Bissau City to Guinea Border
I had a reasonably poor night’s sleep as a new person moved into our dorm room and made a fair bit of noise. Then, for some reason, I couldn’t get back to a deep sleep again. I think my amygdala was alert to a stranger in my personal space and fed just enough adrenaline into my system to keep me vigilant. As a result, I was in a snappy mood most of the day.
We left the guesthouse/hostel/campsite at 8am heading toward the Guinea Border but with the understanding that we would not make it due to the poor quality of the roads and the distance, about 250 km. And, boy, were the roads poor. We were on the N1 out of Bissau and you would imagine that the primary international highway between 2 countries would be of, well, an international standard. It wasn’t. Once, it was a single file dual carriageway tarmac road stretching several hundred km but that was a long time ago. One of the guys on our trip, an 81yo who worked for decades in Africa and travelled this road 18 years ago, said that it was a good road then. Now, it’s covered in huge potholes and the surface is badly fractured. Also, in many places, the sides are eroded away so you get a narrow strip of battered tarmac in the centre of what once was a road. In maps.me, the goto navigation system, it designates the road as unpaved. On some sections, the tarmac is completely gone. All that’s left is beaten sand that is slightly better than broken tarmac but is also full of holes and undulations.
No doubt poverty, poor governance, corruption all played a part in this but I have seen similar in other West Africa countries. Apparently, it’s even worse in Guinea and further on. So far, we have seen cows, goats, dogs, pigs, chickens and donkeys loose on the road.
Navigating this road is very difficult as the truck weaves around to miss the worst of the potholes and we’re thrown around on the back. Our pace is also very slow so that the journey takes 4 or 5 times longer than on a normal road. We’re heading towards the Guinea Border. We won’t have time to cross today so instead will bushcamp and head for the border tomorrow.
You’d think it ‘romantic’ bouncing along in an expedition truck through the backwoods of Africa but it’s really not. It’s serious graft and quite tiring. Goodness knows how the driver, Jordan, is managing this. It must be knackering as he’s constantly working the steering wheel, the gears and the pedals. More power to his elbow.
However, with the benefits of 2020 hindsight, when numb bum syndrome has dissolved – along with cricks in the neck, back, legs, you mention it – it’s dead romantic! It’s what I signed up for.
We stopped for lunch at a typical small African town but pickings for us choosy westerners were pretty slim. I bought a baguette and some type of deep fried vegetable sausage type thing for 50 Francs each, about 8¢. I watched a woman make them and hygiene wasn’t on top of her list. I wondered if I was introducing some unwelcome critters into my gut biome. Apparently not as I suffered no ill effects.
We finally arrived at our bushcamp just outside the town of Gubú but more about that later.
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