On the N2 in Foutta Torre II

The cause of this young man's daydreams is hidden inside his hand...

Morning Bread

They look like French sticks and are made with sour dough. Together with a pot of unsofisticated choclate spread and processed cheese they provided our 'second breakfast', which we would have around ten o'clock after having left with a bowl of porridge in our stomachs at five.

Fouta Village

"On the smooth tarmac of the N2 we pass many genuine traditional villages with grass roofed huts. Some of them are bigger than you might guess, with up to 6000 inhabitants."
Actually these are not dwellings for people but grain storage depots.

Morning Haze

Getting up extremely early to beat the first rays of sun, we were often treated to wonderfull sights.

Fence

In villages people fence of their patch, often with mud walls and sometimes with thorns and twigs, tires, old cars or this elegant wooden design.

Morning Traffic

On their way to the next town.

Bakel

View from the hotel window. The previous night we had enjoyed the hospitality of the Prefect of Sema. The hotel room had a fan but this did not make it any more comfortable than the prefect's front yard had been the night before.

Child Labour

This youngster in Ouro Sogui was hanging around the workshop, complaining there was no work to be done.

Herds of cows, sheep or goats are often looked after by only a few young boys. Not surprising that once in a while animals get lost.

Ride Baby Ride

Most of the N2 is newly tarmaced. When everything went well, with a slight tailwind and an even surface we could sometimes finish our 100 km ride for the day before noon.

Pain de Singe

Monkey bread, the fruit of the Baobab tree is put into water and left, with occasional stirring it disolves into a thick white sweet juice. After picking out the left over seeds the drink can be taken to aleviate diaroeha.

When we say that we are from Belgium, people often reply : "That is where our cars come from." Of course Belgium does not have its own car brand but apparently it is the European hub for second hand cars to be exported to Western Africa. This truck used to serve in the Belgian Post.