Monday, December 23, 2024

CONARKY - GUINEA DAY 234 253km

MAMOU TO CONARKY    253 kms.

Nice and cool when I left at 7:15am and the road was good asphalt, no potholes to speak of but lots of traffic. Lots of trucks and every kilometre there is a loaded truck broke down in the road, and the guys are wrenching on it, engine parts scattered all over the road, and then every other ten kilometers there are crashed vehicles that have been there for months or years, you gotta see it to believe it. 

The last couple days the vegetation has turned tropical with lots of palm trees and Boababs, even in Gambia they had Boababs. I must have been up on the high plateau because it was noticeably downhill  all the way which meant evryone is overtaking the overloaded trucks coming uphill and you better get out of the way, they do not care so was not a pleasant trip down to Conarky. 
Entering  30kms from Conarky  the traffic is unbelievable not to mentioned the road conditions, suddenly  there is no asphalt and it's  holes and rocks and took one and a half hours to go 30kms.
The traffic is jammed and all they do is peeped, peeped on their horn to let you know they are on the side, nobody uses mirrors or indicators. Absolute  chaos but it all works, miracuously and no road range.
There are heaps of trash all alongside the road wherever you look, plastic everywhere and the stench sometimes is overpowering. From Bissau or even before the sky is filled with a haze and you can never see the horizon, can only probably see 5 kms, because they bure all the grass and I also think the making of charcoal possible. I don't  know if any of this is fixable, there's  no hope with the poverty country after country, and the further south I go it seems to be getting worse, but will see how Sierra Leone and Liberia are doing, but not anticipating anything  better.


Finally got to the Swiss Mission for nuus and they were closed for the week, all gone away on holiday, so could not stay there. Found Las Palmiers Pension just two blocks down, right on the beach, sounded fantastic till I saw the beach.......
Anyhow the room is fair and the bathroom has a shower and they supply toilet paper, all for $34.68  = GFranc 300000. The staff are really pleasant and the fish dinner was well worth it and another new beer was welcomed.  

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