West Africa Once Again

West Africa is unlike any other coner on the planet. It's the poorest, most ramshackle and (almost) the most corrupt corner of the World, and, in adition, the attractions are few and far in between. Apart from Saint Louis in Senegal, a few perfect beaches and perhaps the extravagant and slightly comical La Basilica in Yamassoukro, Ivory Coast, the attractions mainly consist of an extreme amount of colourful markets. For the same reason, West Africa is one of the most rarely visited regiones among the members of Travellers Guild, in particular the coastal belt from Guinée-Bissau to Liberia.

This calls for a visit, so in the middle of October, Annette and I flew to Mauritanien and Senegal, respectively, and finished in December in Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, the predictions proved true, as the ratio in between the number of attractions and the effort involved to get there happened to be incredibly lop-sided - in the wrong direction. You really need to be some kind of market feticist or love incredibly dilapidated cars plying their way through the worst roads on earth to enjoy West Africa. Fortunately, I'm such a guy, but to most others, West Africa is a very unlikely destination.

If highlights should be pointed out, the Atar region of Mauritania, Saint Louis of Senegal, Bubaque Island of Guinée-Bissau, Dalaba in the Fouta-Djalon highlands of Guinée and Kabala of central Sierra Leone. Definitely recommendable, however, the one place is not that different from the others, so the variation is not impressive. Nevertheless, a slide show is on the way, most likely comprising the southern stretch from Bissau to Sierra Leone.