Wild and wilder in Guinea

Hello all,

Marc is obsessed with National Parks and the fact that they are covered in 2m high grasses is no deterrent, so this meant instead of taking the couple hundred km route to Guinea, we had to go via Nikolo-Koba NP adding on what turned out to be several days worth of driving. It was actually very cool although our animal sightings were limited to a family of cob (antelope), I've seen more on the highway in South Africa.

There was an overland group in with several keen bird watchers whom we met in the hide. It's surprisingly fun arguing about what bird is what and we ended up talking to one Aussie for quite a while. Turns out he's the guy who stuffed a famous crocodile on display in Darwin. I saw it whilst in Oz. Quite a character. Also heard the real story as to why the croc died, it was put out as an unfortunate drowning. True. He drowned because when they were moving him; the 2 guys who had the tranquiliser and the antidote got seperated and the poor croc drowned because they couldn't revive him and he was really heavy (slipped back into the water)! Great, I love oz : )

Went on a boat trip and several game drives. The surroundings were beautiful but apart from a couple of crocs, hippos and lots of birds, there was sadly no animal action.

The day to cross into Guinea included a rather hetic steep drive up a boulder strewn, river eroded rocky track which would put any of those 4 wheel drive adverts or tests from Top Gear to shame. Sometimes it felt like we were only on two wheels so why you need wheel drive I'm not sure. When we finally reached the remote immigration outpost, we were told that customs was back at the last town that we'd left 4 hours ago but the officals said if we didnt mind then they didnt so we pushed on through although Marc did not get all the stamps he should have for his car.

The next 3 days we drove through countryside that had barely been touched by the few small villages and was covered in native bush and tons of birds. Our campsites were stunning and road directions non-existent. Marc adamantly insisited we could cross the mountains to the plateau we were trying to reach via this small dirt track, I was equally adamant that we wouldn't. I was right ; ) It was a wicked day though as after crossing a river we decided to float down it to explore the area a little (i had to reassure myself that no crocs were going to come and attack me through the weeds), and whilst backtracking on the trail, we heard a waterfall and walked through the bush to find it and then climbed down the side.

In fact most of the next week involved us hiking and exploring the area either by ourselves with interesting hand drawn maps or with local guides. Finding one waterfall involved hacking through the bush and hoping that where you stepped was not going to take you over the cliff edge. Guinea is beautiful with numerous waterfalls, plunge pools to swim in and gorgeous scenery. Hiking in the Guinea Grand Canyon involved climbing down a steep trail over some falls and climbing back up the 300m cliff via a series of bamboo/wooden sticks that were tied together with vines. This in itself would not be too bad but they were propped up against waterfalls and slippery. I have a phobia against wet surfaces and am terrified of slipping. Consequently it was quite an effort not to black out on the way up. Extreme sports!

A couple of days later, I explored a much smaller falls by swimming down the plunge pools to the next tier, climbing down the side and then repeating the procedure until the tributory reached the river which was pounding along. Great for kayaking but as I was kayakless, I settled for sunbathing on a rock. Earlier I had used my compass to navigate my way towards a cliff face, sometimes following cow paths through the grass, sometimes on proper trails and somtimes just completely winging it though the dense bush. Marc had disappeared with 2 guys and a machete to find his way to the bottom of some enormous falls so this was my adventure. Glad to say that I didnt get lost although I also failed to find any of my carefully laid marks to show the route back!

One non nature story that I will share with you. We had stopped in Labe to pick up some groceries, eating grass with the villagers starting to pale as a nutritional or at least interesting diet, when a policeman blew his whistle at us to stop. Of course we didnt stop and thought we'd got away with it until he appeared in the rear view mirror on the back of someones motorcycle that he had clearly accomodeered. He insisted we were driving the wrong way up on a one-way street which was bollox but we had ignored him which must been some sort of crime. He wanted a bribe.... no surprisese there but was a little taken aback by Marcs insistence that a bribe was "impossible" - his favourite word with policeman. He wanted 50,000 guninea francs but we settled for 10,000 (2US) which we knez was the going rate after giving a lift to a local guy who paid a policeman for us at a roadblock even though we told him not to as we dont do bribes.

Some of the extortion is ridiculous. In conakary there are road blocks at night which the military use to take money off everyone who drives through them. At another place on our way into Conakary (the captial), the military were doing the same at a tiny bridge where only one side could drive through at a time. No better than bandits. We came to Conakary to get our visa for Sierra Leone and the plan is to go tomorrow but could be the day after. Both of us need more time on internet as access is really limited in this part of the world.

Whilst staying with some random villagers they took us to the local nightclub. It was 4km walk away in the dark and when we got there we discovered it didnt really get going until midnight, it was 10ish. We stayed long enough to watch the kids start dancing and some of the women and admire the DJ who was mixing it up with cassettes! Obligatory headphones over one ear. We might have been tempted to stay longer but the distortion on the ridiculously loud music was horrible. Our host was very unhappy to have to leave before it had got going but we couldn't find our way back over the hills and streams without him. The nightclub was in a school and the seats outside were the desks. Excellant use of resources I think!

Peace, love and happiness to you all,
Kx