Postcards







July 12th 2007, London


See I told you that I would write...

I arrived in Benin, West Africa, in between Togo and Nigeria, (whatdaya mean you have never heard of it) on the 30th June with the idea of jumping on the Car ferry and missing both Nigeria and Cameroon...mainly because they are both expensive to get Visas for and Nigeria is infamous for violence, graft and corruption ...it holds the title of 'most corrupt country in the world'...it's nice to be good at something, I suppose.

I went down to the port in Cotonou to ask about the ferry....thinking it must be a well travelled route and you simply drive on the boat one side and two days later you drive off on the other. Funny thing, no one had ever heard about such a boat...but they all agreed that it sounded like a good idea. I went back to the hotel mystified...loads of people had said that "you can take a boat from Cotonou to Libreville in Gabon...it saves time and money and the hassel of Nigeria."

I asked around some more and it was the same..."never heard of such a boat". So I thought, well, you can probably guess what I thought, it ended with .......it. Then I got philosophical and started to try and make this a positive thing, I started telling myself that it was probably better this way...after all if you are going to ride through Africa ....you may as well ride, so that's what I did...I rode down to the Nigerian Embassy to get a Visa.

The sign was quite clear 'If you do not hold a residents permit for Benin, then you must apply for a Visa in your own country' it's funny but when you see a sign like that you keep looking at it as if it's going to change and tell you what you want to hear. I stood there looking at this sign waiting for it to say "only joking..mof course you can have a Visa...pick it up tomorrow" it never did. I went up to the guy behind the sliding glass and explained that it's a long way back to England and that surely the sign didn't mean me. He was sympathetic and said come back tomorrow and speak to the consul. I came back at 10.00 am the next day and waited for two hours to speak to the consul...He said "No exceptions...you should have planned ahead"...which of course is true...but it is hard to plan forty countries ahead, particularly when your schedule is written on rubber paper. Time for a re-think.

Luckily by now I was starting to get to know some people and went back to look at the boat option. I found a cargo boat that would take the bike to Libreville and I could fly...but I didn' like the idea of being separated from the bike so they said that they had no facilities on the boat for passengers but If I was willing to rough it (no bed, no toilet) then I could accompany the bike on the boat. It was a three day trip.

All I had to do was get a visa for Gabon...no worries. There is a Gabonese consol in Cotonou...but they can't issue a visa, you have to go to Lome in Togo to get a Visa. And here comes the next problem. African bureacrats love big important looking stamps and stickers, and It seems that every country in Africa needs two full pages in a passport just to let you past the border. In the last six months I have been in seven African countries and am down to the last two blank pages in my three year old passport. So if I have to go to Togo the passport will be full and no space for a Gabonese visa...it's starting to get hard now ...don't you think ?

By now, for me, West Africa is starting to get a little tiresome and I started to think of short cuts...fly to Kenya, on the east coast...you don't need a Visa for Kenya and its a great ride going down the east coast to Cape Town....I had a quick look at that, but started to feel guilty about being a quitter and I couldn't afford the flight anyway, so what were the other options ?

The Solution: It turned out that I only had one viable option, Fly back to England...get a new passport, apply for the Nigerian Visa there (and any others that I could get my hands on) Pick up some fresh video tapes for the Doco, get some filters and a chain and sprockets for Beem ...and best of all...see my family.

So here I am in Islington, North London on a cloudy Thursday morning about to start a mile of paper work. I flew in from Tripoli yesterday.

I will drop you a line when I return to the 'Dark Continent' at the begining of August and let you know how the battle with Nigeria has turned out.

Fond regards.....As always, Traumatised but hopeful .....Frank


July 4th 2007, Cotonou, Benin


Dear Friends and those of you that I met for just a few minutes at the side of the road...I would like to apologise and make some long winded excuse about how I have been that busy and had a serious change of focus with the filming and all that stuff...but the truth is that I am just a Lazy Bastard and was having more fun doing stuff that writing about it.

So here's the Reader's Digest version of what's happened lately...some of you will not even know that I have been on the road again since last October ... I did Northern Europe and the south through Spain to Africa...I came down the West Coast of Africa...through Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, then across to Mali - where I went to Timbuktu - and down to Burkino Faso and Togo, and then across to Benin where I am now.

The great adventure was interrupted by the devastating loss of my mother in April. I was fortunate enough to be able to make it back to the UK for the funeral, and the pain comes and goes ... but let's not dwell on that.

Beem is going like a champion and the filming of the documentary is really starting to come together...I think its going to be a good one but let's not judge the cake before it's cooked. I have millions of other things to tell you all and wish that I had more patience and internet time but this is a start ... I WILL be more diligent in keeeping you up to date in the future and as usual I am always keen to hear your news ...There's some photos and a map at www.mrbeem.net if you want to hear more. Drop me a line if you don't want to hear more and I will take you off the list.

As always...Your Friend ...Frank