Niger

We were back at the Niger River again. The river depicts the border between Benin and Niger. The lady official tediously wrote out our details and it was taking some time. First she was having difficulty finding all the details in our passports and secondly she had a cold so she kept stopping to take deep breaths, sniff, swallow and then bring it back up again from deep in the throat, she then walked over to the wall and spat into the road. We were now used to the noisy spitting which we have heard since Morocco but this lady definitely had the most points for noise and deliverance...

By the time we reached Gaya and the Hotel Deja it was late in the day. The Hotel was really run down, which wasn't a problem as we only wanted to sleep the night. The problem was the owner. Heike had negotiated the price, viewed the one room we needed for the toilet and shower and had finally concluded matters when the owner changed his mind and upped the price again. Heike always extremely patient had had enough and we left and decided to try and bush camp. We followed the piste that runs beside the river to Koulou and found a great spot. It felt good to be bush camping again, to sit out under the stars by the fire. It is more difficult in places like Togo and Benin which are so populated and where so much of the ground is cultivated. Unfortunately that night our star gazing was brought to an abrupt halt because there were mosquitos everywhere.... We had an early night..

We were woken by the sound of a million tiny feet trampling past. It was herds of goats and sheep being walked past. Following the piste towards Koulou and Niamey we could immediately see the difference between Benin and Niger. The nomadic lifestyle was dominant and as we drove down the piste towards Niamey we saw many people walking with long horn cows, sheep and goats. The people themselves have a look of W. Africa but dress in brightly coloured robes instead of dresses. We also figured out that it was the re-roofing season. The millet harvest was in and the round straw huts needed to be repaired. Apparently this is done every couple of years. Woven roofs were being put on and the huts were bright yellow in contrast to their brown neighbours. Straw, either for roofing purposes or for animal feed for the dry season had also been thrown up into the trees looking like gigantic bird nests to avoid it being eaten by goats, cows and camals.

By the time we reached the main road we were very dirty. We had just passed a police check point and were contemplating signs to see the Giraffes when Slade spotted a blue overland vehicle speeding behind us. As we were all staring at them through the windows and mirrors we figured we should pull over to say hello. Urs (Swiss man), Elza (his French wife) and Bayo (their big mountain dog later to be known as stomach on four legs) jumped out. They were driving in a Pinzgauer (big vehicle) and had been almost a year traveling around W. Africa. It was exciting to meet other overlanders and we all agreed to meet up at the campsite that evening. Later that day as we were driving out of Niamey a black and white painted pickup shot past. At first glance we thought it was Nicoline and Peter. We stopped again. The pick up belonged to a Dutch couple Paul and Renata (do all Dutch overlanders paint their vehicles like Zebras). They were also intending to drive to S.A via Chad and Sudan. This was also exciting news so we agreed to meet them later for a drink.

We spent the next couple of days staying with everyone in Niamey at a great camping place next to the river. The Rio Bravo Campsite. We spent the days getting information on Chad and Sudan and alternative routes and buying food for some great evening meals. Paul and Renata had a Nigerian visa because apparently it was possible to get a Sudan visa from the embassy in Abuja. It was virtually impossible to get a visa for Sudan from the embassy in Chad as we had planned to do. They planned to go to Nigeria get the visa, enter North Cameroon, Chad and then cross to Sudan.

We had another decision to make either to accompany Paul and Renata or go and explore the Air Mountains and Tenere Desert in the North of Niger with the others. We didn't share Pauls positive attitude about crossing the Sudan border. We still had no positive information and from what we heard the situation there was even more tense. We decided to go north with the others.

We got a Nigerian visa anyway so if we did decide to go via Nigeria instead of shipping from Ghana we didn't have to go back to Niamey to get it . The Nigerian visa turned out to be expensive, £15 for Slade and £26 for the English. Krissy and Tubbs also had to deal with a surly visa lady who only gave us a 2 week visa instead of 30 days. It turned out to be a waste of time and money.

It was good to be traveling in a convoy of three again. We decided to take the piste from Niamey to Tahoua via Filingue before taking the tarmac to Agadez. It was 330 km and it figured on the whole thing taking a couple of days. Four days later we arrived. The clear piste on the Michelin map was not so clear in reality. In fact in some places there was no piste at all. It was great to see rural Niger though and we met some interesting people. On the first evening as we bush camped a little, old man walked past wrapped in robes with a teapot on a stick over his shoulder. The next morning he walked past but this time the rest of the family were with him. They turned up and shyly sat on their donkeys watching us. Not many tourists in this part of Niger. They were all quite old and as we greeted them their hands and skin were really dry from years of hard work in the sun. The women laughed as they prodded our soft hands and probably figured we had never done any work in our lives. We then all had good fun rubbing moisturer into their hands and offering them tea. The family were all quite old and they making their way to the fields. They had lots of goats with them and it looked like they employed two young boys to look after them because as they stopped and talked the boys were running around trying to keep control of the meandering animals. Once they had left a young girl arrived who had obviously been waiting her turn to see us. She was beautiful with bright robes and jewellery. It was obviously a very hard life and the people don't have much but they made the best of what they did have and you could see that they had a great capacity for laughter which was humbling.

The next evening a man on a camel came past. He dismounted and came and sat on the ground in front of the chairs. He couldn't speak French so we offered him some juice and peanuts. It was sunset and he hadn't been drinking much or eating because it was Ramadan. He drank 3 cups of juice, tied the nuts into his head scarf, spat, remounted and disappeared. As we cooked dinner he came back and sat down in the same place. Then we noticed a lady breast feeding two young twins, with a young daughter at her side and her belly swollen with another child behind him. She sat down next to the Camel man. They stayed for dinner and Elza worried that her couscous wouldn't be up to scratch. After dinner we watched as about 10 men wrapped in robes and turbans stepped out of the bushes with silver swords on their sides. We watched them with held breath and they calmly sat down and looked at us pleasantly. We weren't sure what to do and began to feel uncomfortable although they were un perturbed. Eventually we stood up and said hello and they all shook hands and left. All very surreal......

Before we arrived in Agadez the Mercedes G developed a bad oil leak, it was the same problem he'd had in Mali, the repair job on the sump was caput. The landy crew came to the rescue and pulled the stricken Germans the last hundred kilometers to Agadez. (The best fuel consumption the Gs ever had!)

Arriving in Agadez the streets were quiet, hardly any traffic but lots of people walking around looking very smart. It was the end of Ramadan and it was holiday time. We had heard there was a big feast that evening with horse riding and camel racing which Didi was excited about. We stayed after much negotiation at the Air Hotel next to the Grand Mosque. In anticipation of the night ahead we dressed in our best rags and headed into the town to enjoy the festivities. Everyone had gathered in the square. It fact it was mostly children, hundreds of children running everywhere. Apparently they used to be banned from watching the racing and were obviously taking advantage of their new privilege. As we jostled for position a man with a big stick, who resembled Jaffa from Aladdin, started yelling and waving his stick to make everyone stand back. It worked as all the kids pushed backwards. We started to feel like we were in a moshing pit at a concert. Eventually after more stick waving and the arrival of the Sultan some highly decorated horses galloped into the square. There didn019t seem to be any organization. The idea was that the horses galloped around the town arriving back into the square after a few minutes. The Taureg riders looked impressive with their robes and swords as they galloped past but the rough riding style and whipping soon made us angrier than anything else. It was chaos, horses galloping past narrowly missing the children, men waving sticks and the crowd pushing and shoving. Eventually, the racing stopped and we all felt like taking the riders and smacking them in the same style as they did their horses. Apparently horse racing at the end of Ramadan was once a big event with Tauregs, Peuls and Songhai tribes making part. Now it all seemed a bit half hearted and an excuse to be macho on horse back. After the racing there was no feast in the town. The eating and celebrations were to continue in peoples homes. Not sure what happened about the camel racing much to Didi's disappointment. We retired gratefully to the terrace for a beer.

We spent the next couple of days preparing for our trip into the Air Mountains and the Tenere desert. Didi and Heike had to mend the G as well as organize a Transit Visa for Algeria. In Niamey they had been refused the Visa which was really disappointing for them as it was the quickest way back to Germany. They didn't fancy having to drive back to Europe via Mali, Mauritania and Morocco. Poor Heike walked miles backwards and forwards to the Algerian Embassy as she waited to see the Consulate, who never seemed to be there.

The Bump Stops on the G had to be replaced and the leak in the sump fixed before we went any further. We managed to get hold of a welder man who turned up as Didi disappeared to the Embassy. Slade and Urs oversaw the welding of the Bump Stops which all went very well until the man set fire to them. Luckily they weren019t too badly damaged and Didi not too upset on his return. Slade fixed the leak on the front differential of the Landy and by Friday 28^{th November we were ready to go.}

To get to the Air Mountains we had to drive north out of Agadez towards Arlit. We had a guide, Cedi, who sat in Pinzgaur looking very impressive in his white robes. First stop was the ancient rock engravings at Tarbous. The Air Mountains are full of Neolithic art, the oldest dating back to 6000 BC. Until about 4000 BC rivers and grassy plateaus dominated this part of Northern Niger which is now dry and rocky. Giraffes, camels, ostriches, gazelles, elephants, rhinos, cows and horses all lived here and the rock carvings showed evidence of this. Very impressive to see the carvings and hard to imagine the dry landscape once being fertile enough to support all those animals.

Poor Heike was really ill on that first day and we were worried they would have to turn back to Agadez. Luckily she persevered and we made it to our first bush camp. After administering medics to Heike, a lady from the village arrived with her sick baby who had an ear ache and a fever. The lady had assumed that because we were Westerners we would know what to do and have the medicines with us. We didn't want to give anything to the baby just in case we did more harm than good. We told her to give the baby lots of fluids and keep the ear warm and she seemed happy. Then a man arrived who explained to Cedi that his son had knocked over a paraffin lamp in his tent and had been burnt on his arms. Unfortunately we couldn't help much with this either. We were asked a lot for medics in Niger. Every time we stopped we were asked for aspirin or eye drops, everyone had a headache or dry eyes it seemed. There are no doctors out in the mountains and the nearest hospital is in Agadez. However, even if there was a doctor people couldn't afford to go.

We spent the next couple of days driving through the Air Mountains. The mountains were often dark and volcanic looking and there were rocks and boulders every where. It019s a really wild place. Sometimes the rocks suddenly changed color. The white rocks were very cool. Slade found it very amusing to smear sun tan lotion on them and try and coax people to smell these amazing rocks....only Tubbs fell for it much to Slades amusement...blah,blah,blah, no she didn't says Tubbs. Elsa especially was fascinated with the rocks and often came back with hand fulls of multi colored stones. Urs was not so impressed by his wife's collection that he'd have to find places for... It was impressive scenery especially when we suddenly broke out of the mountains and into the Northern Tenere desert with its beautiful dunes. We had never seen such big dunes. It was fantastic to see them with the mountains behind. We stayed nestled between them on the second evening and Cedi treated us to a Taureg supper. He made bread by making dough, covering it in sand and then placing hot coals on top. He then made a tomato, onion sauce and crumbled the bread inside. Very tasty. It was followed of course by lots of Taureg Tea. There are always three cups made. The first is very bitter and the last very sweet, its amazing how much tea comes out of such a small pot!

Advice to anyone going to the Air, try and avoid Iferouane. We drove into this small town and had to register with the Gendarmerie. They wanted to sting us for as much money as possible. When we started the Air trip we had to pay 30,000 CFA for a Feuille de Route which described the route we would take and apparently informed everyone what we were doing and therefore the Gendarmie could help protect us. Blah Blah! In Iferouane they wanted an extra 2,000CFA per car which was then increased to 5,000CFA for some reason. Poor Elsa our native French speaker had to do all the talking and arguing. We were not going to pay them especially as they had no official receipt for the money. When they told Elsa to shut up that was it, we all left and drove off paying nothing. No one from the Gendarmie did anything. We did see Cedi slip them 2000 but unlike us he had to return there another day and needed to appease them a little.

There were kids everywhere all shouting for cadeaux which didn't help our mood. We had to get fuel, lots of it because we were not sure if we could get more before the 500km desert drive to Dirkou where we could refuel again. We had bought four twenty litre containers especially for the trip which we now filled. This meant we could carry 210 litres of diesel. The Pinzgaur needed a little bit more, 700 litres of petrol to be exact.....luckily Urs had filled up in Agadez or we would have taken all of Iferouanes supplies! After several hours in the town we were pleased to leave. Thank goodness for Bayo who kept all the children away!

We discovered after a couple of days that Cedi hadn019t been to the area for a couple of years and actually if he was completely honest had only been to Iferouane and Timia in his lifetime... He was a nice guy and we saw some nice scenery, sometimes several times with him but thank goodness we had some really good Russian maps and the GPS!!! We spent one day driving on the edge of the Tenere which was great although Cedi sent us several times in the wrong direction. In the Pinzgaur you can open the roof and stand up to look out. Very cool to race across the sand with the wind in your face, just like flying....

We said goodbye to Cedi - guide extraordinaire - in Timia. We filled up with water here, we can carry 120 litres. As we turned the wheel of the pump more and more people started to arrive. Then as if by magic the ground was covered in jewelry, stone boxes, stone animals and camel skin bags. The people here had beautiful things and were keen to swap for just about anything... pens, t-shirts, shoes, batteries or any thing electronic. Swapping a pen for a lovely stone tortoise just didn019t seem right somehow... There were also seas of kids here. They swarmed like bees and came out of every nook and cranny. We were happy to get away from everyone in one of Timias gardens. The garden was full of fruit and vegetables which was amazing considering how dry the area was. We brought oranges, grapefruits, mandarins, lettuces, onions, tomatoes and carrots, enough to last us for the next week in the desert......We spent the night at a waterfall and had a nice swim. Funnily enough the word must have spread that tourists were in town as the same jewelry sellers had walked 4km and set up shop. We all brought something, except the boys...

The Air Mountains gradually opens up into desert. We had been expecting dunes as we had seen in the north but we were greeted to flat sand in between valleys of small dunes. We now know what being in the middle of nowhere really means!!!....The driving was much easier than expected. We were prepared to scramble up and around dunes but a lot of it was dead flat, which felt really strange. As the sand is all the same colour and we were only surrounded by this mono colour our eyes start to go funny and we almost felt like we were not moving. It was also really hard to gauge if we were going up or down hill or where the holes were! Consequently nosed dived down a dune again It was really great to be racing across the desert and with our three blue cars we had our own Taureg coloured caravan.

We had one very memorable night where we stopped and felt like we were on top of the world. The sand was flat in all directions so the horizon was circular. There was no hill, tree, camel or anything to interrupt the view so consequently it looked like we were sat in the middle of a big plate... The only difficulty was that if you wanted the toilet you had to walk a long way and even then it was obvious what you were doing. There was even a full moon that lit up the desert at night so there was no where to hide even then...There was a great sunset and we were in awe of the place. To make it seem more surreal we put a cowboy film on the laptop later that evening and watched it next to the fire. Very strange to watch it and then look out into nothing.

We reached Dirkou without too many problems. Urs had three flat tyres in 2 days. We think it was due to driving with reduced tyre pressure and the sand getting inside the tyre and making holes in the inner tube. We had a few bumps and flying attempts in the landy. Slade hit some corrugations in between Dirkou and Bilma which was almost impossible to see. We hit them at speed and were seriously air bourne for a couple of seconds. It didn't do our suspension or leaking front diff much good!

We had used 70 litres of fuel () to get to Dirkou for about 500 miles the pinzgaur 170 litre (35L for 100km).

We followed the camel tracks of the salt caravans back to Agadez. Salt caravans have been travelling from Bilma to Agadez for centuries and it was great to be taking the same route. We followed the camel tracks and droppings for hundreds of kilometres. We were really pleased to finally see a caravan which had about 50 camels silently walking across the desert! The caravan didn't stop to talk with us and we figured that it would be a lot of effort to stop so many animals and then start up again. We were proved right the next day when Elza approached another caravan to ask for some cheese. The sight of a long blonde haired lady approaching across the sand in shorts was too much for one of the camels which leapfrogged and lost its load! The Taureg started yelling and the camels came to a stumbling halt. Oops, sheizer! Elza backed off. The first women to ever stop a camel caravan!!!

After 2 weeks in the Air Mountains and desert we returned to Agadez having covered 2000 km. We drove into Agadez after taking a cross country route to try and avoid the police. Somehow we found ourselves on a fantastically straight road which as we were about to turn onto it we realised it was the runway.......sheiser..... We would definitely get caught by the police now.................But surprisingly no. No one seemed to notice and we wondered how we could drive into the airport so easily......very amusing, afterwards.

We stayed at the Agadez la Plage Hotel the owner letting us stay in the car park if we took a room. It was here that we had to say goodbye to Didi and Heike who after several days of frantically trying to get their Algerian visa, succeeded and left us. We had been considering going with them through Algeria and Tunisia. We would then try and get a boat to Kenya. However, it was virtually impossible to get any information in Agadez and we guessed it would be expensive and difficult to organise in Tunisia. Plus we didn't fancy going north again....We had a great last meal with Didi and Heikes Christmas food that they had been saving. Amazing they still had goodies after three months!!! We said a tearful goodbye to them after three months together. Friends like these are hard to find!!!!

We returned to Niamey with Urs and Elza and planned to head to Ghana to ship to SA. Then the unexpected happened. We jokingly said they should come to Ghana with us and they didn't object. In fact by the end of the day they said they would come to SA with us..... This meant with another vehicle we felt safe enough to drive down the west coast i.e. Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Angola, Namibia and SA. Brilliant. Wahey we could drive to SA.

They had to return to Mali to meet friends so we agreed to go back with them and then turn round and head south for a change! Before we left Niamey Slade wanted to renew the brake shoes. Tuani, Elsas Taureg friend, found us a garage where the job could be done. First Slade was going to do the job himself but the price seemed good and apparently it was specialist Landrover Garage so he let the garage do the work on his baby. Oh la la, as Elsa says. What a disaster. First they fitted the wrong parts, then they tried to force the brake drum back on with a hammer and then Slade lost it. At this point he had been in garage for five hours. The whole job was meant to take two. A few choice Afrikaans words, voetsek (not allowed to mention the rest) were said and he and Urs took over. It was dark by the time they had finished. Seven hours to change the brake shoes.......Unbelievable.