the
gambia - guinea
october / november 2001
we were a good
group as we left dakar in the direction of the the gambia:
-andy: south-african, living in lodon where he runs a pub. he is big as
a bear and rides a honda XL which looks tiny when he sits on it. his specialty:
barbeque!
-carsten: a danish soldier who rides a KTM. his nickname was mc guyver
because he managed fix everything, always inventing new gadgets.
-tim and robert: two germans who had turned their mercedes army truck,
into a camper which soon became something like a home to everybody.
-lucy: a friend of the germans who joined their trip from dakar to abidjan.
-leica: the german shepherd that tim and robert had picked up in morocco
in gambia we spent the fist few days on a beach near banjul, its capital. then we drove east, along the south bank of the gambia river. in the evenings we always looked for a for a quiet spot in the bush where we would set up our camp and cook on an open fire. i used to get up very early in the mornings in order to watch the stunning sunrises. first the sky turned so red that the bush seemed to be on fire. then the sun slowly rose behind the fine pattern of branches and leaves, turning them into silhouettes which contrasted sharply against the bright red sky. then, very quickly, the sun rose out of the mist and flooded the earth with its yellow morning light. a wonderful spectacle.
we followed the river to the east until we reached the border and, after taking a shortcut through senegal, we entered guinea. the piste into the 'massive de toungue', which is a part of the fouta djalon mountains, was marked as very difficult on the michelin map. and indeed this was a terrible road. for the first time i really got into problems: i was stuck on a steep stony mountain-road and couldn't move forwards nor back. the tyres were trapped between head-sized stones and there was no way i could get out of it by myself. (thanks, robert, for helping me!).
but the bad road was only a small price that we paid for the fantastic landscape we were driving in. i was tempted to stop at after every bend in the road in order to have a better look at the green paradise of rolling hills, deep valleys, waterfalls and mystical rock formations. it was the most beautiful part of africa i had seen so far. in this region tourist are a real attraction (there usually aren't any) and we always created a huge crowd whenever we entered a village or a small town.
we usually put up our camp close to a village after introducing ourselves to their chief. the villagers, who were all muslims, were very friendly and hospitable, often offering us to put up our tents inside their compound. one day we got stuck in a small town when all traffic was banned. it was the day when the presidential elections were held. there was no exception for us and we were not allowed to drive until the evening. it was the germans rescued us from a day of absolute boredom. they organized a football game with the village boys, which none of the player nor the spectators will ever forget.
in southern guinea we witnessed the destruction of war as we entered the region that borders liberia and sierra leone. just a couple of months ago the guinean military had been engaged in heavy fighting with liberian rebels-groups. the destruction was obvious and depressing. there were many military, police and other checkpoints who's officers were clearly not happy to see us. we were often told that we had to turn back and that the road to the border with ivory coast was closed. it took us a hole day and a lot of energy to cover the 100km through that region. in a way i can understand that the military did not like to be responsible for a couple of brain-less tourist who were travelling through a potential war zone.
we were all happy when we reached the ivory coast a few days later.
sunrise in 'the gambia'
carsten and andy
andy, tim and robert
the germans on the move
welcome to guinea
difficult pist in guinea
driving trough a water hole
morning in the fouta jalon