Michal is the man of the day: when we discussed in the morning if we go to the tough racing stage or do the tarmac-road touring route instead, he only said “I had enough of offroading”. That was so frank and convincing, the decision was made.

Of course I couldn’t resist and still finished some geo-challenges at the beginning and at the end of the stage, but in between we were driving on (potholed, as always in Senegal) sealed roads. The border crossing to Guinea-Bissau was easy compared to the previous ones, although corruption is even worse here, nobody is doing anything without cadeau.

Tonight’s camp is in the small village Canjufa. We were promised some food and a nice African party, but neither of both have become true. There are still hundreds of villagers in the camp, but their main objective is cadeau. There were also some cases of theft. The first impression of Guinea-Bissau is so-so.

But why is Michal the man of the day? The planned dirt track of the racing route in the national park was closed because of a bush fire. The teams had to make a huge detour on very bad rocky tracks and are only reaching the camp now. With our two sick cars this last day would have become anoter driving-all-night Waterloo.

Thanks Michal for your open statement in the morning.