Riding Casamance
Hi BoBers,
The next goal was Ziguinchor, the capital city of Casamance in the southern part of Senegal. It took a few days to get there, mostly on dirt roads and a bit of sandy offroad. Then by an eventful crossing of the Casamance river in a boat which was massively overloaded. The boat was also clearly hard to manoeuvre because the driver smashed it into the dock on the other side. As I got out, my foot went straight through the damaged dock, but luckily my other foot was on a firm plank.
Again, we came across the most wonderful and welcoming people. We stopped in a village for a late lunch and everything was closed. We asked one of the women and she brought a big plate of food that I think was her own dinner and offered it to us. She refused payment (I had to hide it in her house). One of the other women even chased the kids that surrounded us away with a stick. How kind!
The three of us decided to rest for a few days in Ziguinchor and rented a sprawling three bedroom apartment together. It’s a huge advantage of travelling in a group, often for the price of a dorm bed per person. A private space and space to sprawl and cook real food is glorious after weeks of pasta, camping and shared hotel rooms. For a few days we drank beers and watched youtube. Travis caught some ice-hockey games. Getting the Guinea-Bissau visa was laughably easy - paying and watching the ambassador fill out the visa. I also found some new tyres for BoB. 29” 60mm-wide monsters that breeze through sand. Much more appropriate for the coming wet season. I had to trim off the side knobs from the rear tyre to make it fit - the biggest tyres you could possibly fit.
This stop was refreshing but honestly I was feeling quite tired. I was really enjoying travelling in a group. But not having time to myself was starting to weigh on my mind. The constant change, new cultures, new people, new places was also slowly too much. I needed a rest. Somewhere to process and recharge. I decided to take a break in Guinea-Bissau.
We picked up a French couple, Loum and Alberic, that I’d previously met in Morocco - making us now a gang of five - and set off for the Guinea-Bissau border.
Tiredly, J&BoB
