New Year’s Eve 1991 in the Nigerien bush

In the desert

We left the campsite at 11am on New Year’s Eve and went into town, where we stocked up on bread, peanut butter, fruit, kerosene and a few other vital items for life in the saddle. We had lunch at a Guinean shack along with a Nigerien who had shown us around town and supposedly helped us to get things cheaper than other tourists.

On leaving, a Frenchman beckoned us over to a shack he was standing next to which was selling ‘bijoux’. He invited us in for a cup of tea and sat us down. He talked at us a lot and told he bought jewellery here and sold it for a good price in Paris. He waffled on, showing us various trinkets while his Nigerien friend made some green tea.

We drank the tea but didn’t enjoy it. This man was a bullshitter. We soon left and headed out of Niamey, past the police post and onto the road towards Torodi and Burkina Faso.

We were 60 kilometres out of Niamey when we decided to camp up and settle down for a quiet night, thinking about everyone at home revelling and enjoying seeing the New Year in. It all seemed very distant. We could, however, hear lots of drumming from a village in the distance. The World Service lulled me to sleep.

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