Cooking 101

Masterchef Mauritania

 

Cooking for 25 people can have its challenges. Some people don't cook enough, some cook too much and some people just don't manage to get the mix quite right but all in all our cook groups throughout the trip have all been fantastic and there hasn't been a single meal I have not liked. Cooking can also be a dangerous occupation with cut fingers and burnt hands being the most common injury. Mr Darren Konken however managed to take cooking to a whole new level when I was in a group with him and Nick one fateful day in Nouakchott. Now Mr Konken is a little bit clumsy and quite prone to injury and if you make it through a day without hearing him yelling profanities from stubbing his toe, burning his foot or hitting his head on the roof of the truck then you probably need to get your hearing checked. Due to this reputation I was given the job of keeping an eye on him which I must admit I failed miserably at on this particular day. Part of our meal was slicing some “fresh” fish into strips, dipping them in batter and frying them in the wok on the fire. A simple task one may think but not with our boy from Guernsey. With wok on fire I headed over to give Daz a hand frying the fish strips. All appeared to be going well......for about 30 seconds when the battered strips were already cooked black. Hmmmm I thought, the fire must be too hot I thought at first but looking under the grill we were certainly not cooking on a roaring fire. About 4 of the strips we put in at the beginning went black in 30 seconds. Not quite sure yet what was making our oil so hot I called for Ishi our tour leader to come and assist but the second she turned her head our wok decided to spontaneously combust and burst into flame. Hmmmmm I thought, that's strange for oil to just catch fire like that. The fire in the wok got progressively larger very quickly and 15 seconds later it was over my head and almost catching the tree next to the fire. By this time everyone in the truck had poked their head out to see what all the fuss was about along with the people helping in the outdoor kitchen and one of the passing joking comments was “Gee boys what are you using to cook? Diesel or something?”  ............ Oh shit maybe I did was the reply given by Masterchef Konken much to the delight of the rest of the truck. Daz had accidently picked up a bottle of diesel instead of the oil which admittedly was probably easy to do in the dark as they were kept in similar bottles. The diesel ended up burning itself out after a minute or two and luckily we hadn't put all the fish into the wok by that point so dinner was saved. Cant wait for my next opportunity to cook with ya Daz.

A Belgian couple we met doing an overland trip of their own

Shore outside our campsite at Saint Louis

Local kids at Saint Louis



Saint Louis campsite

For those of you interested in where I've actually been going since my last update we left Nouadhibou and travelled south to the capital Nouakchott, across the border into Senegal where we stayed at Saint Louis and the capital Dakar then east inland crossing the border into Guinea where the locals are easily the friendliest people I have ever met. We are currently in the capital Conakry staying at the catholic missionary in the middle of town which feels like I'm back in the middle ages, made all the more weird by the crocodile and the large turtle sharing a cage at the back of the property we have taken over for the night. We have been bush camping more often than using camp sites for the last 2 weeks, having just came off a 5 day stint with no showers but we did manage to slip in my first river wash which will become more regular the farther south we go.

Renaissance monument in Dakar

Nick in one of the party nights on the truck

A highlight of this fortnight would probably be the visit we did to Goree island, a short ferry trip from Dakar. The island was occupied by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and finally the French and was primarily used and most well known for its slave trade. Slaves from across the region were brought here before they were loaded onto ships for the journey across the Atlantic to the Americas, the Caribbean and Brazil. Many of them died on the island and on the boats until slavery was abolished in France in 1794. It was a good eye opener towards an issue I must admit I have not really read about or studied in depth and I am sure this will not be the last place I visit in Africa that has been touched by slavery.

Goree island, off the coast of Dakar

Coastal battery on Goree island

Goree island slave monument

The last week it has started getting hotter and we have entered jungle territory which does not combine well with the fact that we are bush camping more often than not and showering less than I would prefer. After spending 5 days in Dakar on another visa run which spread over a weekend we headed inland towards the Guinea border. I must admit I was starting to get a bit tired of Senegal and I don't think I was the only one as whenever you went into town you would be harassed by local traders insisting you buy everything in their shop to the point where they would just follow you without being asked and then ask for money an hour later for showing you around. Crossing the border into Guinea however was the exact opposite. Just driving along almost every single person we drive past looks at our truck in surprise then breaks out in a huge grin and waves madly at us until we are out of distance, men, women and children alike. They do not badger us to buy their goods, they do not walk up and outright ask for money and they do not rip us off with inflated tourist prices. The whole truck agrees without debate the Guinea is our favourite country of the trip thus far made even more fun by the fact we were driving along our first real rough African dirt road, managing 80km one day and experiencing our first river crossing on a small ferry the next.

Local Guinean home

Shaking round my 10,000 Guinean Franc notes

9/10 vehicles along this terrible road were Renaults

Slow going through our first proper dirt road

Ferry crossing

Broken down truck at the river crossing

Vultures devastating a carcass

Camping on a burnt out hill

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Morocco

Exploring Morocco in depth

 

Having spent our week in Rabat collecting visas we made our way down to Todra Gorge, doing some bush camping on the way. Along the way our driver Steve managed to talk his way out of a speeding ticket by pumping up the grateful policeman's flat tyre. Steve is no stranger to Africa and I feel I'm in fairly safe hands as he has been on the road for about 25 years and has done the trans Africa trip 15 times. Around this point is where I got my first chance to be in a cook group which is rotated around the truck. Helen, Sarah and I were responsible for breakfast, lunch, dinner and cleaning the truck for 2 days and after that we get 2 weeks off. Pasta with a chicken and vegetable white sauce and a butternut squash curry were a hit among the group and named best dinner of the trip so far.......... ;)

An old monastery

Winding through the hills

Views whilst driving through the Atlas mountains

Todra Gorge was magnificent but unfortunately the day we hiked through it was very cold, raining slightly and worst of all foggy so we couldn't get any decent pictures. Luckily we had a guide but unluckily he practically ran the whole way up the Gorge but we managed to keep up. This is not a place where we would want to lose the guide especially in the fog as we were warned of a previous group with another company that lost 1 of their travellers in there and he was never seen again.

 

 

Villagers at the top of Todra Gorge

Small village in Todra

Todra Gorge

Todra Gorge campsite

 

From Todra Gorge we made our way down to Marrakech which is definitely the tourist capital of Morocco. The square in the centre of town was full of snake charmers, pet monkeys, banging drums, cheap food and spices. I ate with a few friends at a café that had a 2 year no diarrhoea guarantee so it was the obvious choice but the food here was twice the price compared to other places in Morocco mainly due to the huge amount of European tourists.

Girls doing their exercises

Lunch on the road

Marrakech by day

Marrakech by night

 

West of Marrakech we came to Essaouira on the coast of the Atlantic. The waters here are still quite cold but I managed a quick swim, mainly to freshen up, clean and get some salt water on various cuts on my feet. The town was quaint and we had a full seafood feast, drinks and salad for 80 Dirhams which is about $10 Aus. Essaouira was also the place that we celebrated our first trip birthday with Chris turning 37. We planned to have a few drinks at midnight the night before and the main party the next night. By midnight the night before the entire truck was dancing, singing, and going absolutely mental for what I would declare our biggest truck party yet. How Steve sleeps in the front cabin of the truck is beyond me.

Tent practical joke prop

Market stalls in the streets of Essaouira

Spice stands

Alleys in Essaouira

 

 

Leaving Essaouira we bush camped for 5 nights straight through the Western Sahara region of Morocco which is very militarized due to the region wanting its independence. Police checks before and after every town made the going slow but I suppose they’re there for our safety.  The 5 bush camps in a row was our first real experience of how hard the West Africa leg of the trip is going to be with the temperature starting to rise and showers few and far between. A couple of times along the way we have managed to find a douche (public shower) in some of the towns we went through, one of them in Laayoune would only let the men shower which is another reminder of which part of the world I am in. Our 9 hour border crossing into Mauritania was a bit longer than we expected but we all got through and we now find ourselves in Nouadhibou in Northern Mauritania. I was lucky to make it to the border in the first place almost getting hit in the face with an exploding battery which had made its way into the rubbish bag and subsequently the fire but my pretty face lives another day. 

 

Goats in trees

Yes that's right, I said goats

in trees

 

Bush camping in the Western Sahara

Ross climbing some sand dunes

Shipwreck off the coast of Nouadhibou

 

 

 

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Africa

Finally I have reached Africa!

Meet Nala, our 17.5 ton home for the next 10 months shared amongst 23 other like minded travellers, Ishi our tour leader and Steve our driver. I almost didn't get the opportunity to meet her when I slept in and missed my train to Luton airport but the Gods were smiling on me and allowed me to make it in time. At Luton I was able to meet for the first time those that I will be spending every minute of every day with and luckily they seem to be a good bunch. We are also a special bunch in a way as we have heard that all other companies have cancelled their tours down West Africa this year due to lack of numbers so we are the only truck doing it.

 

Nala at a lunch stop

 

Meeting the group at the airport

 

 

Our flight from Luton took us to Gibraltar where we got to spend a couple of days looking around and making last minute preparations for our time in Africa. Stocked up and eager to go we caught the ferry across the Straight of Gibraltar and landed in Ceuta, a Spanish territory on the tip of Africa and from there we drove across the border into Morocco, our first African nation of about 29. The minute we crossed the border Africa sprung to life right in front of our eyes. Hundreds of people attempting to cross the border, taxis everywhere, horns honking, rubbish strewn across the hill and the hustle and bustle of the morning market. Of course our inconspicuous yellow truck drove through without anyone noticing at all and our warnings of taking photos at borders was followed to the letter.

The Rock of Gibraltar

First sighting of Africa

 

Our first stop in Morocco was Chefchaouen where we camped at the top of the hill overlooking the town. Here I was lucky enough to get some Wi-Fi to discover that my 2nd passport that had been sent to Australia to apply for my Ghana visa was in the hands of the Australian embassy in London as it had been sent to the wrong address. Luckily for me the honest English citizen was kind enough to forward it on to the embassy where they have now posted it to my tours HQ and we are arranging for me to pick it up somewhere in Senegal further down the road. Chefchaouen was also the scene of our first (but definitely not last) truck party which now seems to be on a day on/day off system ever since then. A large proportion of our supplies was drunk that night and we are now realising how difficult it is to replace in a Muslim country.

The streets of Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen

 

From Chefchaouen we hit Fez where we got 3 nights to explore the cultural capital of Morocco. Here we were able to check out the Kings Palace, a Jewish cemetery, a pottery factory, the tannery, a rug store, a fabric store and time to explore the medina (market). After Fez our fun week in Rabat has begun. Rabat being the capital is the one stop shop for embassies so first thing Monday morning we found ourselves outside the Mauritanian embassy eager to start the process. The traffic on the way however was suspiciously quiet and much to our disappointment we discovered that it was a public holiday in Morocco and everything was closed. Tuesday we started the process again and it has been 4 days of driving between embassies negotiating with officials how and when we can get our visas as quickly as possible. The end is in light however as we now hold our Mauritanian and Guinea visas and are parked outside the Ivory Coast embassy getting fingerprint scans which are taking about 30 minutes each. In retaliation we are all stealing their Wi-Fi from outside. We should have our passports back Friday afternoon or Saturday morning so we are lucky compared to last years Trans Africa which took 8 days.

Jewish cemetery in Fez

Fez

Pottery Factory

Volubilis Roman ruins

 

 

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