Listen to Africa is a 24,000-kilometre cycling expedition, recording African sounds and voices.
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Gallery: Cycling across the Sahara A few of our favourite photographs from our ten weeks in the Sahara – cycling the Atlantic route from Guelmim in Morocco to Nouakchott in Mauritania. Photographs by Huw Williams and Bex Sumner.
Leaving Western Sahara: breezes, borders, bureacracy and… gerbils Music and colour, sunlight and smiles, bureaucracy and political drama; we’ve reached West Africa – or at least, one of its far northern outposts in Mauritania.
Gallery: the Maghreb in monochrome A bike’s eye view of the westernmost part of the Maghreb (the Atlantic route through Morocco and Western Sahara), taken during a 24,000 kilometre cycling journey across Africa. Photographs by Huw Williams and Bex Sumner, April to July 2009.
The merry nutcrackers 
On the way from Sidi Ifni to Guelmim in southern Morocco, we cycled past a women’s cooperative extracting oil from argan nuts. We went in to meet the women, get laughed at and repeatedly bash our fingers with a heavy rock. You can read (and watch a slideshow) about the cultural, environmental and economic importance of argan in Huw’s Spotlight: all about argan .
Recorded on: 18th June 2009, 14:00 local time.
Location: Between Sidi Ifni and Guelmim, southern Morocco ( view on map )
Copyright: Listen to Africa
Spotlight: all about argan The first in a series of “spotlights” on people, projects and ideas that we find inspiring. This one’s on the argan tree, the women’s cooperatives who extract oil from it, and the tree’s importance in preventing desertification.
Soundscape: A short walk through Sidi Ifni at night 
Recording this was really an experiment / learning experience for us but we thought we’d post it anyway; we loved Sidi Ifni and hope these sounds evoke a little of its atmosphere. Main lesson learned: cycling sandals (with metal cleats sticking out of the bottom) make the worst possible footwear for a sound recordist…
Date and time recorded: 21:40 local time, 8th June 2009
Location: Sidi Idni, Morocco ( view on map )
Copyright: Listen to Africa
Gallery: Southern Morocco (Essaouira to Sidi Ifni) Photographs from southern Morocco, taken in May and June 2009, during our cycling journey across Africa. (Photos from the far south of Morocco will go into a separate Sahara gallery.) Photographs by Huw and Bex.
Thoughts from Sidi Ifni: tourism, climate change and roadside encounters We’re now in a small town overlooking the sea at the edge of the desert where the electric lights flicker and goat meat sizzling on charcoal sends drifts of smoke across the streets at night.
Common Bulbul This has been our daily alarm call here in Agadir. This individual sits in the palm tree straight opposite our balcony and sings away until just after dawn, when other ambient noises increase. It only starts again in the evening, and then only briefly. We got a decent visual identification and we’re almost certain it’s a Common Bulbul; our slight doubts arise because this individual sounds quite different to the other Common Bulbuls we’ve heard here.
Species: Pycnonotus barbatus
Common name (English): Common Bulbul
Date and time recorded: 05:10 local time, 28th May 2009
Location: Apartment balcony, Agadir, Morocco ( view on map )
Copyright: Listen to Africa
Cycling through a changing country 
I’m writing this on the balcony of a small apartment in Agadir, southern Morocco. I have geraniums around me and palm trees in front of me and, just inside, there’s a cool, breezy apartment – with a bath! And a fridge!
