2015 Motorcycle trip from West Wales to West Africa and back.
Benjamin is a normal 8 year old boy who lives in Sierra Leone, Africa. What makes Benjamin special is that he is the single survivor of a family of 14.
Since Sepember 2014 Ebola has claimed his mum, his dad, his sister, aunts, uncles and cousins. It is impossible to imagine how he must feel.
Today I followed Lamin, a Street Child voluntary social worker to visit some of his cases. I have heard some very sad and harrowing tales of sowing, loss, and sadness.
After a good night’s sleep at Kabba crossing. James and his son (the headmaster) took me back up to the school. They teach 283 children in a tiny building so mostly use outside under mango trees as classes. This is fine at the moment but in 3 weeks the rainy season starts. When it rains, all the children go to the building making any teaching impossible in such a crowded space.. They have a half built building next door that needs a roof before the rains arrive. They need a contractor to saw up large roof timbers and some more zinc sheet. PLEASE USE THE LINK ON THE MAIN PAGE TO DONATE TO STREET CHILD AND MAKE THIS POSSIBLE. I am sure that a couple of hundred pounds will be enough to open a new school building for this and the surrounding villages.
Today was about great bike riding on mountain roads and on jungle tracks, falling off a ferry into a river, seeing fantastic wildlife, breakdowns and hospitality in a remote jungle village. It is going to be a long blog. ..
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This morning I only had a kilometer to go to the village where I needed to get my passport stamped. Right from the outset the steering did not feel right. It was notchy when turning rather than smooth. Ok when going straight and fast but very difficult when going slow and using the steering to help balance.
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Distance: 380km
I started the day unsure of where I would finish. The Michelin paper map showed an unpaved road between Bougoni in Mali and Kankan in Guinnea but neither Google Maps not Openstreetmaps said it was a complete road. They showed a gap and no route through. Internet searches gave no mention of a border post there. I decided to get to Bougouni and ask a local. If no joy then I would have to take a much longer route and stop overnight in Bomako, Mali.
Opposite the hotel in Bobo was a bike repair shop so first thing I wandered across to ask about them helping do an oil change (they do the mucky bits of a service) we agreed a price and layer I came across with the bike. While he did the oil, I checked the plug, cleaned the air filter etc. Half hour later the bike was serviced.
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Distance 350km
Last night I went to sleep with the sounds of a big thunderstorm. Lighting flashes were almost continual as was the rumble of thunder. I definitely made the right choice of not camping. I got a very good 9 hours of sleep and woke to a very different world to the one I left the night before.
STOP PANICKING MUM! I was not the patient!
I had a call from Hussain at 5.30am. He wanted me to get a taxi to his place and we would go together to pick up the bike. Why so early? His wife was sick and had gone to hospital. I tried to persuade him to forget about me and focus on his wife but he said he had everything in hand and after she had gone to hospital she would go to her mother’s and I could take Hussain there on the bike.
After saying goodbye to Amy amd the boys at Cardiff, the flights were uneventful. It was nice flying over Spain and Africa and seeing the same scenery I had seen at ground level. When i get home i want to do a side by side gallery of shots i have from both air and ground.