Next Adventure - West Africa

Hey there All,

In the next few days I will be starting on my next adventure, this time through West Africa.


I Arrive in Marrakesh, Morocco via London on October 23rd , and will travel with my good friend Evan to visit our friend Brian Bragg at his Peace Corps home in Cameroon. In addition to visiting, I plan to take a close look at community benefits from Fair Trade Cocoa, and at traditional crops of the region.

The only fixed points on the Itinerary are our arrival dates, and that we will be in Cameroon for the holidays. We will have many options in our trip, but some of my thoughts on where this will take me:

1) We will probably spend our time at the beginning in Morocco catching the last of the trekking season in the High Atlas, and will fly to Cameroon either from Morocco, or from Dakar, Senegal in Early to mid December.

2) Once in Cameroon, we plan on some hard core hanging out with Bragg, hopefully getting involved in some of the work in the area, and traveling in some of the country with him. We may be there a matter of a few weeks, or a few months, or use it as a base camp while traveling in the area.

3) There is a potential side trip to visit and volunteer with another friend, Sheela in Uganda. If we head that way, we will probably fly into Nairobi, and I will probably take the chance to tour the region, including Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

4) Once we are ready to move on from Bragg and Sheela, we will begin our overland journey North. We both prefer the mountains and deserts so will probably stay inland more than hugging the coast. This will consist of alot of busing and sight seeing, but when we find a nice place, we may be there for a week or more.

5) As we get into the Cocoa producing regions of West Africa, especially Ghana, I will begin spending alot of time getting getting in contact with some Fair Trade organizations and farmer unions. To really get a good idea of the benefits of Fair Trade practices, I must get a good feeling for how the cocoa is grown, transported and sold, which most likely take multiple months. I am excited to get my hand dirty working on some farms, talking to farmers and union/ trade officials as well as agricultural workers in the Non Governmental Organizations (NGO's).

6) The general route will take us from Cameroon through East Nigeria, up to the deserts of Niger, southern Algeria, and Mali before heading south to the wetter areas of Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote de Iviore, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, The Gambia, Mauritania, and back to Morocco. If we have the energy and finances we may then head east towards the mid-east, through Algeria, Lybia and Egypt.

7) Wherever this trip takes us is sure to be an excellent adventure. The whole trip may take as little as 6 months, or could be well over a year, depending on finances and desire to come home.

While I am away I will post on this blog every time that I can, with stories and pictures from the road. Those who want to follow and comment on this blog can sign up, which is super easy, especially if you have a Gmail account. I will check my regular email, but with the length of time between checking, messages can easily get lost, so posting a reply here, or contacting me on Couchsurfing are the best bets.

Also check out Evans blog at http://evansjourney.blogspot.com/ for more about or trip.