Well, I have fairly quickly arrived in sub-Saharan Africa and all in one piece.

I got here (Dakar) on my birthday which was also the day the Dakar Rally arrived in town and so we were weaving our way through the typically African virtually stationary traffic alongside the huge trucks and strange-shaped sand buggies, chatting to the British drivers as I passed them.

The ride down has been looooong and hot, almost completely on tarmac until Mauritania where it was time to hit the sand.

The Hein Gericke Tuareg desert gear has performed superbly in the hot conditions, the others I am riding with are most envious - it is the first time I have used light-weight desert gear. It helped to make me a more convincing Rally competitor as we blagged our way into Senegal through the maze of passport and customs procedures. We had to create a convincing distraction as Tobi's bike is 13 years old and therefore officially he is not allowed to bring it into Senegal.

So far, sand and camels have been the main obstacles - often at the same time which makes for perilous riding and much cursing. I am getting the knack of speeding over the surface of the sand for the smoothest ride.

At one point, out in the middle of nowhere, with only sand for miles and miles, a landrover appeared in the distance, driving erratically (which seems the norm here) it came all the way over to me, stopped and two Berbers jumped out to ask for a light! It seems that nothing changes wherever you go in the world.
We have had some fantastic evenings camping out amongst the sand dunes and enjoying the peace and quiet of the desert.

Ethel is running really well - one day I got an amazing 300 miles from her small 17 litre fuel tank which was great. The next stages are going to be tarmac until Mali where conditions will once more deteriorate.

Currently rough camping on the beach 5 miles outside of Dakar with some German surfers I met in Mauritania, improving my surf technique while I wait for my Mali visa to be processed.