once met put it 'the GPS tells you exactly where you die'.

OK, so I didnt croak, but it took 4 hours of blundering around and picking up my 250kg monster to find a way out.

Since then, its been much better. Ive put my GPS away and have been using map and sun only, and weve done some great pistes. Today, after an 11 hour marathon, weve reached the coastal resort of Agadir - in time for a beer before the Big Ride South. Speak to you next from Maurtania - inshallah!

Hurricane Naartjie!

Yo dudes - well its my first post-departure message and Ive made it to Africa! Currently in Chefchouan in the Rif Valley - keeping up the theme - in Morocco. Excuse any typos - its a johnny-foreigner keyboard and all the letters have rubbed off too. Left blighty on the ferry on Monday and arrived 3 days later in Spain - getting stuck in hurricane force winds in the bay of Biscay. They closed the port at Bilbao as some ships had broken their moorings and it was ship-soup in there. On board there was puke as far as the eye could see - and that was just the crew. Anyway, got to Spain eventually and hit the road. Need to learn Spanish food words for next trip as accidentally ordered tripe and then veal, hoping it would be something else entirely.

The view up here is fab - Id post a pic but there is no USB port on this PC. Naartjie is running a dream and tommorow we get to our first off-road section where Ill fall off and feel like a prat. After that, Ill slink shame-faced back to a PC and tell you all about it.

Only another 20,000 or so Kms to go!

Oh Jeepers!

Well, I leave the day after tomorrow and I've just had my FIRST ride on the fully-laden beast. With planning skills like that, I'm glad that I'm not a project manager.

As expected, with the fully packed panniers, camping gear bag, overloaded tank bag and 2x replacement tyres, Naartjie handles like a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Still, I'm sure that we'll be able to find things to give/throw away as the journey progresses. Just need to avoid buying a carpet in Morocco.

While on the subject of heavily laden motorcycles, I thought I'd take the time to introduce Naartjie properly, as he's my sole travelling companion. Based on the safe belief that the people who design these bikes know best, I've left him as standard as possible. However, I did make just a few tweaks in preparation for this trip. For anyone with an anorakish interest in these things, here's what they are:

Bodywork: Frame and headlight protectors. High mudguard conversion using a conversion kit designed for the KTM 950 Adventure, but which works like a charm. Marvellous SW-Motech rallye bash plate with tool boxes - great for moving some weight down.

Breathing: KTM SXC aluminium sliencer, 162.5 main jet, hardparts airbox screen, needle clip moved to position 4. I left the SLS valve in place as I figured I'd only make a mess of deactivating it.

Suspension: Trying to keep the thing balanced, but able to take a bit more weight, I changed the rear spring to an 8kg/mm one and also replaced the fork springs with 0.50 kg/mm ones. So, overall about 15% stiffer than standard. As the forks are upside-downies, I also fitted some neoprene stanchion protectors to try to keep the seals as clean as possible.

Wheels: Following posts on forums like Advrider, I changed the standard Behr rims, which are widely thought to be quite soft, with Takasago Excels. While doing this, it was cost-effective to fit some lovely new gold-anodised Talon hubs with stainless spokes, so I did.

Drive train: In the interests on long life, it's steel sprockets all round (std. KTM ones) and a new DID X-ring Gold chain. I've used these chains on all my trips and they've always lasted well.

Other: Not much. GPS mount, filter on carb breather hose, KTM/Touratech alu. lugage system, tank bag.

Anyway, the next time I write it will be from the open road, or at least an internet cafe alongisde the open road. Hope everyone is well. Take care. Andy.