Why this ride
It goes by way of Bassari Country: Bassari, Niokolo-Koba National Park and back through Bassari Country: Bassari. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Bédik Bandafassi and Niokolo-Koba National Park
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 608 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 10 h 30
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bédik Bandafassi
In the hills of south-eastern Senegal, near the border with Guinea, the Bedik people live in villages perched on rocky hilltops, reached by steep paths through the bush. Their round huts with tall conical thatched roofs, clustered closely together, and their traditions of masks, initiation and seasonal festivals have survived because of their isolation. The Bedik country around Bandafassi is part of the Bassari Country: Bassari, Fula and Bedik Cultural Landscapes, listed by UNESCO in 2012, along with the lands of their Bassari and Fula neighbours.
Read the complete Bédik Bandafassi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bédik Bandafassi is where the day begins. Next is Bassari Country: Bassari.
2. Bassari Country: Bassari
Where south-eastern Senegal meets Guinea, the flat savannah gives way to the first hills of the Fouta Djallon, and in these hills live the Bassari, a people who have kept their own beliefs, language and rituals despite centuries of pressure from surrounding powers. Villages of round huts with conical thatched roofs sit on hillsides among terraced fields of fonio, millet and peanuts, and the year is punctuated by initiation ceremonies in which masked figures in costumes of leaves and fibres come out of the sacred forest.
Read the complete Bassari Country: Bassari write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bassari Country: Bassari comes up about 147 km into the recorded legs. Next is Niokolo-Koba National Park.
3. Niokolo-Koba National Park
In the south-east of Senegal, where the country presses against Guinea, the Gambia river begins to gather itself, and around its upper reaches lies Niokolo-Koba, one of the largest and oldest national parks in West Africa. It covers nearly a million hectares of savanna, dry forest, gallery woodland and grassy floodplain, and it holds some of the last strongholds of West African wildlife. UNESCO recognised it in 1981, and it has been listed as in danger since 2007, mostly because of poaching and pressure from outside.
Read the complete Niokolo-Koba National Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 305 km into the recorded legs you reach Niokolo-Koba National Park. Next is back through Bassari Country: Bassari.
4. back through Bassari Country: Bassari
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bassari Country: Bassari write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Bassari Country: Bassari, late in the day. Next is Bédik Bandafassi.
5. Bédik Bandafassi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bédik Bandafassi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Bédik Bandafassi. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Bédik Bandafassi to Bassari Country: Bassari
Bédik Bandafassi → Bassari Country: Bassari is 147 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bassari Country: Bassari to Niokolo-Koba National Park
Bassari Country: Bassari → Niokolo-Koba National Park is 159 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Niokolo-Koba National Park to back through Bassari Country: Bassari
Niokolo-Koba National Park → back through Bassari Country: Bassari is 159 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Bassari Country: Bassari to Bédik Bandafassi
back through Bassari Country: Bassari → Bédik Bandafassi is 147 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.