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Back on the road
Posted by Lynn on 8 September, 2010

Yesterday we went to the port for the customs officers to inspect our car. Step one was finding the car – Veracruz is a massive port and all we knew was that Beatrice was next to a white container. You can see in the photo the agent Karim can’t see her. But luckily Tim has a keen eye for a corner of orange Land Rover.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 0

The Harpie Eagle - a poem
Posted by Will on 6 September, 2010

What follows below is a poetic transcript of a conversation between Gil Serique (renowned Amazonian ecologist) and Atlantic Rising (very amateur naturalists), as Gil tried to both inspire and direct us towards a Harpie Eagle he had spotted.

Stop! And for a moment let

Your busy mind forget

All other thoughts.

For up there is a harpie eagle.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Mexican Customs
Posted by Lynn on 4 September, 2010

Atlantic Rising has been stalled by customs again. We are currently stuck in Veracruz, Mexico while officials fiddle with bits of paper. We arrived last week by ship from Cartagena, Colombia but our car has not made it out of the port yet. We are desperately trying to avoid flash backs to Guarujá in Brazil where we waited six weeks for the customs people to compile a 300 page dossier on our belongings.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 0

One year on the road
Posted by Lynn on 1 September, 2010

So it’s our birthday, Atlantic Rising is celebrating one year on the road. And we would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported us, encouraged us or laughed at us over the last year. Without our sponsors, friends and the multitudes of generous strangers we meet along the way we would not have got as far as Mexico. More accurately we would never have escaped the M25.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 3

The Good Ship Tasco
Posted by Tim on 30 August, 2010

The good ship Tasco is the perfect time machine. A brass bell hangs in the officer’s lounge announcing its vintage, MV Tasco 1984. The walls are wood veneer, video cassettes adorn the library shelves like hard back books and the tannoy crackles through speakers of which my Dad would say “you can’t buy them like that today”.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

The Vice Squad
Posted by Tim on 29 August, 2010

American intervention in Colombia is perhaps most apparent in the drive to police the cocaine trade, a curious attempt to cure an American social problem by waging war on the streets of a foreign land. Military checkpoints, manned by polite Colombian soldiers line the rural roads and the occasional helicopter hovers in the skies over Cartagena.

On our last day in Colombia I had a brush with the antinarcotics police who wanted to inspect our vehicle prior to departure.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Shipping Colombia to Mexico
Posted by Lynn on 22 August, 2010

Today is the sixth day of attempting to export our car from Colombia and, as our ship comes in tonight, we hope the last. If you like filling in forms and waiting for officials to find stamps then this process is for you – if not you are going to find this very tedious.

We are generously sponsored by shipping line Wallenius Wilhelmsen and their Cartagena office has been guiding us through the process of getting permission to export the car. Without their help we would still be struggling in limited Spanish with an uncooperative officious official lost somewhere in a back office of the Kafka-esque bureaucracy that surrounds the port.

Categorised Under: On the road blog
Number of comments: 0

Good ol' Providence
Posted by Tim on 16 August, 2010

We arrived in Providencia wondering if it was all going to be worth it. We’d spent the previous three hours on a catamaran tossed over turbulent seas. Half the passengers had been sick, one package holidaymaker returned to port suffering a panic attack and the immediate intentions of two young lovers put on hold.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Mud glorious mud
Posted by Lynn on 15 August, 2010

Imagine floating in a giant tiramisu accompanied by several American tourists and you will have some concept of our trip to the mud volcano. Colombia is an excellent country with much to recommend it, more of which later, but wallowing in a volcano full of mud was definitely the oddest experiences of our trip so far.

We were informed by our ancient guide book that it was possible to bathe in a volcano and with the promise of various health benefits we swung by on our way from Cartagena to visit a climate change project in Santa Marta.

Categorised Under: On the road blog
Number of comments: 0

Dengue fever
Posted by Lynn on 10 August, 2010

Dengue fever might be topical but it is not really that fun.

We have escaped serious illness so far and it was about time someone got ill, if only to entertain our expedition doctor. So I contracted Dengue somewhere between the Amazon and the Orinoco and consequently spent most of Venezuela in bed - definitely not the best way to see the country.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
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360 degrees in Caracas
Posted by Tim on 28 July, 2010

At the top of the Altamira Suites in Caracas there is a bar where well-heeled Venezuelans sip cocktails while their Blackberries flicker on glass tabletops. From the roof there is a view across the city, a landscape of skyscrapers branded with the names of western corporations. The Four Seasons Hotel designed in the style of a boat, floats across a sea of lights that twinkle amiably from the distant hillsides of Petare, one of Latin America’s largest slums.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
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Now that's what I call adventure - an encounter with Charles Brewer-Carias
Posted by Tim on 16 July, 2010

“Let me tell you a story”, Charles Brewer-Carias fixes me with cool eyes and an enigmatic smile disguised by a moustache which looks like it has fought its way off the pages of The Dangerous Book for Boys.

With 27 species of flora and fauna bearing his name and over 200 expeditions to the Venezuelan jungle under his no-nonsense belt, Charles is something of a legend in the world of exploration. He speaks six languages, holds the world record for making fire with sticks (2.7 seconds), has his own brand of hunting knife, has discovered the world’s largest quartzite cave and the world’s oldest living organism, he’s a national swimming champion, former Minister for Youth and Sport and a qualified dentist to boot. To compare him to Indiana Jones is to do him a disservice.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 5

A very Victorian expedition
Posted by Tim on 15 July, 2010

Birthday presents on Atlantic Rising are given and earned through a careful process of negotiation. For a long time I had wanted to climb Mount Roraima, a tabletop mountain or tepui, in southern Venezuela and after much arm twisting Will agreed to indulge me.

It was to be a great Victorian adventure. Roraima has such steep cliffs that for many centuries it was considered insurmountable. Explorers failed to return from expeditions to its foothills, inspiring Conan Doyle to write a tale of a Lost World nestling on its summit, inhabited by pterodactyls and the missing link between man and ape.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Four vignettes of Guyana
Posted by Will on 14 July, 2010

It is 5.30am in the morning. The sun is creeping over the horizon. I am driving along the coast road back from the airport. Early morning joggers pad along the sea wall, silhouetted against the grey dawn. Otherwise Georgetown is still. I turn the car onto Camp Street and cross the fetid canals latticing the city. A low mist hangs over the water. At the junction of Camp and Barrack Street the stillness is broken by a moment of conversation. A hundred people have gathered in a crowd. Young and old stand together, white and blue shirts standing out in the early light. They talk in low voices, a quiet murmur hanging in the air. All are dressed smartly for work. Breakfast bags gripped next to their sides. Umbrellas hanging limply from wrist. They stand patiently. As if they have been standing for days. Waiting. This is the passport office. It opens at 9am.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Amazonia's opera house
Posted by Will on 3 July, 2010

This should have been on the site several weeks ago...as it refers to events in Brazil. But it got lost in my computer.

Manaus is not a pretty city. It groans with assembly plants – Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Hyundai – crowding the outskirts after the government made Manaus a free trade zone. Very little is actually made here; components are mostly shipped from India and China, but a lot is assembled and companies benefit from the low taxes. However, it is a city with attitude.

And standing at its centre is a building which exemplifies Manaus’ somewhat quirky relationship with international trade. The Manaus Opera House looks a little like a forgotten slice of Neapolitan ice cream. As children, we hungered for this exotic dessert, only to demolish the vanilla and chocolate sections leaving the strawberry forlornly melting on the plate. Jorge dos Santos’s design has distinct similarities.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Happy Birthday Your Majesty
Posted by Lynn on 30 June, 2010

The oddest social function of the trip so far has got to be the Queen’s birthday party we attended in Georgetown, Guyana.

We received hand delivered invitations on pristine white card. The High Commissioner and his wife requested the pleasure of our company at a party to celebrate the queen’s official birthday. Dress code: elegant. This was tricky because dirty, scruffy and pretty-much-see-through I can manage but elegant is definitely not a word that could be reliably applied to anything that comes out of our car. Luckily, we were staying with the lovely Darshana and Marcello and so Will and I borrowed elegant clothes from Darshana and Tim wore his missionary/teaching outfit.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Cowboys and Indians
Posted by Lynn on 28 June, 2010

Atlantic Rising has been playing at being cowboys on a spectacular ranch in southern Guyana called Dadanawa. It was once the largest cattle ranch in the world and to get there you have to drive for about 50miles on pretty bad roads.

We were guided from Lethem by Trevor who works at the ranch. He insisted on stopping at every roadside shop along the route for a beer or three. By the time we got to the last and most tricky part of the road I was the only person sober enough to be anywhere near a wheel - much to Trevor’s disappointment as he was clearly very nervous of my driving.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Ford's forgotten jungle city
Posted by Tim on 27 June, 2010

This blog should have been published a couple of weeks ago but we have been rushing around Guyana and I have only just had time to put it up.

Dona Olinda was approaching her 100th birthday and as she sat on the veranda of her American-built home in Fordlandia in the Brazilian state of Amazonas her family cleared up around her in preparation for the party.

Fordlandia is a sleepy community nestled on the misty banks of the Tapajos River where Henry Ford tried to establish a rubber plantation to bypass the British stranglehold on the white gold of the early twentieth century. He hoped to gain control over every step in the production process of his Model -T.

Categorised Under: Tim's blogs | On the road blog
Number of comments: 0

Goodbye Guyana
Posted by Lynn on 17 June, 2010

Residents of Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, live their lives below sea level. The rising sea is an immediate threat and the city only survives thanks to a sea wall.

Luckily, the President sees climate change as a business opportunity and is busy persuading Norway to hand over millions of dollars in return for promises to halt deforestation. This is not a popular strategy among gold and diamond miners and logging companies worried about the future of their industries. But it might mean the forest, which covers much of the country, managed in a sustainable way.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Climate Change | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 3

Windsurfing the Amazon
Posted by Will on 14 June, 2010

There are certain activities which we do, not because they are fun, but because the bragging rights are just reward for the pain of enduring them: swimming in Scotland, reading Penguin classics, visiting Hadrian’s wall. All of them tick boxes and fill the awkward dinner party silences, but the actual time you spend doing these activities is sweaty and painful. Sometimes you think it will never end (Tale of Two Cities), sometimes you think you might die in the process (Cumbria in January). All of them are much cheerier in retrospect. Onto this list I will add windsurfing on the Amazon.

We arrived in Santarem six days ago. It is a city that has convulsed in a series of ambitious industrial endeavours: gold, rubber and now soya. We have been lucky enough to make the acquaintance of Gil Serique, an ecologist, guide and local celebrity. Gil is an anthropomorphism of popping candy. As our boat pulled into Santarem harbour, Gil was gliding along on his windsurf. We waved. Gil howled like a mad dog. And we have been lodging at his house ever since.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Into the Amazon
Posted by Will on 5 June, 2010

Life in a hammock is a cross between speed dating and a trade fair. People look at your wares – your hammock, your bags, your clothing and the knot you tie to affix your hammock. You are judged according to all of these things. We scored high on bags, but low on knots. And s soon as your hammock is up you start to scout. Who is next to me? Are they drunk? Will they vomit on my face in the night? Are they hiding a screaming child in that fold? Will they mind when I fart? All of these things require snap judgements and have far reaching consequences. These people will be within inches of you for the next 72 hours. If they have stashed a pet cockerel in their pillow and you fail to notice, there go your lazy mornings.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Sao Luis
Posted by Tim on 28 May, 2010

Sao Luis was once at the centre of the Portuguese empire. Its streets are paved with stones used as ballast in Portuguese ships and it proudly boasted a telephone just three years after its invention. The neighbouring town of Alcantara was home to the rich plantation owners of the era, so affluent that they could afford to build two palaces fit for a visit by the Brazilian ruler.

But he never showed up and the non-event is still celebrated today during the Festa do Divino. Unfortunately, we arrived about as fit for a party as the decrepit colonial architecture of the city and opted for a guided tour.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Sand dunes and swimming
Posted by Lynn on 22 May, 2010

After picking up our buoy in Fortaleza we headed for backpackers’ mecca Jericoaracoa, full of dune buggies, kite boarders and swanky looking pousadas. We availed ourselves of none of these and instead broke our camping duck for Brazil by setting up our tents in a hostel’s courtyard.
Our sleep was persistently interrupted by a whining dog and some musical, drunk Frenchmen. Will solved both problems by letting the dog off her rope, she immediately went to the bbq and stole the Frenchmen’s steak who went to bed angrily without any supper.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
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Reunited with Bernie the Buoy
Posted by Tim on 16 May, 2010

The Golden Tulip hotel casts a long shadow along the beach where Fortaleza’s fishermen have landed their morning catch. The crowd assembles in circles around the fish to haggle over prices as leathery-skinned men place weights on scales like opponents moving pieces in a game of chess.

The market is a raucous celebration of arrival and return. Fishmongers work at wooden stalls on the sand, scraping, chopping and slicing while maintaining a steady banter with their customers. Women sit at plastic tables selling coffee from thermos flasks, tapioca biscuits and shots of cachaca to fisherman tired after days at sea. A fish flung through the air noisily collides with a man’s cheek and he turns drunkenly to berate the uninterested crowd.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Schools blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

An idiot's guide to painkillers
Posted by Will on 15 May, 2010

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I will have this tattooed on my pill popping finger. For the last 24 hours I have lived in a fuzzy world, suspended over a toilet bowl, with fate’s thumb firmly pressed on the vomit button. An ear infection had turned into a hospitalisation and I had nobody to blame but myself.

The day had started normally. It was a bit more difficult to balance at lunchtime, but I thought no more of it. The fireworks started after an afternoon run and an hour of Dolly Parton. Pain. So much pain. Like a small man was open-cast-mining in my ear. Every noise was another scrape of his shovel against my eardrum.

Lynn – the voice of reason on occasions like this – suggested contacting medical friends for advice. Soon we had three diagnoses – all recommending different drugs. In a moment of intense pain and impatience I took them all.

Darkness descended.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Of birthdays and brothels
Posted by Lynn on 9 May, 2010

Waking up in a brothel at a truck stop was not how I hoped to be spending my 30th birthday. To be fair, there is some debate about whether the establishment was a brothel. All I know is that the proprietress was very unwilling to let us stay, in a way that made me suspect she had other plans for the room.

Will was quick to opt for the single bed with very suspicious stains on the mattress. Leaving Tim and me sleeping under the weirdest mosquito net contraption the world has ever seen. Incidentally, there was also raw meat hanging from a washing line just outside the door to our room. There is a Brazilian dish called ‘carne de sol’ but this looked just as likely to be the ears of previous guests.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Gaga in Guaruja
Posted by Tim on 30 April, 2010

After a tortuous wait we have finally been united with Beatrice. Atlantic Rising is back on the road.

It was an emotional reunion on Thursday night in a wet container park in Santos. Will and I dressed down for the occasion in flip flops and shorts, looking out of place among a small army of men in hard hats. Beatrice was a little reluctant to start at first, but after a tow (she’s too heavy to push) she spluttered into life and is now recovering in a garage in Sao Paulo.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 5

Brazilian beach life
Posted by Tim on 18 April, 2010

One of the great advantages of travelling along the one metre contour line (or thereabouts) is that we are never far from the beach. And while seven months on the road has turned us into beach snobs, as beaches go, Brazil scores pretty highly.

But it is not the fineness of the sand or the clarity of the water that grabs me, but the carnival of life which is acted out upon them. Brazilian beach culture explains why England won’t win the World Cup and why there’s no treatment on the beautician’s menu called ‘The British’.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Why are we waiting?
Posted by Lynn on 15 April, 2010

Brazilian customs officials do not move fast. We have now been waiting for our car since March 9 which seems like a very long time ago.

The news from our freight forwarders at the port rotates on a daily basis - we are told we might be getting the car next week, that sometimes it takes two months to import a car, that the customs officials are happy with our paperwork, that the customs officials have some questions or that Tim needs to sign another form.

Categorised Under: On the road blog
Number of comments: 1

Fleeing the rain in Rio
Posted by Tim on 8 April, 2010

Taking advantage of our vehicle’s incarceration in a container somewhere in Santos I took a few days off from Atlantic Rising to go on holiday with my sister, Bryony. On Monday, our last morning in Rio we looked out across leaden skies as the rain fell on Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela.

“Top of the hills, great views, come on, it’s an excellent zip code”, our guide Colin enthused like an estate agent.

Perched on the steep slopes above the affluent communities of Sao Conrado and Gávea, Rocinha is far from des-res. Where Rocinha’s roofs are flat to accommodate unplanned extensions, Sao Conrado’s roofs are home to turquoise swimming pools. In Rocinha tiny alleyways squeeze between honeycomb brick walls, seen from below, the favela is so crammed it looks like a wall of houses.

Categorised Under: Tim's blogs | On the road blog
Number of comments: 0

How did a belly dancing fisherman find our buoy?
Posted by Will on 1 April, 2010

Photos have just arrived in our hands showing our buoy being picked out of the sea and taken to dry land by a large fisherman, who then enacts a small belly dance around his trophy. Men from the Golden Tulip arrive, tell him to grow up and relieve him of the buoy.

Nothing surprises us anymore in Brazil.

Photo gallery of this weirdness is here

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 1

The end is nigh
Posted by Tim on 20 March, 2010

I spent yesterday walking back and forth across Santos trying to complete the paperwork to unlock our car, Beatrice, from her container.

Santos is the largest port in Latin America – its streets dissected by a series of canals the colour of crude oil, devoid of life or barges. I walked hurriedly weighed down by bags, whilst drops of water bombarded me from unseen air conditioning units in the sky and rolled down the lenses of my glasses to complete my disorientation.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Goooooooooal!
Posted by Lynn on 11 March, 2010

Yesterday we had our first real introduction to Brazil with a football match.

We went to see Santos (Pele’s former club – we saw his son but not him sadly) playing an inconsequential team wearing orange. I say inconsequential because Santos won 10-0 and the other team didn’t get much of a look in.

We watched the first half from the stands then spent half time visiting various VIP areas picking up free food and drink. Ice lollies seem to be big at Brazilian football matches. The second half we watched from right by the side of the pitch. I am no footballing expert but the quality was very impressive. There were a couple of players likely to go to the world cup Robinho (currently on loan from Manchester City, I believe) and an 18-year-old wunderkid with a mohawk called Neymar Da Silva. Both of which scored many goals.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Crossing the line
Posted by Lynn on 8 March, 2010

In Churchill’s view naval tradition was “nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash”.

We found none of those on board Safmarine container ships while crossing the Atlantic but we did encounter handcuffs, kitchen slops and the fire hose. These we experienced in quick and nasty succession during the crossing the line ceremony.

Being seafaring novices, not even equipped with seaman discharge books causing the captain no end of complicated paperwork, we had never heard of the crossing the line ceremony. Therefore we had not had the forethought to procure a certificate saying we had already undergone said ceremony before boarding.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Help!
Posted by Lynn on 6 March, 2010

Atlantic Rising has been on the road for six months now. We have had lots of adventures, visited great schools and seen several interesting projects.

We are currently plotting and planning by a pool in Brazil and really hoping that the next half of the project is going to be even more exciting.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the places we have passed through, the projects have visited and people we have met. Now we are trying to spread the word. If you know anyone who might be interested in Atlantic Rising - geography teachers, Brazilian rainforest guides, Columbian cocktail waiters, climate scientists or armchair explorers - please forward them a link to our site.

Likewise, suggestions for places to go, people to meet or projects to visit in the Americas are very much appreciated.

And if you like reading about environmental issues you might be interested in the Best Green Blogs Directory which lists good websites.

We are going to try and update the website more regularly when we are not stuck in the mud in the Amazon, so hopefully there will be more stories, photos and videos to come. Watch this space people.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Expedition Preparation
Number of comments: 2

All at sea
Posted by Tim on 11 February, 2010

Up on the ship’s bridge high above the containers and the waves which crash like gentle thunder, Mr Isaacs is on watch. Neatly arranged before him are two packets of cigarettes. He cradles a pair of binoculars in one hand which he brings intermittently to his eyes. Stars float in the sky overhead as the ship bears us away from the shores of Africa.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 2

Hello Sailor!
Posted by Lynn on 20 January, 2010

Atlantic Rising is in a state of high excitement having just been shown around Safmarine Nuba, currently alongside the port in Abidjan.
Readers, I can assure you that containerships really are very big. Although, according to her captain Nuba is actually relatively small, at a mere 210metres long.

We got our passports stamped out of Cote d’Ivoire at the immigration office in the port earlier today. My appearance at their grubby door occasioned many ‘we don’t get a lot of women around here’ comments.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 4

Aaargh.....I am addicted to white goods
Posted by Will on 19 January, 2010

A fortnightly encounter with a washing machine, a fridge or a sink has the same restorative affect as a mini-break. A chance to avoid a day of hand-washing, the possibility of ice cold water, the option of not washing up in a blue bucket. In Accra we even stayed in a house with a coffee machine. Like moths to a flame our unblinking eyes had fixed on the thick brown liquid dribbling into our cups, dirty eyebrows dripping with the steam that spiralled up from the caffeine pond.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 1

All aboard a container ship
Posted by Lynn on 19 January, 2010

Yesterday we put our car in a container ready for the ship and tomorrow we should be heading up the gangplank ourselves. I drove the Land Rover nervously into its smart blue Safmarine branded container. Then two men armed with packing tape and a stepladder spent a long time lashing various bits of the car to eyes in the container. Will boldly disconnected the battery – a dangerous job when you are phenomenally sweaty. I passed spanners, offered encouragement and stood well back. Pausing only to take receipt of yards of cloth – a present from Ibrahima our very smooth, freight forwarder.

Categorised Under: On the road blog
Number of comments: 3

Father Christmas and my roof tent
Posted by Lynn on 11 January, 2010

Sorry for the break in communication but Atlantic Rising has been to the beach. Many beaches in fact. We celebrated Will’s birthday and Christmas at a place called Ko Sa Beach Resort near Cape Coast in Ghana.

Father Christmas even made it to the roof tent and I was delighted to find the pillow case from Tim’s very smelly travel pillow stuffed with books, second hand t-shirts supporting various American football teams and a water pistol. Tim is now the proud owner of a volley ball which Will has been playing with incessantly ever since and Will is looking increasingly preppy in his new wardrobe, as styled by Lynn and Tim.

Categorised Under: On the road blog
Number of comments: 1

Liberia's divided society
Posted by Lynn on 28 December, 2009

Liberia is a country in quite a lot of trouble thanks to 14 years of brutal civil war. According to the government’s poverty reduction strategy more than half of Liberian children are out of school, there are only 51 Liberian doctors – that’s one for every 70,000 people and 64 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Shipwrecked in Guinea Bissau
Posted by Will on 27 December, 2009

We were not expecting to have to swim ashore. This was not in our game plan. We had far too much equipment, were suffering from mild sunstroke and I had only brought one pair of shorts. ‘Shipwrecked’ was not in our risk assessment.

But here we were 500m of the coast of Orango, stuck on a sand bar, and the woman next to me muttering about shark-infested waters. The wind was picking up, the sun sinking in the sky and one man was already in the water with a pig wrapped around his shoulders.

It was time to swallow pride, vanity and any sense of self preservation.... and jump ship.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Chief Tetteh's monkey
Posted by Tim on 21 December, 2009

Entering Cote d’Ivoire we were greeted at the border by three men describing themselves as rebels. There was nothing particularly rebellious about them. They were, if anything, a little bashful and apologised because they could not find a stamp to mark our passports.

The road up until this point had already provided us with ample adventure. By the time we reached the border it had narrowed to a single track the width of a footpath. Forest and path blended into one and soon we were crawling and hopping along with the ants and the crickets.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

The death of cool
Posted by Tim on 15 December, 2009

Several months ago we were sitting in the dappled shade of St Christopher’s Place in London talking to Oliver Steeds. As he swaggered off into the sunset he left us with his eggshell-hued business card. It said simply: Explorer.

Around this single word I constructed a swashbuckling persona for myself, of designer stubble, Stetson hats and stories of derring-do told across bars in exotic locations. Tim Bromfield… Explorer.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

'Small leg but strong foot' - soccer in Sierra Leone
Posted by Will on 12 December, 2009

The invitation was hand written:

Dear Sir,
You are co-dialy (sic) invited with pleasure to our iniversary (sic) disco jam and football match. Please make it a point of duty to come.
Thankyou your fitfulay (sic) youths leader
Midewa Koroma

It was 4pm. Humity was at 85%. We had just arrived on the uninhabited island of Tiwai to track by hippos, monkeys and snakes. We were a touch surprised. And scared.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 1

How is your body?
Posted by Will on 12 December, 2009

Arriving in Sierra Leone involved an interview. Not with customs or the police, but with a group of porters, hawkers, street vendors and students. They stood there in the gloaming and showered questions on us. What is your mission? Are you army? How is your body?

My body? I shifted uneasily in my muddy shorts. We had just crossed Guinea is two days. I had not showered for four and my beard had finally awoken after ten years of no growth. Guinea had amazed us with its beauty. A giant pick n mix of mountains, rivers and forests. And dust. Red dust. It had infused the deepest corners of the car. My shorts were covered in it, my eyebrows clogged with it and my hairy plum beard infused with it. I looked like a dwarf Viking who had fallen asleep on a sunbed.

Categorised Under: On the road blog
Number of comments: 2

Living it up in Freetown
Posted by Lynn on 8 December, 2009

In the first of a very occasional series of lifestyle blogs we will tell you what’s fun to do in Sierra Leone. First, hire the services of a reliable guide – after some discussion we opted for girl-about-Freetown Faye Melly. Make sure you negotiate a full retinue – we had the benefit of dedicated assistant guide Justin and the invaluable help of Doris, Spencer, Abdul and some excellent drivers.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs | Sponsors and Fundraising
Number of comments: 0

Making an entrance
Posted by Tim on 26 November, 2009

To enter Guinea we first had to cross the river that runs along its frontier with Guinea Bissau.

By dawn wisps of mist clung to the cool waters, creating an ethereal, other-worldly impression of the land beyond shrouded in myth. With elections approaching and an erratic military ruler in power Guinea is more volatile than normal and our plan was to get across it as quickly and discreetly as possible.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Hunting for hippos
Posted by Lynn on 13 November, 2009

Hunting for salt water hippos didn’t turn out quite as we planned. We took a floating farm to a remote island in the Bijaogs Archipelago in Guinea Bissau. Sitting in the small wooden pirogue populated with goats, pigs, cows and lots of chickens (one of which we purchased and later ate) I felt slightly sea sick mostly from the smell of palm wine all other people on the boat were enthusiastically drinking.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 4

How not to drive a Land Rover through mud
Posted by All on 12 November, 2009

Lynn: It is pretty impressive to get stuck in the mud in the Sahara – sand you would expect but mud was a surprise.

After hours of driving effortlessly along the Mauritanian beach and over dunes we came off the tracks of the car we were following and fell in a hole when least expecting it.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Expedition Preparation
Number of comments: 2

Last TANGO in Banjul
Posted by Tim on 5 November, 2009

The car park at the TANGO office in Banjul was beginning to feel like home. There was a reassuring familiarity to the minaret dawn chorus, the security guards who we fed by night and the school children who caught us showering by morning. So it was wistfully that we plunged south into Senegal once again.

But first we paid a courtesy call to the Libyan consul who had inexplicably picked up our restaurant bill earlier that week and wanted to talk. Intrigued by this opening diplomatic gambit we were keen to try our hand in the great game and presented ourselves earnestly at the embassy.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Gambia - the smiling coast of Africa!
Posted by Lynn on 29 October, 2009

We are now in Gambia, which is great for various reasons. Firstly, people speak English which means I no longer have to rely on Will and Tim’s sometimes dubious translations from French. Secondly the people are very friendly.

Possibly even too friendly – before I even had my passport stamped to arrive in the country the nice man at immigration proposed to me. I said I needed to think about it for a bit so he kindly gave me his phone number so I could give him a call when I made up my mind. I am not sure if he has a house with an indoor shower, but if so I am hours away from agreeing.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 1

The letter W - stuck for words.
Posted by Will on 26 October, 2009

started writing this blog at 2pm on 27th September in Mauritania. It was 106∞F. I had no thermometer, but my flip flops always melt at 100∞F. So I found myself in a small shaded corner of a courtyard playing Scrabble with the National Park guides in the Banc D’Arguin.

I faced a problem. This was French Scrabble and I had picked a W. It was worth 10. GCSE French did not equip me for this. I ran through vegetables, directions and professions but come up with nothing. The W sat there eyeballing me.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
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Yes we can
Posted by Tim on 21 October, 2009

Dakar is rising. The sun climbs slowly out of the smog, forlorn horses wrestle the last crumbs from their nose bags and the traffic splutters and sneezes its way into town.

Despite almost 50% unemployment, more amongst young people, there is palpable optimism on the streets. It is evident in the flourishing trade of Obama products; market stalls adorned with Obama t-shirts, Obama kangas, Obama pants even. The US President vies with an array of West African football stars for celebrity status whilst Bin Laden watches neglected from the sidelines.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Life on Air - Mauritania
Posted by Will on 16 October, 2009

The trouble with the desert is that it’s flat. For all the beautiful sunsets and swirling dunes, we never had a gob-smacking view that burned itself into our memories. Lots of pebbles, shells, hot sand and sea. That was until we met up with Marion Broquere and Simon Nancy.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
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Desert
Posted by Tim on 11 October, 2009

This is what the end of the world might look like. A wasteland of nothingness and desolation, of shifting sands blown by the wind and seen by nobody. Where human bones are perennially exhumed and buried, and shreds of black plastic bags flutter in the gorse like crows.

The desert appears bleak and inhospitable to my eyes as I squint against the glare. All colour is drained and muted by the brilliance of the sun. In places the land is so flat I imagine I can see the curvature of Earth and the road extends straight to the horizon where it topples off the edge of the world.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
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Mauritanian adventures
Posted by Lynn on 1 October, 2009

Atlantic Rising has been having adventures in the Banc d’Arguin in Mauritania.

This national park, along the northern third of the Mauritanian coastline, is home in winter to masses of migratory birds coming from Europe. Some stay for the whole winter and others use the mud flats as a stop off point on their journey further south.

Driving into the park involved a night time race against the tide. The Atlantic was on our left, the Sahara on our right, stars above and sand below us as we sped along the beach.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs | Climate Change
Number of comments: 3

A good night's sleep
Posted by Tim on 29 September, 2009

I am trying to make my bed for the evening in Western Sahara. The awning and canvas arrangement that I am wrestling with is rigged like a well-slung sail and every few minutes the roof takes off and lands with a scrape that penetrates the inner tranquillity that I am trying so hard to cultivate.

I accept defeat and venture upstairs to the roof tent where Will and Lynn are already tucked up. If they were asleep they are definitely awake by the time I have unzipped and zipped the tent, wrestled with my sleeping bag and assumed the middle lane in the swimming pool arrangement that is our roof tent.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 2

Infringing Moroccan traffic regulations
Posted by Lynn on 21 September, 2009

Driving along Moroccan roads that seem to disappear over the edge of the earth has taught us a few things.

Sand can be a lot harder than it looks.

Secondly 60kph speed limits on suspiciously straight stretches of road usually mean a police road block.

And thirdly when a police sign says stop it means stop. Stop right there. Not stop a couple of metres beyond the sign and furthermore don’t argue.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 1

Second-homers in the desert
Posted by on 20 September, 2009

I am writing this from the back seat of the car as we drive down the coast of Western Sahara. Its 8.45am and the sand swirling across the road has already picked up the sun’s heat. This quintiessential desert scene bears little resemblence to our experience last night, which was anything but ‘undeserted’.

For a start it was raining. Not the torrential, ‘Noah and the flood’ kind of rain, but more of a gentle Scottish drizzle. It felt strangely homely, in a dreech kind of way. We had decided to camp on the beach, protected from the wind that whipped off the sea by a giant bush twice the size of the car.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 2

Nicole... Papa...
Posted by Tim on 17 September, 2009

The journey through Europe gave us an opportunity to acquaint ourselves with our car, or ‘Beatrice’ as we like to call her.

Pitching camp for the first time within the safe confines of a farmer’s field near La Rochelle allowed us to fumble around the vehicle unobserved. It was an unacknowledged ceremony as we clambered over the vehicle like children taking their first faltering steps on a new climbing frame. Items that could easily be passed between one another – keys, penknives, gaffer tape – were thrown jubilantly from ground to roof or boot to bonnet. Muscles, unused within the car, rejoiced as they applied themselves to lifting, hauling and climbing. It was a celebration of the new outdoor life that beckoned and we imagined roles for ourselves within this daily ritual growing stronger through the exercise.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Tim's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Trouble with technology
Posted by Will on 16 September, 2009

A second computer has succumbed to the Saharan dust. We have taken brief refuge in the foyer of a posh hotel before heading further south into the desert. Hoping DHL can ferry us out a spare part to keep us (technologically) afloat.

Once again we are writing from the foyer of an extremely posh hotel. Snuffling a coffee and trying to look like we fit in, we hide our umkemp hair and dirty feet beneath the mahogany table. Its been cooler today, but we had a long drive down from Rabat yesterday afternoon, so there was a lot of hand-washing going on this morning to keep enough clean clothes on the go.

Categorised Under: On the road blog
Number of comments: 0

Ramadan in Rabat
Posted by Lynn on 15 September, 2009

A quick update from the ice cold Golden Tulip hotel in Rabat – possibly the most expensive internet connection thus far.
Work has finally begun for Atlantic Rising and we spent the last few days meeting several interesting people doing climate change research in Morocco.
Yesterday, we were so busy with a meeting in the Ministry of Environment we accidentally observed Ramadan.
However, this just made breaking the fast with a couple of friends all the better. We followed this with a walk around the souk in Rabat where you can buy everything from black soap to use in the hammam to unidentifiable animals whose blood is said to cure asthma but all we bought was some delicious dried fruit.
We are heading south now and will post more when we have better internet facilities. When we will also post some photos from the trip through Europe.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs
Number of comments: 0

Nightswimming
Posted by Will on 7 September, 2009

How prepared can you be for an Atlantic storm hitting your homemade tent?

I am writing this after limited sleep. At 4 am I awoke next to my old friend the right wheel. As a bed companion it is a fine find with a friendly white face spotted with nuts and bolts. However, last night there was a look of derision on its metallic visage. I was wet. Very wet. A fishing rod jabbed me in the ribs as I sat up. It had happened again.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Will's blogs
Number of comments: 4

Atlantic Rising leaves the UK!
Posted by Lynn on 2 September, 2009

Atlantic Rising has (finally) left the UK in not so much of a storm of publicity but an actual storm.

Yesterday we were up at 5am to pose for photos on the slip road for the Sandbanks ferry in Poole. Very tricky to take a picture where we all look normal, particularly at that time in the morning.

After a few last minute trips to the bank (Tim) and the fishing shop (Will) we were on the ferry.

Categorised Under: On the road blog | Lynn's blogs | Sponsors and Fundraising
Number of comments: 0

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