Crossing the Kogon

A casual look at the map poses a minor problem, there is no road between the capitals (of Guinea Bissau and Guinea) without a 100+ mile detour. However, on zooming in there appears to be a number of small border crossings, so I pick the option that looks most remote and the adventure begins.

Wow what an adventure it was, comical border formalities, 2 drops, many water crossings, rocky hill climbs and haggling for a pirogue over the Kogon river. On top of this I bumped into my old friends Ferry and Gulcin. This 8 hour adventure is summarised in the 3 minute video link below.

I arrived into boké, the regional town, and immediately took my first AC room of the trip to help my tired body. But I had a problem. The border was so small that they said they don't  stamp passports, they just check. They said the next town has immigration. The next town had the same situation. So I've now been through 3 border/police checks and arrived in Boké without officially entering the country. The following morning I find the local police and ask where I can get an immigration stamp, the answer I get is Conakry, the capital, 200 miles from the border! This just sounds ridiculous so I keep pushing and end up with the chief of police for Boké who says he will stamp it but he needs to check with his boss first. This sounds promising, until 2 hours later we're still waiting for his response. After some gentle questioning it turns out I'm waiting for the chief of police for the whole country, and he is a little busy in a cabinet meeting trying to control rioting in Conakry. In the end I get my stamp...and the phone number of the police chief. I suspect roadblocks are going to be easy from now on.

On another topic I changed €100 and became a Guinean millionaire.

Photos
1) Coming ashore on the Kogon river
2) The hideously proportioned sculpture outside my hotel room

https://youtu.be/5wTOMoWSxQcEn savoir plus