Nagadef everyone,

About 2 months ago, I left from France to start the realization of my dream : the tour of the world by hitch-hiking via cars and boats.

Today, I am about 5500 Kms (about 3500 miles) from France in the capitale city of Senegal : Dakar.

Summarizing 2 months of hitch-hiking in a few lines is not an easy thing, this is why I’m going to tell you about what happened by themes :

Hitch-hiking in Africa (Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal)

One of the great surprise and satisfaction of this start of tour of the world and this stay in Africa is to see how safe I felt while I was traveling by hitch-hiking. Indeed, even if it is still very important to be careful, to keep looking around me all the time and not to show what I have in my bag (camcorder for example), hitch-hiking in Africa is less dangerous than what I feared before the start. Leaving in the unknown doesn’t always mean leaving in the danger...Moreover, African people are usually very welcoming people and try to help each other, which make things easier for me. Out of the 5500 Kms between Val d’Isere (French Alps, starting point) and Dakar, my longest waiting period was 4 hours in Dakhlat (South of Occidental sahara) before finding a car that made me cross the Mauritanian desert (to Nouakchott). This crossing lasted 5 days and 2 hours, which is the longest ride I’ve ever had in one single car (I slept in my tent though !). The waiting periods of 2 or 3 hours are very frequent but I don’t consider them as waste of time (I use them to read, write or just think). Anyway, I have time.

African experiences

  Africa, school of patience and self-control : Almost 3 hours to send a package in France (with endless asks for Bakchiches), 6 cash dispensers broken before finding one working, 5 copy machines out of service before finding one working, up to 13 minutes to open Internet Explorer, conduct rules almost never followed (some drivers are sometimes 12 or 13 years old !...)...Africa is a real school of patience !

  Teranga : Teranga is a Wolof (language of Senegalese people) word meaning the hospitality and the welcoming of African people. Many times, I’ve had the opportunity to check this Teranga and to see the endless good mood of African people. This excellent welcoming is often done by offering the tea or by sharing an excellent Tajine (in Morocco) or Thiebou Dieme (typical meal from Mauritania and Senegal).

  Misery : The African misery is hard to see. I’ve had the chance to live for 2 days in St Louis (Senegal) the daily life of abandonned children (who often are between 4 and 7 years old) thanks to a local organization (Claire enfance). They have to sleep outside on the floor, to beg to eat and are very often sick (Galle is the most frequent disease). Seeing such a thing is frightening and can’t let without any reaction. If, as some have already asked me, you want me to give more details about this organization, don’t hesitate to ask me.

  Bribery : If bribery with tourists has decreased in the last few years (African governments try to give a better image of their country), it has, believe me, not decreased for local people. Indeed, about 15 times, I’ve watched drivers giving money to Police officers just to go on their way without problem...

  Religion : The Islam religion is very important in all the African countries that I crossed. For example, I like asking drivers "Are you allright ? Aren’t you too tired ?"and they often answer "I’m fine Amdullah (thanks to God), Allah is behind me and helps me to make it"...It’s also very impressive to see large cities lifeless on Friday by 2:00 pm (time for praying) and to see drivers stopping frequently just to pray on the side of the road. Sometimes, it’s going a bit far. Once, I’ve been invited to spend the night by a Sahraoui (inhabitant of Occidental Sahara), he had 4 brothers. He introduced me to them and one of them asked me 2 questions "Are you Musulman ?" and "Do you make Ramadan ?". As I answered "No" for both questions, he didn’t want to talk to me...

  Polygamy : I’ve had the experience to spend a few days in a Mauritanian family in which the father was polygame (he had 2 wives). This obvously wasn’t a problem for anyone, Islam allows up to 4 women for a man providing they are treated the same way.

  Policemen able to do everything : I’ve lived a few funny experiences with policemen. One of them is a driver caught by a policeman for non-sense speed limit, the policeman who didn’t have a radar to check the speed said he used his "experience" to know the car was driving over the speed limit...One other was a driver caught by a Policeman because he didn’t stop at the stop sign. The only problem was that the stop sign was not there anymore, there was only the iron tube to carry it...the driver had still to pay...(without anything written of course...)

Health

I am still on form, I’ve been sick only once so far (Tourista) and lonelyness is not a problem for the moment since I meet a lot of local people and keep in touch with my friends and family thanks to Internet.

Conflict US / Iraq

Many people asked me if my trip would change because of the possible war in Iraq : No, this conflict won’t change anything for me at least for the moment, I hope things will be allright when I’ll come closer from Middle-East or United States...but it’s not for today...Concerning what African people think, they are for the most part against the war (about 95% of them).

Pedagogic project

My pedagogic project with the sick children of the hospital of Strasbourg (mostly victims of Cancer and Leukemia) is going fine. I am very often in touch with them and they seem to like the virtual travel I’m trying to offer them. While I was in Spain, they ate Tapas, while I was in Morocco, they ate Tajine and Couscous...

Web site

As I wrote in my last email, the french version of the web site is working and enable to travel with me. You’ll find a live following of the adventure, illustrations of Jean-Christophe Balandras (professional drawer), texts and poems of young children from the hospital...

The address : www.ludovichubler.com

Next steps

The next step of this tour is the big unknown of the adventure : Boat hitch-hiking

This will be brand new for me since I’ve never had the opportunity to cross the ocean by boat. From monday morning, I’ll go to the port in Dakar and will ask captains of large boats if I can work on the boat (it can be boats that carry wares, cruise boats, sailing boats or even yachts) and get food and a free ride to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. As I’ve never done that before, I can’t tell you if it’s going to work or not.

Some people advised me to get in touch with TV and Radio to ask boat captains and to talk about my project...Why not ?

Bye

I hope it’s not too cold where you are and I hope to hear from you soon, I’m so happy when I can read from you in the middle of nowhere.

Ludo