African Adventure Motorcycle Travel

Wanderlust magazine goes to Ghana to meet so-called witches

Wanderlust magazine is running an extract from The Black Stars of Ghana on their terrific website.

Perfect for the adventurer with nowhere to go.

If you want to read more for free, you can read the intro to the book here.

Black Stars of Ghana gets out of the traps

I finally held the official launch of The Black Stars of Ghana - A motorcycle adventure in West Africa.

It has been on sale for a couple of months but because I went on another motorcycle adventure - to East Africa - I haven't had time to plan the promotion of Black Stars.

But now it's out of the traps and available in all the usual places. If your local book shop does not have a copy they can order it from their usual distributor.

 

 

BBC Sally: pride of our alley

I shall be talking to Sally Naden on BBC Radio Lancashire tomorrow – October 3, 11am - 1pm –about my travels, and in particular The Black Stars of Ghana.

The BBC studio is in Blackburn, the town that holds a special place in my travels – it was the official start of African Brew Ha-Ha.

Talk Talk

I have some great events planned over the next couple of months... from Cape Town to Chorley. Can't be bad. Come along if you're in the area.

I'll be at Kalk Bay Books in Cape Town on August 23 for a talk & signing  (6 for 6.30pm).

I am organising The Word, a one-day festival for Lancashire writers @ Astley Hall in Chorley. It's all day, and starts at 9.30am. Go here for info

The Lytham St Annes Tangent club will host me on September 25 at the Glendower Hotel, St Annes (7.30)

On Oct 3 I head off to the Bowling Green in Charnock Richard to meet some fellow bikers in the AJS & Matchless club (8.30).

Shineray returns home

After 6,ooo kilometres or so (the odometer stopped turning after 1250 kms) the Shineray XY175GY returned me to Nairobi. Apart from not being fitted together particularly well - the chain came off twice, the carburettor was full of gunk and the nut on the steerer shaft (I had to look it up!) was not tightened, creating a terrible wobble for the first thousands kays - the bike has done its job.

I managed to track down the boda boda, Henry, who helped me buy the bike six weeks ago. He liked the bike so much, he bought it from me. 

I asked him if it was wise to buy a second bike.

He replied, 'If you want to be successful, you have to take a risk.'

On East African roads, God protects. Sometimes.

My time in East Africa has introduced me to some of the most hair-raising driving that I have ever come across. And that says something on a continent where they pride themselves on making up the rules as they go along - usually at breakneck speed... on the wrong side of the road... with a man hanging out the side door... and animals on the roof.

I have a near miss almost every day, often from oncoming vehicles who insist that I bail out into a ditch rather than them give up overtaking the line of trucks on their side of the road.

But sometimes the call signs 'God protects' and 'Insha'allah' displayed on the windscreen count for little when you've used up your nine lives.

Here are two crashes that happened just before I reached them. One driver was taken to hospital, the other was killed with many passengers injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So many barbers, so little hair

Where to go for a trim in Kigoma, Tanzania?

Only one style option ...

 

 

 

 

 

... and don't complain if it all goes wrong,  nobody's perfect

 

 

 

 

 

but I don't want a complete crew cut...

 

 

 

 

 

... so it has to be So So Def.

 

 

'Dr Livingstone, I presume'

There is some question about exactly where H.M. Stanley caught up with David Livingstone and uttered the famous phrase (which may have been retrospectively invented...).

Burundians insist it is at this spot, near Bujumbura...

 

 

 

 

 

 

... while Tanzanians are sure it was here, in Ujiji, a few hundred kilometres further south on lake Tanganyika.

Release your inner biker in Rwanda

I have always thought of the rivers Nile and Congo as worlds apart.

But there is a place where they share something in common.

On one side of this region the waters drain into the Congo, on the other the Nile. That place is the Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda. This is no ordinary forest; it's probably the best preserved forest left in central Africa - and an absolute joy to ride through.

I never thought I'd write it, but Rwanda is a biker's paradise.

The price of tea in Rwanda

'Two leaves and one bud. You know it?' asks David Sakindi, estate manager at the Nyabihu tea factory.

'It is the perfect balance for quality and production. Two leaves and one bud only from each bush.'

The tea pickers' hands are a flurry of picking, gripping and placing the leaves into the weaved baskets on their backs.

'They are trained and know the best way to bring the quality of tea that we need; the quality that makes this tea very different from Kenya, or anywhere.'

The piece-work pickers barely look up to acknowledge my presence, so intent are they on filling their baskets.

'How much are they paid?' I ask.

'They are not employed. They are paid when they bring the leaves to us - twenty-two francs (2.2 pence) a kilogram.'