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I did not enjoy my /out/ experience in West Africa Anonymous 02/03/26(Tue)13:55:26 No.2860084 [Reply]▶
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The nature is harsh, dry, not welcoming, the people are very dumb and either friendly if they can't actually help you, annoying when they want to help you ged rid of all cash in your wallet or rude when they don't care for your existence.
Frequent interaction with the wild animals is what made it worthwhile though.
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>>2860084
Most trails between villages looked like this.
I only travel with an IPhone SE camera so I don't really have good photos
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The small villages outside the cities are literally straw mudhuts with plastic everywhere
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The towns are worse however as they are covered in even more trash than the villages and have open fish/meat markets that are absolutely disgusting temples to belzebub's flies deity existence. Because the open sewage system has completely stopped functioning it now just collects black water that looks like death, plastic and food scraps that fosters millions of bugs (cats and dogs do still drink from this). So in front of every house there is a ditch of black water with every disease imaginable flowing from it.
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>>2860084
All vehicles in the country are aid gifts from France/Germany and are sedans from the 80s or these vans that have been stripped to fit as many people as possible inside and are used as public transport/taxis.
I saw one of these vans swerve to avoid a goat, keel over because it was overladen on the top with 2-3 meters of baggage and all ~20 people inside get creamed in the subsequent 50 meter slide and die.
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There are many abandoned sites in the country from work camps to hotels in national parks that make for a cool experience, but also hints at tourism and foreign investment not being in its golden age anymore.
The pictured hotel had around 30 rooms, huge dining hall, a dock by the river, swimming pool and what looked like volley ball and tennis courts; now all abandoned with green monkeys, snakes and insects running around.
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Getting to the rivers is not that easy because of the huge changes during the tides...
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you need to go far inland to get closer to the riverbanks (and probably better during dry season).
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And its definitely where you see the most animals.
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I don't know if others who have tried Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa were able to hike and use local transportation and get to see the wildlife that I've been told is better than is West Africa. But if that's possible, and you don't need thousands of dollars for your trip I'd recommend trying that first before trying West Africa trekking wildlife.
People here got sick all the time from the food they ate its unsettling.
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>>2860098
South African here. Public transport is dodgey so hire a car, or just Uber. SA has mediteranean, sub tropical, grasslands, desert and mountain areas so quite a few options to choose from. Alltrails app can show you some popular options. Try to look like a local. If you sound foreign, just tell locals youve been staying here for 15 years so they leave you alone. There are organized hiking clubs.
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>>2860084
Thanks for sharing this anon
very cool pics
so what countries did you go to?
how did you get there and did u go solo?
where were you staying? did you camp?
how much does stuff cost on the daily?
I hitchhiked across europe to morocco and then when I got there i thought fucking hell these africans are annoying
although obvs you're there in the sahel where everyone is proper proper black compared to the arabised people that I met
but its the same shit, people are fucking annoying. or want something from you. alot of the time both.
I had planned to go south from maroc and go all the way down into west africa but thought fuck this lmfao do I really wanna waste all my travelling money visiting the literal worst place on earth
so i went to asia and latam instead lol
i sneed a "real" africa trip, im prob the only person who seen resident evil 5 and thought wew that looks kino. been to belize tho, that place is fucked. its like an african country in central america
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>>2860145
>so what countries did you go to?
Senegal, the Gambia, Mali, Guniea
>how did you get there and did u go solo?
There are cheap travel agency flights, or a spanish Ryan Air (Vueling) that costs 200€ in total if you book in advance.
I was solo all the time even if I met some people ehre and there. I only ever got one day's ride out of a person I met at a camp or lodge.
>where were you staying? did you camp?
I mainly camped. I had a hammock tent that was totally useless because either the bush was too thick to hang anything up or the trees were to sparse, far apart or fat (like 3-5 meters in diameter) you couldn't wrap around it. I had a small mosquito net cover and waterproof ground tarp tent that needed to be hooked to a branch to hold up and that 20€ tent served me instead of the couple hundred professional hammock tent. I stayed in some lodges along the river, I was often invited to stay in the village in a mudhut (but then i had to eat with them which was disgusting for many reasons), and in some tourist catered mudhut hotels in towns.
>how much does stuff cost on the daily?
Buy a 2 litre sealed bottle for 35 cents. They bake fresh baguettes every morning for 25 cents which is good and then you can buy rice, ramen packs, peanuts for around a Euro each. Any sit down place will charge you 10-20 Euros. I really didnt need to bring a small boiler because you can just start a small campfire anywhere and boil your pot of water next to it. (There is so much I didnt know beforehand I would do differently now; for example: no Malaria pills. Malaria apparently occurs to 99% during rain season only). I didnt eat meats or fish after my first two weeks because other people kept getting sick. A bundle of Bananas was usually 1 Euro.
Transportation was cheap but I will never again sit in any of those vehicles after all the shit I witnessed driving in those. You can drive all day (average speed 70-100kmh) and end up paying only 10-15 Euro; thats like a +500km trip.
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>>2860149
nice yeah i was thinking the same, I had a freestanding tent and thought thats prob the best bet
any wild animals mess with you on the trip?
and did any "animals" mess with you also?
curious to what you witnessed in the trucks? people being disgusting? or just dangerous driving
im wondering what the best moments were for you
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>>2860145
>but its the same shit, people are fucking annoying. or want something from you
Definitely. This absolutely ruins most of the experiences. The people are genuinely retarded as well. When exchanging currencies a guy with a calculator will come up with a new number every time he punches my sum into his ever changing calculations. So you just have him do it two times, three times and when you see he is suddenly offering you a 150% exchange rate, you repeat his nonsense to him and everyone is happy.
I faced a lot of hostile racism in Senegal where people genuinely were keen on beating me to death if I didn't run away fast enough, but otherwise people would just be annoying by being friendly with the end goal of getting me to spend all my money on them. The poverty is also very depressing and I get they are desperate. In the Gambia I saw a lot of underage sex tourism going on and locals telling me of the white lovers they had when they were still teens but then stopped hearing from. Also seemingly every second man in his twenties tried to flee to Europe and had some stories to tell. Many asked how I could help and it was infuriating hearing how many language courses were being offered in German, Dutch and other non English-French European languages by NGOs to help them migrate.
>i sneed a "real" africa trip, im prob the only person who seen resident evil 5 and thought wew that looks kino.
Similar for me. I see Africa Addio, Blood Diamond, Lord of War, remember some Call of Duty ops or Rhodesia books I read and desperately want to go to those places.
You also meet many cool people that way. No one can tell stories like their home country hating ex-patriots who travel with no sense of safety. Every traveler I met away from the coast had great stories to tell of their times traveling through Africa, but sadly almost all of them were in their 50s. You don't meet young travellers in that region really.
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sounds like you need a guide with a gun + actual definite plans to make west africa work and you just tried to wing it
>In the Gambia I saw a lot of underage sex tourism going on and locals telling me of the white lovers they had when they were still teens but then stopped hearing from
I could enjoyably spend my life not hearing those stories at all.
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>>2860150
>any wild animals mess with you on the trip?
I didn't read this anywhere but the region is famous for snakes (and scorpions), and there are A LOT of snakes
I saw a guy with a handball sized swollen bite area from a snake but I didn't suffer any attack. I had a couple snakes slide over my shoulders though as they tried to escape the branches they were on and avoid me. Of course they only scared the crap out of me and I hadn't seen them before I felt them across my face
Insects are terrible though. Every night Id have some huge black beetle, cockroach or whatever cuddle up in my sleeping bag or at least in my room and start blasting cricket noises. In the mud huts it would be so loud you could feel your ears vibrate. So every night I had to kill at least one massive bug
>did any "animals" mess with you also?
at least three times people tried to break in where I was staying (never with my tent though). But this usually just meant trying my locked doorhandle at 2 am and then coming back 2 minutes later and trying again
Senegal had a lot of hatred towards whites, and the people seemed the rudest by far. They only greet by giving a slight nod while in Gambia you say local greetings like "I Saama"
> curious to what you witnessed in the trucks?
break lines start smoking while were going 100kmh; I sat next to a driver and thick smoke kept coming up from his pedals for a minute straight and after it stopped he kept driving like the problem fixed itself
people falling off the back at high speeds
the flipped crash I mentioned with 20 killed
the interior is stripped and rusted steel and I saw one dude open half his calf entering the van on a rusted door
High drivers (they are all 15-16 year old boys since the average age is like fucking 18 the country feels like a school)
Every time I drove we ran over at least two animals. Biggest I saw was a truck slam a huge horse and it flew a couple dozen meters. (roads are always full of roaming animals)
>>2860152
Absolutely 100%
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>>2860154
and with the smoking pedals: he never stopped, he kept driving while looking at the smoke, then me back and forth, and when it ended he just drove as if nothing had happened.
>>2860152
I did learn some appreciation for the Algerian and Tunesian police men who beat these guys and steal all their belongings before sending them back to their shithole countries.
The thought that such clearly baboon tier "people" should be integrated into western society blows my mind. I was decently disinclined towards them before but visiting these countries really intensified my hatred towards their enabled migration.
>>2860153
>sounds like you need a guide with a gun + actual definite plans to make west africa work and you just tried to wing it
That's the sensible route for sure. But being done with it, I do feel this was an exciting adventure. And an adventure I dont want to replicate ever again.
>I could enjoyably spend my life not hearing those stories at all.
:)
Young men (14-18 usually) walk along the beaches literally butt naked, dicks swinging and approach any old lady and guy seeing if they want to pay to be their lovers. And the french male tourists always had the youngest girls. I saw one where the girl barely looked like she could have been 12. And they own their sex toys like slaves they can send away and call back whenever.
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>>2860155
>gay marriage illegal
>naked boys selling themselves to you on the beach is fine though
the less I think about Africa the better I feel
its interesting to me how north africa is basically the other side of the appalachian mountains, except a desert, and the seychelles seem cool to me
but I do not have the tolerance for all that noise and danger and bugs and chaos
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>>2860084
>The nature is harsh, dry, not welcoming
You are aware there is a dry season and a rainy season, correct? Here's what that park looks like in June.
I think we'd make a good team, I like your aimless style.
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I traveled extensively through western Ghana and thought it was ok. Lots of walking in the middle of no where. Met some random guys out in a random clearing in the jungle and drank palm wine out of a jerry can. Didn’t see a lot of animals other than snakes and biting insects though.
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You're the Dutch guy who met some other old Dutch guy on a motorcycle trip, right? Thanks for providing an update. He said West Africa was his favorite place to visit. How do you feel about him now?
You're holding back some of the worst details. I want to hear them, and I'm sure many others here do too. It's not like this place is PC or sensitive.
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8 people will cram into this 80s Renaults and not counting kids.
>>2860161
I was hoping you would show up! I made a thread last year about /out/ing in West Africa and you were the only one with serious insight and replies.
>and a rainy season,
I wanted to ask you about this. When exactly do you manage to go because true rain season sounds very rough with how muddy things become (it seems like all clouds entering West Africa enter over the Senegambia region; a bit like Britain for Europe) and I was told its the worst time concerning vermin. I never saw a scorpion but I was told they were abundant during rain season; an similar for Malaria and Dengue flies. All the experienced people I met said they don't bother with Malaria prevention during the dry season, and locals I met talked about needing to get Malaria medicine only during rain season. Can you comment on some of these things?
>Here's what that park looks like in June.
Do you mean Niokolo Koba? That was pretty green still when I was there in December, but not as wet as in your photo. The last time it rained (and that implies just a few drops) was in late November and then nothing at all anymore.
>I think we'd make a good team, I like your aimless style.
Aimless is the way to go even now in hindsight. How far youre gonna get and when is too unpredictable and then what's at your destination was almost always unknown to me beforehand. Both my stays in Mali and Guinea where unprepared and not via an official border crossing. I just followed locals who showed me gold mines and tried to help find giraffes.
You posted a photo with a bike next to your tent last thread. Is that how you cross these distances (I would hate cycling on those roads desu) or did you also take some sept-chaises Renault or the vans in Gambia? I would spend a couple days hiking in an area I'd think be nice and for whatever reason I'd leave again I'd hop on one of these transports and go another 100km to the next place I assumed would be good.
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>>2860216
>You're the Dutch guy who met some other old Dutch guy on a motorcycle trip, right?
Nope, that's not me.