About Us
We are Phil and Matt, two guys who found themselves in West Africa and never left. When we are not riding scooters around West Africa, we run a hostel and restaurant in Bamako, Mali called The Sleeping Camel. After reading a bit more about us, make sure to read about you.
Our Travel Philosophy
Travel is privilege. We believe in approaching it with an open-mind and a heavy dose of respect for the local customs and cultural practices that we come in contact with. We believe in discovering a place on its own terms. We do not impose. We listen, and we learn. We are constantly aware that we are visitors. We are guests. And we should act like it.
We are also aware of the positive impact we can have as visitors. We do our best to support local establishments, artisans, guides and organizations that support their families and communities, and in many cases, drive meaningful development. Many of the places we visit receive little to no investment from outside (government or otherwise). We appreciate the fact that we are able to put money into these localities.
Our Philosophy on Itineraries
If there is one thing we have learned over the last 7 years it is that having hard and fast itineraries is just not working for us. If you are the sort of person that needs to plan things down to the minute, then maybe these aren’t the trips for you.
We have a plan, but for any number of reasons our plans could change daily. We should ‘nearly’ always be staying in places that we have pre-booked but as we like to say, nothing ever goes wrong on an SWA trip, things just might not go to plan.
An itinerary can change for any number of reasons, from considerations of the group to safety concerns related to riding abilities and/or conditions on the ground.
If a used car salesman said trust me, you probably wouldn’t, but we’d like to think that over time we have proven that our number one priority is keeping everybody healthy and happy.
About Matt
Matt grew up in Dalby, a small town in Queensland, Australia. He first moved to Africa in early 2000 and has been involved in the tourism industry ever since. He has led expeditions through 28 African countries and has been based permanently in West Africa since 2009. His most memorable travel experience in West Africa was crossing the western edge of the Sahara Desert for the first time in 2005.
At the Morocco/Mauritanian border, I found a local guide who only spoke Arabic and about 3 words of French (I don’t speak Arabic). Despite the guide’s skillset seemingly consisting of occasionally yelling ‘Le Plage’, sleeping and eating, we eventually made it through the desert to Nouakchott. I knew if the Atlantic Ocean remained somewhere to my right, we’d be ok. Such an awesome experience, even if at the time it felt anything but that. It did drive home how important is it to travel with someone who knows what they are doing.
About Phil
Formerly a middle school teacher in Washington, DC, Phil is now permanently based in West Africa. He originally traveled to Ghana in 2005, because he liked highlife music. Once he got there, he found other things — groundnut stew, Twi, mapouka (the dance and the liqueur), orange-headed lizards — that he also liked. In 2010, he quit his job to return to Ghana and to visit other countries in the region.
He currently lives in Mali with his wife, Bintou, their son, Andre, and their daughter Awa. When he is not cruising down the coast of West Africa on a scooter, you can find him at Postcards from Timbuktu, where he runs a project to support out-of-work tourist guides, or at his blog at philintheblank.net.