On the N2 in Foutta Torro I

During our visit to the Centre d'Energie Renouvable (CERER), we were advised to look up a project providing the electricity needs of a small village with wind power only. Pointing at the slow turning and creaking windmills, the villagers let us know that the mills were only just powerfull enough for waterpumping and that the village had been without electricity for months.

Smokin'

Burning shrubs is a tradtional method to make the dry soil of the Sahel more fertile.

Breakdown

After a breakdown all the passengers as well as their considerable load on top of the roof are shifted from one bus onto the next.

Death

Many creatures do not survive the scourching heat and drought of the Foutta Toro. Animal carcases along the road anounce their presence from meters ahead with a bad stench.

New Road

The improvement of roads is one of the major concerns for the future in West Africa. In the region of the Senegal river, special care needs to be taken to provide for flash floods. Sudden rainfall has nowhere to go into the hard dry soil and thus used to carve out and wear away the old roads. For todays new roads, always constructed in cooperation with Western European companies and organisations, provisions for catching the water and leading it underneath the roads are being taken.

Mashing Nokos

The 'chef de village's' wife prepares Nokos, the main flavouring for Senegalese food: onion, garlic, peppercorns and the ubiquitous Maggi stock cubes.

Peul

The traditional Peul hat is very effictive for surviving the midday heat.

Leaving Hare Lao

As soon as you venture of the main road, the tarmac disappears to be replaced by soft sand. Luckily young boys were always eager to help us push the heavy bikes through. Sometimes they made the process more difficult, pulling at the handle bars and pushing the machine off balance.

Goods for sale

After long stretches of riding in the heat we were always happy to arrive in bustling little market towns to fill up on water and if we were lucky some beautiful yellow corn bread too.

Donkeys do not go particularly fast, as must be obvious from the fact even Maya can overtake them.