-G.K. Chesterton-
Bush camp wakeup=5.50am
Ready Steady Cook breakfast preparation=6am
Serving of said breakfast=6.30am to the tune of
Australian songs…….
It was Ready Steady Cock’s time to shine for
breakfast.
We are a proud Australian contingent and for something
different I stole Zoe’s eggy bread recipe and we were going to make so much
eggy bread that everyone’s tummies would be full, as I think we will need the
energy as an EBC (emergency bush camp) hung in the air. Realistically it was the camping version of
French toast and with all the team on deck on time; we had food to serve and
coffees on the table at 6.30am. Cathy got the brainwave of serving brekkie to
good old fashioned Aussie music which I was able to supply from my IPod through
Cathy’s travel speaker and we grooved the morning away to Waltzing Matilda, the
National Anthem, I Come From the Land of Down Under, some John Farnham and
Kylie Minogue songs to name a few. The
biggest hit was I Still Call Australia Home by the Australian Choir-it was
enough to move all of the Aussies on the tour listening to that tune!! I think it just helped give everyone a skip
in their step this morning. It was a
great brekkie, if I do say so myself, and after the truck pack up, a quick dump
(yes a number 2) with some locals only 50m away, I am a changed person on that
front let me tell you, we were back on the road again for our 3rd
day on the road. Gee I hope we make it
to Bissau tonight, I need a bed so badly-but I was starting to resign myself to
the fact that we would be bush camping for the 3rd night, and you
know what, once you set it in your mind, it doesn’t seem so bad, but I hoped
that the roads would miraculously would improve and we would make it. We would make it. We would make it. Right?
We hadn’t been on the road for more than 10 minutes when
we approached a bush taxi that was stuck in one of the larger mud pools and
then Ian turned around and said is that the same van that screamed past us
yesterday afternoon and I had a good look and recognized the yellow jerry can
on the back and then saw the little girl that I waved to as they overtook
us. Indeed it was the same van and the
poor buggers had been there ALL night waiting for someone to help them
out. I am assuming that not many, if
any, cars had made it past the overturned truck last night and we were the first
to be seen and the driver made it quite clear when he was frantically waving to
us to stop and showing us that he had already tied up a rope to his vehicle and
he just needed to be pulled out. With
over 15 people relying on this one guy, it was hard to not stop and help, so
when Sam deemed it was okay to help, we tied up the van to the back of Madge
and started to pull put the van quite easily.
The only concern was that the van was so top heavy with luggage and
goods that it looked like it may tip, the way they pack these bush taxis is
crazy, so Sam stepped in and just pushed the van a little to keep it upright as
Zoe and Madge pulled it out of the thick mud the last few meters. That was our good deed done for the day, and
hopefully now the overlanding Gods would shine on us and give us some luck, we
deserved some to come our way. So with a
wave to the van and all its occupants, we kept driving. I was expecting the van to speed past us
again and I kept checking behind us and they never did, so I am assuming they
got stuck somewhere else or Sam thinks the other reason was that the van
wouldn’t start. I hope that they are
still not there, the poor guys.
We made some good time this morning as we finally drove
off the mountain roads we had been travelling the last few days and hit the
plains of yellow elephant grass and mushroom looking termite mounds. In some of the plains, there were hundreds of
the mounds and made for some interesting viewing with yesterday’s most boring
drive now a distant memory. I woke today
with a clear mind and it is true what they say that tomorrow is a new day and I
just need to suck up the last 12 days of the trip. I am living a dream, I’ve had my bad day and
it is now time to enjoy my last few weeks in this amazing part of the
continent. I also had a mad thought that
yesterday was a CFD (Coke free day) and maybe the lack of sugar and caffeine
may have affected my mood to? Maybe. The roads, even though they were still dirt,
were in much better nick than we had seen in the last few days and 8.45am we
hit TARMAC and then at 9.50am we made it to the town of Koundara. We stopped here as we had to be prepared for
a unplanned bush camp which Ready Steady Cock had volunteered to cook for tonight
if we needed and Ian and I had done a stock take the previous evening to see
what there was to cook with and were happy that we could make a good quality
meal with what ingredients we had in the bulk food. Sam had to just get some more bread for lunch
and some fresh vegetables, so in the 30 minutes we were stopped, Cathy and I
went for a quick walk and came back with 2 pieces of cake, 3 mangos and I
managed to find some material that I had yet to get from Guinea and now was the
last opportunity I would have to get some.
If I did see some I would have bought anything (within reason) but I was
lucky enough I found a pattern I did liked and after a very quick haggle that
was agreed to much to fast I left with a piece of 3m cloth for 15AUD which is
well within what I have been paying in other countries. I was also on the hunt for some Coke to pop
in the fridge and couldn’t find any at all at the ma and pa stalls and when we
got back to the truck which was parked at a service station, Clem was standing
there with 3 COLD cans in a plastic bag.
I asked where he got them, which was from the servo but was told to not
bother, when I made a move to go and get my own, as he had bought the last
3. DEFLATED!!! But Clem being Clem asked what I would pay
for a can and when I replied back 50 bucks I think he knew how desperate I was
and I was given one of his 3 precious cans.
I owe that guy.
Back on the trail and we had been told that the roads
improved past Koundara, and for once we actually got the right information and
the roads did improve. The day was
looking up already and it wasn’t even 12 noon yet! Could we be that lucky? There was more to look at today and I had Ian
acting as my decoy for photos out of the window as he was sitting in front of
me, so he would fire the first wave, the locals would wave back and I would
take the snap. I haven’t really had one
bad experience with taking photos this way and 68% of the time I make it quite
clear I am taking a photo and the folks have always been obliging, especially
kids. It is another sign that the
western world and all its camera and tourists haven’t had a big impact here
just yet and we are getting the real people with real smiles and aren’t jaded
by the photography-yet. It was a little
weird once we left the town that there would have been a 100km or so of what
was a super dry environment. The ground
was more sandy than the red dirt we had been seeing, there was no water in the
rivers that we crossed and then in an instant it changed back again to the red
dirt, rivers and mud pools.
We were making great time and you could just see everyone
spirits rise. Maybe luck had finally
found us? Ian, Suzanne and I decided to
have a bet on what time we would hit the Guinea Bissau border, and we all tried
to base it on what distance we had travelled this morning on relatively good
roads. Ian went first, which was good
because then I could base my guess around his, so with Suzanne not taking it
that seriously with dish washing for the loser on the line, she said in 10
minutes time, which made it 10.40am, I said 12.50pm and Ian went for
1.20pm. We hit the Guinea border at 12
noon and then the race on the clock started as Suzanne was now out of the
running. After all the paperwork had
been done, we had to present ourselves to the immigration officers as he handed
us back our passports and then I tried to bundle everyone back into the truck
as it was not 12.50pm, my official time I had said we would be at the Guinea
Bissau border, but I had a 10 minute window, as I would still be the closest if
we arrived before 1.20pm. So the clock
was definitely ticking and we didn’t know how far in no-man’s land we had to
travel before we reached the other border.
Some are close and others like one of the border crossings we did in
Chile were 2 hours away! Well we didn’t
have to wait too long and at 1.07pm we made it to the Guinea Bissau border and
the engine was switched off marking the official end to the bet. I had WON with 3 minutes to spare. Talk about flukey!!! While we were getting stamped in to the
country we decided this would be the best spot and time for lunch. Nothing like a lunch on a border and with
everyone on board we got tinned meat and salad rolls all made and consumed just
as Sam came back saying that we were all processed and good to go. This day was just all coming together quite
nicely and when Zoe and Sam checked with the border officers, they said that
the road from now on into Bissau was excellent and would be about a 5 hour drive. So Sam asked if we were okay about arriving
in late into Bissau and it was a unanimous decision by all on board, even if it
meant that we wouldn’t get in till midnight, we didn’t care-we just didn’t want
to bush camp for the third night in a row.
We were all a little grubby, as it was a little muddy at the last camp,
and everyone’s feet were different shades of red and black from the dust, sweat
and mud. We NEEDED to make Bissau
tonight. I think we were going to make
it and I could feel the smiles from everyone at the prospect of a shower and a
bed to sleep in. Bissau was like the
gold at the end of a long 3 day rainbow and we were excited.
WELCOME TO GUINEA BISSAU.
The 3rd last country of my West Africa adventure and it just
makes it that much more real that this journey is slowly coming to an end. I am a little sad as I have had an INCREDIBLE
time, but all good things must come to an end and I have an exciting few months
coming up, so it really is still like a big world odyssey for me and I know
just how lucky I am to be here and doing what I am doing. We reached a small town of Gabu at 4.30pm and
we stopped to get some cold drinks as we were all withering in the very humid
heat which we hadn’t had for the last week really as we were at a higher
elevation. Sam put the drinks on kitty
and came back with 14 cans of soft drink that I think took us all like 5
minutes flat to finish them all and it just gave us a little more juice to get
through the afternoon. It was HOT HOT
HOT and everyone was SO SO SO sweaty. Ian
and I had been on the sunny side of the truck all day, so the tan was cracking
along, but gee it makes it so much hotter when you are sitting in such harsh
rays, but I think a tan is worth the effort (I know not all agree) and it was
nice when the sun started to set, when we finally had a reprieve from the heat
of the day. Gabu was the first town we
have seen in a long time that had a lot of ‘luxury’ items like torches,
batteries, sunglasses, belts, cleaning goods and the such. After filling Madge up at a service station
we were back on the road at 5pm for the final push into Bissau. The roads improved even more departing from
Gabu and we were going to make it.
THANKYOU OVERLAND GODS.
Ian and I put a new bet on what time we would arrive into
Bissau. I was thinking very positively
and said 8pm after Ian had said 8.20pm and after saying it was a double or
nothing bet, we ended up agreeing to the loser buys a beer. As the day closed there was a spectacular colored
sunset with hues of pinks and oranges that we go to enjoy for at least 40
minutes till the sun finally went down and darkness fell at 7pm and we were
still on the road. We could start to see
then the hue of the lights on the horizon letting us know that the city of
Bissau was finally in our sights. I
started to get an itch on my foot around dusk and I had an inkling that I may
have been bitten by a mosquito, which while travelling in the truck I never
thought there would be an attack from these flying monsters that I have been
fighting with the whole trip and by the time we arrived into Bissau I had over
12 new bites on my legs and 3 on my feet.
Where the flip did they come from?
I applied repellant as soon as I noticed the first bite, but I think I
may have been too late and also knew I was going to have an annoying next few
days scratching. Just when I had been
successful so far with applying spray to keep them at bay, I let my guard down
on the truck and BAM. I knew by 7.30pm
that we would not make the hotel by 8pm, Ian had won round 2 today and I think
he got the better deal out of it with having to wash my dinner plate and me
having to buy him a beer. Yeah, I don’t
think I thought that through to well. We
normally don’t travel much in the dark on the unpredictable roads, but we were
on well-sealed roads and we could have been on a road in Brisbane, they were
that good. It was interesting to see
that there was no electricity in 98% of the places we drove past and most of
the villages were in complete darkness. There were a few torch beams floating
around, a few candles and the LED lamps that run on batteries, but mostly it
was pitch black and it explains why the locals prepared dinner early and get
everything they need done before the sun sets as they can’t get a lot done
after dark. I also noticed in the latter
half of the day there were no longer crazy bush taxis with 20 people in a car
and 50kg of goods all swinging off the rooftops of the cars on the road. Guinea Bissau seem to be a little more
refined and they use minivans that have been modified with bench seats and
people come and go from the back with a ‘money’ man that hangs off the back of
the van touting potential clients. I
will miss those crazy bush taxis.
Guinea Bissau is really just a transit country for us as
we only have 3 nights in total before heading into Senegal and once we make it
to Bissau, we will only have 5 travel days left in Madge and one more bush
camp. That I am very happy about it, but
also a little sad that I may not get to see my tent, Senegal, again that has
been home for the last 8 weeks intermittedly.
We are supposed to have another bush camp after Bissau and then 2
‘normal’ camps towards the end of next week and then the rest of the days are
hotels. Maybe I am getting too old for
bush camps? Well I better work that out
before I book Central Africa next year, but I always seem to suck it up when I
need to, and I am just getting a little overland tired I think and stopping in
a hotel with a shower and toilet and the possibility of Wi-Fi for the next 2 nights
will be just what I need. We arrived
into the capital city, Bissau at 8.30pm.
Ian won the bet, as I knew he would and when I realized that I wasn’t in
with a chance I offered to concede, which he wouldn’t have a bar of and I now
owe the big man a beer in the coming days.
As we passed through the outskirts of the city, there were some pretty
ritzy looking hotels. Large neon signs,
new buildings and a few claimed to have spa’s attached to them. They really looked like a mirage and it
raised our hopes of what our accommodation would be. Well when Zoe and Sam found the Portuguese
District 20 minutes later, we were in a totally different suburb from the fancy
hotels and being the old quarter, the buildings were old Portugal colony
buildings and all the streets reminded me of the town of Havana in Cuba. There were beautiful buildings that have been
left and are now in a bad state of repair.
This was my first warning that we just may not be in a nice hotel like
we all may have thought. They found the
street where the hotel was located, but it was quite a narrow lane, so Zoe and
Sam walked to the hotel to check the booking and 10 minutes later they were
back and had been given directions to where we could park closer.
The hotel is located in an Old Portuguese building and we
were literally in the ‘old’ town. I have
learned to never judge a book by its cover and we unloaded the backlocker still
hopeful that we were going to be in an ok hotel. We all piled into the tiny reception and by
this time it was 8.30pm while Sam sorted out the rooms. There is a restaurant next door, so while we
were waiting Zoe enquired about food for the 14 of us (it was getting late) and
reported back that we could have steak or calamari which we pre-ordered, so by
the time we had checked in dinner would be ready. It was a great plan and things were picking
up until Sam notified us that some of our rooms had been given away as they
didn’t think that we were coming as it was getting late. On one hand it makes sense, letting out empty
rooms at the late hour but I am sure they could have phoned Sam to check where
we were? Anyway after a few room
shuffles and a mattress on the floor we were all given keys and shown to our
rooms. Poor Zoe and Sam had to sleep in
the truck tonight, as there was not a room for them and they had done a 13 hour
drive day!!! Helen and I switched rooms
with the girls so that we could have a single bed each and then the cracks
started to appear for everyone. Our
aircon didn’t work, the shower was a cubicle in the corner, with no wall with
broken doors and it didn’t work anyway and the rooms themselves were pretty
basic. We had a toilet down the corridor
allocated just for our room, but after all of us thinking we would be getting
something at least half decent after the last 3 days, we were sorely
disappointed and it was just an awful blow, especially when we were all so
tired. There were other cracks from
other people as well and there were only 2 rooms that had their own bathrooms,
Suzanne found a cockroach in her bed, a few toilets had crap over the whole
bowl and a few more things that aren’t worth mentioning.
We spoke to the guy on the counter about the
air-conditioning as best as we could, as we are now in a Portuguese speaking
country and he said over dinner he would get it fixed for us. I normally don’t make a big deal about the
air-con but it was sticky and there seemed to be a lot of mosquitos flying
around and the rooms were hot.
Dinner was surprisingly delicious, but I was tired, I
hadn’t showered yet as we had to share the shower with all the other rooms that
also didn’t have working showers and to be honest I am not sure I would have
fit into the shower anyway, it basically looked like it had just been slapped
in the corner as it was not part of any bathroom. Anyway we all go to have a rant over dinner
and the only thing that the hotel did have going for it was that it had Wi-Fi
that worked in our room and also in the restaurant. This picked up my spirits a little and Ian
and Suzanne mentioned that they were going to be looking for another hotel for
our second night and I just made an impulsive decision to join them. Well not in their room, but move hotels also. I am not normally that fussy, but I felt I
had done some hard yards, I was at the 8.5 week mark of my trip, there wasn’t a
lot to do in Bissau, so I would probably be doing a little room time and just
decided to upgrade. Why not? I had a figure in my mind of 100-150AUD to
pay for the night, that is how serious I was that I needed to have some basic
amenities. We checked the LP out over
dinner and 2 places came to light as possible new locations, one was a lot
cheaper than the other and also just down the road from where we currently
were, so with a plan to meet at breakfast at 8am in the morning and then walk
down to the hotel, check out the cost and the rooms and then make a further
plan after that. A few other people were
ohhh and ahhhhing about moving, but there were 3 definites and I did feel a
little bad from Sam as he was copping it a little, but Dragoman need to update
their notes and I am sure that when the last group stayed here it wouldn’t have
been much different, condition wise (it doesn’t look like much has been spent
on it within the last 10 years) and just a word of warning that the hotel was
less than ordinary would have just prepared us a little more rather than total
SHOCK value.
WELCOME TO GUINEA BISSAU.
It may not have been a great first impression, but arriving in the dark
maybe things will look a little different tomorrow. When we got back to the room the air-con had
been fixed (success) and even though the Wi-Fi was slow, I was able to load 5
blogs and I think because the day had been so long, Helen and I didn’t turn off
the light until 2am-we somehow picked up our second wind, but it took us 3
seconds to actually fall asleep.
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