In my last post, I was in South Africa. I was having skin cancer removed from my forehead and we were preparing to move our hotel and restaurant in Bamako. That was 6 months ago.
July and August were difficult months. The new landlord of what is now the old sleeping camel was uncompromising and insisted that we turn the keys over by July 31st. We finished moving out around 7PM on that day.
This picture makes me very sad.
It was chaos. The move started as an organized here-is-where-that goes and here-is-where-this goes operation and it turned into just-get-all-of-the-shit-over-to-the-new-place. If it was something that could get wet – it was the middle of the rainy season – we just threw it into the yard. Everything else we crammed into the house and onto the terrace.
We were fortunate to have a friend that lent us a pickup truck. The uncle of one of our employee’s also chipped in his car and we had at least one Chinese tricycle ferrying items throughout both days.
We took everything t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶n̶’̶t̶ ̶b̶o̶l̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶d̶o̶w̶n̶. This would later cause a problem with the landlord. The same landlord who told us to take everything because he planned on demolishing the place. A story for another day.
We even managed to take our pirogue. On a Chinese tricycle…
We were closed for a total of two days. This momentary shutdown was a serious accomplishment. When we opened at the new place, it was a horror show. We couldn’t even use the patio for seating. Ten years of our junk and other people’s junk from the floor to the ceiling and strewn throughout the yard. Imagine a pack rat having to move into a new house that is half the size of the previous one.
But our clients showed up for us. And our staff showed up for us. After two physically and emotionally exhausting days, this was uplifting to say the least.
Tristan and Nana were the first clients at the camel 2.0.
We made sure there was no lapse in our supply of cold beer.
While we did flirt with bankruptcy, at the end of the day we were able to go from this:
To this:
To this:
And this:
There are plenty of projects left to complete. We still don’t have enough rooms (we lost 8 in the move) and we need to buy a new generator. All of that said, the restaurant and bar have been cranking and clients love the new space. My partner from down under had a vision for the new camel that was on the money, and I think over the long-term we will be better off in our new home.
In the world of Scoot West Africa…
This has been our most successful year so far. A bit of luck involved there, but we’ll take it. We definitely need to up our marketing game. We have a sold out trip in January and one that is nearly sold out in March, but we had a few trips bumped due to low attendance.
In the meantime, I am knocking on every door to fill our Carnival Trip to Bissau. It is without a doubt the crown jewel of our itinerary repertoire at the moment, and it is in February, a month that I used to dread when I lived in Ohio. A chance to trade cold and gray for caipirinhas, the biggest party in West Africa and the Bijagos Islands? Are you kidding? I would go into debt for a trip like that (for the record I’m not suggesting you go into debt to join one of our trips. If you are a reader of this site, however, I will give you a discount ;).
We had a great trip in October with a group of current and former NHS employees and one pub owner from the county of Kerry in Ireland. Always nice when nearly everyone has medical training on a scooter safari through West Africa. As an added bonus, they were all experienced riders and great company. Would travel with them anywhere and will hopefully be able to visit them at some point in Ireland and/or Wales.
That trip included a few minor calamities that are now just great stories. One of them happened in Oussouye, a town in the Casamance, Senegal’s southern province. We were fortunate to be invited to a funeral for an elderly person in one of Oussouye’s satellite villages. In Oussouye, if you live a long, dignified life, your funeral will be a massive celebration. Here is a brief scene from the party:
It was incredible. I won’t get into the mishap that occurred. You will have to discuss that with me in person. As I mentioned above, now it is just a great story 😉
View this post on Instagram
The two other trips we have run so far this year have been with an outfit called Trekkup. They are a network of travelers based in Dubai. The guy who started the company has created an incredible culture around travel, discovery, and notably, escaping Dubai. He had 11 trips running simultaneously around the world when we were on our most recent scooter trip with them. We have really bonded with the people on these trips, which have included nationalities from over 14 different countries. I think we will be collaborating with them a lot in the future.
Here is a mix of pictures from our last two trips with them. You will notice the difference in quality between their photos and mine:
Personal Life
This year did not start well. Bintou had a miscarriage in February, something that we have not shared with that many people until recently. We can be thankful for the fact that it happened very early in the pregnancy. It has also helped us, and especially Bintou, to realize how often miscarriages happen and to connect with other women who have had them.
I broke my finger playing basketball in February. I thought it was sprained and by the time I realized it was probably not sprained, it had been broken for a few weeks and had already started healing. I went to the Golden Life American Hospital (yes, that is the name) in Bamako where the orthopedic surgeon looked at my x-rays and told me that my finger would never be straight unless he re-broke it and put in a pin in it. I didn’t (and still don’t really care) if it’s straight, so I asked him if at least the mobility would return. He said it would.
When I went to South Africa to have the basal cell carcinoma removed, I also saw an orthopedic surgeon. He said I have osteoarthritis in my finger and that it will likely be a chronic condition. While I am thankful that it is no longer painful to shake hands with people, it seems that the doctor in South Africa was correct. It is a chronic condition. Getting old. On the positive side of things, it seems that Dr. Newaj did a good job removing the skin cancer from my forehead.
Osteoarthritis in my finger doesn’t even seem worth talking about given everything else going on in the world. With that in mind, we have had a lot to be thankful for this year as a family. Andre turned three years old.
He is now in la petite section at his pre-pre-school and he looks forward to attending every day.
This year, we were also fortunate to travel to Morocco and the US as a family.
We attended the wedding of one of our best friends and saw so many other friends that we had not seen in ages. The end of 2019 has a few end-of-year reunions in the forecast that we are also very much looking forward to.
No point in saying we went through a lot this year. Everyone does, every year. And plenty of friends dealt with much more. At the end of the day, we have so much to be thankful for.
I hope you have an excellent holiday season and that the world somehow becomes a better place in 2020.
And I hope you come with us to Carnival in Bissau.
Happy to hear your good news about many things, especially your optimism about your new place.
Don’t fear getting old. The wisdom you gain is worth the physical abilities you lose.
Cheers, Kerry. That is great advice!
Thanks for the comprehensive update, Phil. Loving all the photos. So grateful you and Bintou and the Camel crew are settling in your new home. Surviving the tough times is a blessing, although it hardly seems so in the moment. Hope to join you for one of your tours before too long.
“Surviving the tough times is a blessing, although it hardly seems so in the moment.”
Indeed.
Would love to have you on a trip, Myke!
Hey Phil congrats on a monumental year. Thanks for being so welcoming while we were there. Sure the new place is gonna have more great vibes and awesome music. Can’t believe I’m saying it but we miss Bamako! Good luck in the new space and in the new year. cheers!
Hey Mark, we miss you guys, too. You will have to pass through and visit the new spot at some point. We have your art prominently displayed as well so thanks again for that !!!!
Wow, that’s quite the update. Congrats on all the good stuff, best wishes that the non-good stuff doesn’t happen again.
The trip that I did with you guys (Matt, specifically) was easily in my top 3 of the best trips I’ve ever done anywhere. I’d love to do another trip with you, but at the same time, I don’t want to repeat what I did last year, which makes things kinda challenging. I keep hoping that Mali will become stable & safe enough to explore, but alas, that doesn’t seem to be likely any time soon. If you are ever considering doing a trip elsewhere in west Africa (especially Burkina Faso), I’d be *extremely* interested.
Hey Lonni, Glad to hear you had a great trip with Matt. He enjoyed it as well. We will have some new itineraries in the Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia area next season so that might be a good option if you wanted to ride with us once more. I will let you know. Burkina is really difficult at the moment. The security incidents are not just happening in one area. It’s all over the country. Would be really hard to do the trip we would want to do there, unfortunately.