AFRICA.......

Yes Yes Yes,
Africa at last, and everything changes.


Agrandir le plan

So much has happened since my last post its hard to know where to start. Sitting here in this little internet cafe in the old madina in Chefchaouen. and on all the other computers teenage boys are on face book or watching music videos or football on you tube. Out side the tiny streets are painted blue and I'll try to recount the last few days.

After Jerez i took to the Atlantic coast south of Cadiz and braved gale force winds and wild storms that blew off the sea. First to Puerto Real through some marsh land, farms, and sad looking waist land.

I had wondered if it was actually wise to travel on that day but the weather turned out to be so dramatic it was great entertainment the whole way passed Chiclana de la Frontera, Conil de la Frontera and to Canos de Meca where it turned out Nelson Defeated the French and Spanish at the battle of Trafalga. As Nelson was a Norfolk lad i had an extra feeling of pride as i gazed out across the stormy seas untill the wind became so strong that my bike which was lent against the light house railings was blown over on top of the guitar strapped on the side. The whole thing happened in horrible slow motion yet there was nothing i could i do. I knew it was risky carrying the guitar on the bike like this and that this could happen at any moment but why now just as we reached the final days in Europe....... Well this all sounds very dramatic and it was for a while, however the next day i bought some super glue and glued up the cracks once again and there's plenty of life in her yet.
The next couple of nights were spent camped out with other characters of the road:  A Belguim couple driving an old merceedes camper to Mali...... That's funny, that's where i'm going on my bike; so we shared stories and eat wholsome food in their van sheltering from the rains.

The next night i camped just north of Tarifa with these crazy cats in the Casa de Porros. These guys really are living their dreams in vans on a kite surfing beach in the south of Spain. Their dilapidated caravan looks out across the straights to Morroco, Africa and beyond. There are van dwellers from all over hiding out on this little piece of land by the beach on the edge of Europe, and that's definitly how it felt. I sat and gazed across to Africa with just a little fear of what may lie ahead but eager to cross the waters and start the next chapter of the journey. As it turned out, i spent the following few days in Tarifa awaiting a package of the new video camera at the post office before i could catch the boat so i had plenty of time to gaze and wonder, and enjoy some stunning sun sets.

And then my boat came and suddenly the journey stepped up to the next level. I landed in Tangers at midday and decided to head up into the hills as I now had a few days free before i could get a Mauratania visa in Rabat. So I ended up cycling the110 km up the Riff mountains almost a 1000m to arrive in Chechaouen and arrived on the edge of darkness. In My first day cycling in Africa i was greeted with waves, thumbs up, cheers and beeping of horns probably more times than the entire cycle across France, Spain and Portugal. This is going to be something quiet different. The day was quiet full-on though, so i am just acclimatising here for a couple of days getting used to a new way of life before the 3 day ride to Rabat. This is a beautiful laid back town with a stunning old blue medina and plenty of guys calling out; hey my friend.... let me sell you something...
I guess I'll get used to that as i am now a white man in Africa once again, with all it's pros and cons.

Many, many other tales to tell.
Many more yet to unfold
To Africa and beyond.

10 days in Sevilla

Well i could have stayed here a whole lot longer and i did meet a bunch of English folk who have done exactly that. Life just seems a bit easyer, the weather is good, the rent is cheap, and people seem to have plenty of time to sit about the place in bars and cafes drinking the day away.
When I first arrived befor it rained i had mentioned how dry the landscape had been on my journey down and Pablo replied that it didn´t worry them as they didn´t drink water any way. Its true; coffee and beer at different times of day seems to do the trick.
So what did i do with my time in Seviila? Well i stayed with Jorge, who some of you may rememeber from Brighton capoeira 5 years back and Marta his lovely girl friend. They were fantastic hosts and so kind to let me stay for so long. They are still on the Capoeira tip and we had some fun leaping about with the group here. I even gave a class for the crew and did i lot of 'cup-oeira' together on the streets.
I also did get to check out a bunch of flamenco shows, both in the traditional Penas and some late night sessions.

They seem to have a fairly standard form with one ridculously skilled guitarist, a couple of passionate singers and a dancer caught in the throwes of exctatic creativity expressing their very souls to the world. The best performances also had half a dozen ´palmieros´ who clapped mental poly-rhythms that worked together with the foot stamps of the dancers to drive the whole show. Sometimes at the end other people would get up and sing and dance aswell and there is strong energy of a culture very much alive and kicking. There are obviously lots gigs for tourists going on but this is a living culture that the people here love and are very proud of. And long may it be so. And check it out, here it is going on at a zebra crossing!

I´ve been completely blown away with some serious musicianship of the guitarists and took a few classes that twisted my little neurons into knots and left me with plenty of home work to do. It feels like starting all over again, but you gotta challenge yourself sometime hey!

And talking of challenge myself I had a great day at the beach remembering how i was never very good at surfing. Jorge and i got quiet excited about the fact that my funky little go-pro video camera was also water proof and great for filming water sports so we strapped it onto the front of the surf board and tried it out in the shollows just to be safe. However the first little wave knocked it right off the end of the board and into  the murky waters. It sank and disappeared, never to be seen again. Ohps! Thankfully the lovely Visions movie crew are sending me another one so i can carry on making my road movie when it arrives....

I started to feel quiet settled in Sevilla but remembered that i had another mission ahead of me so I´ve packed up my bags and hit the road again. I am writing this in Jerez de La Frontera, 100km further south, that some people say is meant to be the real birth place of flamenco. I may stay a couple of days to find out for myself befor moving on to Tarifi and catching the boat to Africa!

Oh yeah, i did want to mention one thing about travelling by bike. You do get to see every inch of the landscape and its not allways pretty. Having enjoyed the city life of central Sevilla for a while I was struck by how the land was such a mess for a good 20km travelling away from town. I felt quiet sickened by the carnage that urban life creates but we tend to be blissfully unaware while enjoying it's bright lights. I know i´m quiet an idealist but i have found my self imagining how beautiful many of the landscapes i have cycled through must have been even just 50 years ago befor our modern world mashed it up so badly. Endless monoculture farming or the overspill from growing cities.

Any way ever onwards and south wards i go......