There’s also lots of things I found out about being on the road, so I’ve tried to list many of the things that I think would be useful to other prospective travellers.
GOING TO THE TOILET
Let’s start with one of the trickiest parts of travelling – busing the toilet. At home, it’s easy, but on the road it can require some planning. Outside of mainland Europe, public toilets are rare, so you need to think ahead about when and where you’ll go.
I eat only two meals a day – breakfast and dinner – so my body usually needs a bathroom only once a day, in the morning. This isn’t a problem at campsites, but when camping in the wild or on the road, I make sure to go before breaking camp or find a spot during the morning ride. The problems start when you’re on the road, its mid-morning or afternoon, you need to use the toilet – and there’s nothing but desert scrub either side of the road.
For easy access I have my ‘toilet gear’ in one of the outside pouches of my panniers. This comprises of a small curved trowel – the kind that gardeners use for potting plants. I also have a packet of biodegradable wet-wipes. Besides being good for freshening your ‘nether-regions’ (both front and back) they also moisturise, and are also great for washing your hands afterwards. A roll of toilet paper takes up too much space and can easily get wet if it rains. This is why wet-wipes beats toilet paper hands-down. Make sure they’re bio-degradable though.
For a westerner, the biggest worry about taking a crap in the open is that someone may see us, and it does take some getting used to. The first time you do it you feel awkward and embarrassed, but over time it gets easier. The hardest part is getting used to the ‘squat’, but with more practice you soon get the hang of it. Our western bodies are used to sitting-down on a toilet and find the ‘squat’ alien and awkward because we’re just not used to it. With practice and many successful toilet visits it gets easier, and although I got used to ‘squatting’ I still found the most difficult part was in keeping my riding trousers out of harms way.
A small tip… When you are in the squat position, just before you are about to ‘commence firing’ – arch your back inwards and your shoulders back – as it will add a bit more of an angle to your exit trajectory – and away from your boots.
A few days after I arrived in Morocco I was heading south and I stopped mid-morning at a small group of trees and vegetation for a toilet break. I waited a while and it was deathly quiet so I dug a small hole next to a tree and some reeds. I had just dropped my trousers and started squatting when all of a sudden the nearby reeds parted and a young man and a load of sheep all walked out of the reeds, walking right past me. Holding back and sitting still, I looked at him and he looked at me, so I said “bonjour” and he replied “bonjour” as though we were passing on the street and just carried on walking, with his small flock of sheep around him. Wherever you are in West Africa, you may think you are alone, but someone will always find you…
HYGEINE
When you are on the road you need to keep yourself clean, and you also need to keep your clothes and underwear clean. It doesn’t matter about your riding jacket and trousers (although they will start to smell after about three to four months) but your socks and underwear ARE important.
In hot countries you sweat, so keeping yourself clean is vitally important, not only for your health but also for the ‘feel-good factor’. Each evening I would shower wherever possible, but if not then a wash from a bucket. If I had no water available for washing – then wet-wipes. Why in the evening…? To wash the day’s grime and sweat off you, as well as trying to keep your sleeping bag clean. Once you get into West Africa you will find it very rare to have a hot shower. The campsite at TanTan was the last hot shower before I travelled south. In Senegal, the Zanzibar was the only campsite with warm showers.
Showers are usually cold so you either have an ‘African Shower’ – which means filling a bucket or bowl and washing yourself from the bucket or bowl. If you are limited with water, then concentrate on your face (for road dirt) your armpits (because you sweat) and between your legs – because you do other stuff.
Not washing means YOU can get smelly very quickly, and as well as your clothes starting to smell, you can soon develop a nasty itch between your legs – usually because you sweat and there’s not much airflow up your trousers.
I don’t know about women, but when men get an itch ‘downstairs’ it can become a real annoyance, especially when trying to sleep at night or riding during the daytime. To avoid crotch-rot, itchy bollocks or whatever you want to call it – keep yourself clean and wash at least once a day.
In Mauritania and Senegal, which were the hottest parts of my journey, I found it helped to moisturize each morning: the top of my thighs (where they’re rubbing against the petrol tank) and of course my dangly-bits and the area behind them. And because I am bald, I would also moisturize the top of my head.
When I go travelling I always use the traditional boxer shorts instead of budgie smugglers – in pure cotton. I do this because riding a bike all day I need airflow instead of support and I find them easy enough to wash and dry. Also, and more importantly, when making my camp I take my heavy riding trousers off and walk around in my boxer shorts and a pair of flip flops. My boxers can also double up as swimming shorts if needed…
Teeth are also important. If you don’t brush your teeth you get bad breath, your mouth feels like you’ve been eating a cow-pat and its very off-putting for other people when you talk to them. Get into a habit of brushing your teeth every morning and evening. It also helps to keep the dentist away. I also carried a small bottle of mouth-wash, and on those days where I had little water, I would brush my teeth and also use the mouthwash.
WASHING
I always carried some washing powder in a small Tupperware box. If you run out, don’t worry because throughout West Africa all the shops (however small) will always sell small packets of washing up powder, costing less than a Euro.
Once I was settled at a campsite I would wash or shower – AND THEN wash the day’s socks, underwear and riding shirt. I would hang them to dry (plus my towel) either from a tree, my tent, draped over my bike, over a balcony or a chair. Sometimes I would use spare guy-ropes to make a washing-line attached to a tree or my bike.
The clothes were usually dry the next day but if they were still a bit damp I would put them in a dry-bag and then hang then out again the next evening. I carried three sets of socks, boxer-shorts and riding shirts so even if yesterday’s clothes were still a bit damp, I always had a clean and dry set to put on.
Although I said earlier that it doesn’t matter about your riding jacket and trousers, if you’re making a big trip then at some stage it will. When I was on the return leg heading through Mauritania and back to the Western Sahara I noticed that my riding suit smelt. Bad. Mainly the jacket and by the time I got to Marrakesh I hated the smell and managed to get my riding suit into a washing machine. A few days later when I hit the road again it felt so good to put on a suit that didn’t smell – which was good for MY morale.
ALSO…. If you have some maintenance to do or to fix something and your hands are dirty or oily – pour some washing powder into one of your hands then pour on a little water on top to make a paste then rub your hands together firmly. Start adding more water to rinse your hands off – but remember that water is limited, so try not to waste too much. The graininess of the powder helps to get the dirt out, and because soap powder is quite concentrated it really does shift most of the oil and grime.
NAVIGATION
I use a Garmin Zumo XT, which is fixed to the bike on a lockable mount and connected to the bike’s power output. Before I left the UK I had forgotten to buy the maps for Africa – but on reflection I’m glad it worked out the way it did.
To travel through Morocco to Senegal you need to buy both Africa maps from Garmin: one which included Morocco and one with included Senegal. You would think that they would have one map for north and one map for south Africa, but they’ve divided Africa in a strange way which means you need both maps and have to spend around £200 to buy them.
I realised I’d made a massive boo-boo when I got off the ferry in Morocco so from that point onwards – I used Google maps. When I had Wi-fi I made sure to download the offline-maps for the areas I was visiting and it all worked well. I did find a website with maps that you can download the GPX files onto an SD card to use in your Garmin, but I had little success with these downloads so went back to using Google Maps.
I did have paper maps of Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal/Gambia – ANALOGUE – so it really wasn’t a problem. When planning the next day’s travel in the evening I would first look at my paper map, decide on a route and then pin the route on my Google map. It worked fine.
Could I live without a dedicated SATVAV for a trip like this..? Yes, definitely. It’s quite easy to survive with Google maps – as long as you remember download the offline maps in-case you have no wi-fi, data or signal. Would I make this trip without paper maps…? No, but that’s just me.
FOOD AND EATING
When I am making a jump in mileage or locations I NEVER eat food at cafe’s, and only eat the food I’ve made myself. Why..? Well, if I’ve got a 200 or 300 mile jump the next day with four to six hours in the saddle, the last thing I want is to have the ‘trots’ if the stew I’d eaten the night before wasn’t too good. Riding long distances with a stomach upset is NOT fun and can be messy, so I always make sure to avoid it. I only had a stomach upset once, and that was the second week in Morocco because I broke my own rule and paid the price for it.
For the past few years I have conditioned myself to only eat two meals a day: breakfast and my evening meal. My breakfast, even when at home, is ALWAYS muesli or some kind of bran-based cereal. It’s easy, tasty and filling – especially when you are travelling. Also, eating something that is bran based stops you getting constipated, which could also be a problem when you are on the road.
As for my main meal, during the afternoon I would start looking for a shop to buy the evening’s food and replenish my water. Sometimes you can find a glitzy modern shop with lots to offer plus an assistant who insists on carrying the small bag to your bike, and sometimes the shop is nothing more than a rickety table under a canopy made of palm leaves.
I always carry a bag of rice and pasta in my panniers. Rice and pasta is ALWAYS available wherever you travel, so I never be worried about buying more. Sometimes a shop can be well-stocked and sometimes less so, but I mostly bought tinned food such as tuna-fish, meat (if available), stew, soup or tinned tomatoes.
I found that in most places you could buy small boxes or tins of chopped or pulped tomato which I would buy and decant into a 500ml water-bottle which I kept in my cook-bag, and would use the passata with most meals. Because the countries were predominantly Muslim you won’t see pork, but sometimes you would see a sausage-like package in the fridges which contained a pork-like material. It’s processed meat, and I would use this to chop up and put into my pasta.
Sometimes I would buy eggs, a pepper and an onion and cook myself a couple of omelettes. I would finely chop the onion and pepper, add a little salt and pepper, a couple of eggs, mix it all together and then fry it on the small Trangia frying pan. Lovely.
Tabasco sauce – is your best friend. Besides carrying olive oil, salt, pepper, jam and honey, I also carried a bottle of Tabasco, which is more than enough to brighten up any kind of meal.
You can find BREAD anywhere in Western Africa. In every village or town there is always a boulangerie. It’s cheap, plentiful and tastes wonderful. Bakers tend to bake their bread early in the morning and the late afternoon for the evening meal, though you’ll find that bread is more plentiful in the mornings. If I wanted bread, I would stop to buy bread when passing through a village or town, and if I was lucky enough to find a proper boulangerie, they would usually have an array of amazing and tasty pastries or fancies – which were great for an afternoon or evening snack.
Cheese is another staple item on the road. To buy proper cheese you have to be in big towns but you will struggle to store it so cream-cheese is going to be your friend as it’s always available – the kind of cheese that comes in little triangles in a round box. I would always have a box or two of cheese in my cook-bag, together with a bottle of honey and jam.
Most days I would stop for bread, and sometimes, if I was too tired to cook at the end of a day’s riding I would simply have bread with cream cheese, honey or jam – or sometimes all three…
TIP. If you look around a shop you can usually find honey that comes in a plastic squeezy bottle. It’s easier, smaller and less weight.
When shopping I would always buy oranges or bananas if available, rather than apples. Because you have to peel oranges and bananas it means you don’t have to waste water by washing them. Apples were usually available, and as much as I love apples, I didn’t want to waste the water I was carrying to wash them. I would regularly buy nuts, dried fruit or dates and keep them in my tank-bag and snack-on them when I stopped for a break.
CROSSING BORDERS – CHECKPOINTS
As a westerner, a checkpoint is something we are not used to. “It’s against my civil rights” I can hear some guy with a man-bun shouting – but in other countries around the world a Police or Army checkpoint is absolutely normal and they are a part of the everyday business being a citizen, so don’t get alarmed or worried.
Most checkpoints are at the entrance and or exit of a village, town or city, and sometimes it can just be one solitary policeman, two policemen or a whole gaggle of policemen or soldiers. At first, a checkpoint can seem really scary but there is nothing to be worried about.
Generally, all they want to do is check who is passing through and who is in their area. It’s as simple as that. In Morocco, there are two types of police checkpoint: local police and state police. The local police wear navy blue uniforms whereas the state police a smart grey uniform. It was explained to me by a policeman that they like to know when a foreigner has come into a remote area and leaves, because if the foreigner has not left the area they can keep an eye out or actually start looking for that person in case they have come into difficulty. That kicks the argument of being a police state right out of the window.
Also, in the Western Sahara – and because it’s a disputed territory – they really do frown upon wild-camping, especially as there are still active minefields on the eastern part of the Sahara. But, if you are travelling the Western Sahara and you are in the middle of nowhere and start to get desperate for somewhere to camp, when you stop at a checkpoint ask if it’s okay to camp near their checkpoint or nearby. They are usually quite happy to let you do so, or at least give you directions where you can find somewhere to camp. Another reason to love Morocco and the Moroccans. Such nice people, and so welcoming.
Once you get towards southern Morocco you may get asked for a FICHE (a photocopy of your passport) but once you are in the Western Sahara you WILL be expected to give them a FICHE.
What is a FICHE…? It’s just a photocopy of your passport. In total I went through ten in Morocco and 25 in Mauritania, and about the same on the way back. I always made sure I had plenty of copies in my tank bag, and you can always get more copies in towns or hotels.
In Mauritania there are many checkpoints. Many. Always before or after a city or town but sometimes it can be in the middle of nowhere, and again its nothing more than curiosity about who you are and where you going. Nothing more or nothing less. They will always ask for a FICHE and expect to be given a FICHE. I always found their checkpoints to be friendly and if someone had some ‘English’ they were always keen to try it out.
In Senegal and The Gambia a foreigner is quite a strange entity and as soon as they realise you are a foreigner they will flag you over. They always want to see your passport and sometimes they’ll ask for a FICHE. Sometimes they will also ask for a ‘GIFT’ – which means a bribe. JUST SAY “NON”….
BRIBES & GIFTS
To a westerner, and unless you are involved in crime or are a politician, a bribe is an unknown entity, whereas in some countries it’s an everyday part of daily life. Where bribes exist you can guarantee they are a part of their culture. It’s not up to us as westerners to judge or moralise whether paying a bribe is a good or bad thing. It’s their country and it’s what they do, but as a westerner you have to decide whether you are prepared to pay a bribe or not.
The circumstances can vary, and whereas you can be happy to pay a little extra to get something done, sometimes it’s a complete shake-down – and that’s when you have to decide whether to ‘go with the flow’ or dig your heels in. As for me, I prefer not to pay a bribe. I’m happy to pay a little extra to getting something done or as a way of saying thank when someone has helped me, but for the straightforward shake-down by a policeman or a soldier I would sooner argue my way out of it – except when I have no other choice.
To understand bribes, you’ve got to step back and ask yourself “why”? The Police, Army and the Border Officials are usually paid a pittance in wages – or even paid at all – so in order to top up their pay some of them will use any reason to extract a small ‘gift’ through some kind of imaginary offence or transgression.
And this is where the westerner enters stage-left in their big expensive motorhome, tricked-out campervan, expensive 4×4 off-roader or dusty but expensive adventure motorcycle – so we’re a very easy target. They assume we’re all rich – a walking, talking ATM – and compared to them, in any ways we are, but as soon as you see them holding their hand up to stop you, you just know what’s going through some of their heads. Payday…!
Never once in Morocco, the Western Sahara or Mauritania did I get asked for a ‘gift’ and never once was it hinted at. NEVER. The stops were always professional, quick and easy. And usually with a smile and a wave so by the time I got to Senegal I was used to the normal checkpoints but I also knew that once I got to Senegal the checkpoints may not be so friendly or accommodating.
At my first checkpoint a few miles after the border in Senegal I was expecting the worst, but he asked for a FICHE and I was waved on my way with lots of smiles. A little later as I approached St Louis I was stopped and this time I was asked for a ‘gift’. I just smiled and said nothing. He kept asking and I kept saying I didn’t understand. He let me go.
This is the nature of the beast, and you never know whether you are going to be asked for a gift, so you have to keep an open mind. If you speak fluent French then it’s easy to argue your way out of it, but if not, then all you can do is act dumb, plead ignorance and NOT give them a gift. If you do, then you are simply ruining it for every other traveller they intend to stop to shake-down. Don’t be soft and don’t give-in. But, ALWAYS BE POLITE. It does become frustrating, but if you start getting angry you’ve lost because you are in their country, its their rules and usually they have a gun. Just be polite, don’t loose your cool and go on to carry on with your journey.
BRIBES I PAID (or DIDN’T PAY)
I only had to make a few bribes during my trip. Well, probably more but I think that was part of my passing through the Mauritania/Senegal border and I think that was hidden in the other costs associated with paying a ‘fixer’ to help me cross-over.
Bribe 1. When you enter Senegal, if you do not have a Carte de Passage (CDP) for your vehicle you get a ‘Passavant’ – which is a temporary vehicle permit that gives you three to five days to get to St Louis or Dakar to get an extension. The three or five depends upon the frame of mind of the border official on that particular day. I had read that the Douane (vehicle tax office) in St Louis can be a bit chaotic so I decided to go to Dakar to get my Passavant extended – which should be free.
When I went to the Douane in Dakar the official said that my Passavant was wrong and that I needed to pay a fine of 50 Euro’s. If I was fluent in French I would have preferred to argue the case, but my French is rudimentary so I paid the ‘fine’ and begrudgingly got my extension. I don’t like paying a bribe and will always argue my corner but it’s when faced with an official who has the power of that little rubber stamp – you have no choice so I paid.
Bribe 2. When I went to the Sierra Leone Consulate in Dakar to get a visa I didn’t have to wait too long to see an official but when he closed the door in the small office I knew at that moment he was going to try and sting me. He said that the visa fee had gone up from $100 to £120 US. I was happy with that so said okay. Then he said the rules have changed and that I now need a letter of invitation. I said there was nothing about a letter of invitation on the website and that I don’t have one. (Here it comes…) He then said that he could provide a letter of invitation for $100 US. I just laughed and said “No”. He said “Yes”, so I simply picked up my helmet and walked out, saying goodbye in pure anglo-saxon. My next option was to get a visa in Conakry or even try to talk my way across the border so he could take a running jump as far as I was concerned.
Bribe 3. While I was in Senegal I arranged a taxi to take me to a safari park and bring me back. On the way back a policeman stopped us and started having a go at the taxi driver and told him to get out of the car. The driver had done nothing wrong, it was a straightforward shake-down. I was watching and saw the taxi drive giving the policeman some money. When we got back to the Auberge I gave the taxi drive a massive tip, which from the smile on his face made up for his downturn.
Bribe 4. The last bribe I had to pay was crossing the border from The Gambia to Senegal. On the Gambia side I was told to go to an office to see the border official to get my passport exit stamp. When I walked into his office with my helmet under my arm he saw the GoPro mounted on the helmet. He suddenly stood up and screamed at the top of his voice to leave the helmet outside. Thanks Itchy Boots…
At that point I knew things were going to be a bit prickly so I went outside, slipped off the GoPro and locked the helmet onto my bike. Going back to his office he made me sit outside for about 25 minutes while lots of other people came through and had their passports stamped. When he eventually called me forward he looked at my passport and said I had the wrong entry stamp. “How can that be, an entry stamp is an entry stamp” I asked. Then he stood-up and shouted that the entry stamp was wrong and I had to pay a fine or I would NOT get out of The Gambia.
Directly opposite the border official’s office there was a large dark cell with big bars. Just like a jail cell in a wild-west movie with a huge lock on the door and two sad looking guys inside who were holding onto the bars. They looked like they had been there for days.
It’s at this point when you realise your fate relies on nothing more than a little rubber stamp, and with the two guys in the cells at the forefront of my mind, I said how much. He started at 50 Euro’s and with a little bit of counter-bidding, we eventually we got that down to 20 Euro’s. He stamped my passport, threw it across the desk and rather abruptly said “Go”. The guy was immaculately dressed in his light brown uniform with green badges, highly polished brogue shoes, two gold rings and a gold watch. I could have said no but I’d had enough of The Gambia at that stage and just wanted to get away so I relented, paid and rode away to the relative normality of Senegal.
BEGGING
Once you get into some countries you will find a lot of begging. Yes, we get it in Europe but they’re usually addicts or chancers, but outside Europe they don’t have a welfare system so many do it because they are poor or destitute. There are some ‘chancers’, but the difficulty is in deciding which is which. In Morocco you do occasionally see a beggar, usually at road intersections, but rarely elsewhere. Morocco is a great country but there are still a lot of people who do live on the breadline so you still need to be aware of that before you go flashing your fancy gear around.
My biggest annoyance was in Merzouga in SE Morocco where children would quite actively beg. When setting up my tent, eating my evening meal and eating breakfast I was constantly hassled by begging kids. Arriving at a shop to get food and water, again I was surrounded by children all wanting money. Merzouga is a very popular destination for westerners, and undoubtedly the tourists always give-in to the children quite easy so it’s now become an industry for these kids – and it’s the tourists who have done this.
I saw no beggars in Mauritania or the Gambia but as a foreigner in Senegal – I was fair game – and boy, did they try. Whether walking around and sightseeing, stopping at the side of the road to look at my directions, getting fuel, taking a picture of a scenic view, stopping for a break – and even while sat outside my tent on a campsite – the beggars would always find me. They appear completely out of the blue, like magic. I never gave them money and would either say NO and ignore them or completely blank them and walk away. You have to be strong so don’t get into a conversation and don’t give in.
WATER
When I started the journey I had two plastic 5 litre water bags, one in each crash-bar bag which gave me 10 litres, plus a further 3 litres in my Camelbak. After dropping the bike each side and popping both water bags I discovered that two 1.5 litre bottles would fit into each LOMO crash-bar bag so I carried 4 bottles – and 6 litres of water. Together with my Camelbak I found that I could comfortably camp in the wild for two to three nights with the water I was carrying.
Once you get into West Africa, you should NOT drink tap water but ONLY bottled water. I’m not saying the water is bad, but our western bodies are not used to the differences in bacteria, so we have to take care. I must admit that I did start weaning myself onto tap water in Morocco and had no problems at all. I would quite happily fill my crash-bar bottles from any tap on a campsite because the water would be mostly used for tea and cooking and would be boiled, but I would be quite happy to drink normal tap water in Morocco. As for pure drinking water, when I stopped each day for food I would buy water and decant some of it into my Camelbak, which I used solely for drinking water.
When you buy water in Senegal and the Gambia, you really have to be careful that the seals on the bottles have not been broken. When I got into Senegal I bought bottled water from a small shop but when filling my Camelbak outside realised that the bottles I had just bought did not have sealed caps, so after that I would usually boil water each evening and decant it into my Camelbak. This happened more than once.
Once I got into Mauritania and Senegal and the high temperatures, I found I was drinking around 3 litres of water a day. When buying water, always try to buy your water from a bigger and more established shop and ALWAYS check the caps are sealed.