Doing the Nomad: 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.