Articles in Guinea Bike Trip
Guinea 017
Monday, December 25 8:30 a.m.
Christmas Day in Guinea begins with the usual long, involved discussion about breakfast of which I understood nothing. Part of the problem is my poor understanding of spoken French but most has to do with something I still don’t understand. The way I’m perceived as a foreigner perhaps. Or a Guinean habit of mentioning things that don’t need to be mentioned, …
Guinea 018
Tuesday, December 26 2:00 p.m.
Perhaps it was the Christmas spirit, perhaps it was the bicycle, perhaps everything I’ve read and everyone I’ve spoken to is wrong but I had no problems whatever cycling the remaining twenty-three kilometres to Coyah. Even the dreaded kilometre 36 roadblock at the Dubreka/Coyah junction was as pleasant an official encounter as I’ve ever had.
The day began when I opened my …
Guinea 019
Wednesday, December 27 8:00 a.m.
I haven’t been able to find out as yet if the boy was seriously hurt or not. No one seems to know about that accident but me. Either the boy was not hurt at all (from my vantage point that seemed very unlikely) or such accidents are so commonplace they don’t register anymore.
I cycled through Coyah (the origin of the famous …
Guinea 020
Thursday, December 28 8:10 a.m.
Waiting for Ali to show up or not last night I listened to the BBC and there were two reports on Guinea. One story reported that ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) had decided to send 1500 peacekeeping troops and monitors to patrol the borders between Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The language was ominous saying that it was an …
Guinea 021
Friday, December 29 8:00 a.m.
Without a guide like Ali my learning curve flattens considerably but even just hanging out I pick up on things. I keep my eyes open, watch, and take mental notes.
Last night my search for food went beyond L’Oriental “where all the tourists go” because it was closed. I walked the fifty meters to the traffic roundabout which represents Coyah’s version of …
Guinea 022
Saturday, December 30 8:00 a.m.
I came across Ali around 6:30 last night sitting in the chair of honor in the semi dark outside his house. He said that he had fallen sick to his stomach and so hadn’t been able to have dinner with me. It was a particularly believable tale because I had just spent much of the day myself trapped near a toilet. …
Guinea 023
Sunday, December 31 – 2:30 p.m. Mambiya
I imagine somewhere in the world there is a place more grim and dismal than the tiny room that was produced for me in Mambiya but I’d hate to think what it would be like. A Turkish prison perhaps? I could have continued on and completed the final forty kilometres to Kindia – I had the time – but …
Guinea 024
Monday, January 1 10:00 p.m. Kindia
Words may have failed me in describing my bed in Mambiya but when it comes to describing my first impressions of Kindia they run screaming from my pen like frightened children. It’s these car and truck skeletons that make a particular impression. I didn’t know cars could be so stripped and yet still retain a car like appearance. Things have …