Guinee

December 2008

 

Harald and I got the visa for Guinee in Bamako at the embassy. It was quite expensive, about 60 Euros; if you want a laisser passer, get sure that all the data is correct. The border post at Kourémalé is big and corrupt: customs (emigration from Mali) complained about the laisser passer from the embassy and wanted 10 000 CFA to issue a “correct” one, police some metres later wanted 5000 CFA because they only accepted the laisser passer of the embassy which was still incorrect. It could probably have been of great use for Harald to speak French and stay polite at this moment, but he was so nice to struggle with  all the bureaucracy, so I shouldn’t complain.

The good tar road ends in Guinee. There once were tarred roads, now there are very big holes. Taxis drive like crazy, though. On the route we took camping is unknown, mostly we rented a room in a hotel or a Christian guesthouse and Harald slept in the car, I in the room. Bathrooms were always pretty clean and there was some kind of shower opportunity. Can’t remember the toilet paper situation, carry some with you. Public inner-city transport often happens with motorbikes while overland one is done by cars and vans.

The time we crossed Guinee (and we really just drove through) I haven’t gotten used to real black Africa yet, so traveling was a bit stressful. It’s just dirt, chaos, fat market women at their food and vegetable stalls and humid heat. The Guinee Franc is worth about  the CFA with one more zero, but better get informed on place. I didn’t see any ATMs or banks, Harald changed money at a filling station (!) in Siguiri or in the hotel. Dollars or Euros are very welcome, change comes in local currency.

Be aware of really bad road conditions, overloaded taxis with suicidal driving style, sweat and an instable political situation. When I was driving back to Mali (my taxi driver was a real treasure, he drove comparatively sensibly and took really care of me, taking me to a local’s café for breakfast and dinner and all), the president was found dead the same day and military took over! Don’t drive at night (as is recommended for all of Africa), the goats and sheep are lying on the street then. By the way, the goats look quite funny, they are some dwarf race. Hygienic standards are quite low, especially on the countryside, but there is no need to panic. I was wondering all the time what the guinea worm is… Get informed well about diseases you might catch, but I guess health shouldn’t be a problem when taking the usual sensible precautions like taking malaria prophylaxis/prevention, drinking only bottled water and eating only well-cooked food. I even ate raw vegetables and didn’t have any problems.

 

Because we were just driving through the country, I can hardly tell anything about what to do and see in Guinee. It must have some scenic routes, and I heard you can visit some waterfalls or indigo dyers in the more touristic north. Most of where we went through was more or less hilly rainforest, the most forest I saw at the West Coast. Really. And that was great just to see. The heat and humidity is another thing. In the area between Guinee, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia, at Lola, there is a chimp research station. The area is popular for chimpanzee research, I heard that scientists from the known Max Planck Institute Leipzig are at the Mounts Nimba if the political situation allows it. Lola is a very small station, but we could camp there and I went with some guys to watch the chimpanzees, which costed about 20 US-dollars or less. You’ll pay 30 times more in Ruanda or Uganda. Perhaps it’s better organized and there’s a guarantee to see the chimps/gorillas, but for me the tour in Lola was really okay.

 

The majority of the people in Guinee seem to live in small simple settlements in the forest, often around a huge tree and life from what they grow (mainly bananas and yam). They keep lifestock such a goats, sheep and chicken, even pigs. Men in the countryside carry a gun and a machete so they look very dangerous, but they are okay. Who can afford wears typical African tailored clothes, who not (the majority), what is donated by Europeans and issued by help organizations or sold cheap on the street. Some muslims seem to be more severe than in Mali or even in Mauretania because I saw only in Guinee women completely veiled in black, they even wore the usual slippers with black socks, so you could’t see any skin!

 

As far as I remember we only bought bread (Baguette), everything else we carried with us. There are the usual food stalls and fresh produce sellers at the market. In hotels food can be good, I had fried bananas (allol) because there wasn’t anything else without meat. At local’s restaurants, I found the food quite good, too. It’s just simple, with meat or egg. Guinee people seem to like baguette filled with something like scrambled eggs, but on the menu they won’t write that it comes in a piece of bread! Coffee is terrible because at least at the street stalls it’s Nescafe with plenty of sweetened condensed milk. Despite people keep plenty of sheep and goats, there is no milk around. Don’t even think about cheese.

 

Unfortunately I didn’t keep a diary the time we drove through Guinee, so I’m not 100% sure about the cities.

In Kankan we stayed at a Catholic guesthouse where I took a room for 60 000 franc. It was quite clean, with shower in the room, but shared toilet across the corridor. You can see the remains of a great colonial architecture and city planning, tree-lined streets and all.

We went along the main road to Kissidougou, where we/I took a room at the Hotel Savanna (?), 60 000 francs with a good restaurant. Don’t do that at weekends because there is a discotheque attached to the hotel and it is booked out because the men want a short distance between discotheque and bed in case they make friends with one of the party-girls (I think and no offence meant, that is common in Africa). Not to mention the noise.

Then we more or less bushcamped. This is quite difficult to do because of all the dense forest, so you’ll have to ask at a settlement (if they know French) or a school. We found a place where they built a new street and where they had parked all the engines for the night. So Harald asked the guards if we could park there too and we had a guarded bushcamp (I slept in the tent).

Then we camped at the chimp research centre near Lola. They have a well with drinkable water. To be true, it is a little bit hard to find…The road to there is small and muddy.

 

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