As Adam (Cut to Africa) has discovered it isn’t just about having the right guidebook for your trip, it might be for the correct region but if it isn’t up to date you may encounter some difficulties.

The post in question saw Adam and his travelling pals making their way through Burkina Faso. On arriving in Koudougou, after much pushing of the van they were travelling in and a cataclysmic spillage of sauce, getting a bed for the night proved a challenge,

“As our guidebook is from 2006 (the latest version, as so few people visit Burkina), a lot of the hostels we had chosen as places to stay had shut down, or in one case, had upped the prices dramatically”

As is often the way though the situation resolved, this time in the form of a volunteer house on the edge of town. And they even had time to head to the festival known as Nuits Atypique a Koudougou, which roughly translates as ‘Unusual nights in Koudougou’.

Adam has already posted 18 times in December alone, so there is plenty to read about if you’re interested in travelling to Africa. His experiences are invaluable to those looking to follow in his footsteps.

Adam has once again been up to a serious amount in Africa and is currently on the Niger River.

The Niger is the route Adam and his travelling amigos have chosen for getting to their next destination,

“There are three main ferries that the COMANAV company have going from just outside Bamako, travelling all the way along the Niger to Gao, in far east Mali.”

Adam’s description of the journey conjures up images of Indiana Jones in Raiders, which sounds great. However the reality of cramped rooms, livestock on deck and the culinary highlight being a meal having the addition of boney goat might not be for everyone. Despite this, and ‘painfully slow’ progress at times, the views the trip offered were amazing. One morning in particular they awoke to find themselves surrounded by water as the floated through a part of the river that is 30km wide,

“You could barely see land on the horizon. There were occasional strips of reed, blowing in the strong wind, or a few birds flying past, but apart from that we were alone in the middle of nowhere. A pretty cool experience.”

The journey had a few stops along the way and you can read about what each entailed for Adam and his pals in his post. One in particular that was a rather rude awakening…

STA Explorer Cut to Africa, or Adam depending on familiarity, has been up to a lot since we last checked in. You can see how he got on with Nuns in Bamako, read about an RTA with a cow and what he did during a few days in Gabu. However, this post is about action, climbing in Africa to be exact – actually, to be really exact, climbing in Siby.

“After walking down the main road for twenty minutes, we cut in towards the mountain and past a village and fields of millet (for the production of millet beer - gotta try that I suppose!). Arrived at a huge cube of rock about 80ft high and 40ft wide/long. There didn’t look to be an awful lot of hand holds…”

Adam’s initial trepidation soon faded, especially after seeing his pal Barney make it up the first challenge like ‘a mountain goat/Hunter from Gladiators’. Less of a natural Adam required a leg up to get going, but after a few routes everyone in the group reached about the same standard – coming unstuck on a 51/2 level ascent.

Are you the adventure sort? Have you climbed in Africa? Get in touch and let us know.

You can read about the entire day Adam spent imitating the human spider here. Also in the post is some advice on taking photos and a rather unpleasant brush with some swiftly dealt ‘justice’…

For STA Explorer Adam, Cut to Africa, the trouble with Bissau hotels is that they were all full. His latest post discusses the necessity to be flexible while travelling. This necessity was realised when the groups’ plans for some island hopping were scuppered by having to wait for a boat for three days.

This left them with ten days to kill in Guinea-Bissau, so the pondering began first over some bissap (this is according to Adam a cooled hibiscus tea, bright purple and addictively refreshing), and then a more regular tea. As explained by Adam this wasn’t the tough part,

“Sorting out where we were going to go was the easy part; now we had nowhere to stay because last night’s accommodation was fully booked. We eventually found somewhere, but us three had to cram into a double bed, in a small room which had no fan, a shower and toilet, but no running water. Oh and blackouts. Ah living on a budget! Call it an ‘experience’.”

Sounds lovely, for the final installment of the ‘experience’, be sure to read the last paragraph of the post – there was a final surprise for Adam. Moving on from the groups’ trouble with Bissau hotels though, the exploration of the city continued with a plan formed to check in on Bafata, Gabu and Tambacounda (Senegal) before going into Mali. So we’ve got plenty to come.

This post on Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride is the most recent. However, there is a host of others since we last updated you on Adam’s African adventure. This includes strange and stranger happenings in Varela and a midnight stroll that was full of incident…

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…

STA Explorer Cut to Africa, aka the fair mannered Adam, has made passage from Dakar to The Gambia.

The trip is covered in three posts, the first documenting his last night in Les Mamelles, Dakar. Details of making friends with all sorts of locals are included as well as his thoughts on the new Radisson Hotel and a monument commissioned by the Senegalese government. Having already been bitten by the temperamental beast that is transport though, the last night in Dakar was an early one, in preparation for travelling the following day.

And the early night was a sensible idea; especially considering the actual journey itself was given an entire post – nine vehicles in a 14-hour journey. The many legs of this epic movement of Adam and his pals is relayed in all its glory, even the painful final stages,

“This van must’ve won some award for being the most cramped – 30 plus people as well as about five kids and luggage. Not very comfortable, but we were pleased to be in the twilight of our day’s journey (3pm). Then the van broke down. Barney was nearest the door and got out to help push - quoting Cool Runnings; ‘One for the rhythm’ etc.”

Cool Runnings, brilliant! Finally though he did make it to Janjanbureh in The Gambia, where once again Adam made friends with the locals. He also enjoyed watching wild monkeys stealing food and took on the hottest chilli ever…

Read all about it on his blog Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride.

Cut to Africa, STA Explorer Adam, arrived safely in Dakar, something you can read about here. The post takes in the journey, filling out forms (in French) and collecting Mali visas from the embassy. There is also a fairly open description of Dakar itself that is particularly useful should you be passing through that neck of the woods.

This is then followed by the post La Gare Routière which gives a brief experience of some local nightlife and then an assessment of the chaos that is Dakar’s bus station,

“What a place - hundreds of vehicles, mainly sept places (seven-seater Peugeots or Renaults) and mini-vans (that squashed between 20 and 35 passengers in for a ride of unparalleled uncomfortableness) all lined up in a parking lot, with hundreds more drivers and “fixers” wandering about drumming up business.”

Adam noted that after organising their ride north they actually paid a ‘fixer’, apparently this is not something you need to do, just talk to the drivers. This post also comes with apologies as he tries to get the knack of a French keyboard.

The third post since arriving details what should have been a four hour journey from Dakar to the UNESCO protected colonial town of St Louis. Six and a half hours later they got to their destination. You can read about Adam’s initial impressions of what he described as an African Cuba in this post and share in the moment on his first night in St. Louis where he realised his journey was just beginning,

“We sat on the roof for the first evening, watching the sunset and having some home cooked octopus and rice, before a nightcap of mint tea (great stuff). I think that was the moment I realised we were truly in Africa, and the adventure was about to start.”