Sierra Leone Border
Today was a very interesting day. We had a bit of a lie in this morning and had breakfast at half past eight instead of usual seven o’clock. Then we messed around for a bit and to let our tents dry from the condensation that had built up from the previous night, which was a little bit cold. We packed up our tents after that, at half nine, and left as a site as 10 am .
At 5 o’clock, or so, the 2 people who had overland cars left for the capital of Guinea, Conakry to get our visas for the Ivory Coast. We had each paid 700,000 Guinea Francs and the organiser was bringing that along with our passports and exit papers. The intention was that we would meet her later on before we got to the border and then we could all exit Guinea at the same time and begin the process of entering Sierra Leone.
At around 9am we got a message that a big explosion had taken place in Conakry and the whole city was being shut down as a result. They said that the Ivory Coast Embassy was closed so they were going to make their way back. Luckily, the cars were parked just outside the exclusion zone around the explosion which occurred at an oil depot and over a dozen were killed and hundreds were injured. They were able to exit the exclusion zone and get to their cars and drove back to to be with us.
We stopped for about 45 minutes to have a break, get some lunch food and to waste some time, basically because we didn’t want to get to the border too early without meeting up with the others who were making their way back from Conakry. I went off for a hunt for, as usual, l bread and cheese.
(Please click on any thumbnail above to enlarge the whole gallery for full size sliding photos)
There was a really lively local market and it was such an immersive African experience They were selling all sorts of things that I had never really seen before; all sorts of bits of animals like ears and tails and tongues and who knows what else. They had lots of little fish that had been dry roasted as they were a bit scorched looking. They also sold lots of other stuff such as fruit, household items and food, of course.
it was nearly all women who are working the stalls and also buying it and they were dressed in these extraordinary African clothes of extremely bright colours. As usual, they were all vibrant and full of humour and strength. They are quite amazing, the African women.
Back on the rig again to continue our journey to the Sierra Leone border. This one was a bit off the beaten path so not mad busy. The process seems to get smoother as we move south, with the exception of the Guinea border post from hell last week.
We exited Guinea without any bother and drove the short distance through no-man’s land to arrive at the Sierra Leone immigration centre. It seemed chilled and relaxed, or chillaxed as the young ‘uns say. An official came out to greet us and welcome us to her country. It was done with such real African ebullience, enthusiasm and extravagance that we were delighted. At least I was. We whizzed through the photograph session and had the visa stamped into our passports. As we were leaving, the same immigration official came out and asked for a photo with us all. Other officials joined in and took selfies with us. It was a very noisy, joyous occasion. By far, the best welcome I’ve had to any country.
Then, to top it off, we had armed police escorts to get us to our accommodation, about 100km away. They travelled in 4 relays. One would escorts us, sirens blaring, assault rifles on show and driving in the middle of the road forcing bikes and cars coming the other way to yield or stop. They would escort us for about 25km and then another pickup truck with paramilitary police in the back with lights flashing and sirens blaring. We arrived at our campsite quick as you like.
I think I’m going to like Sierra Leone
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