Week 7, Guinea Bissau and Guinea

 December, 6th:


Woke up at 6 or so. Had been to the toilet all night long.

Felt sick and horrible. And we had a long day ahead of us with horrible bumpy roads, so ... not my best day of the trip to say the least ...

Crossing the border into GB, went smoothly, but i just napped all day long ... like a zombie. Thank God the diarrhea pills worked fine!

We had to bush camp, just before the capital of GB, called Bissau.

We found a nice spot, near a village on a football field. The locals could not believe their eyes, and were all over us. They were very hospitable though ...

Becky got full attention from the local kids ....






And of course ... funny faces ...






I hardly ate anything and went to my tent by 8.00h.

Slept really good for 10 hours (!!) and felt a lot better when i woke up the next day!!



December, 7th:


Woke up at 6 or so, feeling a lot better than the day before ...

Just had 1 slice of toast for breakfast, drank a lot of tea and slowly recovered during the rest of the day ...

Arrived in Bissau round 11, tried to get Visa's for Ivory Coast, walked for almost an hour for that, but that did not work out, so... to the hostel, where we still camp ...


Put up our tents and enjoyed the coolness of the air cons and fans ... had some refreshments ...

Ben took my place in the cook group (and was still not allowed to cook, since i might still be a bit sick).

Nice meal, to be closed with a beer (yes i dared to try one, since i felt a lot better)

Loud music of the locals here in the hostel made it hard to sleep, but ... managed to get some...



December, 8th:


Woke up by 7.30, fully recovered.

Breakfasted and did a walk to the Harbor with Ben and Andy ....



The harbor at very low tide ...


In Bissau there is not much to do, so .... we drank coke at a nice cool local restaurant, had some lunch there, went back to our hostel and spent the res of the afternoon sleeping and drinking refreshments ...

And using the slow wifi....

I had cook group (replaced Ben now) and we made some nice burrito's.

Then it was Ben's goodbye party. He flies back to Germany tomorrow night...


Ben taking a quick nap before his flight to Germany


I will miss him. Great bloke. Everybody loved him. You guys will see him in the future in Meppel!

I sipped away some wine and tried to get some sleep, despite the locals playing loud music again.


December, 9th:



Woke up by 7.00, made breakfast for the group, and wified the morning away....

Made a walk to the harbor for a coke (nothing better to do here) and returned to the (relative) coolness of the hostel by 3.30.

Updating blog now ...

Laterz ....


December, 10th:

Rose early (i guess), breakfasted and on our way for two days of bad and dirty roads, border crossing in to Guinea and bush camping ...

People in the villages wave and smile all the time ...






Bush camped ... 


Lots of attention from the local kids as usual ...


December, 11th:


Rose early, breakfast and on the road again.


Round noon we tried to cross the border into Guinea, but ... it seemed that we need 2 printed versions of our visa and everybody just had one ( except ... well guess ... am i a good boy or what? (it was pure coincidence: the guys where i made it had no change, so he made me a 2nd copy)), so... the border guys gave us a hard time, shouting, taking the passports and not wanting to give them back .... until half an hour later or so.... they had made copies for us ... we finally got in ...


The roads became even worse and we barely did 2 or 3 Km/H ...


Found a bushcamp place round 6.30, cooked and went to our tents early, since we had to rise at 5.15

Andy's tent (i think)



December, 12th:


Rose very early, quick breakfast and on the very bumpy road again ...

20 K to go before we reached a small city from where a (lot better) road would lead us the Guinea's capital Labe.


There we changed or ATM-ed money (i'm a millionaire now)... we were supposed to be on the road again in 30 minutes, but ... some of us "needed" simcards and that took up to 1.5 extra hours (so much for rising early).


Any way, the rest of the way i did not go in the truck, but drove with Mark in one of the cars that follow us ... Man, that is luxury ... good suspension and even A/C ...

Especially when the road got dumpy again, it was a relief for my back and bum!

Following the truck from a little distance:








Round 18.00h we got to the campsite. Put up our tents, had diner, and a quick beer ...

Slept very good ...




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