2025 AIS-5 Quintuple Quest, Mon January 20, 2025
First day of the return, back to Tambacoumba
Up and ready to go at 7am, but, Ghana time... So the real departure is about 10am. We're abandoning the support van and most of the support crew is flying home.
Along with them flying home are Rosina, Joseph (Two Spare Tires) and Charles (More Fire). Riding Rosie's Ténéré will be Neequaye and riding Charles' R1250GS will be Danlad, and riding Joseph's Ducati will be Ekow. We're unsupported for the return, so we repack our luggage to a minimal set and strap it to our bikes. The rest will go back with the van or the flyers.
I leave behind my laptop and almost all of my stuff. The lots of extra straps that I packed come in very handy. They get used on 3 other bikes. The bikes are all clean (they were washed yesterday). We are rested (as much as you can get in just one day of laziness), and ready to go!
Before heading out of Dakar, we stopped at the Monument de la Renaissance Africaine for some quintessential Dakar photos. The monument is a huge (49 meters) bronze statue of a man, woman, and child. It's really beautiful and impressive. An African Statue of Liberty!
The East-bound route we took back was more North than our West-bound route. We traveled through some beautiful savanah land.
Like American grass-land plains, but with a lot more trees. Lots of grazing animals like cows, sheep, and even a few camels.
And Baobab trees. So cool and exotic looking!
We got back to Tambacoumba at 6pm, so the ride back was only eight hours for 500 km. And we arrived in daylight! So far so good. (Foreshadowing...)
Day 11, Dakar back to Tambacounda
Visiting our support van on the way out of Dakar 10:07am
We set off from Accra with this Dodge Ram Promaster Cargo van that carried our crew, stuff; spare parts, snacks, first aid etc…
This van broke down in Guinea and we towed it all the way to Senegal.
The use of this van was donated by 5-time AISer and gentleman par excellence (David King D Adomako) to be used for THE QUINTUPLE QUEST.
Big news, Feb 8!, King D is also donating the recovery and repair of this van. What a generous gift! Thank-you King D. It's extremely generous of you to rescue us even on the part of the Quest where you couldn't join us. I'm sure this makes a huge difference to Dan economically and it frees the rest of us from worrying about how this will be resolved. You are an exceptional human being!
Monument de la Renaissance Africaine
Savana land with lots of trees
Back in Tambacounda
