Niamey, Niger:

I left my West Africa nest and base camp of Cotonou, Benin last Saturday after a festive last day of surfing and a late night on the town with my new friends at on a 4AM bus, just a few short days before my visa would expire. I spent almost a month preparing and straegizing for the expedition to Morocco and it was finally time to move on.


I had 3 seats in a row on the bus all to myself and crashed out like a baby till 10AM! There was ho sweat or any charges for the bike, thanks to the angel Elizabeth who happened to be on the bus with me and able to help communicate with the bus company owners as they tried to extort funds for carrying my bike and load. It was a long, 17 hour ride, but all good.

I'm now being hosted again in a sweet pad with another local Ex Pat worker Sascha and his Swiss lady Judith who work with the UN and the EC and they are taking fine care of me indeed. I'm getting spoiled with this new discovery of Ex Pats and their massive houses, cars and luxurious lifestyles. But right now it's exactly what I need to focus and get everything ready--fixing up the production equipment of 4 video cameras, the bike, trailer, bags, chargers, batteries, tripods and mounts, etc. Minus the fact that my helmet camera decided to die yesterday and I received the wrong size disc brake rotor, everything is going pretty smooth. I'm also using this time to finish my sponsorship renewal proposals to gear up funds for 2008 in Europe.



I spent the last few days as well lining up some good music for the show. Just google Koudede from Niger—Agedez, Niger. He's a cool cat performing traditional Touareg music from North Niger. I met just sniffing around the cultural centers and hacking away at my French, which is getting better every day. Also just added a female artist singing modern-traditional pop will join the private concert overlooking the sunset on the Niger River. As soon as I solve a few issues with my gear and record a concert here in the capital, I'll be on the road again, following the Niger river, passing out Malaria meds to very vulnerable villages and connecting with my world once again on two wheels.



Over and out from Niamey, Niger!










Famous Touareg Artist Koudede