Pablo and Palm Wine

Arriving in Ossuyeh by the early afternoon, we walked the length of the small town to a campenment where we were staying. The walk was a bit of a killer - taking about 20 minutes down a dusty track in burning sun, but we eventually dragged ourselves there. Worryingly we were staying just down the road from an army barracks, with armed soldiers and jeeps rolling around town. Also saw a tank! Cool, but in a very respectful way considering the recent problems in the region. So obviously didn't take too many pictures around the town.

The campenments are a Government-funded scheme where villagers can get money for buildings and utilities in return for housing travellers and tourists. Our campenment was run by a friendly, plump African woman called Elizabeth. The room was great, nothing more than we needed, but we did have to share two single beds between three. Cosy nights. The food at our place was amazing. We ate there all the nights we stayed, and had prawn bolognase, fresh fish, bush meat and rice, and pretty much a whole chicken with veg (saw the little thing in its last moments on Earth). There were always three courses: avocado/melon, main course and some fruit for after. The oranges were lovely but left your lips tingling a lot. Must have been some kind of reaction to the skins.

Down the lane was the VTT(Velo-tout-terrain/all terrain bikes), where we organised three days worth of trips - bikes, kayaks and a trek. I shall explain these in following posts. Opposite the VTT was Pablo's shop, but more like a shack. He was a friendly man who was always sitting out front making necklaces. Inside his shop he had carvings, instruments, paintings, beads - the whole shabang. As we were chatting, he offered to get us some palm wine for the evening. Unsure what it was at first, we dutifully agreed and said we'd meet him after our meal.

Heading down in the evening (by the way Africa goes dark in seconds, no real transition from dusk to night) we hung a torch in Pablo's shack and got chatting in broken French and English. He invited his sister, reggae Ami (pronounced like the French for friend), who turned out to be a palm reader and masseuse, and kept calling Pablo "Pablo Escobar". Had some palm wine, which is a cloudy white liquid, collected in the morning from palm trees and left to ferment during the day. Tastes quite vile to be honest, but after a few swigs the taste seems to improve! Basically poor man's moonshine.

Ami read mine and Dree's palms (different to the tree) and apparently he will meet a girl on this trip and so will I. Kind of true for Dree - we are meeting Kerry in Bamako, Mali on November 1st - and hopefully for me. Maybe I'll bring back a wife! Hopefully not a child though, I can hardly look after myself, let alone a dependant! We also found out that Ossuyeh has a radio station, played courtesy of Ami's mobile, and she passed me the phone when she called the on-air number. Not sure if I got my "shout out" onto the airwaves though...

One night, after our trek ride in the morning, Ami turned up at the campenment to give me a massage. Rather awkward, as I neither asked for, nor wanted one. Think I lost a friend there.

All in all Ossuyeh is a brilliant place, but read the next few posts to find out what we did on our trips out, and also our visit to meet the King of the region. Royalty people!