OVERLAND TRIP TO SENEGAL 2004
Sometime late in 2003 I decided that I wanted to go
to Senegal. Flying was cheating, so it would have to be overland. In
January 2004 I made my first step by buying a Ryanair ticket down to Jerez de la
Frontera for March 31st. Having mentioned this to quite a few people, I
managed to gather absolutely no interest for this expedition whatsoever.
Then my friend Ross Grainger (of UEA's Concrete newspaper fame) heard
about the idea and added his name to Ryanair's passenger list.
Ross and Thomas were going to Senegal, whatever anyone might say. The trip
was then lent extra significance as a drunken bet with a Simon Sheridan also of
Concrete fame meant that £5
depended on our successful completion of the trip.
This two week journey took us from London Stansted to Jerez de la Frontera by plane, over to Morocco, and down through Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal entirely on public transport, or failing that, whichever vehicle we could find going in our particular direction......
As we were going down, we never lost sight of our trusty notepad and pen in which we wrote what we saw, what we thought, and anything else that popped into our heads over the 14 days. The result is an account of what is probably a typical trip for two naļve 20 year olds venturing into West Africa for the first time, two 20 year olds who, aside from a trip for Thomas with parents to Zimbabwe 8 years ago, were complete Africa-virgins. Some of the comments and actions are surely testament to this inexperience but hopefully we have learnt from this trip and will be better prepared for the next one, wherever it may take us.
So, instead of revising for exams as I probably should have been doing, I've written up this diary which you can find here along with a few pictures and videos which were taken along the way......
Ross's contributions are written in plain writing. Thomas's in italics.
Technical stuff !! - the thumbnails are links to full size (1024x768) pictures so I guess this site is optimised to that resolution. All videos are for use with Quicktime
Morocco pictures, Western Sahara Pictures, Mauritania Pictures, Senegal Pictures
Ross Grainger and Thomas Morgan, April 2004
Morocco photos, Western Sahara photos, Mauritania photos, Senegal photos
Go with us to Day 1 ! - Sign our guestbook - Get in touch !
West Africa, Travelogue, Travel pictures, casablanca, dakhla, nouādhibou, nouakchott, atār, choūm, azougui, st. louis, dakar, ngor, sahara, desert, world's longest train
For other travelogues like this visit the travelogue section of The Africa Guide - A complete and comprehensive guide to every country in Africa with essential travel information and 100's of tours and safaris, hotels and car hire throughout the continent.
You are visitor number