Yachting
It seems that the rainy season still had a few surprises in store for me. I decided to make a day trip into Garoua to get some things done. I arranged with a friend who drives a moto-taxi, and decided we would leave at 8am to come back this evening. It turned out not to be as easy as it seemed.
A trip that usually takes around an hour and fifteen minutes ended up taking me three hours, and involved a trip in a canoe and wet feet. It rained a TON yesterday morning, like for several hours straight, and the consequence was that the rivers and streams were terribly overflowed. And most of the "bridges" between my village and Garoua are not so much bridges, but descending concrete reverse-bridges. Needless to say, they're useless when the water is traveling over them.
So arriving at one of them, the driver and I found at least ten trucks and vans parked on both sides of the river, waiting to pass. It's market day in a nearby village, so it is a big day for transport. People had gotten out of their cars, and were getting in canoes driven by people from the nearest village to get across. Others were paying men to carry their belongings (bags, livestock, sacks of corn, etc.) on their heads to cross the river. And there were plenty who were just willing to wait it out until the water had subsided. But in the true African spirit, there were entrepreneurs taking advantage of the situation: selling cakes and doughnuts, grilled meat, candy, and drinking water. Not to mention offers to carry people across on the back of a muscular bachelor.
In the end, I crossed in a canoe, along with my friend and his motorcycle. The price, 1500 francs, roughly three dollars, but actually a pretty good sum here when you consider you can get two pounds of filet for that price. But even after this big river, there were plenty of other smaller ones and deceivingly deep puddles to maneuver, so naturally I ended up with some wet feet and jeans. It almost wasn't worth the trip, but I figure that I had already gotten so far, why not finish it up. So, in the end I'm just gonna wait it out until the end of the day, and keep my fingers crossed that the waters have given way. I won't hold my breath.
A trip that usually takes around an hour and fifteen minutes ended up taking me three hours, and involved a trip in a canoe and wet feet. It rained a TON yesterday morning, like for several hours straight, and the consequence was that the rivers and streams were terribly overflowed. And most of the "bridges" between my village and Garoua are not so much bridges, but descending concrete reverse-bridges. Needless to say, they're useless when the water is traveling over them.
So arriving at one of them, the driver and I found at least ten trucks and vans parked on both sides of the river, waiting to pass. It's market day in a nearby village, so it is a big day for transport. People had gotten out of their cars, and were getting in canoes driven by people from the nearest village to get across. Others were paying men to carry their belongings (bags, livestock, sacks of corn, etc.) on their heads to cross the river. And there were plenty who were just willing to wait it out until the water had subsided. But in the true African spirit, there were entrepreneurs taking advantage of the situation: selling cakes and doughnuts, grilled meat, candy, and drinking water. Not to mention offers to carry people across on the back of a muscular bachelor.
In the end, I crossed in a canoe, along with my friend and his motorcycle. The price, 1500 francs, roughly three dollars, but actually a pretty good sum here when you consider you can get two pounds of filet for that price. But even after this big river, there were plenty of other smaller ones and deceivingly deep puddles to maneuver, so naturally I ended up with some wet feet and jeans. It almost wasn't worth the trip, but I figure that I had already gotten so far, why not finish it up. So, in the end I'm just gonna wait it out until the end of the day, and keep my fingers crossed that the waters have given way. I won't hold my breath.
posted by Ryan @ 6:00 AM
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