Its not much of a problem on the Atlantic route because there are very few settlements or people. You do see small incidents of it across Africa. As to how to deal with it, well dodge. Its just one of those things, there is little point trying to chase them as they disappear off into their village which they know and you don't and if you do manage to catch up with them then if you do anything, there is a strong chance that the local villagers will react back against you. The fact that the kid threw a stone in the first place won't matter, your an outsider versus a village kid. Re the string across the road, usually they are just trying to get you to stop so they can beg money or try and sell something to you. I haven't heard of any attempts with real ropes or actually trying to knock someone off their bike, its pretty harmless and not something to get worried about. Better to slow down and crawl through rather than trying to race through, you don't want to hit accidently hit a child
[This message has been edited by Toby2 (edited 26 February 2006).]
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