Hi guys,

I am planning a trip from the Cassamance region onto Guinea Biaasu, then into Guinea and onto Sierra Leone. It will be in my own vehicle (a truck).

Could anybody give me advice on the following:

1. I have about 5 days in the Cassamance region, entering from Gambia. If you had 5 days, what would be a good itinerary? The must see places if you like? I will need to get my G Bissau visa in Zig so will need a nightstop there.

Is Cap Skiring worth visiting?

2. I plan to cross from G Biassau to Guinea at the Kandika border crossing, carrying onto Koundara then onto Labe. Some people say the Chinese have started grading this road ready to lay the tarmac? How far have they done? Will this road be a nightmare to do in a truck (approx 9 meters long, 9 tonnes in weight). I'm told there is a ferry across the river on tsi route, and saw a pciture of it, and it looks okay to take the truck.

3. With 3 nights to play with, again, what are the must see places in the Fouta Djalon? I'm on a bit of a schedule so can't really spare much more time. Is Pita a good place to base myself and explore from there>

Would sure appreciate any help with these question, thanks everybody.

OK, this information is 2 yrs old, me and the wife did the Koundara to Labe route on a couple of XT 600,s
The route is difficult(we did it in the rainy season) but there were petrol tankers using this trail,about 300km if I remember correctly, a road it aint, but you should be fine in your truck, the ferry you mention will easily take your truck.
Accomodation in Kuondara is interesting, the only decent accomodation had been taken by the UN, The next option was a guest house run by a Gambian, can,t remember the name but if you ask you will find it, and when we were there the gas station was closed and we had to buy gas by the litre in whisky bottles,
The guy showed up with a wheel barrow full of bottles.
Labe is a much bigger and better place, the ATM worked, a first for 2 weeks,
A good cheap hotel in Labe is the hotel de Sala, and a must see are the Shutes de Sala, try and find a Italian guy who runs the Pizza place just out of town,Flavio I think, he is a mine of local information and we would never have found the shute de sala without his info
Avoid Conakry if at all possible, its a shit hole with 1 ATM for about 500.000 people, we quede for 3 hrs and then the cash ran out
We had a great time all in all and Labe was the highlight of our time in Guinea, we spent 10 days there riding the trails around there, hope this helps I can,t think its altered that much, its not that well travelled
Good luck mate, Pete n Brucella

Hi Pete, many thanks for the write up, some great information there. Reassuring to know petrol tankers were plying this road, so we should be fine. Will have to spend a few nights is Conakry to get our Sierra Leone visa, but hopefuly not too long as then we can maximise our time in the Fouta Djalon.

Thanks again Pete, much appreciate the information

Hi,

you can get your Sierra Leone Visa also in Banjul, with a bit begging they made it same day for us. Than you can do Conakry just optional.

regards
Bernd

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Thanks Bernd, it's always good to know there are alternatives.

I think the problem visa for us will be Cote Divoire. I am hoping to get it in Conakry or Freetown, but it sounds very difficult if you are not a resident of that country. I'm hoping Ouattara will make it easier!

All info as of May 2010:

I got my Sierra Leonian and Ivorian visa in Conakry. The ATM situation was fine, several banks, no problems at all.

Sierra Leone wanted me to buy a laissez-passer for the bike, which I did. At the border (Conakry to Freetown), they wanted to stamp the carnet, even though mine did not cover Sierra Leone. I convinced them to stamp the laissez-passer. In hindsight, I should have just removed the carnet's backcover, where it lists the countries covered, and bluffed my way through customs, like I did from then on. (Note: At the Guinean border, coming from Bamako, this would not have worked. Customs guy checked whether I could use the carnet in Guinea. I could.)

Ivorian visa in Conakry no problem at all. Got a laissez-passer as well. I entered Ivory Coast from N'zékoré to Man, see attached GPS track. Ivorian border crossing up there is a rag tag bunch of thugs (Forces Nouvelles), who had me empty all my bags and made me pay the only bribe I every payed in Africa. They didn't care about the paperwork. In fact, since they were FN, they refused to stamp anything. I got a "Vu à passage" stamp in Douékoué, which was the first town controlled by the Gbagbo central gov't.
Of course, all this might have changed since Ouattara's take over.

The southern route Harper, Liberia to Ivory Coast is different. Bernd S wrote a good post about it in 2010. Just note that on my route in 2010 I was never asked for a Plaque Touristique and the Conakry embassy didn't even know what I meant by that. I got a LP.

Cheers,
Julian

Attached Files

Nzekore to Man.gpx (222.3 KB, 560 views)

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