The Route

The plan was to ride from Basse to Fajara with a one-night stop at Soma. This meant not one but two long days on the bike:

• Day 1 — 195 km from Basse Santa Su to Soma
• Day 2 — 175 km from Soma to Fajara

That’s 370 km total, and we needed to maintain an actual riding speed of about 22 km/h to leave and arrive in daylight, meaning we’d be on our bikes for nearly 9 hours on the first day and 8 hours on the second. We didn't want to ride in the dark, so with an 11-hour sunrise to sunset time in January, that gave us just two hours or so for breaks — not a lot!

See below for current weather in Basse (start).

Click for weather forecast
See below for current weather in Soma (overnight stop).
Click for weather forecast
See below for current weather in Fajara/Banjul (finish).
Click for weather forecast