Safely in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

After a quick stop-over in Bamako, Mali, we've arrived safely in Abidjan, and, after some hassle of finding something available, we checked into a local residence. It has started poring down just now.
The next three to four days, we'll stay here, to discover sprawling Abidjan (4,5 million inhabitants) and get the visas for our next two stops, Ghana and Togo.
Should you need us, during our stay in Ivory Coast (and theoretically, also in the next four countries), we should be available on +225 41 56 85 06 (Moov No Limit roaming system).

The long and winding road to Conakry

Our trip had to go the long way round, as the more direct route has hardly any public transportation on it. 888km, 15 hours according to Google Maps, but I strongly feel this should be updated. We did it in about 60 hours, taking one bus (to Gabu, which was still paved), then on dirt roads by three shared taxis (normally of 7 people, but we often had to pay for remaining seats, giving us more room), first to the border, then onwards to Koundara where we spend the night in a reasonable hotel. From there, first a Renault 504 taxi which broke down once the paved road stopped, after which we hitched a 20 hour ride on a truck coming from Senegal with empty water containers to Labé. Since time was running short, we continued straight on with a Renault 19 narrowly seating 6 plus the driver all the way to Conakry. 

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In total, we spend 48 hours on the road and the meager sun of 50€ per person. The landscapes were spectacular and very lush. Guinea is often dubbed the "watercastle" of Africa, as many of the big rivers spring from here.However, it is also the 10th poorest country in the world and was heavily affected by the slave trade. Much reminded me of Haiti, where they often refer to Guinea as their African roots.

Nop, not a junk yard, but one of our taxi brousse.

Some of my favorite moments of the trip:
- Our faces, when,once we had the required amount of passengers, they started fiddling around under the hood of the car (the one shown above). I swear it seemed like they swap motor parts from one taxi to the next, according to whose turn it is.

- Thomas receiving an indecent proposal from one of the custom officers (female), when our truck was doing one of its numerous stops, to share a blanket during the night.

- The lady street vendors, who sold us a tasty plate of beans and rice at 50€ cent and gave us totally erroneous travel advice

- The two African mamas with children, who were stuck at 9pm to get to the next town, like us, and who were thrilled we would pay for the seats non taken.

- Our driver who, unwilling to pay bribes to the military, smoothly talked and drove his way through various checkpoints, each time accelerating while shouting:"When I come back, okay brother?" 

- The goodbye of our fellow travelers: when we arrived at Labé, after the long and dusty ride on top of the truck, the look they had of pity and admiration when we told them we had to go straight on to Conacry. Though I don't even know the names of most of them, the hardship shared creates a bit of a bond...

- The three year old that started dancing to the beat of the music from his mom's cellphone and enacting Tarzan

- Reading "Into the wild" while watching the sunset from on top of our truck

- Finding my inflatable Swiss Air neck cushion, which made my night more tolerable.

- the nightly crossing: arriving at around 10pm at a river, they had an système D of shuttling people and cars across that would have made MacGyver proud. With a wench and a cable, they manually pull the "ferry" (basically a flat surface with two lanes for passengers and a lane for cars covered in wood) across. Quite the experience to have, at night, with the only light coming from our (still quite large and heavy) truck, which also had to jumpstart the ferry by arriving at high speed and braking abruptly, shocking the ferry loose.

 - The discussion with the taxi driver, who started negotiating the price for our luggage with Thomas. 

• He: "It's 60.000."
• Thomas: "No, it's small, let's make it 30.000."
• He: "Okay, 50.000."
• Thomas: "25.000?"
• He (a bit confused): "40.000?"
• Thomas: "20.000?"
• He: (very confused now): "35.000?"
• Thomas: "Nah, 15.000 then."Laughter all around.
• He: "Okay, 30.000!"

-when one of our co-passengers, feeling sorry for us when he saw us, dusty, tired, eating a mere baguette, bought us some bananas.

- the numerous vultures, lending a very appropriate sense of doom to our trip....

- Thomas' reaction when, once we were in Conakry,  a cab driver asked us for 50.000 to take us to nearby a hotel he knew. We, used to the country side prices and having just paid 100.000 for 300km during a 12h trip, were scandalized and got out immediately. We found out later on that, though he had inflated the price, it wasn't as absurd and daylight robbery as we had initially thought...  

At our arrival in Conakry, all was not well. The results of the legislative elections held a month ago were announced on Friday (lien). The current party in power is supposed to have won the majority, which sparked some unrest on the main arteries of the city. This was still felt on our arrival Sunday evening, where we were stuck in traffic for over two hours. After our night in the truck and the day in the cramped taxi (I really, really understand why one uses the term "cramped" now ;), needless to say we were in a hurry to get some decent food, a shower and a good bed, so we checked into the first hotel we could find.

It took us three showers, a bath, three rinsing of shampoo, twelve ear-sticks and a shave to feel clean again and get to bed. Our flight leaving on Tuesday morning to Abdijan, so only one day to R & R (Rest and Recuperate) and look around...

Bissau - Expected internet silence

Our luxury stop is over. We left the Bijagos archipelago and notorious Solange, in a plane driven by a Thomas, a young French pilot who we'd had drinks with. He humored us by performing a 0G moment (Zero-Gravity): you know, when the downward motion of a plane cancels out gravity, and you become weightless. Next thing I knew, I looked next to me to see our luggage floating through the air. He also let me fly the plane for a couple of seconds (well, that is to say, I held the steering wheel and moved left and right very carefully once). It made my day, and two more firsts to add to our list!

Main square in Bissau.

After two nights in the dusty but pleasant capital of Bissau, we'll be making our way through what seems to be the roughest part of our trip, to long and winding road to Conacry.
Long way round, 24 to 48h to be expected, all with taxis brousses and a lot of patience, you can see our stops on the Google Map, which I update regularly (where we are currently is pinpointed by the thumbnail).

We need to get there by Monday, as we have our plane to Abidjan on the 19th at 6.30am. We don't expect any internet on the way, so no worries if you all is quiet on the Western African front. For anything urgent, send a text to Thomas' Belgian number!

Getting lucky: Ponta Anchaca

Our first stop in Guinée Bisseau already made us lucky: Hotel Ponta Anchaca (meaning luck), on one of the islands of the Bisseau Archilepago.
Small plane, fishing, beach, in short, paradise....

Chilling at Cape Skirring

We've been traveling for a a little over a month now, mostly roughing it, taking taxi brousses, staying at friends places or cheap hotels and some CouchSurfing. I usually travel on a shoestring budget, while Thomas can like things a bit more comfortable. Hence, we made a deal: most of the time during our two months and a half trip, we'll rough it (often the only option in West Africa anyway), but we'd take five pause luxe, breaks where we'd chill and enjoy ourselves in a fancier place, and not worry too much about the price to pay.
High time to have this first break, and spend some time chilling by the beach, eat good food in some nice surroundings. We chose La Maison Bleue at Cape Skirring, at the edge of the Senegalese-Bisseau border for our first pause luxe. Needless to say, these three nights have been thoroughly enjoyed!