Rubbish roads, Bush mechanics & the Catholic Mission – Guinea Conakry 30th Dec 09
Date: Wednesday 30th December, 2009 | Country: Guinea Conakry | 10 Comments »After spending a few hours at the Guinea Conakry border and being thoroughly searched by the army and police at the post we entered Guinea Conakry. We were told by many people in Guinea Bissau that we shouldn’t enter this country due to the leadership issues that Conakry has been having this year, the leader was shot a month ago and the country had been put on hold until news comes from Morocco where he is currently in intensive care. There were elections going on at the time but now they have been put on hold. What was also clear that not many people from Guinea Bissau have ever been to Guinea Conakry so we were entering with mixed messages and feelings. On looking at the Michelin maps that we were using for West Africa the distance to the capital Conakry looked 400-500 km, however what the map cannot convey is how bad the roads are in certain areas really are.
After driving a few hours and only getting 50km or so into the journey it was getting late, our arses were battered by the terrible condition of the road and so we found a place just off the main road as we weren’t really too sure what the villages would be like and have been told to avoid driving at night if you can. After a pasta meal (good to stock up on pasta and rice for times like this) with a few tins of sardines we contemplated how non 4×4’s could actually drive this road without being seriously damaged!
Unforgettable roads
The next morning we had setoff really early to see if we could make it to Conakry by the end of the day, again distances mean nothing when roads are in a terrible condition, after a few hours we really hadn’t made much progress so I decided to speed up a little, this is risky on roads which are unpredictable and difficult to read as one stretch for a km may be fairly ok and then you are greeted by a deep hole. We had passed a gate which was being guarded by a few soldiers, they seemed friendly enough after checking out our passports and Carnet du Passage. By the way, this is the first time that a country has been interested in seeing this document.
After saying goodbye the road started climbing up and then a long steep decline with holes in the road everywhere you looked, I am normally quite a decent driver on tricky roads but stupidly at this moment I didn’t slow down and went with the momentum of the decline, the back wheels hit what sounded like a hole and before I knew it the back was sliding left and right, on the left hand side was a deep drop and so I veered off to the right knowing I wasn’t in control but had to avoid the worst scenario, Maggie smashed into some bushes and was stopped dead by hitting a tree. Reka and I had both strapped our seatbelts on so we were both ok and had no injuries although it was a bit of a shock!
After the accident stuck in a bush and nowhere to go!
When we looked at the damage it was clear that the front right side had taken a serious knock, the bull bar had been bent back, the front lights smashed and worse of all I could not turn the wheel. Trying to reverse Maggie out of the bush was pointless as the wheel would not straighten.
It was 11am and the sun was beginning to pierce through the bush, we discussed the situation and we decided that I would go and find help while Reka would stay with the vehicle. The checkpoint was a few km’s away so I walked uphill and got another chance to see the road that had been my downfall, it was just as bad walking it so that was some kind of strange consolation. 30 min later I had reached the checkpoint and I tried to explain my problem, no matter how many times I showed my best charade acting of driving and then crashing I could see that these guys weren’t too fussed, one guy went back to sleep in the shade of his makeshift hut and another put a beret on and said he would join me in 15 min…he never did. It was pointless wasting my time there so I walked back to the accident.
Left: Bent Axle Right: Bent bodywork!
By the time I had got back, Reka was busy cutting away some of the bushes that were impeding getting round the sides and underneath Maggie, it wasn’t easy in the heat but it had to be done, I took out all the tools that may come in handy such as the jacks, the spanner set (thanks Dad!), the wheel nut remover, the saw and a few bush blades, honestly these were all very useful to help get Maggie out of the bush.
A couple of guys on a bike stopped to see if we were ok and then a taxi also stopped and before we knew it, several guys were then helping us remove the logs underneath the vehicle, clear the debris and assess the situation. We could see after jacking Maggie that the front axle was badly bent and the guys that were helping us knew that without a mechanic there was no way that we were going to be able to move. One guy offered to go to the nearest village and find a mechanic for us but he said that the village is 100km away and so it could take some time for him to return, we didn’t have much of an option stuck in the middle of nowhere with a vehicle that couldn’t move. I paid the guy enough money for him to fill his fuel tank enough for a few journeys and some money as a thank you and he then left with all out hopes in his bike. It was then a waiting game and as the sun got hotter and the flies started to surround our sweaty beings, we played a few hands of rummy to pass the time and a van that was carrying a dozen or so passengers also stopped, they all got down to make sure we were ok and have a look at the problem, it was very clear that Guinean’s have a good soul as everyone was worried and wanted to help.
Approaching 5pm we were getting worried that the guy on the bike might not return, I ended up hitching with a car that was going to the village as a form of backup and squeezed inside an already packed vehicle, after 20 min I then saw the guy who earlier promised to find a mechanic biking back towards Maggie and Reka, by the time the car had stopped the bike was gone, I thought it better I walk back to Maggie and hope for a lift along the way, I was unlucky and ended up walking for an hour before the guy on the bike picked me up and took me to Maggie. By the time I got back, it was getting dark but Reka told me that the mechanic had with brute force hammered the axle back into shape and was in the process of fitting the wheel back on, amazing what he did in the space of an hour and a half with a small toolkit but these guys are experienced bush mechanics and with little resources are able to get cars moving again. When we finally were able to move Maggie out of the bush it was now dark but it was a relief as the thought of sleeping there was not a nice one. The right headlight was bent and shone into the sky rather than the road but we were able to move again. We talked about the plan of action and decided to get to the nearest city Boke and find a hotel there rather than sleeping on the roadside again. The drive was slow and we were worried about doing any more damage to Maggie by driving too fast on what was some awful roads, by 2am we had reached Boke, we noticed many people on the streets but were too tired to realise that we had just missed New years eve becoming the New Year!
New Years day in Boke
Drunken Border Patrols
The next day we set off early to make the journey to Conakry and hopefully find a garage where Maggie could get some repairs. On hindsight maybe we shouldn’t have left on new years day as it became apparent that all the army and police patrol stops along the way to Conakry had been partying hard and still partying into the morning and lunchtime. All the army guards were asking for ‘presents’ for letting us through, and for all except one we were able to talk our way out of paying anything to anyone. Then we reached one post that was 30km away from Conakry and there were big traffic jams. Most patrols are pretty basic in their operation, you’ll have 3 or 4 army guards on either side of the road, one guy is in charge of the rope that is attached to normally a tree on the other side, one guy stops and checks your paperwork and sometimes the contents of your vehicle, the head honcho normally sits in the shade somewhere checking out peoples documentation and if he likes you, you go, if he doesn’t, you pay. The head honcho in this case was wasted, he kicked the fruit of a girl that was crossing the road while we were waiting, and then smashed his boot into a taxi because their engine was turned on. He carried his M16 and had the look of a man disturbed and ready to let his gun off for any excuse. His breath stank and he asked me to get out of the vehicle, he pushed me and asked me for my license, it wasn’t a time to be bravado, he then walked away with my license and after a few minutes of shouting to his junior colleagues he then asked for the equivalent of a few pounds, believe me, my money was in his hand before you could say the word ‘bribery’. We were glad to see the back of him.
Conakry
On entering the city the roads turn from a dirt track to a tarmac road, there is one long straight road that leads into Conakry with turnings off to other parts of the city. There are a few streets where the main banks are, a massive internet cafe and you can exchange money to your hearts content. The banks would only allow you to take out $40 at a time and on the second day we were here the banks ran out of money from the ATM!
Left: Mounanet Internet Cafe Right: Kaila the security for the bank
One thing was for sure and that was many people use taxis as their means of transport from place to place, taxis in general are yellow, tend to be Peugeot or Renault and very rarely empty. The public transport here was one main bus line called Sogiturans and if you get a chance to jump on then you are lucky, when you do it is cheap, however many people do not have the time to wait 30-45 min for a bus when a taxi journey could take 5min. We talked to one taxi driver who explained it is very easy to become a taxi driver, 1. you have a car, 2. you pay the license company one years money (around £250),3 you get a sign in your car saying ‘Taxi’, simple!
The bus was also an interesting experience as you squeeze into whatever space is available, normally there is no space and you have to cling on to something but we found eventually people get off and the bus then becomes a nice journey, I met a guy on the bus called Mohammed that works in South Africa exporting diamonds from Guinea to SA and maybe if we get a chance we’ll pay him a visit to their factory in Gauteng. Reka also met a guy that was persistent on getting her number, she looked petrified!
Bottom Left: Interesting flavour Bottom Right: Street Barbeque Conakry style
Food in Conakry was a lovely experience as it was easy to walk the streets at night and select from a number of different places, there are many people that sell chicken or beef skewers cooking on their own mini grills, one night we had a sandwich filled with liver, onions and potato, another we had the most amazing chicken sharwama’s (Lebanese wraps) but the best meal I tasted had to be the day that we had not eaten much the whole day maybe some oranges and banana’s and by 8pm we were both ravenous, after hunting down some food that would satisfy us we saw on one street corner a stall that was on a seriously hot plate frying some chicken. You chose the chicken (pre roasted) and this was then cut up in front of us and then stuck onto the hot plate (see above). The one chicken cost approx £3 and was one of the best street meals I had ever tasted, locals also thought the same as the place was very busy!
JMC Mechanics
Our first night we stayed in the Ocean hotel which was outside the city and more expensive than we had budgeted for but we happened to meet Natalie a Lebanese lady who was the sister of Jean Claude that ran a garage in the centre of town. We decided to check them out the next day. Once we found the garage we saw very quickly that this was a professional company as they had fairly decent facilities and were working on a number of 4×4’s and other vehicles in parallel. Conversation was difficult but the owner Jean Claude was friendly and said that he would be able to fix the problems without any hassle. His co-ordinator Mattieu then assessed what needed to be done as I explained some of the issues that we had. I was expecting a quote of the work to be done, we never got one, Jean Claude very early on was insistent that ‘we pay what we feel we should pay’, an interesting concept I thought! The garage was made up of around 15-20 people who for some specialised in a particular activity and others were general mechanics. It was refreshing to see a couple of female mechanics working here as well.
After spending a few days there it was clear to see that the garage is like one big family as they all look out for each other and make sure that they get job done even though it seems at times that nothing is happening! We met a guy called Sarh who spoke good English as he was from Sierra Leone, he was basically our translator as well as the welder that straightened the bull bar and fixed the step up bar that was bent on the side. On one day during the weekend we were invited to see Aiyesha’s family an hours journey from the centre of town, here we met her father who worked in the Guinean army and her brothers and sisters as well as a small community from Ghana that had also settled in Guinea.
Left: Aiyesha’a family Right: Aiyesha, Reka and Aiyesha’s sister
After a few days we could see Maggie getting back to good health, her body was coming back to shape but it looked that the right wheel was still not back in its right position and we were beginning to get worried that the mechanics might not be on track to fix the wheel alignment. Our visa for Guinea Conakry was about to expire on the 6th Jan and we weren’t any nearer to being able to drive away with a couple of days to go. Mattieu the co-ordinator was told by Jean Claude to make sure we are ready to leave on the 6th so the night before the garage stayed open till late as they refit the axle and the wheel and after spending a long night in the garage we could see Maggie was back and ready for action!
The JMC Mechanics – Thanks for your hard work!
While waiting for Maggie to get fixed, we met a guy Edward who like so many others I have met already were ready to be the 7th owner of Maggie if only they could get the time off from work to make another epic journey. Edward was friendly and gave us good advice about the roads leaving Conakry and as a going away present bought me a ring and Reka a necklace from a nearby Guinea craft shop. We’d also like to thank Jean Claude who treated us well as customers, we paid a reasonable local price to get Maggie fixed and it’s a garage I’d definitely recommend if you are in Conakry.
Left: Jean Claude owner of JMC Garage, Right: Edward
The Catholic Mission
We read in Lonely Planet that accommodation in Conakry would be expensive but there was one place that was highly recommended, it so happened that the Catholic Mission was a 5 min walk from the garage where Maggie was being looked after. When we checked out the place we immediately knew it was a nice place to stay as it was away from the main roads, had a peaceful ambience and everyone that lived and worked there were friendly. The rooms were basic but perfect for a 4 night stay in the city, they had air conditioning and mossie nets and were reasonably priced. It was there that we met Jean Michelle one crazy guy that has been working for NGO’s and the UN for the past 15 years, as soon as we started talking we heard about how we had worked in Chechnya, Somalia, DR Congo, Sierra Leone and now Guinea, his life during these years have been working towards rebuilding these countries during or after civil wars and political problems and after hearing some of the atrocities he has seen you have to be slightly loopy to continue working in the field for so long! He was nice enough to give Reka and I some contacts for possible connections working in a similar field so thanks to him to for that.
Top: The Catholic Mission, Bottom Right: The Spider outside Reka’s door (it was big!)
The roundabouts in Conakry
There were some weird and wonderful statues and artwork that sit on most roundabouts in Conakry, here is a flavour of what you might see:
Considering what we had been told about the country I was glad to have visited Guinea Conakry, the roads from Guinea Bissau to Guinea Conakry were the worst I have ever experienced and I hope that it remains that way! The capital Conakry is busy and congested but vibrant, colourful and I met some really nice locals. The food is lovely and apart from the drunken army guy, I have only good things to say about this country, unfortunately as our visa ran out we didn’t have any time to check out what is a massive country and something to keep in mind if you ever decide to come this way.
Guinea Winter Warmer!
Reka – HUN: Be kell ismerjem, hogy Noel sokkal turelmesebb es jobban ir mint en (legalabbis angolul – hehe), es nem szivesen ismetelnek meg mindent, amit mar elmondott… de gyorsan osszefoglalom azert.
Anyu, utolag is bocs, hogy nem allottam be, de mindenki azt mondta, hogy orultek vagyunk, ha guineaba megyunk, mert polgarhaboru kozeli allapotok vannak. De miutan megbeszeltuk, hogy az elso figyelmezteto jelnel visszafordulunk, azert megiscsak nekivagtunk. Az ut nem tunt hosszunak terkepen, de persze a terkep nem tartja szamon a godroket, komolyan mondom, az ut Guinea Bissau es Guinea Conakry kozott megerdemelne egy 3 dimenzios terkepet (lasd a fenti fenykepeket). Lenyeg a lenyeg, hogy az ut egy-ket ora helyett ugy tunt, hogy egy-ket napba telik majd, ezert Nudli ugy dontott hogy egy kicsit felgyorsitja a tempot, ami mondanom sem kell, hogy balesettel vegzodott. De szerencsenkre nem a szakadekba, hanem a fak koz kormanyzott miutan a godrokkel telitett lejton elveszitette Maggie felett az uralmat. A helyiek hamar a segitsegunkre jottek es a nap vegere sikerult a jarganyt annyira helyre pofozni, hogy hajnali 2-re eljutottunk a legkozelebbi nagyvarosba, de azutan meg mindig 200 km vart rank a fovarosig, ahol megbizhato szerelot talalhatunk. Ja, a nagy izgalmak kozepedte nem is vettuk eszre (ez fokent az en hibam, mert nem tartottam szamot a datumrol), hogy 2010 lett (en azt hittem meg csak 30-ika volt). Sebaj, bar azt nem mondhatom, hogy ez a nap is olyan volt, mint barmelyik mas!
Conakryban meg arra jottunk ra, hogy nem csak a szerelo miatt, de a Sierra Leone-i vizum miatt is dekkolnunk kell egy darabig, hiszen szombaton erkeztunk, ugye a kovetseg hetvegen nincs nyitva, es utana meg ki tudja mennyi ido mig kiallitjak a vizumot. De a masodik estere olcso szallast (Katolikus Misszio) es jo szerelot (az elso ejszakai draga libanoni szallodas testvere) is talaltunk. A kaja remek volt (egesz grillcsirke, de hagymaval es chillivel spekelve, meg majas hagymas szendvics), kiveve egy etelt, ami a jo oreg napkozis fas karalabe fozelekre emlekeztetett, de az osszes jo kivetelevel es meg tobb fassaggal).
Aztan egy het mulvara Maggie is meggyogyult es a vizum is meglett (bar eddig ez volt as legdragabb, 100 US dollar!), ugyhogy bucsut intettunk a szereloknek, meg a dilinyos francia sracnak, aki ket eve lakott a misszioban es husz eve dolgozott kulonbozo szervezeteknek (mint Egyesult Nemzetek – UN, Gyogyszerek Hatarok Nelkul – MSF) es segitett a Csecsenfoldon, Afganisztanban es Szomaliaban is, de azt hiszem minden tiszteletem ellenere mondhatom, hogy szegenykem kicsit megkukult a sok szornyuseges elmenytol… es elindultunk Sierra Leone fele, amint mar mindketten nagyon vartunk, mert vegre az elso orszag, ahol nem francia vagy protugal, de angol a hivatalos nyelv! Folyt. kov…
