Pita Archives - gus1thego

Guinea to Sierra Leone

After some long travel days and a baby puking on me on the bumpy roads in Guinea, I was honestly a bit tired to say the least and very excited to get out of Guinea’s capital Conakry’s craziness and into Sierra Leone, the country of white beaches and diamonds.

The Ebola Outbreak

When I had to go from Guinea down south to Sierra Leone, I a took bus, shared taxi, motor bike, basically every possible vehicle in order to finally reach Sierra Leone, the land of the white beaches, which I heard so much good stuff about. Besides a big Ebola outbreak few years ago which killed +10,000 people. Terrible!

Ebola just found in Congo again. Sierra Leone on alert!

Not Allowed To Enter Sierra Leone?

But I didn’t want to think too much about that. Like always. Just go!

First of all I was told that my vaccination card wasn’t complete to enter Sierra Leone. I told the border police that my doctor gave me all the vaccines which were needed. After a little talk with the Sierra Leonean border police, they told me: “This is not the Official Vaccination Card.” I told them that it was how the Official Vaccination Card we get in Denmark looks like, even though it was just a copy of it, (as I would be afraid to lose my original one,) and they luckily believed in my super convincing explanation.
I then had to go through two offices more for registration and thought okay, now I’m almost in Sierra Leone.. But then the lady at the registration office said: “Now you go into that room, to the ‘Big Boss!’

Border crossings in West Africa can be complicated and tiresome

My Meeting With The Big Boss

The ‘Big Boss’ was a big guy, probably around 50 years old, wearing a suit and with a mad look. He said “sit down” with a brutally dark voice and then started to look at my passport without saying anything for 2 minutes. It felt like a reeeally long time in there, because he looked really critically on every page and visa.

He then looked at me and opened his big mouth. “What are you doing here in Sierra Leone?” I replied “I’m just visiting the country as a tourist.” He didn’t say anything and continued to look at my passport.

It seemed like I was just about to get allowance to enter Sierra Leone, sitting in the ‘Big Boss’ office with him lifting his arm to give me the stamp, but then he put the arm down slowly and asked me:

“Which hotel in Sierra Leone?” Damn…

The Missing Hotel Reservation

SH*T. How could I forget to find a hotel name or to fake a hotel reservation in Sierra Leone.

I told ‘Big Boss’: “Give me one second..”

I was trying to get some internet connection, so I could say a name of a hotel, but there was absolutely zero connection at the border.

‘Big Boss’ looked impatiently at me and raised his voice. “I NEED A HOTEL RESERVATION.”

I replied: “It’s called Freetown Hotel.” Big Boss: “I don’t know that one?” I said: “At the beach?” He said: “There’s no one with that name.” I thought oh no, this is NOT good.

He continued: “We can’t let you in to Sierra Leone without a Hotel Reservation. Impossible.” I realized I had to make a quick move, otherwise entering Sierra Leone wouldn’t be for this time, which would destroy my travel plans completely. I didn’t want ‘Big Boss’ to destroy it for me!

I said: “Let me just call my friend about the hotel name.” He stared at me angrily with his scary mad look.. Of course I couldn’t call my friend with no connection at the border, but while I was pretending to call my friend, I took a quick look in ‘Big Boss’s’ book, which was upside down in front of him, and in 2 seconds I could see a hotel name called ‘YMCA.’ I started to scratch my eyes to distract him a bit..

YMCA in Sierra Leone

I took my phone to my ear and faked a call: “Hello Samuel (quickly made up name), what was the name of that hotel.. At the beach in Freetown? Arh, YMCA, okay thanks!” Without talking to any person of course.. When ‘Big Boss’ heard YMCA, he said “good” with his extremely manly voice and continued “Welcome to Sierra Leone.”

I didn’t go to that hotel, but..

Thank you, ‘Big Boss!’

Had to buy a Sierra Leone t-shirt out of pure excitement!

Entering Sierra Leone felt extra good after my meeting with the ‘Big Boss,’ he was indeed one of the biggest bosses I’ve ever met, and to top it off I met a nice lady who brought her rooster in the shared taxi in Makeni, Sierra Leone!

Hello Sierra Leone, my country number 115!

Gustav

gus1thego.com

After an amazing time in Guinea Bissau, it was time for me to start a new adventure. Off to Guinea, which I only knew from a big ebola outbreak 3 years ago before.

Staying in the slums of Bissau, Guinea-Bissau

Interesting stay in Guinea-Bissau

I left from Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau to Gabu, a city in the east of Guinea-Bissau and spend some time exploring Gabu, before making the decision to head to the bus station and see if there were any busses or taxis, which was going to Guinea in the afternoon.

I asked for Labe, a relatively big city in Guinea and a guy there took me to the ticket office in Gabu. I bought the ticket and was told to sit and wait with a bunch of other people on a small bench.

Waiting for the bus in Gabu, Guinea-Bissau. One guy was wearing football shoes and a shirt, love the combo!

Different prices at the bus station

All people paid 14.000 CFA, including myself, but I had to pay 3000 CFA extra, because of my small extra bag, eventhough all the local people carried many extra bags + a lot of other things from their home, without any extra fees.

Love Africa sometimes..

Anyway, I didn’t want to discuss that further with the ticket guy and I accepted it, because I thought I would be one of the last persons to join the bus, and that we were then ready to leave the place and go to Guinea, my country number 113.

But no. We waited for one hour, we waited for two.. We waited for three.. Nothing really happened.

We were 11 people sitting there waiting impatiently and I counted the seats in the mini bus to 13 seats, if everyone was sitting super close, so I hoped a solution was going to be found soon.

The Rastafarian Guy

A Rastafarian guy from Guinea, who showed me some weird bar photos on his phone from his time in Germany

I was small talking a bit with a Rastafarian Guinean guy, (he didn’t speak any English though,) but we went for a nice omelette sandwich together while waiting. Very popular in Guinea-Bissau! He showed me some weird photos too from Germany, where he went to a bar apparently!

Lack of English and lack of patience

Nobody in the Gabu bus station spoke English, but I tried to tell the ticket guy that there were only two free seats, but he started to say ‘tomorrow’ and signaled to me that we would probably first be able to go tomorrow instead of today, because the bus wasn’t full.

My general impression, after having traveled to many places in Africa, is that time is never a factor. I’m used to it, but to say the bus would first be able to leave tomorrow morning, because of 2 people missing pissed me off, especially after having waited for more than 3 hours in an insane heat.

I could see people were losing their patience too like me and I told the guy that we would maybe meet two persons on the way. He rejected me again.

We waited 30 minutes more..

Waiting for many hours to go to Guinea at the bus station in Gabu, Guinea-Bissau. The ticket guy to the right!

I then lost my temper and told him to give me back my overpaid money, and everyone at the station now had their eyes planted on me. I pointed out on the street and said I was going to find another solution.. He could understand my hand gestures and facial expression.

That’s when stuff got serious.

Leaving Gabu in a new bus

I could see he was now afraid of losing the 3000 CFA going directly to his pocket, and he said in a mix of Portuguese, French and English that I should wait 5 minutes and he would just go to the toilet.

When he came back, he had called someone else. That guy brought an even smaller, older and more crappy mini bus, with windows that couldn’t even close. Three people moved all of our luggage to the ‘new’ bus.

They put some fuel on it and a guy was trying to fix the brakes. After few minutes the ticket guy told us we were ready to go, looking at me directly. He smiled to me and I smiled back and we shaked hands and both laughed a bit. No bad feelings, I just love Africa sometimes! All of this for two free seats on the bus..

A beautiful girl waiting at the station in Gabu, Guinea-Bissau

Finally off to Guinea, my country number 113

When we got in the small mini bus with windows that couldn’t close, we were sitting there super close to each other and it was impossible to move. This was going to be a long drive! Everyone was smiling at me and greeting me, because people were happy to leave today and not tomorrow.

Right when we left the station, two local people were asking if the bus went to Labe, Guinea.. Really? So why did we need to change bus!? Anyways, in the bus with them too! The bus was absolutely packed now!

Some Of The Most Bumpy Roads Ever

We drove for hours on some of the most bumpy roads I’ve ever experienced driving on, even as an experienced African traveler, and then the Rastafarian guy told me that we were now at the border when it was late evening.

Me and the Rastafarian guy, both very tired!

We went out of the bus and there was this big lake we had to pass. We were standing in Guinea Bissau and on the other side of that lake was Guinea.

The big problem was there was no bridge.

I could see a small tree platform and some goats on the other side and nothing more, except for some pretty interesting observations in the water.. Crocodiles and other interesting stuff? Most possibly!

Standing in Guinea-Bissau, ready to cross the river to Guinea! Completely covered in dust, because the windows in the bus couldn’t close

We waited for three hours until night time, and then someone came to the tree platform on the Guinean side and brought it over to our side.

Passing the border on an old, shaky, tree platform

We then put the mini bus on the tree platform and me and 8 African guys had to pull a rope by hand power to get us over the river. We were all drained when we made it to the other side. Talk about an adventurous border crossing!

It was totally dark now on the other side and we went through 4 or 5 border stops, where we all had to get out of the bus each time, having our passports and documents checked, before we squeezed together again and continued on the dusty, narrow, bumpy African roads. I knocked my head into the windows several times and had to buy coffee on every stop we made, because sleeping on this route would leave you seriously damaged. And I hate coffee!

At around 3am in the night the Rastafarian guy, who apparently went to Germany, showed the pictures of him there to a lady in the bus and the lady didn’t believe him. They started to shout at each other for the next hours and everyone in the bus was suddenly taking part in the argument, except for me! Nuts!

Trying to stay positive in the drama bus

Good thing was the discussions helped me to stay awake. But damn, Guinean people can get angry, that’s a fact! Didn’t need to buy any coffee for these hours at least..

At 5 am it all culminated with a woman’s baby puking on my bag and on another Guinean guy, because of the crazy driving on the dust roads! The smell some African busses can have with lack of deo/perfume, motor oil and other ingrediens, just got even worse. When I arrived in Labe, Guinea at 10 in the morning, I was so super exhausted and relieved to have reached the destination.. It was great to get in a taxi!

When arriving in Labe, Guinea completely done with dust everywhere. I took a shared taxi to a guesthouse to sleep a bit!

But also happy to have taken part in such a cultural, adventurous, scary, off the beaten path bus ride from Guinea Bissau to Guinea, which I’m now thinking back on with a smile.

What a way to enter my country number 113!

Guinea

Real travel, always