Conakry To Mamou

I woke up at the Hotel Niger in downtown Conakry late. I had wanted to get to the gare voiture Bambeto early, but it was already 7am. By the time I left, it was past 8. I flagged down a cab on the Avenue de la République. He wanted to take me as a deplacement. Oh well, it'll get me there faster. I should have negotiated the price before I got in. He charged me GF30000 (US$6). It is, actually, a pretty long ways away. I got there right around 9am. The car for Mamou is right at the entrance-I remember from when I went to Freetown from Bambeto, so I knew right where to go. I got a ticket for GF49000 (US$9.80). My backpack was an additional GF10000. I kept a closer eye on my backpack than usual because now I'm hiding my euro stash in there. The good news is that I was the third to the last arrival. Only 2 more and we would be off. The bad news is that it meant I got the worst seat--the front bucket seat shared with a guy but he got the window and I got to try avoid bumping the stick shift.

Lonely Planet estimates the trip at 6 hours. I knew it was going to be a hard one. At 9:45, the last 2 people came (one of their party had already staked out their seats). And we were off. The highway is pretty good. We went by Km 36 but the police didn't bother us too much. Soon we were off.

I got my wish. An uneventful trip. It was uncomfortable as hell, but also a bit shorter--we arrived at about 3pm. This was, by far, the most mechanically sound sept-place I've ridden on my entire trip. Almost new, in fact. Everything on the dashboard was functional. At one point it rained and we had to roll up the windows so the guy I was sharing my seat with couldn't lean his shoulder out the window. That made it even more uncomfortable to me.
We stopped at a place about an hour before our destination so people could eat (why not just stick it out and arrive 20 minutes earlier?). At least I got to do a bit of bird watching. I sat under a tree filled with yellow and black birds in about 20 or 30 nests, spherical about the size of a softball, with the entry hole, about the diameter of a golf ball, in the bottom. They got agitated at the appearance of 4 vultured who came to pick at a hide laid out at the side of the road. There was another hide hung up on a rack in the village. I suppose they use the vultures to strip the hide of it's final remnants of meat.

Upon arrival, a guy helped me get a moto-taxi to take me to the Hotel Rama for GF2000 (US$0.40). It was a bit of a scary ride, but we made it. This time my backpack/laptop laden dismount was performed well. No falling flat on my back. Whew!

The Hotel Rama has really nice rooms. No running water, but there's electricity, a mounted fan, and a mosquito net. There's a TV, but the guy couldn't get any channels to show up. Oh well. Price was GF60000 (US$12) so about double the estimate in Lonely Planet--which is in line with my experience in Guinea.

Lonely Planet says the cars to Kankan leave from the gare voiture near the Rama Hotel, and indeed there is a gare voiture on the main road across from where the Rama's side road starts. I went there and asked around for the car to Kankan. Finally, I got pointed at a car. I asked what time I should show up to get a seat tomorrow and how much it was cost. 8am and GF80000 (US$16). Then the actual ticket seller came to me and introduced himself. He said 8:30 would work too. I thanked him and told him I'd see him tomorrow.

I went out to explore Mamou. Sort of like Gabu. The road is delimited with a ditch on either side meaning it's probably not a good village to wandering around in at night. I got a frozen Orange Fanta. It was slushy when I finally got back to the hotel. I'll probably just stay here at the Rama's restaurant. I ate the can I spaghetti I bought in Conakry.

I didn't sleep well last night and I was nodding in and out of consciousness on the drive into Mamou--waking suddenly and remembering the end of my dreamy conversations which made no sense. So I think I'm have a nice little nap under the ceiling fan.

September 8, 2008 17:00 Guinea local time