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Monday 27 February 2012

Day 29 – 21/2/12

Ray went to collect the car from CFAO. A great big thanks to Pierre and the folks at CFAO. They had repaired the tyre Ray had plugged, kept the batteries charged and the vehicle safe. They also gave it a wash and before leaving. CFAO is a Paris listed company and has always been very professional throughout out travels.

We checked into Le Meridian; thanks to Peter in home office and SPG for the points. We went to the patisserie for lunch and luckily ran into our friend Denis. The visited Moussa to pass on our thanks for the trip and thoughts on improvements; tents that are suitable for the task and bake bread in coals in the morning.

Ray tried to look at getting some visas for Burkina Faso from the French embassy, but due to a lack of language was not successful. They suggested we try again tomorrow!! Then we visited the Immigration office to see if we need a permit to exit to Niger, again try again tomorrow!

We had dinner with Denis (who we had met in Zakouma and who assisted us in Mongo) and Gianni & Genevieve De Angelis who had recently driven the route to Niger. The information was that this will be a very hard drive.
 
Day 30 – 22/2/12

A day of rest and small chores. Denis came to the French Embassy to assist us in getting, but it is closed on Wednesday (not sure why they told us to come back on Wednesday??). Ray went to the Department of the Interior to get a travel permit to go to the Niger Frontier. We are not sure if this is needed, but it will not hurt to have it and it was no hassle to get it. We then did a bit of emailing and chatted to Moussa, the MD/owner of Chad Evasion about the trip.

It was a little bit like Christmas – we managed to get gasoil (you can just see Rays smile, hey?) and we found some Coke light!!

We had dinner with Pierre & Isaline, a nice relaxed evening. It is great to be able to sit and chat about things in English.
 
Day 31 – 23/2/12

A relaxing day. Ray filled the water tanks ready for the trip to Niger and we bought some fresh provisions; oranges and apples from RSA ($1/piece). Bananas & pineapple from Cameroon etc. Later in the day we get some take aways from the Lebanese restaurant.

Avril went for a trip to the Grand bazaar/market with Jerome. It is massive and spread over a large area. Lots of stores with the same things. She purchased the Chad version of chilli biltong.

It turns out that the French Embassy can issue visas for some African countries, but they need a few days. Pity they did not start a few days ago then!

Pierre & Isaline had kindly asked us to their place for drinks. and we met their wonderful son, Martin.
 

Day 32 – 24/2/12

A dirty day! After picking up some fresh bread we left N’Djamena heading for the Niger frontier. The wind started to blow and kept up all day. At times the dust/sand was so dense we could only see a few meters in front of the vehicle.

The road to Massakory is tar and we did the 147 km in 2 hours. We purchased a jerry can of gasoil at Massakory. After Massakory, the track follows a remnant dirt formed road. Rarely can we drive on the old road, rather there are tracks along the side of the road. These tracks have a huge number of ditches, holes and bumps – basically we spent the day sort of riding a mechanical bucking bull! We never got out of 2nd gear.

Massakory – Toumsari; 32 km, 1 hour. Toumsari – Ngouri; 53 km, 2 hours. Ngouri – Bol turn off; 86 km 3 hours. Bol turn off to camp; 50 km 2.5 hrs. About 10 km before the camp site we turned north and the remnant road stopped and we were basically driving on a paddock dirt track.

The dust was awful, every time we slowed for the road condition, the dust we had created caught up with us and enveloped the car. So, we decided to use the air conditioning rather than eat dust.

The driving was hard, maybe as hard as Angola. We did get bogged once, but that was due to a poor choice of route rather than the overall conditions.

We bush camped. The big news is that we passed 100,000 on the odometer (~ 25,000 in Africa).

The flies here are substantially worse than OZ; we never thought we would say that!! They do not even go to sleep – buzzing around way after dark.

Avril driving. 10.5 hours. 396 km. N 130 39’ 47.2’’ E 0140 17’ 30.8’’ 

Day 33 – 25/2/12

Lost!! Again an awful day for dust, the maximum visibility we had all day was < 100m. It is a little daunting to be basically in white out conditions not having full knowledge of the route and the actual track being variable and subject to some pretty deep/abrupt holes and challenging sand.

Given the conditions, it is hard to describe the scenery and vegetation, however it is basically very flat with a good covering of thorn/acacia trees. We also passed a number of dried out lakes (Lake Chad overflow??) some of which are being mined for salt.

The route we followed (and this is the same for all of Chad) is not a single track, rather there are a number of tracks going in the same general direction. There can be more than 2 km between the tracks. Hence, you never know 100% if you are on the right track. We drove quite easily to Lioua from our camp site. On exiting the town we followed the most obvious tracks. After about 30 min we began to get a little nervous. It is OK to go off the general direction for a while, but we were not getting back to where we thought we should be going. We asked a couple of people, but most folks up here are scared of white people and there is a general tendency to smile and agree. Eventually we turned back.

The latest information we had was that we needed to go to Rig Rig, but we could not see any tracks going that way. So, we followed a road shown on T4A that bypasses Rig Rig and it all worked just fine. Lesson – trust T4A. Along the route we saw some buzzards, gazelles and Papas monkeys.

Camp – Lioua; 23 km, 1 hr. Lioua – Kiskawa; 63 km, 2 hrs. Kiskawa – Daboua; 47 km, 2 hrs.

We completed immigration and customs at Daboua. Very smooth, all professional, no one asked for a bribe etc.

The ~ 20 km later, after 1 month, we left Chad.  There is nothing to mark the actual border.

Chad Summary

Forget the melodramatic descriptions in the travel guides and the sometimes near hysterical warnings on Government advisory sites (are they there to provide realistic practical advice or cover the bottom of a bureaucrat and protect careers??).

Our experience of Chad was fantastic. We did not experience any security issues – the theft of our spade and wheel brace to one side. In general the people are very helpful and more than willing to go out of their way to assist. Funnily enough, this did not apply to our difficulties on the road. A big plus is the total lack of road blocks, this makes driving a lot easier.

As reported Zakouma National Park is world class. The Ennedi desert is also great.

Negatives are the heat; make sure you come when the weather is a bit cooler. It is also a bit expensive in N’Djamena.

We rate the Lonely Planet guide = 2/10. The IGN map; well how do you rate a map that has the title of a major geographical feature in the wrong place. Interestingly, T4A has some nice roads and Points of Interest marked.


Tuesday 21 February 2012

Chad, part 3

Day 15 – 7/2/12

A slowish day, mainly getting ready for the desert trip. We went to Chad Evasion offices to sort out the finances (many thanks to the home office in Melbourne for arranging all this). Purchased some water and other items for the trip etc.

We ate a nice dinner at the mission.

Day 16 – 8/2/12

We woke up to a very dense dust cloud, just hanging in the air. It was hard to see even 100 m.

The Chad Evasion folks were early to pick us up and Moussa the owner came to the mission to make sure everything was OK. We dropped off our vehicle at CFAO/Toyota to be stored for the next 2 weeks.

Then we were on the road. On the way we purchased some local, goats milk cheese and a leg of goat (for dinner). The road was good tar all the way to Massakory, then immediately deteriorated to what is known in Africa as a “piste” which seems to be French for a bad dirt road.

The vegetation consisted of low widely spaced bushes and as you can imagine the bushes got smaller and more spread out the further north we went. The country side is very flat and grey, which, with the gaunt olive colour of the vegetation makes for a washed out/drab scene.  Around Massourro there were some sand dunes, ~ 25 m high, to break up the plain.

There were many villages along the way and a large number of people plus a large number of livestock. Surprisingly the livestock all looked well fed, much better than what we saw in the east. The buildings have also changed and now seem to be constructed of grey mud in the regular/rectangular Arab style.

Our team consists of; the driver Ahmed aka Gundee (from the north, ~ mid 30s, very, very thin, dressed in traditional clothes with robes and head dress. Turns out he has 2 wives and 2 kids with one of them) and a cook, Jerome (from the south, ~ mid 40s with one wife & 4 kids and not thin).

Lunch was a yummy fresh salad and dinner a goat stew & cous cous.

We camped in the desert with a full moon. The tent was just netting (it is too hot for full canvas) and with the moon we could almost read without a light.

N 130 52’ 02.8’’ E 0160 28’ 08.4’’ 

Day 17 – 9/2/12

Unfortunately the dust had not abated, so we drove most of the day with poor visibility.

In the morning 2 trucks from Libya drove past, trading goods into Chad. Wars and revolutions come and go, but trans Sahara/cross border trade goes on.

In the morning we stopped to assist a broken down vehicle and after 1.5 hours Gundee got the vehicle going. He was very proud of himself!

The vegetation was quite sparse and the villages far apart. Despite this, there were still villages and people along the way. At one village we stopped to buy chickens, guess what we were having for dinner.

We must have mentioned before that Africans have not lost the art of conversation, they can talk 24/7 in any place. There are 2 volumes; very loud and shouting. At the moment, Gundee, is the big talker in the vehicle. His volume is mainly in between a shout and very loud. Often a long monologue ends with a “ugh? Jerome’s role is to make appropriate noises, mainly “Mmm” and “agh”. These are not simple grunts; the tone, length, inclination etc vary according Gundee’s requirement. Occasionally laughs are inserted; again these need to be appropriate for the occasion; humour, knowing, surprise etc. Jerome’s preference seems to be to sleep, however if an appropriate response has not been made, Gundee will shout, “Jerome” and natural order is restored.

Gundee has one, damaged, cassette tape of local music – damaged. It seems that this can be played monotonously with many repeats (we tried repeadity – but the spell check would not accept it), there is no limit to the number of times per day it can be played.

At one point, Ray put on some Deep Forest through the ipod/itrip. At one point Gundee stopped talking and increased the volume. The language in the song is his language. Very excited.

As predicted, dinner was chook pot roast with vegetables and chips.

The left-overs from the chook were thrown into the night and a jackal came and made sure nothing was left in the morning.

It was a very windy night and even as we went to bed it was apparent we would be eating sand all night. The netting tent is not appropriate for windy conditions and the fly provided is not the one for this tent & allows sand in.

N 150 49’ 55.1’’ E 0180 22’ 57.5’’ 

Day 18 – 10/2/12

The wind did not die down all night. Still we were better off than Gundee & Jerome who both use a swag; they were covered with sand.

We set out driving almost directly east. The wind did not die down all day, but to compensate, the sand was golden, not the washed out look of previous days. The vegetation seems to come in patches with Hollywood style erg in the between.

Near Oum Chalouba there were rocky patches and it seemed that the wind had died down.

At one point there was an extensive area of grass and we passed groups of nomads with healthy looking camels and cattle.

We developed a flat tyre and from some distance away a nomad woman came with a bowl of camel’s milk (unpasteurised and unhomogenised, we assume). A welcome gesture for strangers who were working in the middle of the day.

We had many sightings of gazelles/springbok; with some great examples of pronking!

We bought provisions in the town of Oum Chalouba. Whilst Avril chatted to her brother, Ray went with Jerome, thinking they were off to get provisions. However, after passing out of the main town area and going into a separate, small settlement, they arrived at a local bar. There each had a beer – not refrigerated, but cool. Very nice. We camped in mobile telephone reach of the town!

Spaghetti for dinner.

Then the wind howled all night, but with the compensation that for some reason there was no dust or grit associated with it.

N 150 35’ 55.1’’ E 0200 55’ 46.2’’ 

 Day 19 – 11/2/12

Ray got up early to photograph a brilliant desert sunrise, almost without dust.

Then we set off to Ennedi; the desert along the way is like the gibber plains in central Australia. Ennedi is a series of dramatic, sandstone mountains/hills rising almost vertically out of the desert plain. At lunch we stopped at Terkei (?), an impressive & very extensive Neolithic rock art canyon with red, white and occasional blue paintings. These are manly of animals but with family groups also depicted. We then drove to another impressive rock art site – one painting was of a group of riders, which we dubbed the Melbourne Cup.

We then drove along and inside the mountain range. Each minute bringing a new vista and worthy of a photo. Totally impressive in scale and grandeur.

We searched for a while to find a camping spot with some protection from the wind – the wind came in gusts and was very strong. We were only partially successful in our search; the dust came into the tent over night.

We should mention that thus far, there is fresh fruit for lunch and dinner as well!

Ray got some decent sunset pics.

 N 160 40’ 03.1’’ E 0220 04’ 28.7’’ 

 Day 20 – 12/2/12

A wonderful day. Ray got up early again to get some sunrise pictures with a dramatic rock arch in the foreground.

Then we drove to Arc d’Alebra (?), a massive natural arch. We both guessed that it must be > 100m high. It is hard to find words to describe the scale and grandeur of the formation. This was one of the highlights of the trip so far. A couple of nomad girls set up an impromptu jewellery store and Avril bought a necklace, probably more out of sympathy than decorative worth.

After Arc d’Alebra we drove through a dust storm – at least we got to see how the arches and mountains are formed here!

Then continuing our trip through the mountains we went to a canyon with a permanent stream; Bachikele (?). There were a large number of camels being watered. We walked to the head of the canyon, ~ 500m, and Ray washed his hair in a pond  – upstream of the floating camel poo!. Interestingly, despite the lack of sanitation, the pond had fish.

On the way out of the canyon we bumped into a 3-vehicle convoy of tourism/guide students. All keen to ask a few questions and get our impressions: how was the food? – good and there are nice restaurants in N’Djamena; how is the price?? – very low compared to e.g. Kenya etc

We then drove to another spectacular natural arch; the Elephant. Avril could see the trunk in the formation!

Then we drove back through the mountains to yet another rock art site, Mandage (?); the pictures here were in grottos around 5 m off the ground and accessible via a narrow passage at the rear.

We managed to get a camp site out of the wind – a real bonus.

N 160 53’ 55.1’’ E 0210 47’ 06.5’’ 

Day 21 – 13/2/12

We went for a walk over one of the gorges and into another very spectacular gorge – sort of like Kings Canyon but more dramatic and without the people. At the head of the gorge is a deep permanent water pool and believe it or not, out here in the middle of the desert were Nile crocodiles. Assumedly a remnant of when the area was a savannah. Site name is Archei (?).

Our guides for this ~ 2.5 hour walk were the son and daughter (~10 &12 yrs!) of the local chief. They were very concerned for us and continually checked that the old folks were doing OK. At the end of the walk they did not want to accept some payment-nice, but we did manage to get them to take it. They did not even want to accept water and snacks along the way.

After the walk we had some quiet time, which was nice as things have been pretty full-on up to now. When we returned from the walk there was a slaughtered goat hanging from a tree – guess we knew what we were having for dinner! Ray had some of the goat liver cooked with onion for lunch, but Avril passed on the idea of fresh goat foie.

After the midday rest, we visited another rock art site – I have the GPS coordinates for all the sites if anyone wants them.

Then, just when you thought it could not get any better… after some very impressive 4WD driving in deep sand, we arrived at Bachike; a massive rock chasm. It was about 2 – 3 m wide at the bottom and getting smaller towards the top, around 50 m high and an impressive > 250 m long. Awesome.

We camped at the top of a plateau among some mini rock formations.

Slow roast goat for dinner.

N 170 04’ 39.9’’ E 0210 28’ 42.3’’ 

Day 22 – 14/2/12

A long, slow, hot day. Overnight both of us discovered that nomad goat was not for us. You can fill in the details yourselves.

In the morning we went to Fada to register with the police and to buy some fresh fruit – only water melon was available.

We drove north, crossing a series of wide, low valleys. Whilst there were some weathered hills/mountains that anywhere else would be worth a visit, after being spoilt over the previous days we were not that impressed, a bit sad really.

Again we rested from the midday sun from ~ 12:00 – 14:00

The drive was very slow due to the very rocky nature of the piste.

Just before camp time, ~ 17:00 we entered the Sabi in Yalla (?) valley that had some interesting weathered rock formations. Sort of like the white desert in Egypt, without the white.

We both passed on dinner – trying to let the goat roast pass. We felt a bit sorry for Jerome & Gundee as they had really tried to do the best for us with the goat; it just did not plan out.

N 170 39’ 34.2’’ E 0210 26’ 20.2’’ 

Day 23 – 15/2/12

An interesting day driving north out of Ennedi and across the Mourdi Depression.

There was lots of wild life including gazelles. Late in the day a gazelle tried to have a race alongside the vehicle and Ray managed to finally get a picture of a desert gazelle. We also saw what we initially thought was a jackal, but Gundee said no, so we think it must have been a fox or such – note, we need to learn a bit more French!

Along the way we stopped to collect firewood. This can only be done from already dead trees. It is illegal to chop down a live tree in Chad, and it seems that at least this law is taken very seriously.

We passed by a couple of ancient dried lake beds where the mud sediment has been weathered into some interesting formations. For the Egypt folks, like the mud lions, but here they are not shaped like lions.

During the day some of the path was marked by old tyre tracks, sometimes by old 44 gal drums, but most of the time we made our own way. We assume Gundee uses the sun as a compass. Along the way we passed through an area of sand and some monster crescent shaped dunes. A typical desert day driving i.e. a 2 hour rest at lunch.

The Teranga Hills (?) are in the middle of the sand and at the base of the hills there is a very basic well. When we got there, there were a couple of nomads watering their camels. One man was in the well slowly scooping water from the well into a dish and filling a goat skin. When the skin was full, the other man would haul it to the top and fill a small skin trough from which the camels could drink. A very hard way to make a living.

At the village of Demi we stopped to fill our water containers. We get ~ 10 litres of water per day to wash. Pure luxury, on a lot of desert trip you do not get to wash for a long time.

Today we got a master class in 4WD from Gundee – he did not put a foot wrong all day.

The last few nights the insects have been quite thick, so rather than trying to read, we have gone to bed and listened to audio books on the iPod. A worthwhile alternative.

We camped at an Oasis. The wind and the jackals howled! Unfortunately there were lots of mozzies.

N 180 51’ 36.8’’ E 0210 23’ 12.5’’ 

Day 24 – 16/2/12

In the morning, we went for a walk to the shore of the oasis lake. The lake is very saline and is being mined for salt. The salt is loaded onto camels and traded as far away as Abeche – which must be at least 2 days away by car. Not sure how many camel days = car day.

At the lake shore we surprised a very large black-back jackal; Ray was too slow to get a picture.

We drove along the bottom of the Mourdi depression, with a low escarpment running to the north. We stopped at another well in the middle of nowhere. Avril went on a scouting expedition and found a Neolithic grinding base – well done.

There was a dramatic drop into Ounianga Serir which had a small fresh water lake and a larger saline lake. We took the opportunity to have a wash beside the fresh water lake and relax for a few hours.

We stopped at the village associated with the lakes to pay our respects to the local chief and surprisingly one of the local elders could speak a little English. Ray was a bit surprised when he asked of Jerome: “is that black man from Australia?”

We then drove along a series of finger lakes to the night’s camp.

N 190 00’ 11.1’’ E 0200 30’ 47.8’’ 

 
Day 25 – 17/2/12

We drove to the village of Ounianga Kelif via the large , saline Lake Yoa. At the village we had a long wait (3 hours) for the local police to turn up to work so we could register. We also took the opportunity to refuel and re-supply. Like a lot of the remote places in Chad we have been through, it had telecoms. The BIG find was a very usable SW radio. Avril is a rabid BBC listener (mainly for the sports results) and has been very disappointed with the large radio we bought in Oz (with only Chinese writing on the dials etc). This smaller one seems better able to do the job, so some one along the way will the recipient of a cadeau (cadeau is the what all the locals demand). When they see a white person they will run literally for hundreds of meters to demand; CADEAU).

Near Ounianga Kelif we stopped at another lake (Kakim (?) for lunch. Sitting at the lake, with its own micro climate and the wind, it was a tiny bit chilly. This was a welcome change from the ongoing heat.

On the way there we experienced our first anti white episode in Africa – some local lads on the way home from school picked up some rocks to throw at the car and one idiot actually threw a rock. You can imaging Gundee’s and Jerome’s reaction. They chased the individual, but in the end let the matter drop. This was all a bit surprising really as we had always felt totally secure and welcome in Chad. 

After lunch we had a fairly uninteresting drive into Wadi Doum. Avril likened the flat plain to a big back yard with pebble mix.

In the wadi we see the detritus of the battles between Chad and Libya in 1987 (?) including wrecked APCs and vehicles. We are assured they are all Libyan.

The wind blew a gale all day, so we were lucky that one of Gundee’s wives lives on Wadi Doum and if we can understand correctly he was at least partially raised here. So, we got to stay in the spare hut, rather than our netting tent. The hut had a solid wooden frame and the external walls were rattan mats. The lower parts of the internal walls were thin material. The floor was very clean sand. A mat was laid down for us to put our sleeping mats on etc. It was not totally sand proof, but much much superior to the alternative.

When we arrived we were welcomed with sweet mint tea and sweet cakes and dates.

N 180 24’ 54.8’’ E 0200 21’ 55.6’’ 

Day 26 – 18/2/12

With the wind the way it was last night, Jerome slept in the car.

We had a yukky days drive; ~160 km in 6 hours in relentless wind and associated dust. In places it was hard to see more than 150 m.

We drove along a couple of valleys that must have been the axis of advance for the Libyan thrust into Chad as there was a lot of war debris along the way, including trucks blown up by land mines; mmmm, we hope they got rid of any left overs!

We descended into the Faya oasis, with large chalk areas and some big palm gardens. Chad Evasion, our tour company, has a house in Faya with a basic loo and shower, luxury again. We relaxed in one of the court yards, out of the wind and read for a while. Then we registered with the police and had a drive around. There is not much to look at in the town; the houses are contained inside high walls and so the street vista is just a line of high, grey mud bricks. The town has a slightly biblical look with the shops around the main mosque inside an arched walkway. But, it is really not much of a tourist location and as we were in shorts we were given some strong looks and did not feel all that comfortable.

We slept in out netting tent in one of the court yards – out of the wind!

We should mention that whilst the wind is a nuisance, thus far it has not impacted our travel and luckily it has not been all that bad when the scenery has been at its best i.e. it has not impacted viewing. One big benefit of the wind is that it has kept the temperature down – we have not had the high 30s/low 40s days.

N 170 55’ 40.1’’ E 0190 06’ 06.7’’ 

Day 27 – 19/2/12

Gundee shows he is fallible. There are 2 roads out of Faya to the south. One seems to be mainly used by trucks and the other by smaller vehicles. We took the small vehicle route. On the ascent out of Faya you pass through a very confused jumble of hills and rock outcrops. Then we drove along a very long flat plain, devoid of vegetation. At the start, the route is marked by spent (we hope!) artillery shells. After the plain, there is an area of complex sand and dunes with continuous mini bumps which shake and rattle the vehicle, which does wonders for Ray’s vertigo – not. We get stuck a few times in the sand including one time where Ray and Jerome have to grab the sand plates, as Gundee slowly drives forward and put them in front of the rear tyres again.

Later we pass through some chalk fields and with the wind, visibility is reduced to 10 m (yes, 10 m). At ~ 15:00 we re-join the route that we took on our way north. At this point vegetation starts again for a time, then stops. At times we commented that we did not remember how desolate this part of the route was.

We camped in a small depression and Gundee and Jerome constructed a small wind break and Avril used the smaller, alternative tent. With some vertigo, Ray decided to sleep upright in the car.

N 140 52’ 50.5’’ E 0170 18’ 45.7’’ 

Day 28 – 20/2/12

After the windy night, we had a clear morning and some nice lighting for sunrise.

Ray membered Mike Friedman at Hoechst. Mike was a Polish officer held by the Russians in Siberia in WW2. He once described how hard it was to do #2s in a Siberian winter and the techniques needed to achieve success. Ray remembered all this as he tried to do his morning ablutions in the sand in gale force winds. Brings into real focus the old saying about “not pissing into the wind”. Think about the physics of the loo paper.

We continued our journey south and stopped for fuel at Moussoro. The lack of a common language was apparent. Avril had asked a few times if it was possible to get to N’Djamena in 2 days, always with the response; “no”. In Moussoro Ray chatted to Jerome about the possibility and all of a sudden it was possible. So, we then hastened to N’Djamena. We managed to get accommodation at the Catholic Mission and some food from the patisserie.

So, we managed to get a very welcome shower and sleep sans wind.

Catholic Mission. N 120 06’ 21.2’’ E 0150 03’ 20.8’’ 

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Chad, part 2

Day 6 – 29/1/12

We set off early to make use of the cooler period of the day. We decided not to use the car a/c to conserve fuel and to try and acclimatise – we will be in this heat for a few months yet, so need to get used to it.

The road for the 1st 400 km was good tar after that is was not too bad gravel. So it was an easy day driving. The drivers here seem to be more prudent than else where in Africa, there is not the same excessive speed and folks are at least a little considerate of others on the road. Another good thing about driving here is the road signs, the first decent direction signs we have seen since southern Africa. We are back to Chinese truck drivers and even they were not as aggressive as we have seen in other countries – but still aggressive!!

The country side was flat, flat most of the way, then near Mongo there were a few granite hills. The vegetation tends to be just sparse bushes.

Surprisingly, given the lack of feed, there is a very large amount of grazing going on; cows, camels and goats. There are also donkeys and horses. It is interesting to see very young kids, maybe 5 years old, looking after a herd of animals. None of the animals seem to be in good condition, generally ribs etc are showing. With the lack of good feed and what appears to be over stocking, you can see that with one or two bad seasons there would be famine.

We had been advised to stay with the Catholic sisters in Mongo, but either they do not have accommodation or it was full – we are not sure which. So we are staying at a very basic auberge near the Protestant Mission, and elected to camp in the court yard. Again the generosity of the locals stands out. We asked some one the way to the auberge and they just hopped on their motor bike and took us there. Very nice.

There was a group of 4 French folks staying at the mission – must have been a shock for them as it was probably one of the most basic places we have stayed. Bucket toilet & shower via jug. They are on a mission looking at renewable energy in Chad – let me guess, solar. Given the dust clouds we have been driving in, there does not seem to be much wind. Gota love the EU. They have a conference in Ndj after this. Mmm.

Ray driving. 8 hours. 528 km. N 120 11’ 42.5’’ E 0180 41’ 13.2’’ 

Day 7 – 30/1/12

Again we started early to get the cool of the day. For a time we drove along a small mountain range, then it flattened out a bit. The vegetation picked up a bit with the scrub becoming a bit denser, we could only see ~ 50 m into the bush.

Again the massive number of (very thin) livestock shocked us. All along the way there are goats, camels and cattle coming and going to the few water holes. The water holes are a sight to behold, a huge number of animals all in their ownership group either drinking or waiting their turn to drink. No pushing of shoving.

The dirt road is a fair bit poorer than yesterday - the corrugations are OK, but the potholes cause some anxious moments. Out demeanour was not helped by the assertion of a lady with the French group that bandits had held up a French group on the road recently. She only said this as we were leaving!! No one else had ever commented on this, but it did put the wind up us a bit.

On the drive into the park to the lodge we saw groups of Cob de Buffon, reed buck, giraffe, water buck, warthog, mongoose and baboons. A cool welcome drink & cold towel greeted us at Tinga lodge.

Avril driving. 6 hours. 300 km. N 100 50’ 15.9’’ E 0190 46’ 48.2’’ 

Day 8 – 31/1/12

Being good safari people, we were up early and on the road by ~ 06:15. We got back from our morning drive in time for a nice salad lunch. Then after an afternoon’s nap we went on small sunset drive.

We had a marvellous day viewing. We saw; Giraffe, Warthog, Hartebeest, Buffalo, Roan Antelope, Lion, 2 different types of mongoose, Jackal (striped back), Crocodile (massive numbers and really, really big!), Cob du Boffon, Springbok, Reed Buck and Waterbuck. Baboons & Vervet monkeys. There are large numbers of herbivores and they are not skittish, so you can get some reasonably good pictures (however, we have decided to just take one picture of each type of animal, unless there is an interesting event. Otherwise we will end up with 1,000s of pics). There are sufficient numbers of animals to make the drives interesting; you do not have to wait long before something new takes place near you. The animals appear to be in excellent condition, much better than the live stock along the road.

Along one road we saw some horses, ah we though, villagers in the park. But they were eco guards on duty to prevent poaching. This is not a job for the faint hearted – a lot of eco guards have been killed here protecting animals.

The park must be like paradise for the birders. There are massive numbers of birds in the rivers and even we could see there was great diversity.

Thus far we are very impressed with Zakouma. It is clearly well managed by Rian & Lorna Labuschagne. There is an excellent network of well maintained roads, with clear signs. Along the way there are interesting loops that take you past rivers, billabongs etc.

Tinga lodge has a comfortable, open communal area – for meals and drinks. The accommodation is 4 suites in a rondavel – each suite with its own bathroom, air conditioning etc. Importantly it is clean and has working showers.

Lorna has been holding our hands (electronically) re Chad for the last few months. She has been a wealth of information and passed on other contacts etc.

By the way, turns out the banditry the French lady warned us about was not along our route, it was in a remote area and was easily handled with a few bob. No need to worry!

After a beer and delicious dinner, we had an early night in preparation for an early rise in the morning.

Day 9 – 1/2/12

Again, up early. Yesterday we were impressed by the diversity of animals; today we were impressed by the numbers. We saw large herds of Roan Antelope, hartebeest, giraffe (are they a herd?) and a massive mob of buffalo. We saw most of the animals we had seen before as well. In addition, we think we saw an oribi – but as we did not have time to take a photo, we cannot be 100% sure.

There seem to be baboons everywhere, all the troops with young. So, this must be an ideal location for them.

The massive numbers and diversity of birds is amazing. Maybe we have never noticed before, but Zacouma seems to have a greater diversity and higher numbers of birds than we have seen elsewhere.

In the evening Jean (Lorna & Rian’s daughter) took us out for sundowners. Ben (pilot), a Kenyan who is monitoring the elephants here and assisting with anti poaching and Marketa (from African Parks, who looks after the local staff) came along. We provided the nibbles from our extensive stock (which we should now start to run down). We had a very pleasant time on the banks of one of the rivers, the opposite bank was crowded with very large crocodiles. After a true African red sunset we drove back to the lodge, doing a bit of game viewing & really putting the Santos spot light to the test (it performed very well!). On the way out we had spotted the “normal” buck, a lion just outside the camp and a bush buck. On the way back we saw a genet (in the distance), a white tailed mongoose and an African Wild Cat with 2 kittens – our 1st spotting of the Wild Cat – very exciting.

Day 10 – 2/2/12

We explored the north of the park today. The diversity was still there, but not the large numbers we had previously seen. In addition to the other game we have spotted, we saw a grey duiker (and have a fuzzy picture).

The staff have really looked after us. For lunch we requested a salad and despite the distance from a main centre, the chef has come up with a different salad every day. Dinner is salad then a main course (meat plus carbs etc) and desert.

After dinner we went for a night game drive. We were lucky enough to have Jean come along as well. Again we used the spot light, which up to now had seemed to occupy space for no reward. As we left the dining/sitting area Ray said to the driver he wanted to get a picture of a Serval. We had only driven 10 minutes and we spotted 2 serval – and got some great pics! That was just the start of a fantastic nights viewing. We had multiple sightings of genet, serval, civet, spotted hyena, bush baby, black tailed (big) mongoose, fox (also with a black tail), hare plus all the day animals, which we woke up when the full glare of the spot light came on them. We managed to get a few decent pictures and the one picture per animal went out the window for the Serval.
 
Day 11 – 3/2/12

Our drive out of the park was to be remembered. Just outside the lodge we saw some Papas monkeys and then got a great pic of a grey duiker. Then just past the park HQ we saw a Carakul cat! Unbelievable! He/she walked alongside the road then calmly crossed the road just in front of us then made a chase for a rabbit/hare (?). It did not get the hare, however this was an awesome moment for us.

Knowing the shortage of gasoil in N’Djamena the folks at Zakouma let us fill up our tanks. Very kind and it allowed Ray to have a stress free drive.

The weather was very hot today, however we were going along just fine. Then ~ 40 km from Mongo we got that awful gasoil smell. Bugger the fuel leaks had come back. Having observed the mechanic in Batouri, Ray changed into old clothes and got on with the task. The first few cars drove past – very unusual. Then a group of Tunisian engineers (quoting on a road project) stopped and provided assistance. It turned out that one of the rubber tubes was punctured. Ray tried the magic USA military super tape, but it was not successful. So the Tunisians kindly towed us to the Catholic mission in Mongo.

We were warmly greeted and fortunately they had a room for the night. The room has basic facilities – still a lot better than the alternative auberge near the protestant Mission (where we had elected to camp rather than take a room.)

One of the Chadian priests assessed the situation, and got the bishops mechanic/driver to come out and assist. The driver went and bought some pressure tubing (late on a Friday night!) and seemed to know how to fix the problem. After attempting to fix the leak with the Toyota metal and rubber solution, he gave up and ran a temporary rubber hose all the way. This seemed to work, but tomorrow will tell the story. The mechanic was very impressed with the car and wanted to see all the bits and bobs. The Toyota Landcruiser  utes/bakkies/pick ups here are the sole property of the army, so it was a bit of a thrill for him to work on the car.

For the 1st time in a long time, we had a simple snack dinner. Prosciutto, cheese, tuna, tomatoes and some vita wheat biscuits the kids had brought over.

So, it is now official: Zacouma is in the top 3 parks we have seen. Kgalagadi Trans-frontier Park has been relegated to 4. The volume and diversity of game is extraordinary. To see 3 different small cats (Serval, Carukal and African Wild cat) plus all the other special sightings: civet, genet, fox etc makes the park a very special place. As we said in the daily blog, the bird life is truly amazing. Game drives were always fun (the roads are well maintained and there are wonderful loops) and there was always something to see.

We found the lodge very comfortable and the staff super nice. Always willing to assist – even though at times it took some interesting charades. It is great to be accommodated right inside the park and not have the restrictions of gate open/closing times.

The price is considerably below most other parks.

Avril driving. 9 hours. 296 km. N 120 09’ 57.0’’ E 0180 41’ 40.9’’ 

Day 12 – 4/2/12

A long days drive back to N’Djamena. After a bad nights sleep (dogs and other animals!) in the morning we tested the car (the temporary mend looked good), purchased gasoil (in jerry cans from the road side), paid the auberge which we had not paid when we left a few days previous and bought some bread.

The road description is the reverse of the drive here! We managed to get a few pictures of the mountain range around Mongo, which is very dramatic in places. The local women dress in very bright clothing and seem to either shave the front of their hair line of have very receded hair. The facial ornaments; nose ring or such indicate the status of the women. Is she 1st, 2nd or other wife.

Unfortunately one of our new tyres punctured as we hit the tar road. They are car tyres as Light Truck tyres have not been available since we left RSA. The wheel brace we were given to replace the stolen Toyota one was not up to the task. Fortunately we had secreted (from Peter M!) 12 V impact wrench which had a socket that fitted the tyres and also our socket set. So we managed to remove the tyre and Ray elected to fix the puncture rather than put one of the spares on. This was all successful. Interestingly no one stopped to assist – the 1st time in Africa. Next time we will try and do it as per the Bedouin and insert the plug whilst the tyre is on the axle.

We were stopped by the police for the 1st time in Chad. In English we said we were Australian Tourists on the way back from Zacouma to N’Jamena. This took 1 minute and we were on our way. The lack of road blocks has been a very pleasant relief; and not at all in line with what the guide books say to expect. 

The Chad Evasion folks had booked us a room in the Hotel Sahel – which is pretty run down considering the prices.

Ray driving. 8 hours. 514 km. N 120 07’ 12.0’ E 0150 02’ 00.2’’ 

Day 13 – 5/2/12

A very, very lazy day. After too much breakfast at the local patisserie, we decamped to the catholic mission, which is a lot cleaner and more reasonable priced. Then we just read or prepared emails for the rest of the day. We had dinner at the French/Italian restaurant.

Mission: N 120 06’ 21.2’’ E 0150 03’ 20.8’’ 

Day 14 – 6/2/12

A very bad nights sleep! Denis, the French overlander we met in Waza said one of the big pusses of the mission was that it was quiet. Not for us, between ~ 02:00 and 03:00 there was some sort of oriental religious chants that sounded like they were right outside our window. Then at 04:00 there was another loud noise. We are not sure what that was all about?? But we ended up with a very poor nights sleep.

Anyway, we went 1st to the CFAO/Toyota garage. Ray stayed there until 16:00. We had a basic service done (new oil & fuel filters). You would not believe the dust that came out of the air filter. The trickiest part was reinstating the fuel system. That took considerable time and effort. Hopefully that problem is now behind us.

The good news is that is seems the CFAO folks will allow us to keep the vehicle at their garage whilst we travel to Ennedi.

Avril took a local taxi “down town” and made the final arrangements for the Ennedi trip.

In the evening we dined with Denis, we had met him in Zakouma and he had provided comfort during our fuel saga outside Mongo. By chance Olivier (a mate of his from Togo) was also at the restaurant – so we passed an enjoyable evening with e few beers.