Looking downstream, Niger River. Photos by: Helen Lloyd
In February, Helen Lloyd and Lars Bengtsson took a break from cycling through Africa. They had local fisherman craft them a six-meter wooden pirogue, then they paddled it down section of the Niger River in Guinea from Faranah to Kouroussa. Here’s the trip broken down by numbers.
Number of days the locals in Faranah thought it would take: 1.5
Number of days we expected it to take: 10-14
Actual days spent paddling on the Niger River: 15
Rest days: 0
Photos by: Helen Lloyd
Nights spent in a tent: 14
Kilometres travelled by pirogue: 350
Kilometres which we spent out of boat, pushing or dragging it: 50*
Number of times we fell out of pirogue: 3 each
Paddles lost (and found): 4
Number of times we had to unload everything due to capsize and flooding: 2
Nails used to repair boat after crashing into rocks: 4
Number of chants of ‘1, 2, 3, Heave’ when attempting to drag boat in shallow water, over sand: 49*
Hippos seen and successfully avoided: 11
Rocks mistaken for hippo’s head: 27*
Photos by: Helen Lloyd
Snakes seen swimming: 3
Snakes that crawled under my tent: 1
Chimpanzees seen in the wild: 1
Chimpanzees seen at a rehabilitation sanctuary: 9
Bats seen: 4,751*
Dead cows floating in river: 1
Days without seeing any people: 2
Military officers who mistook us for poachers: 1
Number of times I asked, ‘Lars, did you hear that? in the middle of the night’: 4
Number of times Lars replied: 2
Fish caught: 0
Fresh fish bought: 1
Kilogrammes of pasta eaten: 3.15
Kilogrammes of rice eaten: 1
Kilogrammes of potatoes eaten: 1
Beers drunk: 5
Sunglasses lost: 1
Flip-flops lost or broken: 2 (both the right foot)
Sand-fly and tsetse fly bites: 309*
Millilitres of my blood spilled in my tent by sand-flies: 25*
Beers bought with money from selling boat to local fisherman at end of trip: 8
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* Approximation
Community Connection
To learn more about Helen Lloyd and Lars Bengtsson’s adventures and charity ride through Africa, please visit their website, www.takeonafrica.com
Please submit By the Numbers submissions to david at matadornetwork.com
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8 Comments... join the discussion!
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We nearly forgot the beer altogether, which would have been terrible since it was my birthday while we were on the river – we were about to set off when I remembered, but there was only three beers left in the hotel fridge.
Amazingly, we met an Aussie on a sandy bank the second day who gave us his last beers – but he only had two left!!↵ -
i am thoroughly impressed. and you did this without a guide?
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Hahaha, 1.5 days compared to the 15. So typical.
“We’ll be there in an hour,” (when you know very well it takes at least three hours to get to destination).
Good thing flip-flops cost 300 CFA. Great article, and now on to your blog.
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We did this without a guide. On occasions we had help from local fishermen, but for the majority of the trip there was no-one else around, we were alone and had to cope with problems ourselves.
If you’re interested in reading about the trip, I’ve written a detailed day-by-day account on my website, starting with how we got a boat – ‘The Birth of Joliba’
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did the craft ever end up getting named?
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The pirogue was christened ‘Joliba II’, after the explorer Mungo Park’s boat which he sailed down the Niger River since his journey was the inspiration for our trip.
Joliba is also the local name for the Niger River.↵ -
This looks SICK. great trip…I’m inspired to try something similar in afrikakakaka.
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