MAPA Project 2011 - West Africa
 

Finally completed my trip report from 5 weeks mapping national parks in Burkina Faso - Mali - Senegal

Trip report can be found here: http://siroccoverland.com/overland-r...a-trip-report/

Im not going to rewrite the report here so please visit the website which also has a lot of my photos. There are also many more photos on our Facebook page.

A little intro...

Background

The MAPA Project (Mapping Africa’s Protected Areas) has been doing its thing around the south and east of the continent whilst I was busy driving around Morocco in 2008. It wasn’t until Late August 2010 that I spotted a thread on the Expedition Portal notifying that they were doing the same for West Africa and looking for volunteers. I had not spotted the update for a number of months, but thought it worth getting an application in. This time around MAPA decided entrants needed to be in pairs to ensure compatibility. This being the case I needed a good friend who could take five weeks off with little notice, wanted to travel through some of the most politically unstable and corrupt countries of the world working voluntarily at the same time. Bush mechanics, a foreign tongue, medical knowledge, 4×4 driving skills, technical savvy and a thirst for outdoor living were all desirable extras.

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