THE GROUP

While I’ve written fairly extensively about  life on the road – the lack of water, working toilets, food, shade from the sun -  I’ve said nothing about the group of which I am a part, a group that self selected to randomly coalesce for 35 days, while living and breathing as one, 24/7, in a land of little else but comraderie.

Without exception, my travel companions are hard-core explorers, not tourists, having stacked up an impressive list of countries visited and adventures survived.     I know this because one way we pass the time on days of many miles is to compete with our personal travel list. 

 According to the United Nations, there are 194 countries in the world.  Phil, from Australia, downloaded the list of recognized nations before he left home months and months ago, and each person has gone through the list checking off those countries visited (honor system strictly enforced!).  Airport layovers don’t count – both feet and all ten toes must have touched ground outside a terminal, and customs cleared.   Derek, a dairy farmer from New Zealand, is in the lead with 120 countries visited, but he is 62 years old.   Dave, a Scot, at only 29, has 35 countries on his list   I argued fiercely and successfully that Syria and Lebanon be included in my list since the Golan Heights, which straddles both countries, is merely occupied by Israel, not annexed, bringing my total to 69.  As the truck crosses each border there is always someone celebrating his entry into Country #50, or #75, and a big “WhooHoo!”  rings out from the truck. 

In addition to the 2 English group leaders, there are 16 others - an even number of UK and Australians, a pair of Scots, a Dutch girl, the New Zealand farmer, an American from Chicago and his male lover, a Brazilian, both now living in Sao Paulo.  .  There are two 70-year-olds, a few 50+ ‘s, with the rest between 35 and 40.  Sarah (age: 32, UK) is a UN employee who has been working in both the Sudan and Sri Lanka.   Paul (about 40; Australia) is a travel insurance exec.  Sebastian, about the same age (UK), is an HSBC banker.   There are a couple of   IT experts, and an international playboy (the gay guy from Brazil), nicknamed “Rambo” by his city’s newspapers.  About half the group started in January in Douala, Cameroon, traveling to Togo, Benin, and  Nigeria before meeting up with the rest of us in Accra.   Some are flying from Dakar, at the end of our trip, to Istanbul to travel across the former Soviet Union and Asia.   Some are staying in Senegal to do volunteer work.  Another will be traveling from Nairobi to Zambia.   I, of course, will be flying to Cape Town and continuing north to Zimbabwe.

Dave, the Scot, cut his hand in Ouagadougou, (Burkina Faso) and was taken to the hospital for 3 stitches, which were later removed in Bamako (Mali). His hand got even more scratched when, after a night of drinking, he couldn’t find his way back to the hotel at 4 am, and climbed fences and bushes, only to discover the hotel was only two blocks from whence he had started the evening.   Margaret from the UK,  (but living in Canada) had her camera stolen in Douala.   The Dutch girl was almost arrested in Bobo for photographing a mosque without a permit (cost:  $2), and Stephanie (Australia) found a centipede in her tent.   Steve and Sebastian (both from the UK) were very  sick for 2-3 days, and the lens on my camera shattered on some stairs I was climbing back in Burkina.  There’s the very proper, quintessential Englishman (Ian; 73 countries visited), who is, I am convinced, ADD, and makes me laugh with his silly comments in the Queen’s most high-brow, proper English.   His father was known throughout the UK as THE most famous cricket announcer in radio history .  Derek, the New Zealand farmer, has been on 37 overland trips with this company.   Lucy (UK, age 32) lost her boyfriend just last year when he died beside her in bed, from “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.”  Simone (40) is an Australian phys ed teacher who started a twice annual volunteer program for her students building, maintaining and teaching at a school in Guatemala she visited 5 years ago while on vacation. Debbie, an Aussie, teaches English in Hong Kong and Phil, after cashing in his options at his investment company, is determined to visit as many countries as he can before he rests – he only has about 100 to go. 

Margaret, the only other vegetarian, (age 70;  63 countries), was removed from her food group for excessive nagging, and was made “Hygiene Queen,” a job she enforces with zeal.  She won’t let anyone on the truck without first spraying his hands with disinfectant, regularly inspects the frig for leakage, and harasses us about cleanliness and decontamination, a necessary evil.

As I write this, the two gay guys from Brazil, and my personal favorites, have just announced that tomorrow, with about 10 days of the trip left to go, they will be leaving the group to return home.   They can’t take it anymore.   Too much self denial and hardship.   They’ve had it.   They will be taking a private car to Dakar and then flying back to Sao Paulo, together with all the masks, carvings and other African knick-knacks that they bought.