Bikes and rifles. my trip in Sierra Leone
From Dakar route we have now about 2000 km with our bicycles, through Senegal, Gambia and Guinea, would like hours to reach the ocean and maybe give us a week of relaxing on beaches. Since a while we follow the border area between Guinea, Sierra leone and Liberia. Here everyone is armed, from old to arquebuses avancarica up a modern machine gun and other weapons of war. Liberia has already broken out civil war and refugees are crowded into refugee camps Gueckedou. Several times we met people who face travel hundreds of kilometers traveled in search of his family in Guinea, Sierra leone or Ivory Coast.
From Gueckedou we head towards the border of Sierra leone. The border is formed by the river Makone, but there is no bridge, no road, we should find a canoe that will allow us the other side. Another issue the entry visa, which unfortunately we did not, but as always in Africa, a solution can ever find. Found the canoe across the river and we territtorio of Sierra leone, turn a track that will lead us to Koindu, where we will find the first place the police tell us that we can not remain in Sierra leone because we are not in possession of visas and we retain passports. For the moment we do not even talk of returning to Guinea, we have only one hour of light and then there possimao move. We install in pensioncina Mr Kamara, not bad for the standard to which we become accustomed. We sleep over tomorrow and take care of the issue of passports. The morning to count the lions (the currency of Sierra leone) that led us into a plastic bag from the USD 100 that we have changed, it takes a couple of hours. After a delicious breakfast we go to the police for the issue of passports and we cavarcela with a temporary visa for 48 hours, pending final assessment by the visa request in Freetown. Freetown is located about 500 km, impossible to reach in 48 hours by bike, which I do? And 'Mr. Kamara that there is a passage about a truck load of bags of cocoa, 26 hours of journey crammed with 40 people on a truck already full of cocoa. But this is Africa. We then give our weeks on the beautiful beaches of Freetown, unfortunate that only after a few months has broken out again one of the most violent civil wars that plague the African countries too! and the situation is still not resolved!