Ok, so I’m barrelling down the empty highway at Mach 0.020 when all of a sudden a herd of cows walks out onto the road about 50 metres ahead. I put on the brakes and move to the far side of the road, hoping that they will pass by quickly. No such luck. They stop right in the middle, and the bull who is standing right where I had intended to pass, turns to face me and puts his head down. Now the brakes are really on hard - They make a loud squeak which makes the cattle skittish, but not enough to leave the roadway. I start yelling and waving one arm while keeping the brakes on with my left hand. The bull doesn’t budge, but the cow next to him turns away leaving me enough room to squeeze through – as long as the bull doesn’t choose to turn and gore me, or kick me as I roll by – I decide to risk it and in a moment I’m back to open road again.
This kind of thing is becoming more and more frequent, the further East I go. There are more and more nomadic herders here – both the Fulani and the Tuareg are in the region with their herds of sheep, goats, and cattle. Sometimes I see little shepherds of no more than 4 years old tending sheep!
One day a cow came running out of the scrub brush on the side of the road to my right. I decided to let him go in front of me and veered right. At the last second, I saw a blue rope go taught against the animal’s hind leg and a small teenage boy skidding along behind, trying to reign in his bovine charge. Again, the brakes came on loudly and I had to swerve way left to get around without running right into the side of ribs. I don’t like them quite that rare!
A different time, I came up on a slow moving truck and another one trying to pass it. I went around both of them only to discover that there were approximately 300-400 sheep on the roadway! A motorcycle coming the other way with a loud horn managed to clear a small path and I went for it, forcing other oncoming vehicles to wait a little while longer.
The biggest scare, though, came when I heard a rustling to my right and when I looked over my shoulder, there was a big old camel right there on the side of the road. I did a double take for an instant, thinking it was a giraffe and had to look again to make sure I wasn’t seeing things! Definitely nomad territory.
This kind of thing is becoming more and more frequent, the further East I go. There are more and more nomadic herders here – both the Fulani and the Tuareg are in the region with their herds of sheep, goats, and cattle. Sometimes I see little shepherds of no more than 4 years old tending sheep!One day a cow came running out of the scrub brush on the side of the road to my right. I decided to let him go in front of me and veered right. At the last second, I saw a blue rope go taught against the animal’s hind leg and a small teenage boy skidding along behind, trying to reign in his bovine charge. Again, the brakes came on loudly and I had to swerve way left to get around without running right into the side of ribs. I don’t like them quite that rare!
A different time, I came up on a slow moving truck and another one trying to pass it. I went around both of them only to discover that there were approximately 300-400 sheep on the roadway! A motorcycle coming the other way with a loud horn managed to clear a small path and I went for it, forcing other oncoming vehicles to wait a little while longer.
The biggest scare, though, came when I heard a rustling to my right and when I looked over my shoulder, there was a big old camel right there on the side of the road. I did a double take for an instant, thinking it was a giraffe and had to look again to make sure I wasn’t seeing things! Definitely nomad territory.
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