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Llyr Jones: Gambian trip Diary

 

I live in Derwydd in Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr near Cerrig y Drudion, a farm with over 12,000 ewes and 50 suckler cows with 135 acres of arable crops.  I also co-own a bio-fuel company that produces 1.3 million litres of pure plant oil and 2500 tonnes of high protein cattle meal.

 

Like most of my contemporaries, I like my summer holiday, but I do not take to sitting on a beach for two weeks. I prefer to take it with a charity called Cam wrth Gam.  Cam wrth Gam was set up four years ago with a school friend of mine that had a similar interest.  We both like to travel to places that are off the beaten track, places where it's unusual to see white folk.  We take with us a group of 13 - 20 volunteers that pay for their own flight and hotel, and they are willing to work for 2 weeks free, build a school, kitchen or anything the local people are in desperate need of.  If we think we can build it in two weeks, then we will do it.

 

Elen is in charge of the finance and making sure we all raise the amount we need. In addition, I make all the travel arrangements and do what Elen tells me to do!

This year was different because we needed to build a borehole, put in 1200 meter of pipework and build 70 tables and benches.  The other thing that was different this year -  we were going to drive down to Gambia as we had materials donated to us that we needed to take.  Therefore, this is my diary for the epic journey.

 

23 August

Got up at 6am as Rhys my co-driver is supposed to pick me up at Betws y Coed. I have been to a friend's birthday party last night. Still waiting at 8am but then, in the distance, I hear a slow old diesel engine coming round the corner. I first see the blue pipes strapped to the roof rack, then the van.  Good start, 2 hours late!  It began to dawn on me what we have in front of us. As we are saying our goodbyes to Elen, everybody is laughing (at us, not with us) on what we are attempting to do.

We arrive at Derwydd and pack the last of the equipment that we have had donated from local companies.  At 12 pm we head for Portsmouth, on the M42 we swap drivers as I feel sleepy after the night before, but as I put my head down, I look in the mirror and see a reel of pipes dangling from the roof rack, we stop and re-strap the roof rack. As we are doing this a car pulls over, it's the police!  He asked me where we are heading, and I explain details of our journey. He replies: "What, in THIS?!"

 

23-25 August

Aboard the ‘Pride of Bilbao'.  Had a good crossing but there was little to do except the bar and sleep which is what I needed, as I had  been working hard to finish the work on the farm so everything would run as smoothly as possible while I was away.

 

25 August

Arrive in Bilbao Spain at 5am. We fuel up and drive until we get to Madrid and fuel up again.  Arrive at Gibraltar at 11pm, it is too late to get a hotel, and we need to be up at 5am anyway so we stopped at a Service Station.  Have supper and decide to put the tent up. Did not sleep too well. There were lorries passing and we felt a little vulnerable on the side of the car park.

 

26 August

Woke up and was still dark, so we slept for a while but then found out it was 6am. We rush and pack everything and drive down to the port.  Had difficulty getting the van on the boat as it only took cars and no vans. In the end, I had to reverse the van on. The boat trip was only an hour and a half and we arrived in Morocco at 10am.

 

Disembark the ferry to the mayhem of Morocco. We're ordered to drive to the customs office, where we are asked to unload the van!  The officer wanted to know what we have on and we show him the itinerary and list of equipment that I had prepared back home. He pointed at something on the list then we have to show him where is was stored in the van.

We then have to pay a tax of 200 Euros on the materials that we are bringing into the country and we are told we will be reimbursed as we leave the country.  We'll see! I then have to go from one department to another to get my papers stamped, for my passport, the van and then the materials in the back; we also need insurance and in the middle of all this fiasco, the officer loses my passport, but then we found it on his desk!

 

3pm We are allowed to go and head for Rabat, the capital of Morocco. 6pm - We arrive at Rabat, but hoped to be here earlier so we could go to the Mauritanian Embassy to get our visas and passport stamped.  We decided that we had to find a hotel with secure parking and fast as it was getting dark.  Stopped and asked a taxi for this, haggled a price but we do not know how much we are haggling him for. We found a hotel, a car park and book in, we go for a meal and a walk around the city, and have a good night's sleep.

 

27 August

Book out of the hotel and jump in a taxi and ask him to take us to the Mauritanian Embassy. Got there and we put our passports in and are told to pick them up at 3pm tomorrow, we plead with them if they could do it quicker, but they are unable to help. In the afternoon, we have nothing to do but decide to book in to a better hotel than last night and spend the rest of the day doing touristy things!

 

28 August

As soon as we get the visas at 3pm we are away, as we are 36 hours behind schedule. The roads are good and we feel safe so we decide to drive through the night.

 

29 -30 August

We stop driving at 4am and are amazed to see that there are people sitting outside a cafe drinking tea and chatting so late in the night. We start driving again at 7am and stop again at 8am to cook breakfast by the Atlantic Ocean. There are very few cars now, and only an occasional truck.

We are now in the desert in Western Sahara and it is bitterly cold, the road is not as good and we need to concentrate more on the driving. 

 

10am I notice the roof rack is moving, so we stopped to look and decide to take all the pipes off and reposition the roof rack. As we do this a Nomad appears from nowhere and help us.  We give him a t-shirt and some planks of wood and we decide to take off. 8pm -Stopped to have supper and then drive again along the road.

2am We are getting closer to the Mauritanian border; we know this as there are signs saying we are driving through a minefield. We stop at a small garage and I sleep outside in the desert.

 

31 August

We set off and wait until the border opens and get through with minimal hassle.  We get our money back and drive to Mauritania. Mauritania is the country we fear the most, as there was a coup here just 3 weeks ago.  We had also been told that there were bandits working around the borders.

We drive through the Sahara and have no problems, but there is no signal on our mobiles and we know that Elen will be worried, as we have not texted her since yesterday afternoon telling her we were close to the border. Arrive at Nouakchott the capital of Mauritania, find a hotel and have a well-deserved rest.  One big problem - Mauritania is an Islamic country so they do not sell beer!

 

1 Sept

9am Drive to the border of Senegal and arrive at Rosso where we had a lot of hassle with the corrupt border guards.  A few men threatened Rhys so we try to get out as quickly as possible.  We throw old mobile phones out of the window so they fight amongst each other to retrieve the booty. As they fight, we drive off as quickly as the transit can go. 8pm - Stop driving and book in to a hotel. Start driving the next morning and arrive at our destination in Gambia at 3pm.

 

3 Sept

We unload the van in the village of Amdallai and inspect all the work that needs doing.

 

4 Sept

The girls arrive this morning so we have a day off by the pool.

 

5 - 17 Sept

 

We set off in the morning for Amdallai - everyone rather nervous of meeting the local inhabitants, and the people we will be working with for the next fortnight. We were warmly welcomed with everyone looking forward to working with us; after all, we were not there to replace their workers but to give them help by giving practical support and some financial help, but showing them our Western way to their problems.  We, in the West, accept we have a right to education but here in Amdallai, most of the people have not had that necessity.  They were surprised that white people (or two bobs as they called us!) were so hard working, especially the girls.

 

We had three projects to fulfil in the two weeks.  The first was to supply furniture for the school that had recently been built by Action Force Africa. Their aim is to better the education provided and to give the children of Amdallai the chance to go to school. They lacked funds to provide furniture for the school and so Cam wrth Gam stepped in and took that responsibility, and because of that, the primary school is now open for the first time in Amdallai. About 150 children attend the school, and there are two teachers provided. The average wage of a teacher in The Gambia is £20 a month.

 

Fencing the seven-acre piece of land was our second aim; this was to prevent the farm animals that roamed freely from entering the garden area.  The women in the village could grow vegetables and crops to feed their families and sell what was left for money. However, it was a futile exercise to fence out if they did not have irrigation....

 

 

 

The third aim was to bore a borehole (45 meters deep) and put 1200 meters of water pipes underground from the borehole to the gardens, and fixing and supplying fourteen taps for the water.

It was hard graft, difficult work under an unrelentless equatorial sun!  An unforgettable experience yet again for the volunteers of Cam wrth Gam and in the middle of all this stress we had time for a laugh and a joke.

 

A baby girl was born during our time there, and was named Fatou Sian Elen Faye! What an honour and what appreciation they showed us for the whole time we were there.

 

So the next time you turn the tap on appreciate how fortunate we are!