Good early start today to get to border before intense midday heat. Small Senegalese villages busy with many donkeys and carts filling the streets. Road was newly surfaced on first section but final part deteriorated to broken surface with some large potholes and craters. Exiting Senegal was surprisingly quick, efficient and no bungs were asked for or paid. In fact the police at the very last check point were very friendly and went some way to restoring our faith in this country.
Leaving on town I saw what I thought was a scrap yard with a line of broken down and bashed up old Mercs with numerous bits missing from each vehicle, but it turned out that it was in fact a taxi rank!
We had a long wait at two river crossings especially at second one where the ferry's motor was broken and the ferry had to be pulled across by steel ropes in the intense heat. I was starting to feel weak in the heat and we were beginning to run low on water. Once across at Georgetown, the old slave trading post, we were able to buy cold drinks and move on. Just 20kms from our destination, I signalled to Mikey that I needed to stop for more water or else I felt I might pass out. Suitable refreshed, we rode on the final piece of road and came upon the first of the amazing welcoming receptions laid on for us. It is hard to describe in words just how amazing the receptions were, the entire village was out to greet us, all chanting "Welcome, Welcome", dancing, banging drums, blowing whistles and waving bits of twigs. Special ceremonial dances were performed for us and we were made to feel like royalty. We parked up our bikes and joined in the celebrations thinking we had reached our final destination. After 20 minutes as darkness began to fall we were told that we still needed to ride several more kms to the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust HQ. The roads went from OK to sandy dirt tracks and by now it was completely dark so the going was extremely difficult with a few bikes dropped due to the challenging conditions and general fatigue after a very long and hot day. It took a long time to complete those last couple of kms and at every little village we passed, everyone was outside celebrating our arrival. We found out later that all the villagers had been waiting all day for us to arrive and then we finally turned up in the dark and they, unlike us, were still full of energy. It was amassive relief to park up at GH&DT building although we were surrounded again by an amazing group of people all wanting to shake our hands and all still chanting "Welcome, Welcome". This was it! We had actually done it, we had ridden the 4,600 miles from UK to Sambel Kunda in The Gambia in 25 days. We had braved extreme cold temperature in UK and France, we had crossed Mauritania against Foreign Office advice, survived the heat of the Sahara, coped with the corrupt police of Senegal and made it all the way here! Apart from Richard's accident in Spain, the trip had largely been without incident. All seven bikes had run faultlessly from Roger's 1988 R80G/S, through my 1997 R1100GS, Glen's R1150GS and four of the newer R1200GSs. This trip has somewhat disproved the notion that the later model 1200s are unreliable and not suitable for Africa as they all ran with any problems whatsoever.
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