Articles tagged with: bike
Guinea 025
Tuesday, January 2 9:00 a.m.
The police checkpoints on the road continue to be a pleasant surprise. Each time I crest a rise and see the telltale cluster of vehicles and old rope pulled across the road my heart sinks and I brace myself for the worst. But so far I haven’t had any problems. At most of them I’ve been completely ignored. I slowly pedal …
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 …
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 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 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 016
Sunday, December 24 9:00 a.m.
To my horror Conde wormed his way back into my life and into my thoughts yesterday. It was spectacularly bad timing because I had plans to leave Conakry this morning. I’d had my laundry done. I was saying my goodbyes to Sundar, Bob, and the family at La Vina, and I was looking forward to a pleasant afternoon of tinkering with …
Guinea 006
Thursday, December 14 9:00 a.m.
My first bike ride was a success in every way and I feel like the arrival portion of my journey is coming to a close. My Guinea has suddenly increased in size from the few blocks in my neighborhood which I’ve learned is called Taouyah to all of Conakry 1, 2 and 3 which covers about ten kilometres of the end …
Guinea 002
Sunday, December 10, Le Club Altesse, Conakry
I must skip ahead in my story here. This is the first time I have ventured out by myself. It seems a small thing, but it is not. It’s 2:45 in the afternoon, and the full heat of the day is beating down. It stuns me to think that in a very few days, I will be out there …