THE GUINEA GAMBLE
“Road closed,” the immaculately uniformed officer leaning on a shiny AK-47 says casually. “The ferry washed downstream last week,” he adds, giving all the explanation I need. Turning back, now, means hundreds of kilometres on muddy, potholed jungle tracks. So much for best-laid plans.
As is customary in these situations, I lay maps on the hood, and a crowd of military men and spectators gathers - everyone pointing to a different place on the map as each tries to determine our location. I had been planning to cross the border from Guinea-Bissau at a tiny border post that required a river crossing, and a tiny track not found on many maps. Without a ferry to cross the swollen river, this option is off the table. I am forced to change my plan.
It is generally agreed that I can continue a few kilometres, before turning off onto a smaller track that winds to the bigger road which eventually leads to the isolated border post at Kandika. Here I can cross into the extreme North West of Guinea. There is Immigration and Customs at Kandika, I am told.
Well, probably.
GUINEA IN THE WET SEASON
Often overlooked in the mad scramble to traverse the West Coast of Africa, Guinea lies south of Senegal and Mali, hugging Sierra Leone and Liberia. The capital of Conakry sees more rainfall in the month of August than the 330cm the Pacific Northwest of the United States sees in an entire year - a fact I don’t miss, given that I am arriving in early August. Guinea had been declared free of the massive Ebola epidemic by the World Health Organization only a few months before, and has seen essentially no tourists since. Major guide books have no information about Guinea, citing a “general lack of interest”.
The Michelin map of West Africa, highly regarded by Overlanders as the best in