Been in Benin

Having now left Benin only a few days ago I can’t recall much that had actually happened, which includes the daily distance. The tarmac has now gone and we are on dirt roads that are sandy and corrugated. With my off road rear tyre now on and with reduced tyre pressures it’s pretty easy going onboard big Des. Mick however, doesn’t have it so easy. His heavy road bike on road tyres, not surprisingly, doesn’t like this sort of surface. There is a problem with this incompatibility though. The problem is that if I ride the road as I should at a fast speed to skim over the bumps then Mick gets left way behind and I’m waiting a few miles up the road while he picks his bike up. Therefore I’m now riding just behind him at a very slow 20-45 kph which is actually harder to ride than at the two or three times the speed that I should be riding this type of surface that his VFR can't manage. Cameroun to Namibia could be painful...
Apart from the slow riding we camped twice more (I really need a shower like never before) firstly in a road construction compound after meeting a French guy named Didier who’s in the middle of his contract overseeing the construction of a 36km rode from the border. We were kindly taken out by four Beninian(?) engineers who were living in the compound near to where we pitched our tents to a local bar for a beer and general chit chat. Good guys and a nice bonus to an otherwise tiresome day. Our other two days in Benin pretty much followed suit with slow, hot, thirsty and dirty rides through the back and beyond and more wild camping before heading into Nigeria...