the search goes onAfter an interesting time in Dakar, Mark and Migo arrived in town which was great to be reunitied with the boys again and tell them of the times of woe in Rosso and making up for it in St Louis and Dakar (purely medicinal and sensible alcohol consumption of course!) and after a couple of days with the boys and Migo getting his package comprising of a tyre, badly needed for himself and a chain breaker for myself, not necessarily as badly needed but I'll need one at some time for sure! I have a spare chain but fitting it would be a pain.

So after Dakar we pushed up to Lac Rose, the famous end to the Dakar Rally. A bit disappointing with no-one there but locals touting for money, services, etc. To be honest we were only really there to get the sticker and to see what the place was about. Strange really, the Dakar sticker with the Tuareg emblem is a REALLY famous image seen on vehicles and bikes throughout the world but at the end location of the rally none of the locals had much of a clue as to what the heck we were on about!! One even offered to cut up a painting and glue it onto the panniers for a fee! Ha Ha Ha! So we settled on a ride around the lake, a beer and a negotiation for a camp fee with an Auberge, Ah-ha....... he's heard of the Rally as he's still charging the same fees methinks! After Lac Rose we had arranged to meet back up with Peter in Thies and head down to The Gambia and hit the border there. Hoping for the best we turned up enthusiastically, a quick fine received by myself from a delighted copper upon finding one of my papers was out of date! Ooooh! Chuffed to bits but keeping a serious face telling me of the big serious infraction this would cause with the chief, how he couldn't possibly let it go and possibly the bike being impounded, blah, blah, blah...... Ok, dumb copper, how much? Twenty Euros..? Nah, lets go for 5, cool! and he was a happy bunny.
Even though it was late the crossing went well with just a bit of messing about with the customs and searching the bags etc. Christ was I sweating though!! I lost at least a couple of pînts during the border crossing. It's amazing how everything changes when the night arrives. I mean, as were only used to riding in the day and being able to see nearly everything, at night it's bloody dangerous, with a great pothole or daft donkey ready to be ridden into.

A night spent in, Farafenni, The Gambia and next day head down back into Senegal and in good time for the border crossing which turned out to be easy as pie. Albeit a couple of requests for payments but with my requests for receipts, which are never gonna be given and Peters resistance to paying anyone unless it's absolutley necessary. He's not tight with his money but he's not daft either and with a combination of his elder years and patience he generally gets away with it.