Africa-trip 2012 Guinea

To cross the border to Guinea was rather funny. There was a barrier where I had to stop the car. I walked towards a group of men sitting underneeth a tree playing some sort of game. It turned out to be the police checkpoint of Guinea. One of them asked me to sit down. And than nothing really happened. So I was just sitting and waiting. When they finished another game one of the guys told me I had to go to the Douane to get a laissez passer and than I had to come back. Good, it was maybe a 3 min. walk. After I asked for a laisser passer they asked me why I didn`t come with the car. I explained what the police wanted. One guy was turning up who already had an unfriendly face. He wanted to quote the car to know how much money I had to leave as a security at the border. I was telling him the embassy told me to get a laissez passer at the border. I even told him how much it cost and I told him as well nobody it going to quote my car and I would not pay any money for that. I was serious about it. My car was still outside of Guinea. I would have turned round and would have tried another border. But at the end he gave in and I went back with one of the guys. After he was talking to them things started to move. The police check behind me I went to the Douane. They were searching the car, but more out of interest than it was a real search. Shortly after the Douane was a third barrier. I didn't think much and stayed in the car. But after a couple of minutes a guy turned up to tell me I was at immigration and I had to step out of the car. Ok, he was actually checking the visa. Like usuall he wrote details down and gave me my passeport back without a stamp. I asked him about it and he started to smile. They all play a game, he took the passeport back and gave me my stamp. It was already late afternoon when I left the border. Siguiri was the town where I had to do the laissez passer, cause finally at the border they said they didn`t have any forms left. But I reckon they didn't want to take any responsability. It was already too late to go into town the same day. It is never a good idea to do what ever official buisness has to be done in the afternoon. So maybe 20km before Siguiri I went for my first bush-camp in Guinea. The laissez passer was easily done the next morning. They charged 150000 Guinea Francs which is about 15 € and, because I had a lack of local money, that's what I gave them. Two women who were  probably the wives of one of the officials looked at the Euro notes like they were out of pure gold. They never saw one before. I needed local money, but the banks didn't change any. They sent me to the market where at the end I found a guy who was changing money.

It looked like a lot of money but it was only 35€

 But I didn't change Euro, the  exchange rate was too bad. Instead I changed CFA. That's what I kept doing during the whole trip through Guinea. I didn't want to take the main road, so in Siguiri I turned off and went straight on a dirt track which was actually in good condition at the beginning but the further I went the worse it got. At the end of the day it turned into the worst track I have ever been on. Thinking this I didn't know it will go on like this for more than a week. I cannot remember how often I stepped out of the car to have a look for the “best” passage. Sometimes it seemed unreal. All these road were the only acces road to some villages or a whole area, so all the traffic had to move there. To be honest for a couple of days I didn't come across any car.

Road impression from the mountains in Guinea

They use these chinese scooters to do most of the transport. These guys are artists. They had up to four people on these things and on top of it the luggage, and than the roads. On a whole day driving sometimes I did not more than 50km. The other problem were the streams. There are sometimes no bridges. So there was the possibility to either take an overprized ferry or finding another crossing. With one exception I always found another crossing. One of these crossings was a real big stream and it didn't look possible to cross, too deep. I was waiting until the first guy turned up. Sure he was on a scooter and they were crossing with a little boat. But one of the kids who was navigating the boat was walking into the stream to show me how deep it was. When he came back I took him and placed him next to the car. It was a third way up the doors. So I was going for it. The Landrover was really not waterproofed. As soon as I entered the stream I had the water inside. It was just above the pedals, but it was no problem at all. The car so far did an incredible job anyway. More than once I was sure it'll go to tip over. Severall times I felt one of the front wheels was already airbourne but I always managed to keep it on it's wheels.

The people I met in the mountains were incredibly friendly. They were very calm, almost shy and sleeping next to a village never turned out to be a problem. And they just left me alone, they didn't bother me in any way. It was very relaxing. All this changed as soon as I entered the “tourist” area between Labé and Pita. It was back to the typical “white person, give me money” routine. I say tourist area but I actually never spotted any tourists. Later before Kindia I met an American couple on bicicles, the only white people I met in Guinée. The temperature at night dropped quite a bit which was actually really nice. During the day it was always around 37ºC but at night it dropped below 20ºC and once down to 8!!ºC. Fantastic. Labé and the surroundings were more than 1000meters above sea level, the reason for the cool nights. But as soon as the sun was rising it was back to hot. In the first hour after sun rise the temperarure sometimes went up by 12ºC.

When I came across a vehicle that's how they looked

The Landscape first looked exactly like in Mali but soon it was changing. It got greener and greener. Palm-trees and mango-trees took over more and more. I reckon the mango-trees in Guinea could feed the entire world with mangos. They were just everywhere. The road between Pita and Labé was the only paved road in Guinea with not too many potholes. One day I took a track down hill to visit the Kambadaga waterfalls. Getting used to bad tracks, this one was no surprise. Still it took me a good hour to get there. I found a nice flat place to park the car. The river did not have much water, towards the end of the dry season it was in fact not much more than a runlet. But the scenerie was absolutly breath taking. The falls were going down in three drops, each drop had maybe 100meters. And everything arround the falls was just green. It looked like being in a jungle. This was honestly the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I couldn't believe the beauty of it. This place would be worth to visit in the wet season. I sat down close to the first drop in the middle of the river bed, and I imagined how it might look arround here after the rains started. For sure I wouñd not sit at the same spot. The remaining water coming downhill was crystal clear. Feeling dizzy by so much beauty I went back to the car and met two kids and two guys who were selling me a camping ticket though it didn't look much like a camping to me. Actually it was just a flat piece of ground.

These people were picking cashew fruits

One of the guys was a guide who wanted to stay with me. It took me quite some talking to make him believe I wouldn't need his service. He would have stayed with me the whole day. I had a similar experience the other day when this guy turned up, sitting next to me for hours. When I stood up he stood up, when I walked off the car he followed me. I only could get rid of him by pretending to go to bed. Sure, I know he wanted to offer his service but I didn't get the point what for. At the end I spent a very relaxing day with some nice walks to the falls. From Kambadaga I took a sort of mainroad towards Kindia but turned off before to Tondon. On this road there were cars and even lorries moving and it was in insanely bad condition. It was like driving in a rock field. I felt sorry for the locals, cause all they've got were roads like this. They even were running Taxi services. Though the condition of the cars was beyond imagination, and still they were totally overloaded. In Guinea they used mostly the old Peugeot 505 break. It was a sheer impossibility how much they loaded in these cars not to mention the lorries. Most of them old tipper trucks. I reckon the only ones strong enough to survive the roads. Once I had one of these Taxis in front of me. It broke down in the middle of a bridge. The bridges in Guinea were not particularly wide, but I tried to pass by as close to the Taxi as possible. Maybe it was a little bit too close. One of the hinges of my rear door hooked on the Taxi, so when I tried to move the Taxi was moving with the Landrover, forward and backward. I got off the car and climbed by holding myself on the roofrack to the back of the car. I mean my tires were at the edge of the bridge, and there was no guard rail what so ever. At the end some people turned up and started to shake the Taxi until it was unhooked. I moved on but not without getting some dents and some of the Taxi's paint on my car. Luckily it was the same spot where last year a lorry at the Mauretenian border reversed into the Landrover. To get to Tondon or finding the road was not easy neither. I got lost several times. I always ended up in some villages which were a dead end. In one of the villages two teenagers hopped in the car to lead me the way. It looked to me as if it was the first time they were sitting in!! a car. If young folks get a transport they have to stand on the bumper or they are sqeezed into the back of a pick-up or they have to sit on the roof on top of the luggage but they never actally sit inside the car. They were grinning all the time. To the question how far to Tondon they said; ohh very far...! It turned out to be a distance of not more than 40km, but for them it was in a different world. From Tondon I went towards the beach. I wanted to see the beach. I was already puzzled when all the people I asked how to get there looked at me like;”What are you going to do at the beach”. Later I understood. The beach for them is not like what beaches are for us. They don't go there for a swim. The poorest people lived at the beach in cardboard houses. There was a sort of small dam which was used as a road at the same time. On both sides of the dam were houses. There was acces to the beach but it didn't look nice. The sand was rather black. I would have stayed at the beach if I would have found a nice spot but it was one village after the other, one poorer than the other, and at the end I gave up. People in Guinea are not exactly rich but it looked like the fisher were at the bottom end. What I spotted close to the beach were hundreds of bulls. Really big herds, and only bulls, not one single cow.

Scooter were crossing the river by boat

Before I turned off to the beach I spotted a sign which said auberge at the Kabo lake. That sounded promising but they didn't allow any camping, but I found a nice spot at the lake where I parked the car and stayed until the next morning. The lake was absolutly stunning. The water had maybe 28-30ºC and it was surrounded by Palm and Mango-trees and by some others I didn't had a name for. Just green without any sign of being used for tourism at all. Like a virgin lake, beautiful. There were two houses close by and the people came over to have a look who was parking in their yard. There was one problem; at night the temperatur didn't drop at all, and the humidity was raising. Even there were no mosquitos at all I had a terrible night. Too hot, too humid. I couldn't stay there not one day longer. My time in Guinea was running out anyway so I was planning to slowly go back via the mountains. To get there I had to take a short distance of the main road in Guinea, the bit close to Conakry. And prompt I was hit by police corruption. That was the other side of Guinea. I was not wearing a seat belt. But hey, by the time I was sitting there cars were passing by without any lights or doors with people sitting on the roof but still he wanted money. Funny was the bench he was sitting on just collapsed when I tried to sit on it as well. So we all ended up on the floor. I handled him down to 20000Guinea Franks and went on. Passed Kindia I went back up to the mountains. One evening it started to rain. I was standing there in the rain hoping for some more, which for sure didn't come. After some more days driving on these roads I've got tired of it. Not to mention the car. It didn't make any trouble but the steering and the gearbox felt and sounded different already. I came by gold mines owned by Americans and a plane wreck. The wreck didn't look too bad, ok, the engines were long gone, but there was no damaged to the body. Close to Siguiri I came by some fields were thousands of people were working. I didn't have a glue what they were doing there until I gave a guy a lift into town. He told me these people were looking for gold. I had never seen such a thing. People standing in the mud digging with their bar hands for gold. I asked the guy if there ever someone is finding any gold and he said yes now and than a very little piece, but that's all what matters, it keeps them going. The second news he told me was in Mali had happened a coup d'etat while I was in Guinea and the borders were closed, but the guy said they might reopen the day after tomorrow. Fine I thought. At the next checkpoint I asked about the latest news and the answer was the next day the border will be open again. I made an early stop and went straight for the border the next day. I crossed on a different border. It didn't start well. The police wanted money cause I didn't respect a stop sign, which I did. All of the sudden I was sick of all this corruption. Every bloody checkpoint was asking for money. Money, money and again money. My fuse went. I started to yell at them, I had enough. Surprisingly they gave in. The boss came and told me he wanted me to leave his country with a good memory. Fair enough I thought. I went on to customs, where I had to pay more money and than to the last check and they got me. The person in charge asked me for insurance, which I had, but he said I would need a tourist insurance which was rediculous. They just wanted money. My fuse blew again and I was trying to find a way, but I couldn't go backwards nor forwards, they had me, and after 6 hours I gave up payed and left the country. I left Guinea with mixed feelings. The incredible friendly people and the absolutly stunning landscape which I loved very much. On the other side were the corrupt authorities and the insanely bad roads. Guinea, love and hate.

Click here to watch some pictures.