I'm on the edge of my seat by the end of every one of these- thanks for posting them at US east coast coffee o'clock!
I'm on the edge of my seat by the end of every one of these- thanks for posting them at US east coast coffee o'clock!
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Oh man, I love it when a plan comes together! It never dawned on me that with the time difference, these post would be "morning coffee material"!
here's another for ya to finish off the week:
There I was... Sun commin' up over the hillside, enjoyin' the view. But why? Why does Peter have to keep standing in front of me in that speed-o???
Up at 4:45am and I'm much calmer now. Still not looking forward to meeting Lukas today, but we'll deal with that later.
First things first, I fire up the burner that Bananas left out. I want to make some oatmeal, but I don't have a lighter. Instead I have an paracord "adventure bracelet" that my eldest bought me last Christmas for the trip. It has a flint and steel striker, so I use that to light the gas.
Scrolling on my phone, I can see that the Slovakian Van team did get stuck. It's not looking good:
Yikes.
not much we can do about it to help them though. Aside from tugging them along with a rope, we don't have the knowledge, tools, or parts to help them with their transmission. Instead, I make coffee and that's important because I'm doing it differently today.
See, in my office we have a similar coffee maker and that's where I first learned how to use such a thing (you've seen photos of it by now). In the office they crank their burner up full volume and get the coffee made as quick as they can. Katka, on the other hand, says the best way to make the coffee is to get the burner as low as possible but still able to heat the water. You slow heat it for like 20-minutes and then it comes out way smoother.
So that's what I'm doing now. I figure I have time to kill, and why not try doing things differently?
oh my god. That was a life changer. This whole trip, we've been drinking scorching bitter coffee and what comes out when I slow cook it is so nice and smooth... I quickly decide that this is how I'm making my coffee every day.
Back down at the truck I thought I noticed a fluid leak yesterday when sitting at the cop stop, so I wanted to have a look:
oof. Looks to be power steering fluid. I don't have any seals or any fluid so there's not much I can do about that. I check the quantity, and it's just under full so I put it in the "later later" bin.
The oil is a little low, so I add a liter. After that, I decided to do something about that swaybar that's now free hanging:
eska paski!!!
I still don't know how that second bolt broke, but it did...
Anyhoo, that's all the truck needed so back inside I shower with my phone flashlight as a lamp (the lights don't work in my bathroom). In doing so, I accidentally wake up Peter with all the noise. I head out to the front porch of the yurt to avoid waking anyone else up, and Peter comes out for a smoke...
in his speed-o...
Sorry ladies, no pictures of Peter. But I tell you what, one day I want to have the confidence of a middle-aged, eastern-bloc, man in a speed-o.
I walk around a bit and take a few more pictures, and in doing so I meet a dog!
The view is WONDERFUL here, but hard to capture with a camera (and let's face it, I'm no pro). Katka wakes up around 6am and reports that she slept like absolute crap. Together, we discover that we have a new guard on station. Inside the yurt the rest of the Bananas have woken up and they've started breakfast! Eggs (from my container) and onions (again). It's delicious.
(It's funny, because I'm looking at my second notebook there on the table while I'm reading the last notes from my first one 
)
With us punching through Labe and driving 5 or so hours further last night, we figure we have time on our side today. We all sit down and enjoy the meal, and afterwards I'm able to get a few messages back to the family (we even got some video time!)
First the coffee, then the breakfast, and now a reliable (and fast) data network? I could get used to this!
And that's about when the good part of the morning ended. Our truck was mostly packed up, and Katka, Julius, and I were sitting on the steps when the team Slow-Vakia Pajero drove up. Martin and Linda were out first and wished us good morning. Martin asked for the key to the truck so they could put some stuff in and I looked at Katka and Julius for an "are we doin this" glance before replying "One minute, I need to talk to Lukas first"
Lukas (poked his head around from the back of their car) "why, what's up?"
Because you're off the team
"what??"
You stole Katka's jet-boil last night and I won't have you in the truck.
"I didn't steal it, we borrowed it. You guys had like 6 burners, we just wanted one"
You asked Katka, she said no, and you took it anyway. That's theft and I wont have you in the truck.
(a WTF and sharp protesting follows. I'm accused of being drunk and of always trying to be the hero. Lukas claims that someone said he could take the burner. We confirm that it wasn't me and it wasn't Katka. He then switches to Slovakian and I don't know what's being said)
Lukas: See?
What, you think I understood that?
"He said I could borrow it" (pointing at Patrick)
(Patrick confirms)
(Then I don't know what's up because that isn't what anyone said to me) Ok, then you guys figure it out.
(I am REALLY getting tired of being the only uninformed one around here. All night and all morning everyone KNEW that permission wasn't given, and now it was???)
It's later discussed that when Lukas came back in to return the keys, he asked the room if he could borrow the jet-boil (in Slovakian). No one responded, so Patrick gave the go-ahead. No one informed Katka (the owner of said burner) and I guess Patrick never caught on that we were all pissed off about it and had to have the Bananas cook for us?
yeah, that's about par for this course...
We make amends, and shake hands. Lukas lets us know he's going to ride with Slow-Vakia today. I won't pretend it's "all good" but we're talking to each other.
"So how does this work? Lukas asks, "do we scrape my name off the window or..."
"No, just your first initial" I reply. "Your last name is second, and the Slovakian flag goes last. it's a long process"
We shake hands again, and Slow-Vakia drives off.
"I feel bad, because I don't really feel like I stood up for you there" Katka tells me.
"Well, lucky for you I don't speak Slovakian so I'll never know" I reply.
Time to pack up
That's my spout you see Julius wiping off there. We're all using NATO fuel cans, but Banana's dumps theirs in a funnel to get it in the tank. They try my fuel spout, but their cans wont seal to it very well. We do eventually get refuelled, 5-hours on the road last night had us all low on fuel, and when doing so we notice a couple vehicles arriving at a neighboring yurt (one of them is a LandRover kitted out as an overlander). We head over to investigate:
We find out that this used to be a meeting point for the chiefs of all the prefectures. They would come here and make important governing decisions. Each one has a spot where they'd sit along the wall inside the building, and each of their spots were decorated differently.
The overlanders are a couple, and apparently this is part of their tour today. We join in, and fun is had:
We thank the overlanders for letting us join in their tour, pay the guide for our portion of it, and head back to the vehicles.
Good times.
Back at the vehicles, we realize we don't really have an itinerary today. Being where we are, and being this early still, we know we're well ahead of the other teams so what do we want to do with the day.
Someone on Bananas sees that there's a waterfall nearby, so that's where we all decide to head!
Patrick is riding with me now, which means Katka took her USB stick so she could torture the passengers in the Disco. For music we'll use this amazing data network to stream music on Tidal through my phone (I don't use Spotify, but if you're on then there is a "Flying Bananas" playlist) and I don't really know how hard this is going to hit me until I fire up the truck an Major Lazer's "Bruk Out" doesn't start up.
See, this is the first song on Katka's USB and the stick resets to it every time we turn off the truck. For WEEKs now that "doot-doot-doot-doot, doot-doot-doot-doot, doot-doot-do-do-do-DO-DO-DO!" intro has been the song that's greeted us when we start our day's drive. This whole time we've always been able to muster some form of energy to dance in our seats and sing out the one-liners from the song as they came up. Without the stick now, the stereo plays...
nothing.
It's just silent.
And I'm expected to drive like this???
I'm driving, and Patrick is navigating on his phone, but we're not in the right spot (yet).
The vehicles will swap spots, and Bananas will lead us the rest of the way in
We park at a building that looks abandoned and are immediately joined by a tour group in a Landcruiser Prado.
They speak English!
We're told that the waterfalls we're about to see are called "Bridge of God" and we excitedly follow on foot:
"And now we're walkin'!"
"Through the Jungle!"
"Walkin' through the jungle"
"Jungle"
"Jungle!"
"ja-ja-jungle!"
( See, I got you doing it now )
Man, I don't want to be rude but I thought the "Bridge of God" would be a bit more....
Bigger?
I dunno. Maybe we gotta hike down to it or something... Either way, I'm desperately trying to get an impressive shot of something to show you guys when I get back, and there's just... well.... nothing here!
Eventually the group catches up to Julius and I, and we're told to continue on down the trail.
"Bridge of God", I get it now!
Not bad at all, if I do say so myself.
With that guys, I do have to apologize. I'll be out next week and may not have an update for you until I get back on the 24th.
Cheers, everyone!
Another apology. I forgot Ukraine was going to interfere with social media. it's going to be another couple weeks before I can make another update.
I have read through the whole thread so far and all I can say is that my hat is off to you and thanks for taking the time to take us along with you.
Aaron_King said:I have read through the whole thread so far and all I can say is that my hat is off to you and thanks for taking the time to take us along with you.
Thanks, man. It's good having you guys along! As much as I wanted to be anywhere else but where I was through all this, it's kind of nostalgic going back over it with my rose colored glasses on.
I seem to have misplaced my first notebook though. It must have grown legs these last few weeks and wandered off. It's no super big deal as I was down to the last half-day anyway, but hopefully I can shoot this next one from the hip.
So where were we?
AH!
So there we were, leaving the bridge of god:
Patrick is still riding with me and he's touring the truck with his phone out and taking video. Of course I have to pop the hood to show him the mud-caked engine bay, and when I do we immediately notice that the lid to my power-steering reservoir is missing! I must have set it aside when I checked the fluid level this morning and spaced it...
Damn.
It's no big deal, but I do want to put something over it to keep contaminants out (should we go bouncing through the mud again). We try a few options (cutting the bottoms off of water bottles, that sort of thing) and what we ultimately decide on is:
1) A water bottle cap turned upside down and placed over the opening. It plugs it completely.
2) One of those small water bags that have made their appearance recently. We slice one open, and slide it over the reservoir completely.
3) an eska paska to hold it all together!
done. We are now on our way.
As we're heading out, I have the lead. Coming in are the same tour guides we left back at the hotel tour! They're in their sedan and are bouncing over the dirt road. We wave as they go by.
About 100 meters later, I smell the distinct smell of hot coolant. The gauge barely starts to climb, but luckily there's a small field off to the right where we can pull over. Bananas stops their Disco just ahead and we investigate.
The steam looks to be belching out near the firewall, around the area of the head gasket. I'll admit it has me a bit worried and I'm racking my exhausted brain but can't think of anything else back there that would be holding coolant back. Katka is out of the disco and she's worried about the truck. It's too soon to diagnose yet, but we all try to look the best we can while we wait for the steam to quit pouring out.
Julius and I take the lead and once we're able to see, we can see a heater line has split right were the rubber hose meets its mating point. We give Katka the update and she asks about spares (which we have plenty of). We're not going to replace it though (you know what's coming next )
Julius removed the hose and I sliced the split section off. What remains is hardly perfect, but there's no reason to waste our spares now.
Once reinstalled, Roman tops up the coolant with some of their stocks, and we use our bottled water to finish topping up the rest
I offer to let Patrick drive, but he still declines. Going out is just as bumpy and shaky as it was coming in, but eventually we're back on the pavement.
With bagged water, comes bagged water waste... I guess we were lucky to find a bag when we needed it to cover our power steering reservoir, but now it's just everywhere...
We're stopped for coffee in some no-named town and some of the guys get ice cream. I'm not taking too many chances, so I just get an espresso.
It's the little things that make this enjoyable really. I mean for DAYS we wont find refrigerated water and then out of nowhere not only is it plentiful, but there's ICE CREAM! (hence the guys taking pictures).
Also it's like us parking across the street and Peter needing something from the Bananas Disco:
He gets a police escort!
We got a good chuckle out of that, but the officer really was a super nice guy.
From here to camp, there's not much to say. The roads we're taking are a mix of dirt and bad pavement. Occasionally we'll hit new construction or construction in progress
I'm chatting with Patrick as we're driving and I can't help but feel bad for the poor guy. I'm beginning to recover from the absolute exhaustion now, but I'm still in the very beginning of my recovery. I just don't have a whole lot of energy to engage with someone I don't really know that well.
I ask him about how he learned English so well, and he tells me that he spent a year in the US as an exchange student. Apparently the person who hosted him was a Pastor? I got the feeling that the man lived by himself and didn't have any kids. Patrick says that he was pretty strict about "no girls and no partying", which I feel kinda bad about. At that age, isn't that why you'd want to travel to the US?
He explains that, while it was a difficult year, it did make him into an incredibly flexible and a very easy going person (which I can vouch for). It's probably why this guy can travel as easy as he can.
At one construction site in particular, there were women on the side of the road selling what looked like green oranges.
And they were!
Patrick bought every one this girl had and had them in a bag on the floor of the truck. he quarters one with his pocket knife and hands it to me. I eat it and it is DELICIOUS!!!! Juice is going everywhere, and our hands are now a mixture of grease, red-dirt, and any crap around that can get stuck to drying orange juice...
We eat like three of these things each this way. I can only imagine what my face looks like right now.
We both notice that the construction equipment is largely Chinese. This goes with an episode of "Last Week Tonight" I had watched by John Oliver a couple months before we started this journey. Pretty crazy to actually see it.
I get tired of torturing Patrick with my music and ask him what he listens to. He says I probably wont like it, but he prefers "Electronica".
I'm kind of at a loss with this one, as I can honestly say I've never heard this genre before. I type "electronica" into Tidal and get exactly one playlist. I fire it up, and it's basically European Top 40. This, I can do!
And so we go
In towns we stop for provisions. More bagged water and these meter-long baguettes are making an appearance. We buy plenty of both and top up our egg stash when we can. Everyone buys something and it all kind of comes together. We share our green oranges with the Disco group too.
I gotta be honest. I probably wouldn't be doing any of this if it weren't for the Bananas. They're comfortable with this stuff in a way that makes you comfortable doing it too. It's nice.
Eventually we arrive at camp, and for the first time the mosquitos are out.
ooh! Look at me! I'm making selfie videos now!
But yeah. We got there early, got started setting up, and that darn generator fired up, and it was LOUD!
Some of the guys in the camp next to us went over and talked to the people running it. It was for the computers that had our covid test info (we'll be crossing a border tomorrow, so covid tests tonight). they were able to get it relocated to the back side of the building and it was nothing more than a whisper for the rest of the night.
Once set up, we set out exploring. Again, I'm the only non-Slovak speaker and again I'm still a bit exhausted and don't want to feel like I'm following these guys like a lost puppy so I kind of hang back and do my own thing for a bit.
At the back side of camp is a waterfall called "The Bridal Veil". Between our site and it is food, beer, and a bunch of vendors selling the same wood souveniers we've been seeing now since that airport camp.
The waterfall is AMAZING!!!!! Much nicer than it looks in pictures. And using the people for a size reference, look how TALL it is!!!!!!!!!!!
You can 100% go in and shower underneath, but as you can see there are tons of people doing exactly that. I decide I'm not going to join in just yet.
I kick around for a bit and eventually rejoin the group where the beer and food is. We take turns peeling off to do our COVID tests. Roman and Peter first
Patrick talked to the cook about the price of the fish. He worked out a much cheaper deal for us. I cant remember what the end total was, but let's say it was 10-euro a plate for a full-meal deal.
The beer is pretty spendy though so we're not drinking a whole lot. Mostly just hanging out. One of the tables selling beer has hard liquor and I notice that they're selling small bottles of Jack Daniels. This is Lukas's drink of choice, and I think a bit about buying him a bottle as a peace offering, but even the small bottle is almost all the cash I had on me at the time. So I decide not to.
(Note: If you're counting how many times I've regretted not getting that 500-euro cash out of the ATM back in Italy, I think we're up to about a hundred or so. BRING CASH!!!!!)
Julius and I talk a bit, and I ask if he wants to drive the Toyota tomorrow. He accepts and I tell him the only requirement is he drives it "crazy times 10". He agrees and we clink beers on it (na zdravie!)
People get up to go do something, and people sit down. It's just our group and it's mostly quiet. At one point it's just Peter and I.
"What do you think about travel?" he asks
"I love it. I would like it if more people could do it. See new things, see new cultures".
"Me too" he says. "Do you take your kids with you?"
Absolutely.
"That's good" he says, and goes back to his cigarette.
Sunovawitch! The dude spoke English this entire time!!!!
The group is eventually whole again and the rest of the night is Slovakian. It's uneventful and we retire. That will be the only time Peter and I converse in English
Turning blue waiting for the next episode.
lownslow said:Turning blue waiting for the next episode.
Wait no longer, sir!
There I was. Sittin' in the Banana's Disco casually munchin' on the sandwich Roman made for me. It is POURING down rain!! And where the heck is the Toyota...?
The off-road stage sounds awesome today but as romantic as that hand-pulled ferry sounds as an "experience", that same "experience" is telling us we should probably avoid it as it is 100% going to be a time adder to today's drive. We talked about it a bit last night and was told that the Bananas were worried about going off-road again. Their 4wd isn't working correctly and they've broken their fair share of stuff. They want to save the truck and maybe tackle the last day's off road stage as a final send-off. I can get onboard with that.
Up again at 4am, I'm the only one moving around our camp. I decide that now is the time to go hit up that waterfall for a shower. Quietly I get my soap and a change of clothes. I grab my head-lamp out of the truck and it promptly falls apart. Don't worry, you've done well little Harbor Freight lamp (I bought two brand new USB chargeable headlamps with me for this trip, but neither would charge the day before our departure so both got left behind). It's still capable of shining light, so I take it with me anyway.
Down at the falls, I have to traverse over a bunch of boulders or swim in to the falls. I brought my camera with me for pictures, so swimming isn't an option. I can see someone watching me from the shore as I stumble over the rocks and dip in for my shower. It's CRAZY!
This is another one of those "Good Will Hunting" moments for me. I can say "waterfall" and anyone can conjure up a thousand facts. They can tell me the height of the bridal veil falls here in Guinea, they could probably even find me the GPS coordinates. They can tell me how many people visit the camp site that neighbors the falls, and how much water flows over it for every amount of time. But they cant tell me what those gigantic droplets of water feel like as they deep-tissue massage your back and shoulders in what is easily the coldest shower I've taken on this trip.
I don't stay long, but on my way out I do grab a picture.
Back at camp I put away my wet shower gear and get to work on the truck. Julius is going to drive today and I want to put forth a kind-of good impression. First up is that seatbelt bolt for the shoulder belt that fell out a few days back. I never did get around to tightening it, and it did pop out again yesterday when Patrick was in the car (I had it re-installed finger tight when we stopped for a pee break). I didn't feel like breaking out the tool kit though, it's rather buried at this point, so I ended up using a pair of channel-locks.
Easy money.
After that I start a pot of Katka coffee and let it slow-cook while I go after that intermittent window issue.
When the windows stop working, I've noticed that jiggling the blue wire helps clear things up. I'm suspecting a break in the conductor near the terminal lug, so I simply cut it back a bit and crimp a new one on (using the same channel locks and my swiss army knife)
Eventually the camp wakes up and we start our morning.
Katka: "I get it now"
what?
Katka: "I get it now. The truck"
What about it?
Katka: "I got to see it yesterday from a different perspective and she's awesome. There were a few times we were giving you grief in the Disco because you didn't go through mud we thought you would"
"ah, yes. yeah, the windows were down"
Katka; "Ah gotcha. Anyways, Loosey is a good truck and I like her."
(See? Everyone likes a first-gen 4-Runner! You can't help it!)
Obligatory photo of dead headlamp:
So what's the plan for today?
Honestly, I have no idea. Everything is in Slovakian again... I'm not worried though, I trust the Bananas. We'll have a good time.
One thing I do know is yesterday my pants were COMPLETELY covered in red-dirt and it's already starting again today... This stuff gets EVERYWHERE and sticks to EVERYTHING. I'm distracted enough by it that I forgot that my passenger side headlight was out and I forgot to change the bulb.
Note: The headlights aren't sealed beam on this truck like they are in the states. It takes a standard H4 bulb and I have spares in the glove box. Replacing the light will require the removal of the battery and the washer fluid tank. No big deal, but I do need to plan for it.
Camp is packed up and we're oscar-mike by 9am. This is it, I'm officially a Banana today. Julius hops in the driver's seat of the Toyota (remember buddy: Crazy times 10!) and Katka snags her USB stick to torture him.
Here's another good example of Katka's taste in music. It's another one of our favorites (someone in the truck: "What's this guy like?" Everyone else "I think he's hypnotised...").
Of course the intro is pretty funny too ("er-uh, er-uh, er-uh, er-uh") which we're always sure to imitate.
Anyhoo, enough about that. Here goes!
oh wait... Julius is reporting his windows don't work. I go check, and it turns out he's just not pushing the switch far enough...
ok, NOW here goes!
In the Disco, I can't help but notice that I just happened to sit in the only seat without a working window. I swear electric windows are cursed in my presence. On the road, I have no idea what's going on. Even the GPS is in Slovakian... Honestly though, I 100% do not care. For the first time in this whole trip I have no responsibilities. Nothing to worry about, and nothing to do. I sit back and just take in the views I've been missing this whole time
Look at the size of these BEDS for sale!!!
I've been seeing these for a couple days now but haven't had a chance to snap a picture of them. At least twice per village are these beds and I just cant help but wonder how they would not 100% eat up every square inch of space inside these one-room huts we're seeing.
I wonder if they ship to Hungary?
Somewhere near here was a little girl carrying stuff on her head. She was obviously new at it and it was neat watching her try (no pictures though).
Roman is next to me and makes a joke about offering me a gin and tonic (we have neither ingredient in the truck). I jokingly accept and return fire by offering him a beer (Pivo! which we have zero of at this point in time). It was good.
There are people I can talk to, and there are people I can be quiet around. I much prefer the latter, and that is 100% Roman. He might get my attention and point at something, and i might do the same but right now I'm mostly getting caught up on my notes and messaging back to the family while we still have good data service. Jokingly I type in "Top 10 things to do in Sierra Leone: and find "Mambo Falls" and a Chimpanzee sanctuary.
I can't take pictures out the window (since it doesn't roll down, see example below)
But I do manage to take one or two across Roman's seat or out the front window:
At that fuel stop, we tried a local ATM and it didn't work. We're down to the last of our cash again. There's not much I can do about that so I check the power steering fluid (it's good) but notice the bottom bolt has fallen out of the hood-latch mount assembly. Nothing I can do about that right now either. It's still going to hold but it'll let the hood shake more.
ah well.
The road now is darn nice. Traffic clears up and the road is just like new! Man, I can not tell you how nice this is. I just kind of space off out the window and snap a picture or a video now and again and that is it!
We stop a a water crossing where people are doing their landry, and again. All I have to do is space off and take photos. My mind is completely blank at this point.
Roman snaps a few of me and sends them to me on the whatsapp chat:
Time to get back on the road.
Roman: "Bill!"
"hooah!"
Roman: "Yallah!"
"Yallah!"
We're at the border now and this is where you remember all the things you forgot about when you had your brain turned off. I have to go digging through the Toyota for my passport and paperwork, and Julius has to do the same in the disco.
The line on this side is long, humid, and hot...
A few arguments break out and people are irritated but it never turns physical. Mostly it's just people shouting ahead in languages I don't understand (and some I do) and people getting upset that someone is coming around and collecting their passports.
"Why are you taking these? How will I get them back? When do we go in that room?"
You gotta kinda push the "it's going to be ok" button here, but I understand why people are concerned. I mean, it's not like everyone got to spend half-a-day in that squishy Disco...
Oh! did I tell you how that ride feels??? That body is SO darn heavy on that chassis, it feels WAY undersprung and "squishy". A vast contrast from the Toyota, which Julius reports "It feels like I have no springs!!!!" to which I reply "Hit it harder! You're not driving crazy enough!!!". But I digress.
There's an angry Hungarian man, (because of the line) and then he gets angry again (because of the passport thing) and I just don't have the heart to tell him that that's not going to help things. Instead I focus on this killer looking bee on the light above me:
Once in the room, we're met with an official who has two cronies standing behind him. Our passports are next in the stack and he calls each of us out by name. We get stamps.
Patrick and I head out to drive the vehicles through the first gate, and then join back in with the others on the other side (the damn window is not working again!!!). It's much friendlier. Like WAY OVERDONE friendly.
The guard who has my passport, notices my middle name "David". It's a big deal because it's in the Bible and he loves it. He asks if I want to donate any money to his Christmas box and I drop some Guinean bills in there (I genuinely think it was just over a dollar). That makes him even happier.
We split up. Katka needs a cold drink, and some of the guys have currency to exchange. Of course there are vendors for both
I go after that non-working window with my swiss army knife. All I have to do is remove the door card and push up on the back side of the connecter on the window switch. Looks like it vibrated loose again. Still not having a positive means to lock it in place, this is just going to have to do.
While working on the truck Julius and Katka mention to the Bananas that inside the Toyota it's much hotter than the Disco (which no longer has a working AC). And a friendly argument starts. I gotta say, the Disco doesn't hold a candle to how hot it gets in the Yota.
Speaking of arguing, we need to go back to this picture:
Katka's already exchanged her money at this point, but the Bananas were talking to a different guy. Patrick isn't happy with the exchange rate he's offering and that European lady isn't having it either. She maths it out on her phone and the dude is offering 1.5:1 when Katka got 1.6:1. This comes out to like 30 euros over x amount of bills.
European lady: "Listen, I don't mind you making money but that's just robbery!"
Patrick: agrees
I dunno.
Katka finds her guy and everyone exchanges with him (ad do I with what remaining currency I have). Afterwards we talk about a plan forward:
We need to find an ATM, a sim card, beer, beer, beer, and gin. In that order.
Having all of us in agreement, it's time to set back off.
It's only a matter of getting through two rope gates, and we are off and runnin!
At this point I still am getting data. We didn't get a SIM card at the border so I have to get messages out while I still can. I send one back to Mrs. Hungary and text her about the 2034 Budapest to Bamako. Previously we had talked about taking each Hungarling one a B2B run when they turned 18, but no way am I doing this crap 2-more times. i tell her it's going to be in 2034, we're all going at once, and then I'm never doing it again. And even then I'm only doing it because the family wants to go!
A couple things though: Our vehicle is going to have AC, we're fitting a snorkel (I'm doin the damn off-road stages if I'm doing this again, dammit), and we're putting limited slips in both diffs (because I'm not getting stuck off road if I do this again, dammit!).
Sierral Leone though, is WILD! Patrick describes it as "Like the Carribean" and while I've never been, I'm inclined to agree
We're stoped at a market in this town and ask about cold water. To which the shop keeper says "no, cold water is not allowed here!"
We all have a good laugh.
There's a crowd around a motorcyclist across the street when we get back to the trucks and two police show up. More arguing follows.
The Bananas return to the disco with baguettes and we set off again.
(I pitty tha fool)
All the cars have something painted on the back of them. I thought this one was particularly funny
Man, I am CHILLIN at this point. In fact, I'm so chill, I decide to go over my northbound route notes.
It's 60-hours from Freetown to the Tangier ferries in Morrocco.
I figure 14 houres from Freetown to Koundara, 12 hours from Koundara to St louis (plus a but for the border crossing), 13 hours from St Louis to Bon Lanuar (with border and national park). I figure I can camp in the Mauritanian sand bivouac we stayed at before and then punch two days 14-hours each day to get to Tangier (with border crossings).
sounds easy enough.
Back to that scenery...
This is how we comm when we're out of data range. We have a CB in the truck but the mike will only key, there's no mod. We have a cobra handheld, but the CB wasn't on in the Banana's disco.
Anyhoo, the windows weren't working again and it looks like rain ahead. I hit the switch and it works perfectly. No idea what happened.
Roman: "Bill!"
Hooah!
Roman: "Yallah!"
Yallah!
Roman breaks up one of the baguettes into smaller sandwich sized pieces and spreads some sort of meat paste on with his pocket knife. I get the first one.
Man... First "kicking back" and now fresh made meat-paste sandwiches... I could get used to this!
We were right about that rain though, because now it is REALLY coming down!
It's short lived and eventually we come out the other side of the downpour. That's when we notice there's no Toyota in our mirrors anymore...
We pull over and wait.
and wait...
and wait...
We pull a u-turn and drive back into the rain. It's worse than it just was and now there's thunder and lightning. It's so thick, we can't see a dang thing! We had a false positive when we saw headlights coming at us, but it wasn't the toyota (just another vehicle with one headlight). Infact, we ended up passing the Toyota on the side of the road (and the windows were down!!!!!)
We pull around and none of the windows are working in the truck. Rain is coming in through the roof and everything. Poor Katka and Julius have all sorts of stuff stuffed in every opening (tents... you name it). There's nothing else to do, they gotta drive through and we'll sort it when it's dry.
Out the other side, I can see they tripped the circuit breaker for the windows. I reset it and we go behind the door card. Julius and I eska-paska the window switch connector just for good measure. Roman gets some of the STRONGEST black tape I've ever seen and we peel the backing off and apply it to the seam where the cap meets the roof. Once this stuff touches something, it does not let go. I'm genuinely worried it's going to take paint off when I remove it later, but that's not to worry about now. Katka mentions that all our school supply donations were under that seam and probably got leaked on but there's nothing we can do. If we open boxes, then stuff will get wet for sure.
About this time, the world goes "BOOM" as lightning stikes near by. Oddly enough, the locals near us don't even respond. We decide we'll panic, when they do and get back to work.
We're just getting things back together and the rain starts in. Slowly at first.
Julius and I roll up the windows and tell Katka about our tape job. Julius jokes about taping her mouth shut and she has the roll and peels a little of the backing back and moves like she's going to stick it to her arm. In slow motion Julius and I do the stereotypical "nooooooooooooo" and she pauses long enough for us to stop her. Holy crap, that was close. I bet this stuff would take the skin right off her arm no matter how long we soaked it!
oh here goes! We're off agian, and in good spirits. We're all laughing about the windows and I inform them that manual window regulators will be the first thing I buy when I get home.
Back in the Disco I pull out my phone to record the storm
And of course the storm stops as soon as I do...
I'm back to enjoying the view and my mind starts to wander when I do... It's about here that I notice that there's a complete stranger driving my Toyota right now, and it never struck me as odd until just this very moment. Furthermore, I am sitting in a vehicle with three complete strangers (and they really are, I mean what do I actually know about any of the Bananas here?) and I don't speak a word of their language, and again I never once thought it was odd.
We're sharing water bottles at this point. One of them just made me a sandwich...
What in the everloving hell am I doing, and why do I feel so darn comfortable doing it???
I don't have an answer for this.
We stopped at a fuel stop and I saw a kid wearing a Seattle Seahawks jersey. I thought that was cool. The Bananas bought a bunch of bananas and we went to work eating them
Eating bananas with the Bananas in the Banana's Disco... There's a joke there somewhere.
not 2-darn minutes later, we're rolling into camp! (I know, I'm just as surprised as you are! Where did the time go???)
They don't look impressed, do they. None of us are, really. This place is cleared out and there's not much to it.
This is when I say a term I've been thinking of out loud for the first time. "Cruise ship culture".
These dancers are cool, and so is the music. I would enjoy them a LOT if...
if I didn't have the feeling that we were being spoon fed the culture that people thought we were "expecting". Does that make sense? It's like when a cruise ship comes in and whatever small town is completely overrun with tourists, there isn't much there to experience so something is "put on" for them to enjoy. it feels a lot like that.
Anyhoo. The music and dancing is nice and we do enjoy it for a bit, but we all agree that this isn't where we're staying. When I'm asked my opinion I say "if it rains tonight even remotely like it did today, then this whole lot is going to be one big mud hole in the morning and we'll all be sleeping in it"
The group agrees.
Before we go though, we heard mentioned that there's a guy handing out free sim cards. We all split up and I run into a team we've seen once or twice. It's an all hungarian team with one Spaniard. Kamil, and I chat and he gives me his sim card as he got one at the border (he crossed earlier than we did, and they were handing them out) and got one here as well. Score!
The guy with the sim cards apparently has an orange shirt on. it takes a lot of walking around and asking (everything in this camp is so spread out) but we eventually find him and we're all set (I get a second card).
Ok. So we're not staying here, but where are we going?
Well, we decide we're going to head to Burreh beach!
No need to read that, we're not doing the off-road stage after all!
We're loaded up and questioned by the police as we leave camp. "oh no, we're just going to a store. We'll be right back"
But you know we're not.
Along the way, the radio in the Disco stops working
(Slovakian is spoken in the front)
Patrick: Bill. Can you punch your door?
(Bill punches door without question)
Radio works!
(Cheers throughout the truck)
It's one hour in to where we're going and for the first time the GPS is right. It's nothing but 4-lane blacktop all the way. Complete with lots of advertisements and toll booths! AC/DC is playing on the stereo and on one of the ads I can see there's a place called "The Miata Clinic" in the next town (I don't think they work on cars...)
In one town we stop at an ATM, but end up needing the help of a police officer to get it working. When we do, it says "insufficient funds". I have about 4 different bank cards with me, but all of them get the same response
no dice.
The next one we try only displays the old SL currency. Patrick and I math it out real quick and I use him as a test dummy.
no dice.
When we get back to the truck it's full of flies. Which isn't really a problem, but what is a problem is I don't have a whole lot of cash on me. Maybe like $20 or $30 and I'm getting the feeling Patrick is in the same boat. We're talking and decide to try one more ATM. When we do so, the Banana's Disco gets a LOT of attention. A crowd gathers at one pint in time, but it's friendly. The third ATM works as well as the first two and the police officer there tells us to come back at 8:30 tomorrow.
I drop a pin in my GPS and will do.
Back in the Disco I type "ATM" into my map search and come up with exactly zero anywhere around... Nothing I can do now but enjoy the ride. Eventually we get to our stop. It's beautiful. It's everything I wanted. No forced festivities, no crowds, no nothing. We just pitch our tents on the beach and take it all in.
Oh look! More Slovakians!!!
Guys, allow me to introduce "Team Kangoo" there in the blue shirts. It's a mother, father, son team from Slovakia who drove all this way in a Renault Kangoo. Remember back in our first sand bivouac when we lost Lucas's sleeping bag and I said that "No sedan or 2wd made it to camp except the organizer's car (which was modified for the rallye)"? Well, that wasn't correct. When I went back and looked at the pictures for this thread, I saw their car!
Their son is developmentally disabled but it doesn't look like that stopped them at all. They're an absolutely wonderful family and it turns out I've actually been in contact with the dad (who doesn't speak english) in my northbound chat.
Anyhoo, Speaking of slovakians, we also found Miroslav from the Slovakian van team.
See him there sitting next to Patrick? He made it, but I have no idea where the van or his teammates are. It's good to see everyone, but I still have no idea what's being said. Instead of worrying about that, lets just enjoy this wonderful beach, beer, and scenery, huh?
Dobru noc, guys. (good night)
There I was. Burreh Beach...
Dobre ranko guys! And would you look at that view????!
Damn. If I could wake up to that view every day, I'd... I dont even know.
Well no maps today. No day briefings to go to. No notes even. Can you beileve that? Through weather, broken vehicles, endless drives, complete exhaustion, and even complete mental breakdown, the one thing I made sure to always do was take notes to write about this later. But not through "relaxation", no sir. Today, I've got nothin to do and all day to do it.
Let's get to it, shall we?
First up, Katka coffee. Because I got time to kill
Next up, a quick look at what the truck looks like now that it's basically made it's run:
There's a lot goin' on and I didn't do a good job capturing it. I mean, that "energy fruit mix" thing on the floor? The last time I had one of those was in Morocco!
Everything else just looks like the truck was flipped upside down about 20 times, and then shaken for good measure. If there is one piece of advice I can give on this subject while we're talking about it, then it would be "organize organize organize"! Not during the run, you're going to be way too tired. Organize and re-organize EVERYTHING at least 20 times at the start of the race like Katka and I did. Because everything that happens afterword is going to be a little more disorganized until you get what we have there.
Anyhoo, back to that "nothin"
The joke here is still running, but it's no longer "Phone, Phone, Phone". It's changed to "phone, Phone Phone"
(me getting caught): "Not 'phone'! Wife!"
I've been trying to be better about messaging lately, which means I'm typing on the phone as much as the people I previously made fun of
While Roman's getting his hair done there, you can see that there's some "setting up" going on in the background. The rest of the rallye will be joining us today and there's supposed to be a "beach party" to celebrate.
Look it's Jessica and Liam!!!!
Ok, a couple things about Jessica and Liam before we talk about the man in the dirty white shirt.
A while back and maybe a day or two after my mental breakdown (where I was just waiting on Jack to say "punch north") I got to talking to Jessica and Liam and we got to talking about difficulties we were having and I mentioned team dynamics and the breakdown thereof (ponorka) and they both fired right up with stories about "if you play that god-darned playlist one more time I swear I'm going to end your life" and hours and hours of not talking and not wanting to be in the car with each other, and desperately downloading new podcasts when they had reception so they could just have something to listen to when it was inevitably lost again, and I gotta say. That little complaint session we had probably saved the rest of the trip for me.
Going through it with complete strangers, and being irritated to no end about not knowing what's being said or what's going on, and being stuck in a 1980's Toyota and trying to navigate the insanely dynamic environment that is "Africa".... You really don't know what's happening outside of your vehicle. It really is a ponorka, there is no better description out there. But gasping that one fresh breath where you can complain to someone and have them immediately relate and let you know that it's not just your ponorka, but everyone elses too... That probably saved my sanity. It was good to see them again now that the run was done.
Ok, the guy in the white shirt. We're going to call him "Albert" because that's what we mistakenly called him for this whole trip. He's from Norway, (I think) and speaks very adenoid British English incredibly well. He's in a small VW SUV and has done the entire run by himself. Now Albert, I apologize if you read this and are offended, is obviously on the spectrum and very VERY much out of his comfort zone. Like ENTIRELY out of his comfort zone. The last time I saw him was in Morocco, and I 100% wouldn't fault him one bit if he turned around way north of here.
Well, he didn't!!!!! and because he didn't, and because this is so far out of his comfort zone, and because he did it COMPLETELY ALONE, I have the absolute most respect for this guy. We're talking a bit and he talks about how he was almost arrested and had his car about to be confiscated but switched to French and absolutely beat the cops into verbal submission. It's great!!!! We're all sharing our war stories!
Anyhoo, back to that nothing:
Right after this picture was taken a man comes around with a notebook. He asks how many tents and Patrick replies. To which the man replies "ok, that will be (x amount) of (currency y)". It's some silly low-amount but we have nearly nothing left.
Patrick replies "ah, yes! of course. But what if we worked out a deal? What do you think if we payed the camp spot and you toss in a breakfast and we can pay all of that at once"
The man agrees and he wanders off. We never get breakfast so we mutually decide that Patrick is awesome, and that guy has a good scam running.
You can see we got our "Mensa-Engineering" shade up and our new dog is rather enjoying it. There's only room for 3-people under the shade though (so, more like "Mensa-failure) and I'm being asked if I want to get under as well.
"You know what? It's still November in Europe. I'm going to enjoy the sun"
Not long after, one of the workers setting up for today's party comes over and gives me my own personal shade
Meanwhile, back in the parking lot, vehicles are going up for sale
It's really starting to sink in at this point. We're done. We made it. We just tackled 10,000kms of European road and African adventure and we came out beaten, battered, and bruised, basically ready to kill each other at a moment's notice, but we friggin made it.
There is nothing left to the adventure now but the finish line tomorrow, the party afterwards, and this dog that needs lots of scratches
That's how the day went. At 8:30 I did drive back to that bank, but there was no ATM... 100% out of cash after that, I borrowed $100 euro or so from Patrick and hit up a money exchanger. It's enough to get me through the day.
We really do nothing all day and eventually I catch Jack walking out of the beach bar with two Guinness's's's's's. He doesn't even ask, he just hands me one and I pull up my folding chair. Jessica and Liam are already there as are three other insanely crazy guys who's names I cant remember.
There are mountains of cash on the table, that dog is sleeping at my feet, we're all joking and laughing hysterically at EVERYTHING!
We're at another locale now, just down the beach from our tents. We're after another beer, and a bite to eat. Of course, this requires a wad of cash 
Back at the Banana's camp, I check in on the guys and Patrick has the shovel out and is digging a hole
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING????" I yell playfully
"WE'RE BUILDING A SAND CASTLE!!!!!!" They all yell back
"A SAND CASTLE??? YOU'RE THE BANANA'S!!! BUILD A BANANA!!!"
(they'll send me drone footage of their construction later)
Anyways, I excuse myself and head back to the party. Partying in English is such a relief right now I just don't want it to end.
Back at the original table, it's back with the guys
Rum in coconuts, beer bottle caps on foreheads... Two members of Team UFO Hunter will stop by and join our table. They seem to know most of the people and I've met Nils at least once when I got the Sticker back in Guinea. I'm introduced to Pia and I ask her how to say "Cheers"
"Skal!!!!!!"
(Everyone) SKAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And down it goes.
We talk and Pia tells me about the camp last night (the one we skipped). Apparently there were gunshots aroudn 4am and shortly before that someone was just SCREAMING. Not painful screaming, not scared screaming, but just SCREAMING!!! She also tells me that anything not locked up or bolted down, 100% got stolen.
Liam had a fall that night when he got up to pee and busted his chin open. Apparently Jack saw what happened and escorted him to the medic tent at about midnight or 2 am or so? The doctor was quoted as saying "well, you need stitches. this wouldn't be a problem except the alcohol"
To which Liam replied "I didn't drink"
Doctor: "I wasn't talking about you"
People come in, and people leave, we "skal!!!!" and drink some more. We line up chairs on the beach and drink till the bottle or coconuts are dry, and refill and go do it again.
I'll get a text from Katka that they gang is all headed to the restaurant for dinner and I should come join, but I politely decline and explain that I'm taking an English break. I really need this right now.
We drink until the drinking's done and I walk back to the camp with my folding chair. Katka and the Bananas are still up and partying and when I get to the group my arm is grabbed and something's zipped on to it before they let me go.
ESKA PASKA!!!!!
These friggin Bananas, man. I tell you what... I love these guys.
It's still a party so I down a couple beers with them before I pull my "old man" card and turn in for the night.
na zdravie, y'all!
There I was. Crossing the finish line of the Budapest to Bamako Rally, 2022. or... I mean I would if I could find the darn thing... I guess we'll just park here then?
Oh man, that felt good. You ever spend a day doin hard work? Maybe construction or out in the garage? Maybe you spent a day hunched over a chainsaw and you get done and have that beer and relax and you wake up the next morning and you're just sore all over, but it's a good kind of sore? This is like that.
For once I'm up at a normal damn time! The camp is up with me and we do our morning coffee routine and chat about the night before. We got plenty of drinking stories to swap but Katka out does me and tells me that she convinced the DJ at the dance stage to play some Slovakian music and all the Slovaks got up and danced like crazy people. Oh to be young again...
The man with a notebook came by and asked "how many tents" again, and I took the lead. He did the usual "it'll be x amount of y currency" and I did my best Patrick impression "ah, perfect. yeah, we got ya man. But what do you think about working out a deal like we did yesterday and we work out a deal that includes breakfast?"
he agrees and wanders off. (hey, not bad huh?)
I'm waking up now and the only thing I know for certain is my notes absolutely suck. Exactly zero of them make any sense now that I'm going back over them (i guess one day off is all it takes to get rusty on the beach?)
Anyhoo, we pack up camp and join the convoy into town for the finish ceremony. There's going to be an "official party" afterwards and we figure we'll get a hotel in Freetown and attend.
Holy crap, it's the Slow-Vakia Pajero!!!!
How in the heck do we keep running into the SAME people?
Anyhoo, onward through town. Poor Katka is paying for her party though
Maybe I'm good with being the "Old Man" after all...
Remember it's HOT at this point. No AC, and we're barely putting through town. We're basically caught in a long traffic jam that is "The Rallye".
An ambulance passes through (and most people let it) but I really wonder how it can get ANYWHERE in a timely manner in this sort of mess..
We're down on the peninsula now where the finish line is supposed to be, and we're completely stopped in traffic. Misha and Linda climb on top of the Slow-Vakia Pajero and I cant help but think "I wouldnt". it's a slick roof and there's no rack or anything to grab on to. But ah well.
Traffic moves, and so do we.
inch by inch.
Eventually we're well beyond the point where we thought the finish should be, so we pull over and park
Katka and I walk back to where the ceremony will be, stopping only once at a Chinese store to buy cold bottled water. Continuing on our way we spot the Bananas in a restaurant. We join in.
I spot an ATM across the street and 100% seize the opportunity to run my card at the maximum amount for about 3 times. I have no idea what I'm getting, but I make sure to pay Patrick back at the bank rate (not the money exchanger rate) so he'll come out on top for saving my butt like that.
Patrick will wander off, and I'll spot him with a guy who's breaking a beer bottle. The man then crushes up the glass and eats it.
I'm pretty disgusted by it. Even if that's his gig, just... I dunno, man.
Lukas and Misha eventually find us and we have to swap our luggage around. We wont be staying in the same place again (or maybe ever again) so we gotta get all of Lukas's stuff out.
Katka and I head down to the ceremony afterwards but JUST missed the President's speech. We do get a chance to listen to Andrew Szabo though and catch a few things
1) someone died today. We think that was the ambulance
2) Andrew states that this was the most difficult B2B ever done, and they will never NEVER do another October/November run again
I also see a picture of Misha and Linda on the roof of the Slow-Vakia Pajero undre the Budapest to Bamako Inflatable finish line.
"How the hell did you guys do that??? Where is it?"
"Oh, they took it down like 3 cars after us" Lukas replies.
Somehow we missed the chance to drive under the finish and get our "this is it" photo, and I can't think of any better way to end the rally for us... I mean if there is ANYTHING that sums up our luck with this, I think that's it.
In the chat, there's reports of another person being hospitalized (heat related issues). I guess they dropped during the closing ceremony. We all hope they pull through.
It's on us now to find a hotel if we're gonna go to that party tonight. Everything is on this thin peninsula (nice hotels, and the party).
We easily stopped at 3 different hotels and the Radisson Blu had the longest line (and the most people asking if I wanted to sell my truck or have it washed. No to both) so we didn't wait. Another we ran into the Bananas and they were informed that this place had suites only (260 Euro ea). We negotiate, but it was a mistake. They cant accommodate us.
Back at the Radisson, we try again, but no luck. Team Kangoo (the Slovakian family) informs us it's "reservations only" at this point.
Eventually we get a message from the Bananas. They found a place at "The Family Kingdom" and we head over.
We ended up getting a 2-bedroom apartment with individual bathrooms!!!! Can you believe that? From tents and Toyotas to a room that's bigger than my first apartment??? We unload the truck and take care of business. I need a shower (it's cold... again....) and I need to catch up on messages while we have Wifi.
Yeah, time for the eska paska to come off. Nothing lasts forever (it's kind of a sad thing, really)
Outside is this deer/goat looking thing and it's got a tail that will NOT stop wagging:
If you google "The Family Kingdom, Sierra Leone" you'll probably see other pictures of this thing. I don't think we ever found out what it was, so we just named it "Shakira" and called it a day.
This place has laundry service too, and we drop our clothes off for the ladies downstairs to take care of.
Still catching up on messages, it looks like Misha and Lukas might ride with me to Conakery after a few day's rest back on the beach. I cant help but think that's going to be an uncomfortable ride, but I'm certainly not going to say no. A short while later, I nodded off in my bed when Katka sends me a message "did you have someone wash the truck?"
SAY WHAT????
Aw, dude!!!! We wanted that mud there!!!!
Ah, well. I really did want to leave the truck dirty but there's nothing we can do about that now. I go down when I think he's nearly done and kick the man a few bucks for the wash job. He explains that the reason he washed it was because it was his "Favorite".
Thanks man. But still...
Bananas is down now and they're unpacking everything. Their car is sold and we need to toss anything they don't need into my rig. Some tools (like a high-lift jack) and some tents that cant be carried on the plane for their flight home. It all has to go in the Toyota
Back in the Bananas room, we kick back for a few beers before the party starts. With all the prescription pills we were told to bring with us, all the cash from the sale of the vehicle, and beers, it looks like a darn good time!
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