"Today the world is a big jungle". Roberto Cavalli
We were back in Senegal for a second time after 10 days in The Gambia. We were heading south, towards the Guinea-Bissau border.
The south of Senegal is dense vegetation and wetlands. The green is beautiful. Traveling in the wet season has its own unique challenges, but the countryside seems to be at its best looking!
The border crossing took longer than expected, and it was getting late. We found a small dirt road, and camped in an old gravel quarry for the evening. It was another wet night, but we stayed mostly dry, and no lakes formed around our tents in the night!
We drove to Ziguinchor, a town in southern Senegal where the Guinea-Bissau consulate is located. The streets were mostly flooded, but we managed to find the consulate without much trouble. A nice man asked how many visas we needed and then immediately began filling out the passport stickers. Twenty minutes later, plus the fee, and we had them. If only all the visas were this easy!
We drove on towards the border of Guinea-Bissau and crossed easily. We had gotten supplies in Senegal, and searched for a campsite for the night. We found a road leading into a cashew plantation, and camped under the trees. We built a fire, the trees keeping off most of the rain.
The morning was spent driving to the capital, Bissau. Guinea-Bissau is absolutely beautiful. Small villages lined the mostly decent road, mud homes with grass roofs poked out from behind walls made from bamboo and woven sticks. Green rows of rice in the paddies, wet lands spreading out far into the distance, and birds of all types flying overhead. Huge Kapok trees stood amongst the never ending cashew and mangrove plantations. People walked with babies on their backs and baskets on their heads, waving as we passed. For the most part, other than the capital, the population lives in these small villages.
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| Quiet roads |
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| Guinea-Bissau roads |
Bissau was a nice surprise. Having never heard anything about this country, we had no idea what to expect. African capitals, from my previous experience, tend to fall into the very nice, or quite rough categories, the same as any city I suppose. As we arrived in the outskirts, we saw well kept buildings, very spaced out in comparison to other cities we had seen so far. Traffic was stop and go for a short time, but the markets on both sides of the road were a good distraction. The city is not large, and were soon in the center, among old Portuguese style homes with red tile roofs.
We found the Guinea embassy to get our visa, but the ambassador was working from home. The secretary said it would be faster to drive to the ambassadors home to make the visas, as we needed his signature. Chris volunteered and soon returned with the approved forms. Both visas for Guinea-Bissau and Guinea were remarkably easy to get!
We stayed two nights in the capital, wandering the old town, taking in a local football match, and a day trip out to the Isle do Rei island, a short distance off the coast. A nice relaxing time.
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| In our hotel in Bissau |
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| Chris and Jess on the boat to Isle do Rei |
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| Isle do Rei island |
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| Bissau sunset |
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| Bissau |
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| Bissau |
We planned on leaving to Guinea through the southern border, near a place called Candembell. The drive was beautiful, passing through more wet lands, forests, and villages. A full days drive brought us to Quebos, where customs stopped us. We told them our plan to cross the southern border, and they said the border road was bad, impossible to cross in the wet season. They also stamped an exit stamp in our passports, but not a true immigration stamp. They said if we reached the border, that the immigration official there was not very experienced, and this stamp would help them understand what they needed to do. Weird.
It was 18km on a worn, flooded, dirt track through dense jungle to the the town of Candembell. We waded through puddles to test the depths. Our cars did great! We arrived in a tiny collection of houses after dark. We asked for a place to put up our tents, and were taken to a man's house. Most of the village turned out to watch us set up tents on the porch of the home, and cook dinner. Everyone was very friendly and polite, and we slept well, staying very dry in the large storm that evening.
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| Evening drive to Candembell |
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| Candembell village |
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| Into the jungle |
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| Camping in Candembell village |
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| Heavy rains made for huge rivers |
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| Jungle roads |
In the morning, we found the immigration official, a very polite man who seemed entirely competent at his job. The border was a further 2km through the jungle, and if we made it, which we were told we would not, we should have the small border outpost call the immigration official, and he would take a motorcycle to the border to stamp our passports out of the country. A very smart plan!
The road got worse, mud, water, ruts. Soon we reached a small village, half a kilometer from the border post. The road dissappeared under water, a swamp in it's place. There was no going around, this was the end of our road. We turned around and started the 160km towards the north east border, near the town of Gabu. An amazing drive through the jungle, none of us regretted our attempt!
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