BUGGER!!!

I can’t believe it. I could scream. We had 2 weeks in Madrid, just waiting for our Ghana visa to be returned. We didn’t even double check anything we had read in the lonely planet guide. How come, as soon as we get to Dakhla, in the Western Sahara, after 30 hours on a bus, how come we check now? We can’t get through to Mauritania from here, without a visa. Which we should have picked up in Rabat. But we didn’t know we could no longer get it at the border. It would have been a simple google search.

And now what? If we go back to Casablanca, to get the visa, that’s a week we lose, and 200 euros each, in stuff up. One alternative, is to fly to Bamako, and get the visa at the airport, which is not guaranteed. The flight, which is the cheapest flight out of Dakhla, is more than 500E. Another alternative, is fly directly from here to Accra, and spend a month travelling around Ghana, maybe go into Togo and Benin. But if that is what we do, and miss all of central Western Africa, is it worth it for James to come with me. we wanted to spend 6 weeks travelling together, before I head to Ghana, and this one little slip up, has changed all our ideas.

30 hours is a long time to be on a bus, let alone to do the same journey 3 times in a week. We are both pretty pissed. We planned a bit of the trip, but wanted to do most of it along the way. This includes hoping hotels/ hostels have space, not knowing where the bus goes from or how long it takes, and not double checking visa requirements.

James is snoring like a steam train, it’s 10:30pm, and there is a chance we will be back on that bus tomorrow morning, in 12 hours. The thought of that makes me feel sick. He is lying with his feet at the pillow end of his bed, before he fell asleep he said, “you really should try this, it looks funny, the room from the end of the bed.” I tried to wake him up, to lie the other way, but he told me there was no point moving now.

I am not looking forward to risking the lack of visa at Bamako Airport.

The scenary is amazing. We saw the earth change from black and fertile to dark red, pink, then yellow sand. It was one of the most amazing things I have seen, as the landscape changed, so did the people, the foods, the housing and the towns. The film I wanted to upload, was too big, the smaller one wouldnt upload either. the internet here is too slow.