Road notes

le 4 Novembre 2006

A few thoughts while traveling to Tijikja:

1 Travel in this country is a nightmare, it's like drinking bleach and being punched in the gut.

2 El Qidiya is 60k (2 hours) away from the paved road- that means the path is dirt, rock, sometimes lacking, sometimes impassable and in the middle of nowhere.

3 Cars go back and forth infrequently and irregularly. Plus time is plastic here.

4 Sometimes you have been waiting for a car to spontaneously arrive (for a long time) and when it does, the driver decides to grossly overcharge you (can you guess why?). In fact, this almost always happens, though the degrees to which they are money grubbing assholes, to which they are willing to negotiate, and to which I am prepared to refuse, vary.

5 Riding on top or in the back (with, on, or in the baggage) is dangerous and can be cold but there is a lot of fresh air and I feel less car-sick. Riding inside is usually hot, stuffy, cramped and awful, but safer, in that you are actually inside the car.

6 Is this girl in front of me puking because she's riding in this rollercoaster of a car, or is she traveling in it because she needs a doctor?

7 The drivers drive really fast.

8 I'm surprised these cars don't fall apart (this road is bumpier than Diane Rehm's voice. Just kidding, I love you Diane!)

9 Taxi brousse (renting a 'place' in a car) is glorified hitchhiking. Lets face it.

10 Sometimes gendarme guys can be cool. The one who snagged us a car tonite towards El Qidiya was friendly and polite, and I felt bad for him – its just him, his neat little beret and his cigarettes, pacing in the lonely dark by the road, boots clicking, waiting to stop every car that passes, for no particular reason.

11 Yes, yes. The stars are lovely, but the moon ….. Why don't I ever remember the moon being so eternally present before? The moon lights the world as though a pregnant stage, with a green, luminous half-glow which anticipates the spotlights.

12 Riding on the back of a wind-whipped truck can be fun for a while, even thrilling, as you clutch the metal bars for dear life, passing in flashes through the hot and cold air patches in the moonlit landscape, but I have to pee!