Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The Road Ahead

After a brief stop in Nouadhiboo Martin and I hop back on our bicycles to continue the ride south through the desert, though we had not expected it, this part of the road was even more desolate than the previous stretch. 500 more kilometres to Noakchott where I am today.

The first night we camped 80km outside of Nouadhiboo and ended by pure chance on an incredible fossil bed. I spent half the next day looking for dinosaur bones before Martin finally dragged me back onto the road.

Another long day of cycling and we sleep out under the stars, waking wet and cold to the a morning dew but an incredible sunrise.

Day 3 we camp with some local bedowin in an small wooden shack they have built. The drafty roof seems like an incredible luxury after our 2 weeks spent mostly in the open desert.

On day 4, some 800 km after putting together my $50 bicycle it broke down for what would be the last time. Two spokes snapped on the back tire, turning the wheel into a figure 8 under my 40 kg of supplies and the chain derailed, jamming the pedals. I managed to bring the poor machine to a stop. The bike ride was over. So I grabbed up my pack, waved goodbye to Martin and began a long walk back to our last stop where I was able to catch a pimped up ride into Noakchott with some European electronica pounding in the car. I passed the crazy Swede (Martin) stopped and dancing on the side of the road to the tunes from his mp3 player and waved frantically as we sped on by.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hi there! seems like you are having a great time in afrika, a bit more exciting then Sweden was, i supouse.... ;)
me and hanna are in cambodia, phnom phen, right now. tomorrow we will keep on the journey down to the southcoast to get some sun, after one week on the road we are still pale as hell....;)take care now my friend, and watch out for those mosquitos... all the best/ caroline (borneo)