Adam is in Africa and becoming one of our most prolific STA Explorers to date. Since we last checked in on him there has been a further eight updates to his travel blog, Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride.

From a Gambian River Cruise to Meeting His Highness Adam’s posts are full of insight and incidents that make travelling the rich experience it is – basically the sort of stuff that makes you think, “Why the heck am I not doing that!” Rather than skimming through the oodles of things he’s been doing, I thought I’d focus on the post he titled, One of My Best Travelling Experiences.

The day began in the hunt of wrestling, a search for a slice of Senegalese tradition, and after a morning spent cycling in the searing heat on a route recommended to Adam and his pals things weren’t looking good, but just as they were about to turn back,

“We heard some commotion on the road behind us…

There was a group of about a hundred people taking up the whole width of the road, chanting, waving banners and sticks and making a helluva lot of noise. First thought - rebels. Fantastic. On closer inspection there was a mixture of all ages and both sexes, and the entire group seemed in fantastic spirits.”

It turned out the group was heading to a bout of wrestling between two villages and our cyclists were instantly invited to come along and watch. Adam was given a front row seat courtesy of a village chief and the bouts began,

“Nothing at all like Stone Cold or The Hardy Boyz, this was one-on-one, mano-a-mano for your pride and that of your village. […] There were some cracking flips, airborne slams and sly leg taps. The atmosphere was incredible! When a fighter was victorious, the drums were sounded, the women shrieked about and slapped the ground with leafed branches, and some very football-esque celebrations were being shown - the chicken dance, finger to the lips, dancing, the Usain Bolt! The only one I didn’t see was the Robot!”

It sounds amazing (shame though that the robot was an omission) and Adams final thoughts of the day confirms such,

“This was a fantastic experience, probably one of the most amazing I have been part of. We were invited into a community to witness something that has been tradition for hundreds of years. A great memory.”

To read more on the days events including the form of one wrestler in particular called Red, click through…