Feb 13 - Wed - Vine Bridge

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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.

Feb 12 - Tues - N'Zerekore and Ray's Birthday

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The hotel we stayed in was special. It was described in Lonely Planet as "having the makings of a good hotel". The story we heard was that until November 2012 a bauxite company had contracted out the hotel, but in November they had problems and had withdrawn from the mine and cancelled the contract. The hotel was quite beautifully designed with many separate pods set in lush gardens. We camped in the Conference Centre! We pitched our tents in a selection of rooms that hadn't been cleaned in an age. One of the remarkable points of West Africa is the red soil....and hence during Harmattan and maybe at other times, the red dust. The centre was so covered with the red dust that when you walked over the floor you could see the white footprints.Nonetheless, the swimming pool was divine, and what few staff there were were amazing.

N'Zerekore defies description.I think that one day in the past, or maybe it is one day in the future, it was/will be a beautiful town. There are some lovely new parts which are modern, quiet, and sane. Then it has the market and the centre of town that is chaotic with no structure but streets filled with vendors and a chaotic market area, half built buildings such as a large football statium, and pods of tiny lanes leading through homes, shops, restaurants, much like the lanes in Veronasi in India. Some areas were studded with trees and other vegetation and some coloured with bougainvillia and brightly designed tiles. And always, the friendly, welcoming people. Guinea is largely Muslim, but it is as unnoticably Muslim as Toronto would be Christian (maybe a bad examnple) but we have always been received warmly with no rotten tomatoes, bad eggs, or bricks and stones being cast our way. It is a good lesson that there is a haronious side of Islamism that we sometimes lose sight of due to Western media.

After a slow start, 4 of us headed off to find the Musee Anthropologique. Outside the hotel, the streets were deserted and there were no cabs or bike cabs to be found. Eventually we came to a "diversion" and had to cross a little river and walk along some sketchy paths which put us almost in the centre of town. Alexis, decided to risk a bike taxi and left us at the diversion. When we reached the centre of town we came across the banks. The first one didn't have a good enoughrate to change money at. The second one, EcoBank, as soon as walked in , the Bank Manager came up to us and ushered us into his office. He was lovely. Very efficient. Dressed in a dark grey stiped suit, a blue shirt, and a red striped tie. It always amazes me when among the chaos of Africa you are constantly confronted with impeccably dressed men and women. So, we told him we wanted to change money, in French, and then we waited, and waited, and waited. The whole transaction took close to 2 hours. We sat in his office decorated with lots of spiders and a pot plant, tiled floors and colourful walls, and listened to him dealing with his staff, we watched the security video of the bank, and we listed to him answering his 2 cell phones and one main line phone. It wasn't his fault, he was waiting to hear the rate. Once we got it, we then had to wait for the huge mound of money to arrive. We changed EU 100 which converted to 900,000 Guiinea Francs delivered in notes of 10,000. The money exchanges here are a riot. You pull out a wad of notes, then count them out in mounds.

We had a rough idea where the Musee was; I had looked at the map and knew that it was on the same side of the road as the market, and left of the Grand Mosquee. Although we asked along the way, no one had heard of it. We went into a book store, asked various vendors, and still were not able to locate it. The bank manager had told us that the town had no stadiurm. Well, finally we found the stadium,....but, of course, it was not finsihed, so thus he was right. But we couldn't find the musee. Eventually we turned around, and walking back I noticed the sign "Musee" opposite the derelict stadium building. It was closed! So, we turned around and walked back to the market. We were hungry by then, and started asking directions to the Mouminatou Binta Restaurant. We had no clue. We followed directions various people gave us and ended up beside a Mosque set way in the tiny lanes leading off the market. Whether or not we found the restaurant of that name or not, we found a very local restaurant and joined the clientele in Rice and Meat, Rice Gras, and Founa with Sauce. Don't ask what the meat was, but it was delicious!! Also served with a 4 inch square plastic bag of water. Total price 33,500, approxinately $4.65/$4.70. A great experience.

After lunch we walked back to the hotel, arriving back there around 4:00 p.m. We chilled around the pool till about 6, got ready, and then walked half way back into town for dinner - and to celebrate Ray's birthday. Annie, had managed to find candles for 3 and 7 and she presented these, lit, set in a Mars Bar. It was brilliant, and with all the free beers, happy birthdays, it was quite special. Then we walked back to the hotel and were in bed by 11.

February 11, Monday - The Chimpanzees

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The Bossou Environmental Reserach Institute (http://www.prikyoto-uac.jp/chimp/index.html) is all about chimpanzees. In the village of Bossou, the people believe that the chimps are reincarnations of their ancestors so for many years they have lived peaceably with the chimps sharing the natural resources. Over the years the chimp colony has declined in numbers due mainly to habitat loss through deforestration, disease, and regulation of incest. The group is trying to find ways of maintaining the remaining 12 chimps from a total in 1976 of 22 by initiating reforestration, controlling disease, and building a green corridor with Mnt Nimbus so that the chimps can travel safely from one region to another.

We were ready to leave camp on a trek to see the chimps at 7:00 a.m. but by African style we didn't leave until 8:30 a.m. Then we set off on a tremendous three hour trek through the forest, up and down hills, along the edge of hills, through the thick vegetation of the forest, across little streams either by stepping stones or log, through swamps, through coffee plantations, through valleys all the time the vines entwining us to try and delay us forcing us to appreciate the land we were travelling through. Our footsteps crunched through the bed of parched leaves on the forest floor. Our bodies were scratched and stroked and whacked with the tree branches, thorns, growth, and our nostrils were filled with the smell of rotting cabbage alternating with the sweet aroma of bamboo and fresh mint. We had dressed appropriately for the forest. Long trousers tucked into our socks, hiking boots, and long sleeved shirt, plus bug spray, but as the morning went on and the sun came up it got hotter, and hotter and the sweat started to roll down our faces, trickle down our spines, and soak our clothes. Just when we thought we would never see the chimps, our guides made us don the white masks we had been given to prevent diseases from us spreading to the chimps, and got us to walk closely together, and all of a sudden, we coincided with the second group of 6 (we were a group of 5), and then there were 11 of us following behind a beautiful black chimpanzee. At one point, a baby got separated from its mother and the howl it and i's mother put up was quite alarming. There was a scurry and baby crossed between us and found its mother. Soon the chimps settled down, and we were able to lie on the forest floor and peer at them through the trees, probably no more than about 20 or 30 feet away them. One sat at the bottom of the tree, and 2 others climbed the tree. We sat there for about 20 minutes, then the 2 up the tree came down, and slowly they wandered off and we returned to camp. it was an amazing experience to see these animals in the wild, and to sit there watching the one on the ground turn and look at us from time to time, just to check that we were still there, and to let us know they had seen us. It was a highlight!

After returning to the camp site we ate lunch, and left around 2.00 p.m on our way to N'Zerekore.This was a quick drive of about 2 hours, through the exciting market in Lola, past a police check with two big cannons pointing directly at us, and all the two-handed waves, and thumbs up signs that the very welcoming people along the way gave us. Guinea has a nice feel. It is poorer than the other countries, but this part is certainly beautiful, and the people are gorgeous. Tonight we are staying in the Hotel Mnt Nimba. and will spend tomorrow, Ray's birthday here before heading further into Guinea.

February 10 - Sunday - Road to Guinea

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We set off early the next morning on the road to Guinea.When we left town we turned off the main road and onto a one lane red, dirt, track. It was our best travel day yet. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. We entered into country side with cone shaped hills surrounding us, beautiful vegetation of palm oil trees, what we called "umbrella" trees because the leaves hang in pods facing downwards, and ferns. The architecture in the villages was slowly changing to small homes with bamboo walls and thatched rooves with some mud block structures. We reached the most simplest of borders around 11. The border town was nothing more than a few houses on the edge of the road and a customs office made out of simple mud block building with a metal roof. Got safely through the "exit" procedure and arrive at the Guinea border. They were incredibly welcoming, and we made our lunch, with of course the requisite onlookers, but were quickly (for Africa) processed and were soon on our way with entry stamps in our passports.

The second part of this journey was even more stunning than the first. We continued on the worst road you can imagine, not that it is the "worst" here, but if you can imagine the worst, you might have some indication of the road. It was fun, but must have been awfully hard work for the guys driving the truck. The road was hilly, windy, narrow, gouged with ruts from the rain season, rocky with exposed areas of stone, and gorgeous. The little villages were really quaint and pretty, but we noticed that every one of them had lots of signs up advertising the aid projects: building of wells, schools, business, and health. Everything was sructured through aid. It is pretty sad when something as basic as a well can't be constructed properly without the Japonese (for example) donating money and labour to build the well. On our left, the Mount Nimba Mountain Range appeared as a shadow on the horizon. This stretches for about 40+ km through Liberia, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire. Shortly after the border, we came to a stream that we had to ford. It looked like a big gully, but once we all got out Dave and Jimmy expertyly, and slowly, drove down the steep side, across the stream and gunned it up the other side without too much trouble. This same crossing in the wet season had taken something like an hour and a half. Once over the stream, we soon hit a "bamboo tree avenue". Bamboo is an amazing plant. Imagine a large tree trunk made up of hundreds of thick bamboo stalks with the leaves forming an arch across the road and you have the wonderful avenue we drove through. We got out and walked part of it, in other parts, Jimmy had to get out and move the bamboo from the road so we could get the truck through it. It was amazing! The soil was constantly changing colour from red to amber, to almost white. We travelled up hill and down hill and wound our way carefully navigating the ruts, pot holes, and rocks through scenery decorated with the most goreous palm trees, mop head deciduous trees, and ferns.

Around 4:00 p.m we reached Bossou and the Bossou Environmental Research Institute where we were camping overnight. As it was the final game in the African Football League, we trekked into town to watch Nigeria vs Burkina Faso. We tried a couple of places, the first had a great screen but was sooo hot, we couldn't even imagine sitting inside. The second had a tiny screen, but no beer; so we gave both a miss and joined Drew and Anna and Dave and found a neat little pub on the edge of the river where we listened to the frogs, the toads, and the sounds of the crowds' "oohs and aahs" over the near misses and goals from the game. To our disappointment, Nigeria won. We, and the village, were hoping it would be Burkina Faso! Then we wandered back to the Research Centre, ate our dinner, and retired to bed. It was an interesting night. We could hear the sound of music blaring out from the village. We could still hear it at 3, at 4 and I think it may even have continued right through. The researchers at the centre said it goes on all day, and all night, all the time! It would drive you nuts!!!

Feb 8 - Silicora Village

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We were up and had breakfast before the students started arriving for school, but classes had begun before we left at 9. We completed the 50 km to Man then turned north before arriving at the turn off to Silicora.The last 7 km up the dirt track shook up the truck quite a bit as we lurched and rolled along
the ruts and rocks on the road. Before heading up we filled up with water in a village at the junction with the main road. We arrived at the village with about an hour to spare before lunch. The welcome that awaited us was unbelievable. Dave the Hat had to go off and meat the Chief and get permission to stay there. We paid 10,000 cfa each. By the time he got back there must have been about 50 to a hundred kids, and some adults that surrounded the truck before we even got off, and that set the tone for the afternoon, evening and next morning. They were fascinated. Just stood around watching our every move. The kids, mainly the young boys, got involved in helping set up the tents. Some of the group are really great with the children and immediatelty made friends with the older kids and entertained the younger ones. The babies are often scared by the "white man" which the mothers seem to find quite amusing.

Preferring to do things in smaller groups, after lunch, Sally, Ray and I set off on a walk around the village. it was a wonderful experience and we had a lot of fun. One woman invited us into her hut and we were joined by 4 or so of her friends and their babies. The huts are quite simple. Double beds on either side, and a hanging storage platform in the middle. The cooking, washing, toilet, showers, are all communal and outside. They were delighted to have us inside, and giggled, and laughed, and made us take their pictures, and then giggled and laughed some more when they saw them. We went on our way and saw all the daily activities of the people. There was the carpenter using antique plains and saws to make doors for the huts in the village and his wife braiding a friend's hair; we saw a lady brushing up the cotton to make a hammock; we saw the women pounding the rice to separate the husks; we saw women cooking, women washing clothes, We spent a wonderful time at one of the wells (built with aid). We noticed that the women were taking off their shoes so we did the same much to their amusement - not sure why they did this - immediately we walked up to it, one of the women grabbed us and told us to go with her, so I followed, and she led us to a pool of struggling fish under a mango tree. I think the story was that during the wet season this was a river, but when the dry season came it dried up and left this pool where the fish were captured. Anyway, they told me to take pictures.....so I did!! Then we went back to the well and I had my opportunity to try pumping the water. It was reasonably easy, but the loads these women carry on their heads is amazing. A huge basin filled with water that even one of our guys couldn't pick up. Then we found the school, again built with aid, and the new latrines also supplied by aid. Check out the picture of the church bell, similar to the one we saw in the villages outside Ouga. And of course we saw the chickens, the roosters, the goats and the poo eating pigs. Seriously, the pigs would follow you to the loo then stare at you, and as soon as you got up they would be right into investigate what you had done. One pig stole one of our group's toilet paper, and you could get quite a start when you heard the rustling around you but you weren't sure what it was and it turned out to be a pig!!

Around 4 we headed down to the centre of the village where the drummers were staring to call the villagers together for the festivities. It was a unique process of drumming, blowing the whistle, then all the women slowly arrived in their white tops and navy skirts, still with the babies on their backs. Then the men started to arrive, and the elders. I had the privilege of sitting beside 2 of the elders. No idea how old they were but they seemed ancient, and of course we had to shake everyone's hand. Then the dancing started and two men replicated some bird's dancing; this was followed by the stilt man, all the time accompanied by the drums and requests for money. This got a little tedious because we weren't prepared and didn't have any change to give them. Not sure how it went down, the Chief got a little angry at one stage, but then I think our leader reminded him we had already paid the 10,000 cfa each!! About 2 hours later there was a beautiful "thank you" when the Chief supposedly must have told everyone we had paid, and the women and the men, and the kids and the elders came up and shook our hands and said "thank you". Quite an experience.

Although exciting, it was also an exhausting day, and by the end of it, we were qutie tired. The whole experience really highlighted the difference between our "individual" style of living and their "community" style of living. The kids and others stayed around the truck watching us until probably about 9 p.m. The noise was horrendous! Gemma managed to take them all away from the truck, loose them and sneak back to the truck without them seeing her, and then there was peace. Until 3 am when there was a gun shot, 4 a.m. when the rooster started crowing every hour, and just before 6 the tro tro arrived to take them all to market and the meeting place was right where the truck was.

The adults all seemed very healthy. There were a few deformities among the children, such as extended tummies - probably lack of proper nutrtion, bandy legs which in our society would have been corrected, and exended belly buttons and hernias. Quality of teeth was certainly an issue, but although life was simple in the village everyone seemed very happy and warm and friendly and quantity of food didn't seem an issue. There is lots of fruit (mangoes, pineapple, bananas, avodcados) around and food such as rice, millet, corn, plaintain. Meat and chicken are probably not as plentiful, and therefore probably protein is an issue. The women are noticebly strong, and do a lot of work around the home. I think the men work on the field.

As you walked around the village there was a diistint smell, which is hard to describe but is somewhere between being a sweet smell of the drying elephant grass, a rancid smell of human sweat, and smoke from the fires.

People have asked us "how much opportunity do you get on your overlanding trips to mingle with the people?" I would have to say "a lot". We have met with so many people on this trip, at all different levels, and had small conversations, participated in every day life, and tried doing the daily activities. As an example, on the way back to the highway we stopped once again at the Japanese made well to fill our water tanks. We had so much fun talking with the women and we also had the opportunity to fill up their basins in return for using the well. OK, so I know they are much more expert at doing it than we are, but at least we were able to try and they were trying to show us the technique. Hands on tourism, but in places where tourists are very few and far between.

February 7 - Drive from Yamoussoukro to Logouale

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The day started out with breakfast off the truck at our very nice hotel, then we set off and the cook groups did their shopping in the market and super market in Yam. I went with Ray and Dave to get some beer and some other items which involved taking a cab to the supermarket and back again and finishing up hunting around town for a loo. The petrol stations are the best bet and are usually quite clean, sometimes they charge, and sometimes not. Yam is a very "civilized" town, meaning that it doesn't have the typical buzz of people rushing around in beat up tro tros and moto cycles; the supermarket wasn't that inspiring, not much more than booze and washing powder in one half, and biscuits, and some staples such as cans, rice, pasta and soft drinks in the other half.

After that we were on our way to Man. We spent the morning playing a game among 6 of us. Each of us wrote out 8 places in the world we had been to, put them all in a pot, had 2 teams of 3 each. One member of the team pulled out a place and we had to describe it in 3 words without naming the country/place etc. to the other 2 in the team who had to guess the place. It kept us going to lunch, and despite the fact I am not very into games, we all really enjoyed it.

The day became very hot and humid - about 40C someone said - and we could see the vegetation changing and becoming much more lush. The villages appeared poorer, less goods, much more garbage, not so many concrete buildings, more chaos. The architecture too changed from the typical Senouflo round thatched roof mud brick homes to rectangular homes of brick and metal rooves. We passed a UN batallion on the move complete with tanks, trucks, etc. and then smaller units also moving on the roads. Clearly, there is still a need for peacekeeping in the area. We also passed through numerous police checks, but fortunately all were like the residents and very friendly. I love the set up for the police checks. They put a bar of wood studded with huge nails and set on 4 mini wheels across the road. They maintain control of this with a peice of rope. When you can pass through the check, they simply pull it off the road by the rope and you can safely move through. If you didn't stop, you would certainly stop very soon after - with 4 flat tyres!! Simple, but effective! There is also a lot of aid visible. Various NGOs have their signs up advertising a children's clinic, the building of a well, the building of a school, some sort of economic group for women, etc. etc. But despite all of this, the citizens remain super friendly with their spontaneous smilles and waves. You really have to wonder where the "cruel" side of the African comes from when you can experience so much openness and "bon arrive".

We pulled off on a dirt track for lunch. Soon another lorry came by and stopped right beside us. Now, the road was narrow, so there must have been about 4 feet between us. They just stared and yelled at us. Not sure what was going on but after a while they got bored and moved on. Then a couple of women with babies and heavy loads on their head appeared and some older kids to whom we gave our cans and plastic bottles and I took the women's picture and they went on their way charged with renewed energy. Most people speak a little French so basic communication is possible. It really is amazing how much information can be shared even when neither party speaks the other's language very well. The French spoken is general very clear - not like the twang of the Quebec French.

The roads were quite good. A mixture of paved and dirt. In the beginning the paved roads were quite broken up and we did our usual zig zag journey to avoid the pot holes, missing chunks of asphalt, and other objects on the road.During one of our pee stops another of the girls and myself crossed the road which apparently meant we were in the red zone and this caused our tour leader a little angst The road we travelled was quite near the Liberian border and there are government alerts about travelling there. Well, really - one side is OK and the other not????

We came to a huge lake or river confluence - it was the Sassandra River - for that immediate area life changed - it became all about the river - boats carrying produce, flowers growing along the edge, people fishing.

Later in the afternoon we started looking for some where to camp, but it is hard in the jungle areas to find sufficient cleared land to pitch our tents. We had several false starts down dirt tracks and eventually about 50 km from Man pulled into the Lycee Municipal de Logouale. Dave got out and spoke with the headmaster to see if we could camp there overnight....and he said yes. The kids were just leaving for the day, and so by the time we got the truck in position, when we opened the doors we had quite an audience. - See the pictures!! The children were utterly amazed and quite a crowd gathered around us and just watched us set up the tents, get out the cooking stuff and set up the chairs. Fortunately, though, after that they had to head off home. Ray and I and Dave met the the Administrator who took us in to his office and we had quite a nice little chat. The English teacher was also with us. His English was very good, as was that of his students, and he assured us he would have the students do a paper on our visit!! The school grounds were quite lovely - beautiful palm trees, and neat and tidy classrooms. After dinner, it was early to bed ready for an early start in the morning.

Feb 9 - Danane

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This morning we headed into the "amber zone". Apparently we are really near the border with Liberia. Once again we passed numerous police checks and also several UN compounds with guards and tanks camflouged and on alert at each corner. Our truck drew big waves from the look outs! The country side is really beautiful here, with cone shaped hills and rich African vegetation. However, we are amazed at the amount of burning and destruction of the jungle. Roads are not bad, mainly paved. Just as we headed into Danane we passed through a police check but were quickly "whistled" down. A lot of red tape, attempts to extract money, a visit to the police station with one of the police accompanying us in the truck from the check point to the police station. While Dave was in the police station, a Russin guy working with the UN came to chat with us and warned us to make sure we stayed somewhere safe, and to stay in a secured area after 7 at night. He told us that the Ivorians are fine but the Liberians are "crazy". So, needless to say, we cooked dinner in the hotel (Hotel Grace) tonight, and didn't venture out after dark!!