Pajero is broken again, sitting at the pool

Day: 12
Location: Kololi, the Gambia
Weather: beautiful
Kilometers: 75
Hours: 5
Health: recovering (mentally), diarrheas for Rob and Guillaume
Accomodation: Edis travellers hostel
Price, room: 16K CFA
Price, water: 25 dalasi
Shower: at the pool!
Morale: 1 in the am, 6 in the afternoon
Total spend: 7,460 dalasi
Song of the day: "Empty threats of a little lord" - Sunset Rubdown

AW: We've made it to a nasty little tourist resort town overflowing with brits, and how sweet it is. Momo is trying to get the car fixed. Here's how we got here:

The ferry crossing at Barra was chaotic and irritating.. We woke up at 7AM to get the first boat, but weren't anywhere near the front after we bought our tickets and deflected the hustlers. We parked in the queue for the "next" ferry behind a fat cat Marabout (local Muslim faith healer) in his fancy Mercedes. I especially enjoyed the dudes going through the line asking each car for a bribe to retain their spot in line.

After we turned it off, the car could no longer be restarted; as usual. Several expert mechanics were loitering in the vicinity, and they quickly gathered round. The diagnosis was quick:- Dead battery- Fan job mixed wires and drained the battery- Top cylinder is not properly sealed- Head gasket is most likely burned again- Overflow reservoir hole spews water- Alternator may not be recharging the battery. Morale hit a new low as we failed to push start in second. Momo convinced someone to lend us their battery, so we got the car started and kept it running on the ferry, periodically pouring water into the steaming radiator.

We drove through Banjul in about 5 minutes. It's the capital, but with a population of 35,000, it really isn't much to look at. However, before we made it across Denton bridge, we were stopped by the police, detained for 20 minutes, and were forced to pay an enormous 11K CFA bribe when we discovered that the insurance card was not only invalid in Gambia, but had expired in April. Fantastic. What else could possibly go wrong? *

We drove out to the beach resort town of Kololi, and Momo went to get the African price for another major round of repairs: 25K CFA plus 15K for parts.

Then we paid 200 dalasi each to stay at an amazing beach front pool. We showered and cleaned up, swam and got sunburned, met British girls and refused to order cocktails (to the chagrin of the hovering staff). It was an amazing day. We agreed to meet the girls at the local club, called Wow (yes in wolof). Rob had pizza, Guillaume and I ate spicy curry, and we had fun at the bar later. This one guy had a screen printed t-shirt with a picture of himself on it, for which he paid several weeks salary. A number of people claimed to have relatives living in Rhode island; not sure what that's all about.

Despite the fact that the mechanic said the car would be ready today, the new estimate is tomorrow 2PM. We will believe that when we see it.

GB: The day was nice indeed, although it left us with an acute sense of the divide between the western world and Africa. The hotel and the street of restaurants around it felt like a cage (or a shield depending on a how you look at it).

We were in dire need of a shower and some restful time, but mainly a shower; the pool and surroundings provided just that. Dinner was in a similarly touristy place, but the food was good. We also bought some water and rehydrated after two days of scavenging. We had met a group of girls who came for a friend's wedding. A British girl marrying a Gambian dude (who already has British residency, they were a little too quick to add). We met them at the bar and had a good time; they were the only girls we could be sure weren't on the payroll. After a few beers we went back to the hotel and got there right before the first drops of the rainy season.

* keep reading to find out!