-Roberto Bolano-
The next 2 days are travel days and we have our first
bush camp thrown in there for good measure tonight. Truck days don’t worry me as I LOVE watching
the world pass me by and I listen to my IPod and I am in a world of my
own. The bush camps on the other hand
are another matter and the thought of going to the toilet in the open,
especially in Africa, where people just pop out of nowhere, just freaks me out
that I will literally get caught with my pants down. Really it horrifies me. But there are more bush camps on the whole 70
days than I can count on 2 hands, so I will just have to toughen up, suck it up
and hang my arse out and see what happens.
On previous bush camps in South America we were lucky enough to camp
next to truck stops, so we still had facilities we could use and while on my
East Africa trip, I could hold on/in for the next day when we got to the next
camp site before I would need to do my business. It sounds crazy but it is the only thing that
I worry about and this will be the trip to let those inhibitions go.
It was out turn for breakfast and as Sam wanted to get an
early start, breakfast was ear marked for 7am, so that meant we had to have the
kettle and eggs on around 6.30am to have it all served on time. I got to the truck at 6.25am and the place
was deserted, so I started to unload the chairs, the food boxes, the gas
cylinder, the water containers and STILL when no-one had showed and it was now
6.40am, I started to set up the water bowls when finally Ducky arrived (not my
team) and she helped me pull out the table (which is a 2 man job) and I put on
the kettle and started to crack the eggs.
Finally Harj turned up at 6.50am to a grumpy Bernie, told him off and
then all was right back in the world again.
I have learned that holding grudges gets you nowhere and we all sleep in
now and then, so with all that said business carried on and we had breakfast
ready before everybody was even at the truck.
Everyone was late and I think with the previous day’s travel, the heat
and the comfy beds, it was too much for everyone to resist.
We left a little after 8am, which is not bad considering
the start to the morning and we stopped at a general store to pick up supplies
for the next 2 days meals. Our shop
again consisted of a lot of tinned product and they meals will look a little
similar with the same ingrediants, just cooked and spiced a different way for a
little variety. I am looking forward to
getting back to Accra and having some freesh meat, like a BIG juicy steak or
heading back to Mamma Mia’s and having a pizza or the carbonara that I had last
time. It is the simple things when you
are on the road and it is a matter of making do with what we have at our
disposal. We finally hit the road at
9.15am and all things considered the first hour was plain sailing compared to
yesterday, actually the roads were 200% better than yesterday and I think it
was because we are off the main Benin-Niger truck route now and the trucks
aren’t tearing up the road on this section which made a lovely change from
yesterday. It was a lot cooler today as
well and I used the time to read a book that I have been engrossed in all week,
with the wind in my hair and the country of Benin passing me by, I could not
think of a better place I would want to be.
We were literally hauling arse as far north as we could get in a day,
setting our tent ‘somewhere’ and then completing the final run to Pendjari
National Park the following day. It was
pedal to the metal and with the roads in such better condition, by the time we
stopped for lunch at 12.45pm, we had covered over 200km in 3.5 hours, much
better than 100km in SIX hours yesterday.
I have to say this is a tough part of the world, even for
Africa. But the more time I spend on
this magnificent continent the more I know that I am supposed to be here. I will always call Australia home, but Africa
has won my heart, even on tough, hot travel days-days when things run on
African time, days when you feel like a fish out of water, are all days that I
cherish and I am thankful that I get to call Africa home. When you are in your own space on a truck, it
gives you time to think-appreciate what you have and what the people you are
passing outside do not and for me personally it puts things back into
perspective for me and I think it is why I like travel days so much as I get to
reflect, contemplate and be grateful for each day I am given.
After a 45 minute turn around for lunch (that is a great
time) we just drove and drove (asked for directions on one of the last towns at
4pm (a few times) and finally stopped at 6pm when Sam and Zoe found an
appropriate place to pull in for the night.
It had some trees that we could park madge behind, so we weren’t so
conspicuious, there were enough ‘toilet’ trees from prying eyes and some grass
for us to set up our tents. Being quite
obvious as we pulled in to park, we attracted the attention of some curious
locals who got off their motorbikes and stood and watched us unload. We were putting up our tents, which must have
looked a sight to them, when I looked over and the crowd grew from 2 to about 8
all standing in a line and 2 of them had their phones out and were taking
photos of US! Imagine. Luckily Duckie and I were tucked away behind
Eve and Patti, so they were getting all the eyes on them mostly when Zoe came
along and had a nice chat to them to start with and then 5 minutes later
circled back and nicely said that once you have your photos to move on and then
the third time to thank them for having a look but it was now time to move on
and they got the hint finally and we were left in peace to finish putting up
the rest of the camp. We got some looks
from the road, with people stopping, but they didn’t come any closer and then
it got dark anyways. I did have to take
a pee, so with my toilet paper and waste bag in hand, I walked a good 200m away
from camp and selected ‘my’ toilet and what a relief and also it was quite
invigorating peeing in the bush and I can say that because as far as I am aware
no0one was watching and that makes me a happy camper. We don’t leave or bury the toilet paper, it
goes into a plastic bag and then we will get rid of it through the
rubbish. FYI, thought you may like to know
that. It was well after 7pm when we had
all the tents done, and man had we worked up a sweat. We were all dripping wet and filthy and it
was humid as hell and no chance of showers with no facilities. You know you are dirty when you have dirt in
the crook of your elbows and your face it grimy from all the dust mixed in with
the now sweat. We are all feeling the
heat that is for sure.
The bush camps are good in terms of the group dynamic and
people not running off anywhere after dinner, myself included. We sit around and chat, everyone helped with
dinner tonight and there is just a good vibe within the camp and on a trip like
this it makes it all worthwhile. I am
not sure I have mentioned, but we are now on day 10 and the group has gelled
really well and we have a great bunch of people who all help out and we are all
just having a grand time sharing in this crazy West Africa experience. I could have asked for a better group and
will be sad to see them all leave next week.
Tonights ‘canned’ dinner was hotdogs in a tomato sauce and pasta and I
am a sausage gal from way back and this tinned meat is really tasty and I rekon
the tinned sausages would go great for breakfast fried up, so next time we get
to the shops, I am going to look for them as a breakfast item. After dinner, I went onto the truck to blog
and with the window down I was able to still participate in the conversations
as I worked and the ‘Royal Whiskey’ was cracked open and being consumed. Bean bought a bottle of this ‘award’ winning
whiskey in Abomey for 7AUD a bottle, but they seemed to be enjoying it and I
think again it comes down to beggars can’t be choosers when there isn’t much
choice to start with!!!! For our
entertainment tonight Zoe pulled out her violin and Sam played his guitar and
they sat there and just ‘jammed’ together for the evening. Not being a musical person and both Sam and
Zoe being professional players I don’t think that they would appreciate the
word ‘jamming’ but they sounded awesome together and with them playing in the
background our conversations flowed on around.
What a way to finish off a long drive day for all.
Duckie and I were in bed at 11pm, and would you believe
that the temperature hadn’t seemed to cool down too much and it was like a
sauna still in our tent, so we decided to take a risk and we lifted the flaps
on our rain cover so that the air could flow straight in and there was an
immediate change in tent temperature. As
it was a full moon tonight, it was cool to be able to lie back and look out
your window and see the moon clear as day directly above us. You miss that when you have the rain cover on
and with a last look at the incredible moon it didn’t take me long to drop off
to sleep. Being a proper bush camp there
is no traffic, no street lights and all you can hear is the beat of the bush
around you. The frogs ribberting, the
cicadas chirping and a few birds making their calls, we are literally in the
middle of the Benin bush, in Africa, camping, with a full moon and no
facilities-sound like heaven to you? It
does to us and we are having a ball-hot weather and all.
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