The Northern Stretch - Malanville and Back

January 17 – 19  

Day #21 – Started: Kandi                              Ended: Malanville                             Distance Covered: 102 km

Day #22 – Started: Malanville                        Ended: Kassa                                  Distance Covered: 55 km

Day #23 – Started: Kassa                             Ended: Kandi                                   Distance Covered: 97 km

Highlights

• Wildlife reserve
• Benin/Niger border
• Gardens; veggies galore!
• Camels, donkeys, oxen

Click on the images below to enlarge

Throughout the north, there are 

butcher shops in most sizeable

towns.  More people raise, sell,

and eat animals in these regions.

Here's a bit of a change from the

ordinary Deer X-ing signs we're

used to seeing.  Near the wildlife

reserves there are elephant

crossing signs!

The entrance to the Benin/Niger

bridge.  The two countries are

split by the Niger river

One of the last things I expected to

run into during this stretch of the

trip was a camel.  Turns out

they're are loads of them not too

far from here, just across the

border in Niger.

Rounding up onion cuttings from

the fields.  Large scale gardens

line this area near the Niger river

Most of the villages that I passed

on the return trip to Kandi looked

extremely basic.

The last three days have been among the most adventurous of this entire trek for me.  They’ve landed me in some interesting and unexpected places (also why there have been no posts for the past 5 days – see below for another new one as well), and I’ve got a handful of stories from them.

I saw scores of beautiful birds flocking to watering holes in the nature reserves near Alfa Kouara, an array of animals I don’t usually encounter in the south (lots of donkeys pulling carts, some of the biggest cattle I’ve ever seen, and even a camel), and expansive fields of garden produce alongside the Niger river.

I’m sure I could write loads about my night befriending one of the military superiors stationed at the Benin/Niger border, about getting way-sided in a tiny village at nightfall and being put up by the village chief, about losing a camera and eventually having it find its way back to me from Nigeria, and about finding my way back to the main highway with a compass and a list of village names and river crossings I was told to follow to get back home.

But to stray on the cautious side of being a bit too verbose, I’ll try and let the pictures show the highlights of the journey – enjoy!

A roadside brush fire.  Sometimes these

are started by hunters trying to scare

animals out into the open. Other times

they are simply started due to the intense

heat setting dry grasses ablaze.

A nature viewing area at one of the nature reserve
park entrances in Alfa Kouara

Construction for a new water tower outside of Malanville.
Workers said the tower should be completed in 5 months.

Oncoming cattle barrelling down the road.  You've got

to make sure not to spook these guys when you pass

through them.

If it weren't for these women, I would have been lost.

For not speaking the same language, it's pretty amazing

that they were able to point me in the right direction

and tell me I needed to cross the river.  They got a kick

out of me hoisting my bike up and  wading across.

The final leg of this bike trip is finally here, and starting today I am heading from Kandi back to the starting point in Natitingou.  If all goes well, in about four or five more days the trip will be complete, and it'll be time to celebrate!