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Today was a day of varied activities. We set off from NZ erekore around 9 a.m.Our first stop was the market. It was market day and traders appeared from all over West Africa. The streets were bedlam. Cars, bikes, motor bikes, people, animals, barrows, everything mixed in together. Motorized vehicles honking at the people, the women vendors chattering to each other and potential buyers, and the sound of air brakes and unserviced vehicles all resounded through the red grit atmosphere. Colour abounded. The beautiful women wearing skirts and dresses of local cloths of greens, yellows, oranges, and blue; the men and kids in t-shirts branded with everything from "Fly Air Emirtes" to football jerseys, and the Muslim robes in white and black and braided with bands of colour. Walking though all the busyness and mayhem the aroma changed to match the produce being sold: the sweet smell of rice, the green smell from the vegetabless, the blood smell around the meat and the dank smell from the sewers.
Ray's cook group was shopping for food and as he is in charge of the "bar" I went off with a couple of the other guys to source some beer, pop, and ice. We found the area in the market where they sold the beer in cases and negotiated a price of 560,000 G.F ($1 = 6,900 GF appx). The largest note is 10,000 so you can imagine the ritual around buying anything.Once the deal was struck, we started laying out the money in piles of 100,000. This covered most of the table in the small metal shop-shack.Finally after recounting the money we were given the beer. Since we had walked quite a distance from the truck, I commanadeered a young boy with a wheelbarrow to take the cases back to the truck and the guys went off in search of ice. Some of you will know that my sense of direction is not very good. So, after walking for quite a while, we began to leave the busy streets and enter sanity and a long straight highway! Obviously wrong. So Iooked at the young boy and in my best French told him I was lost!! He chuckled!! I thought he knew where we were going but obviously not. So, we turned around and headed back. We asked a few people on the way where the Nimba Super Market was, and finally found the truck! There were so many streets, and so much hubbub, I got confused about which street to turn in. What really confused me was that coming back the street was closed with a "diversion" sign on it as it is being redone........eventually!
Once all the food was bought and loaded, we set off for the vine bridge a short drive away. We parked the truck on a little red dirt side road and set up lunch while Dave went off to talk to the Chief whose land the bridge is on. It is still in use and the locals use it to bring their produce over to sell it in the village. There aren't many of these bridges left because they are slowly being replaced by roads. Once we had paid off the Chief we set off with 3 guides on our 40 minute trek to the bridge. The countryside we walked through was stunning. A little narrow path hilly and windy through bush and open areas with views over the mountains and valleys studded with the typical long, trunked trees with a mop head of leaves on the top.
The bridge was short and not very high but it was interesting to see the structure and of course we had to cross it just to experience it. A cool thing to do. There was a little thrill factor as the bamboo poles that made up the part you walk on rolled around a lot and at times seemed as if they would roll out from under your foot leaving you naked to the water below.The "crack" of the bamboo added another thrill to keep you on your toes.
The excusion to the bridge took us 3 1./2 hours, and then it was off to find a campsite for the night. We found a beaufiful spot in an area newly planted trees, we don't know what they were, and hurried to get our tents up so we could sit an enjoy the bright red sunset unfolding in front of us. It was a beautiful spot overlooking the hills, and for the first time in Africa there were no black faces studying our movements with a concentration that the illustrates the ability to copy what we were doing. We saw this when at one of our well stops Jimmy was playing with the kids and the frisby. You could see some of the older kids studying his techque and a few of them really grasped the movement. The little kids had a harder time and literally flung it as best they could. Something similar to the 3 1/2 year old apes learning to crack a nut.
We had a beautifully cool, peaceful night, protected by our tent and wrapped up in our sleeping bags.
Today was a day of varied activities. We set off from NZ erekore around 9 a.m.Our first stop was the market. It was market day and traders appeared from all over West Africa. The streets were bedlam. Cars, bikes, motor bikes, people, animals, barrows, everything mixed in together. Motorized vehicles honking at the people, the women vendors chattering to each other and potential buyers, and the sound of air brakes and unserviced vehicles all resounded through the red grit atmosphere. Colour abounded. The beautiful women wearing skirts and dresses of local cloths of greens, yellows, oranges, and blue; the men and kids in t-shirts branded with everything from "Fly Air Emirtes" to football jerseys, and the Muslim robes in white and black and braided with bands of colour. Walking though all the busyness and mayhem the aroma changed to match the produce being sold: the sweet smell of rice, the green smell from the vegetabless, the blood smell around the meat and the dank smell from the sewers.
Ray's cook group was shopping for food and as he is in charge of the "bar" I went off with a couple of the other guys to source some beer, pop, and ice. We found the area in the market where they sold the beer in cases and negotiated a price of 560,000 G.F ($1 = 6,900 GF appx). The largest note is 10,000 so you can imagine the ritual around buying anything.Once the deal was struck, we started laying out the money in piles of 100,000. This covered most of the table in the small metal shop-shack.Finally after recounting the money we were given the beer. Since we had walked quite a distance from the truck, I commanadeered a young boy with a wheelbarrow to take the cases back to the truck and the guys went off in search of ice. Some of you will know that my sense of direction is not very good. So, after walking for quite a while, we began to leave the busy streets and enter sanity and a long straight highway! Obviously wrong. So Iooked at the young boy and in my best French told him I was lost!! He chuckled!! I thought he knew where we were going but obviously not. So, we turned around and headed back. We asked a few people on the way where the Nimba Super Market was, and finally found the truck! There were so many streets, and so much hubbub, I got confused about which street to turn in. What really confused me was that coming back the street was closed with a "diversion" sign on it as it is being redone........eventually!
Once all the food was bought and loaded, we set off for the vine bridge a short drive away. We parked the truck on a little red dirt side road and set up lunch while Dave went off to talk to the Chief whose land the bridge is on. It is still in use and the locals use it to bring their produce over to sell it in the village. There aren't many of these bridges left because they are slowly being replaced by roads. Once we had paid off the Chief we set off with 3 guides on our 40 minute trek to the bridge. The countryside we walked through was stunning. A little narrow path hilly and windy through bush and open areas with views over the mountains and valleys studded with the typical long, trunked trees with a mop head of leaves on the top.
The bridge was short and not very high but it was interesting to see the structure and of course we had to cross it just to experience it. A cool thing to do. There was a little thrill factor as the bamboo poles that made up the part you walk on rolled around a lot and at times seemed as if they would roll out from under your foot leaving you naked to the water below.The "crack" of the bamboo added another thrill to keep you on your toes.
The excusion to the bridge took us 3 1./2 hours, and then it was off to find a campsite for the night. We found a beaufiful spot in an area newly planted trees, we don't know what they were, and hurried to get our tents up so we could sit an enjoy the bright red sunset unfolding in front of us. It was a beautiful spot overlooking the hills, and for the first time in Africa there were no black faces studying our movements with a concentration that the illustrates the ability to copy what we were doing. We saw this when at one of our well stops Jimmy was playing with the kids and the frisby. You could see some of the older kids studying his techque and a few of them really grasped the movement. The little kids had a harder time and literally flung it as best they could. Something similar to the 3 1/2 year old apes learning to crack a nut.
We had a beautifully cool, peaceful night, protected by our tent and wrapped up in our sleeping bags.
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