Nicki Speaks

May 1st – Sukuta

Hello all, this is Nicki speaking. I have hijacked the laptop from
David as he as been doing all the blogs so far and as there isn't an
awful lot to report on this one I thought I'd make my debut!

I started the day with a cold shower, glorious to have a shower but
not so glorious it was cold. We agreed to mess around on the camp site
all day on the basis there wasn't much open, as it is a holiday here
as well as in England, so I started by clearing up the truck. I did
the washing up, and shook the mats outside the truck, while David
fiddled with the truck, tightening things and replacing some of the
oil again. David then took over my cleaning and finished sweeping the
dense dust eating carpet with a dustpan and brush. It did clean up
nicely though, I wonder how long it will last?!

Those jobs done we sat outside and read books and papers in the
sunshine. The temperature is perfect, hot but breezy, apparently nicer
outside than inside the cab which is what we succumbed to yesterday in
the ferry queue! Then followed lunch, vegetable soup (out a packet,
haven't got round to buying fresh vegetables yet!) which nicely
moistened the already hard bread we bought yesterday. On doing the
washing up after I bumped into a German guy who has been travelling
around Africa for 18 years, one of those eccentric harmless people. He
gave me a few pointers on the trip, one of which was to expect
temperature rises of 10°C (taking us to about 50°C – oh gosh), and
highlighted the fact that he started travelling because he hated the
people in Europe (oh thanks!).

We spent the afternoon sitting in the eating area of the camp for a
change of scene. This proved productive as we learned of a handy shop
they had, so David bought a roll mat to lie on while doing truck work,
some jubilee clips, a caulking gun and a tin opener, handy (the total
bill coming to about 80p). We also changed some money and spent a
very long time talking to the owner of the campsite about our future
route. We are in a hard position for two reasons: firstly we have 3
options for getting Mali visas. One, to head to the Mali border where
we will hopefully be given a 72 hr transit visa, allowing us to
continue to Bamako to get a tourist visa. Second, to go to Conakry in
Guinea which has a Mali consulate, but we have heard it is a horrible
city with a lot of crime and generally not a safe place. Thirdly, one
of us could fly back to Dakar if all else fails but this is obviously
not ideal. The other decision we have to make is whether to go stay in
the North of Guinea or go to the South which takes us near Conakry.
Near not in, but it is still hard to ascertain how safe it is. The
campsite owner said it is generally just Conakry that is unsafe, but
he said you can never be sure if and when things change. Of course if
we want to go to Sierra Leone, which we have heard is totally fine in
terms of safety, we do have to go down past Conakry. So tomorrow we
will spend time in the consulates in Banjul to ascertain what the best
idea is, both in terms of visas and routes through Guinea.

On returning to the truck David found a gold bead on the newly
purchased roll mat. 'Ah', he said, 'a gold bead!' Before I had a
chance to look however he yelped and swore rather loudly and said
'it's got me! It's bitten my finger!' Apparently the so called 'gold
bead' was in fact a type of African beetle, which, when disturbed,
will hang on to you for dear life. The gold beetle was promptly
flushed down the sink! We did find another one on the mat though so I
was able to have a look before it too was discarded.

After many pistachios we are now cooking dinner, a concoction of rice,
tomato sauce, tuna and whatever else we have in the cupboard, which is
scarily like our meal last night which consisted of all the same
ingredients except we had pasta not rice… BUT we are considering
treating ourselves to a sponge pudding as well yum. And so concludes
today's report, hopefully we can post our latest entries tomorrow in
Banjul. And thanks again for the texts, it does brighten up our day
when we hear from you!