West Africa 2017: Conakry to Freetown, Fonyo, and the start of village life.

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." Ralph Waldo Emerson

We had arrived in Conakry on a Thursday night. Our goal was a Sierra Leone visa, however, the embassy was closed on Friday morning due to the muslim feast. We were stuck till Monday. On the upside, we had the chance to explore Conakry!

We quickly changed hotels from the expensive one we had on Thursday night, to the Catholic mission, right in the heart of Conakry. The mission has a large piece of property in the city, and has a few simple rooms to let out to travelers. It had secure parking, comfy beds, showers, and breakfast included. All we could ask for.

Conakry was quiet. Mostly this was due to people traveling for the feast we think. The streets were full of potholes, and trash was everywhere. It seemed like many people had just abandoned the city, but we found it to be quite enjoyable. We spend the weekend exploring downtown and taking care of odds and ends. We went to a concert, Levi Bobo, one evening, and found the venue crowded with locals who danced and showered the band members with cash. We spent an afternoon at a 4 star hotel where we bought a drink to be able to use their wifi. All and all, it was a very relaxing time and soon it was time to move on.

One of the more interesting cars we saw in Conakry

Obama bar in Conakry

Conakry traffic

Catholic mission

On Monday we were able to get the Sierra Leone visa quickly, and started out of town towards the southern border. We made a meeting point in another city as we knew we would get separated. Traffic was bad, and the police were out in force, looking for any excuse to give tickets, whether or fabricated reasons. We were stopped four times, but talked our way out of paying anything, as we had all the correct items in our car, and the correct paperwork. After battling the traffic for hours, we finally arrived at the meeting point, and found Chris and Jess. They had similar experiences, having to go to 3 separate police stations with angry cops, only to finally find out that foreign cars do not, in fact, need to have a vignette sticker for road tax. Woof, Guinea police were tiering. We regrouped, and headed for the Sierra Leone border.

That evening, we slept in what we thought was an overgrown, unused field. In the morning, we were woken up by someone tapping on our tents. We came out to find about 30 villagers standing on the dirt road, staring at us. The chief of the village spoke to us through an interpreter, who spoke to us in French. They said that where we had camped was an in use, community field, and we had trampled on a portion of their crop, fonyo, a rice type of grain. We apologized profusely, and the chief said it was OK, as we didn't realize it was a crop, and said we were free to go. Oops! We would be much more cautious in the future.

15km before the border, the potholed road became a beautiful highway. We left Guinea, and were stamped into Sierra Leone. West African borders are either really easy, or unnecessarily complex. This was the latter. Lots of checks, asking for money, more checks, stamps, etc. We made it through eventually and had to pay nothing other than the road tax sticker for our cars. We already had our passavant (temporary import permit), that we got from the embassy in Conakry. We were on our way!

The countryside opened and wide vistas greeted us, Sierra Leone has cut down most of their forests. The road was good and fast, having been recently built by the Chinese. We needed a place to camp before arriving in Freetown, as it was getting late, but we only found villages and planted fields. We asked in a village, and they took us to the chief. He was a very nice man, and spoke with the elders. They allowed us to camp on the primary school grounds. We thanked them and set up camp.

Beautiful views, and roads, in Sierra Leone

Crossing rivers in Sierra Leone

Nearing FreeTown

We were left alone while we cooked, as ordered by the the chief, but afterwards, most of the village came over to visit. We were in the village of Makande. The main activity, as in most of Sierra Leone, was agriculture. People and kids were very nice, and we spent the night making new friends and laughing. The morning was a similar experience, and many people came to say goodbye when we left. It was a very positive time, and the kindness of strangers is hard to fathom sometimes.

Pandas in Makande village

Makande village

Camping on school grounds

Makande village

Onwards to Freetown! A beautiful city, built on the edge of a large mountain, running right down into the sea. I was a bit nervous, having only heard about the poverty, ebola, and the recent landslide and floods that killed over 600 people. As with most things, my fear was unfounded. Apart from the traffic, which was horrible, Freetown was my favorite capital yet! Streets wound up and down hills. Old wooden and tin houses were everywhere. Colorful markets spilled into the streets. After about 3 hours of traffic, we finally arrived at Saint Edwards Primary Teacher Training School. They gave us a very nice and cheap room, and we set out to find dinner. We were quite excited to finally arrive here, as Manu, Chris's brother, was flying in the next morning to join us for the next 6 weeks! Soon we would be 5 in our little cars.