Challenging the Rainbow

3-11-08

Yes, the Jamie Rainbow is back, but it sure got a challenge in the last 26 hours! With the boat to Casamance in limbo I was told there was transport down to this magical region where I’d begin my expedition north through Gambia and up to Morocco. But I had no idea what I was getting myself into until just yesterday!

I got a late start and arrived at the bus station later than I should have and the shared taxi wanted to charge me 20 bucks to take my bike and gear so I was convinced to take the shared bus for ½ the price with the locals. What I did not know is that it was going to take two hours to leave and it would stop for anything, anytime anyone wanted to get on or off. I’m still a bit rusty on my African travel stills, obviously.

I got a seat right on the sunny side with no window, so off to a steamy start from the get go. Progress was slow as ever with stops every few minutes, and I doubted we’d make it to Casamance by nightfall. When we finally made it to the Gambian border, it took us 4 hours to go through 4 border posts and take a boat across the Gambia river. But it really starts getting nuts when we were just 50km from Ziguinchor, our final destination.

Since Ziguinchor area has had some political problems the military did not want any traffic moving at night. Soooooo, for the 4^th time since being on the road in Africa, we were forced to sleep right there on the road! The weather seemed nice enough at the time so I grabbed my thermarest and ground cloth to catch some rest. What I was not prepared for was the freezing cold temperatures that came as the night went on! My sleeping bag was buried under tons of stuff and I had to wrap myself in a ground cloth freezing all night long, so I only got a few winks of sleep. It was nutty!

But, I kept my cool and 26 hours later we finally arrived here in Ziguinchor and I’m going to take an extra day to get my bearings before pedaling off. Found a great pad called Le Flamboyant that has Wifi, pool and great rooms at the best price in all Senegal so the Rainbow is not far behind.

I’m excited as ever to get out pedaling again. I"m a bit weary of the political situation so am waiting now to chat w/ the hotel owners about my route to make sure I'm not venturing off into any danger zones. For the most part I'm very refreshed and the lingering cough is just about finished. Nothing some good breathing and water can’t flush out! Over and out from Casamance, Southern Senegal.

Jamie