African Mopeds

BLACK AND WHITE

hervie-nico — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 01:23:00 GMT

We did it ! We rode from French Alps to Dakar in Senegal with our mopeds ! And I can tell you arriving here wasn't an easy job. The border between Mauritania and Senegal on a local ferry crossing a river was sooooo nerve-racking. We had to deal with kids begging for money, adults being too curious and looking much too interested by our mopeds and above all civil servants like policers and customs officers trying to extort as much money as possible from us. Wow, that was an original welcome in Senegal ! Africa is indeed a continent that you have to earn. Here, we were delighted to plunge ourselves in the local atmosphere : bright colors, spicy odors, sunny days, lively streets, cheerful voices, smiling kids, warm weather etc. It is all so typical and good. But let's be honest, there's one snag : we, "toubabs" (white people in the local language), are constantly sought and even plagued for money or by sellers who would sell us anything possible from the kitschest souvenir to a cocaine dose. Some even tried and sometimes succeeded in stealing us. That's not the best way to discover a place, is it ? On the other hand, to be fair with Senegalese, their country became very touristic in the last few years and we understand it's not easy for them to remain still with all these currency entering. What's more, tourists, most of them being French, don't always behave reasonably and some of them treat local people badly acting like colonists, which is really a shame. In total, it took us 7'500 kilometers and 78 days to have our crazy dream finally come true ! It's just impossible to sum up our adventure but we can say that we'll keep undying memories of our adventure. We're not about to forget the stressful border between Mauritania and Senegal, the hours spent in the middle of the desert, the great meals shared with Moroccan families, the partying week-end in Barcelona, the beautiful French sceneries... Another moral of our story is that travelling with a moped is really great as it gives you a feeling of liberty. Our trip was just wonderful. When will be your turn for such an unbelievable experience ? Dakar, 28th of July

SAND IN MY SHOES

hervie-nico — Tue, 3 Jul 2007 01:20:00 GMT

Wow, can you imagine yourself riding a little moped in the middle of the desert ? We did it and we can tell you it's a real life experience, trust us ! Stepped onto the only road crossing the Sahara, we quickly got to the heart of the matter : wide plains streching until the horizon, sand dunes and the Atlantic ocean below. Because of the bitter sand wind, we found ourselves obliged to hide our faces in scarfs... looking Lawrence d'Arabie-alike. Riding in the desert is really strange. Some hours just fly : you enjoy the landscape, you cross cars, you dream of what will be your next trip (yes, it's true!) etc. But some others hours just stretch as if they'll never ever end : it seems like nothing happens at all, your moped is really slow and you can't stand that scenery any longer. Even if the road is in good condition, some parts were trickier than others. For instance, you can sometimes see roadsigns preventing you from going off the road because of the presence of mines ! Quiet worrying, really. It's even worse at the border between Western Sahara and Mauritania as there is a five-kilometers-long no man's land where the road is nothing but a trail full of sand and pothole. As you can understand, our poor and loyal mopeds didn't much like the 2'000 kilometers in the desert and we had no choice but confide them to that guy who had been introduced to us as a mechanic. Garage European standards being really different of Mauritanian ones, we really thought we would never ever be able to ride on our dear mopeds again. Seeing our mechanic fixing our engines with a great many blows of screwdriver on the carbuttor was so stressfull... But guess what ? Our guy did well and the mopeds started again as if brand new ! We have now finished with the crossing of desert and we're getting nearer and nearer of the Senegal border. Our aim "Dakar" is not far. Nouakchott, 3rd of July

WELCOME TO PARADISE

hervie-nico — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:18:00 GMT

We do love Morocco ! Such a beautiful country, such nice people, such good food... All about Morocco is great ! Since we put our feet on the African ground, our trip took a much more exotic turn. Longing the Atlantic coast with our mopeds, we visited Tanger, Rabat, Casablanca, Essaouira and Agadir. Riding here is even more pleasant than in Europe as the temperatures get warmer. Our expedition attracts more and more curiosity, other French people we meet can't believe we arrived here with our mopeds, whereas Moroccans are impressed by the good state of our vehicles ! Meanwhile, we enjoy the Moroccan way of life loosing ourselves in the little streets of the medinas, going for shopping in the local souks, smelling the colored spices in the market, bargaining for jewellery, drinking mint teas, treating ourselves with a delicious tajine or couscous... Morocco has so much to offer. But most of all, we love the welcoming spirit of local people : there is not one hour when you don't hear in the street somebody telling you "Bienvenue au Maroc". People is simply gentle, cheerful and kind. Some of them are even more than that, inviting us for a typical meal in their place after a two-minutes conversation in the street. Thereby we had the chance to share great times with Amin, Jaouad, Saïd and their families. Those moments spent with them have been really special and we'll remember them as some of the highlights of the trip. It's now time for us to head to the desert and Western Sahara... Let's guess we'll have some more stories to tell ! Agadir, 20th of June

COUNTRY ROADS

hervie-nico — Thu, 31 May 2007 01:11:00 GMT

The last five weeks and some 2'500 kilometers and a bit converted us into real riders... Well, only moped riders, nothing to deal with the frightening eagle-and-leather fans driving their enormous bikes ! No joke, travelling on our mopeds is such a pleasure and a fantastic way to discover new places. What's more, it's not as slow as we thought : we're already in the very south of Spain near Gibraltar. To make it brief, our mopeds are the best travelling companions ever and the most reliable vehicles as not the slightly breakdown happened since the departure. I know we, French people, are very famous for being much too proud about our beloved country but let me tell you something : France is really beautiful. When going through Ardèche or Gard and even Hérault, we discovered really nice and bucolic places where we enjoyed pitching the tent on calm and green riversides. We must all the same admit that we also had some hard times when we had to deal with very heavy rain near Montpellier, which was not the best condition for camping. Even worst, around Perpignan, the wind was so strong that it became really dangerous and almost overturned our mopeds under car's wheels. I guess this is part of the fun of the adventure as well !!! Crossing the frontier between France and Spain was quite of a solemn moment. We even had fans on the roadside that day, cheering us with shouts and applauses. Ok, it was only four of them but still, it was enough to make us feel really happy ! Once in the flamenco country, we thought our mopeds needed a bit of a rest so we spent several days visiting Barcelona and making the most of this fevered city. Art museums, great buildings but also tapas, sangria and churros... We enjoyed each and every pleasure of Catalonia capital city. Once back on our mopeds, we discovered an all different Spain with its old little villages that seem to have frozen in an older century : black-dressed ladies going to the church, old men playing cards in local bars, cats lying lazily in the sun... Something incredible happened to us a few nights ago... well maybe not incredible but at least crazy. We were sleeping very deeply after an exhausting 300 kilometers-day when a terrible storm woke us up. Still sleepy and with the feet in the water, we had to move our tent which was about to be flooded under the threatening thunders. It took us two hours before we came back in our warm sleeping bags as the storm was a huge, impressive and very long one. Think about it tonight when you'll be comfortably lying under your duvet. As I wrote earlier, we're now in Tarifa, the southest city in Europe. From our campsite, we can see the African coast that we'll reach tomorrow ! Yupee ! Can't wait to go there ! Tarifa, 31st of May

Gallery: african mopeds

hervie-nico — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:14:00 GMT

african mopeds

GET THE PARTY STARTED

hervie-nico — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:08:00 GMT

Ready, steady, go ! Today is the D Day ! It's time for us to leave our beautiful French Alps behind us, we have an exciting challenge to take up : travelling from France to Africa with mopeds ! Of course, it might sound a bit crazy to normal and healthy people but considering our adventurous dreams, it's just another thrilling trip. This morning, we'll jump on our saddles with one objective : reaching Dakar in Senegal. Our expedition will take us through the sceneries of France, Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal. We didn't choose Africa at random but because this forgotten continent is a promise of great personal development as the cultures are very different of what we know and what we've been raised with. Breakdowns, little and bigger insects, visa problems, boo-boos and above all encounters, discoveries and joys... that's what is awaiting us ! The last few days were pretty busy to get ready for the departure like creating a blog, having a vaccine for the nth time, buying a bicycle pump etc. All this preparation helped us forgetting the existential questions, for instance : how will our bottoms deal with hours-long-trips on the mopeds ? Talking about the mopeds, they're fine, thank you ! We got them three weeks ago and had to complete their break-in period. The rides we already had gave us a nice foretaste of the joys of our trip like breathing at the top of our lungs the countryside emanation or seeing kamikaze mosquitoes swating themselves on our faces ! It's now time for us to unhand the keyboard and hold on to our handlebars... We can't resist any longer to our urge of living exhilarating experiences on our mopeds !

Dortan (France), 25th of April