A really, really rusted out vehicle near the Guinea Bissau border
Guinea Bissau / Senegal border
Unfortunately the border between Guinea Bissau and Senegal is not open all night; in the morning it opens at 8am. We arrived at the border at 630am – avoiding all the corrupt police on the road as they had not yet reached their posts. After waiting around about 45 minutes my driver decided he wanted to visit a border market about 5 minutes away. When we returned from the border market slightly before 8am we were caught by one of the corrupt cops who extricated more money from us.
We made it through the Guinea Bissau border with no problems or delays. Entering Senegal was another matter. The officers had ‘lost’ the paperwork we had filed a few days earlier for our vehicle; it took nearly 2 hours dealing with this hassle. Not a delay we needed at this point.
Next up was the Senegal / The Gambia border – surprisingly we passed through with little hassle (considering the lengthy amount of time it took us to pass through here with the car the first time).
Many more police checkpoints (but no corrupt cops) soon followed along with many roadblocks that slowed our progress significantly. Finally we reached Banjul – the old city is located right on the coast. Recognizing it took us 3 hours to deal with the painfully slow and potentially dangerously overcrowded car+passenger ferry for mouth of The Gambia river crossing, I opted to take a private fishing boat this time. We jumped in as soon as we arrived at the beach and made the crossing in about 35 minutes – passing near numerous dolphins.
Senegal taxi
Dusty roads winding through Senegal
The victim caught us after a few minutes – flashing his bright lights at us and honking furiously. He forced us over to the side of the road by cutting in front of us. He stopped and we stopped behind him. My driver backed up and raced away again. The other driver soon caught us and began screaming out the side of the window while cutting us off – my driver ignored him and eventually the other driver raced off into the night.
I was supposed to have been dropped off at the airport, but rather I was dropped off at a dimly lit bus station where I was taken to another taxi – one that was falling apart. All four handles inside had long come off and when I sat in the back seat I was unable to open any of the doors – I quickly had visions of being locked in a taxi cell – and taken somewhere bad. Fortunately this driver was above board and took me straight away to the airport with remarkably still several hours to spare before my flight departed.
Once we reached the airport, I immediately headed to a tiny stall in the closest bathroom I could find to wash off the layers of dust accumulated during our drive today – some of which came from when our driver had the bright idea of following trucks extremely close on dirt roads. 45 minutes later in my tiny bathroom stall I was semi-clean and more presentable. This was after using nearly a roll of toilet paper, bottled water and toilet water – leaving shards of toilet paper and other grime in my wake.
The title of your article ‘This is Africa,’ should have been titled ‘Out of Africa.’ Wow, we had to read your article twice, Dave. You had an unfortunate joy-ride of a lifetime – yikes. We’re glad you survived this nightmare but most likely with a lot of stress and fright. Varela, Guinea Bissau and Senegal won’t be on our travel list – after reading about everything you went through – police checkpoints corrupt cops and the wild taxi drive after an auto accident is something you can expect in a Hollywood movie – not on a road trip. Thanks for sharing it with us. We were holding our breath from paragraph to paragraph.
M&G
NYC
Always a reminder of the raw realities of travel sometimes. Thanks for sharing this.
What a crazy story! Africa is next on my travel list but this reminds me of all the dangers of travel. Ill be sure to plan carefully for my trip!
Michael – having been to west Africa before I was prepared for stories like this one! Sorta just flow with the punches and prepare yourself for everything taking longer then it should – especially when it comes to transportation.
~ Dave
Quite an extreme story Dave!
Oh, my gosh… some things don’t change no matter which part of Africa you travel! I have seen some horrific car accidents in Botswana and South Africa, one of which resulted in death, and encountered corrupt law enforcement officials in Namibia and South Africa as well. I’m glad you got out in one piece!
Nice article. What an experience you had!!
Amy – yes, some of my most memorable travel experiences have come in Africa – from the time we were pulled over in Lesotho and someone pulled a 9mm on the traffic cops next to us, to a riot in SA where people started throwing rocks towards us, to traveling in Cote d’Ivoire just before a coup, to arriving in Tunis the night a gunman killed a bunch of people and the country was under a curfew. But those are just a few things – most of my travels in Africa have been memorable for other reasons – friendly people, amazing beaches, safaris, prolific wildlife, climbing mountains, wine etc 🙂
Great post , nice story , thank you for sharing the interesting post.
Great blog Dave. Africa, South Africa in particular is my favourite country on earth. There is something special about this continent that grabs you by the heart and doesn’t want to let you go.
Some interesting adventures you have there Dave. I just stumbled onto your blog and read a few posts. Not sure I could visit that part of Africa – but I like reading about it!
What an experience, Dave! Some parts of the story were scary – like when your driver decided to perform a ‘hit and run’ and then being chased by the other driver! I do not think I will visit these parts of South Africa ever.
Anywhere else in the world – what an ordeal. In West Africa, that’s just Tuesday.
What! I wasn’t expecting this at all. It’s good that you weren’t injured though.
Kieron – agree absolutely 100%. My favorite part of the continent is anywhere from eastern sub saharan africa all the way down to south africa. the wildlife is prolific. lots of great outdoor activities 🙂
Izy – yes, you never know what will happen when traversing the chaotic roads of parts of Africa!
Lucy – yes, when traveling around Africa, one can’t be to rigid, rather an openness to a diversity and randomness of experiences, some good and some bad – is important!
Deeptha – thanks for stopping by. Most of my travels in Africa have been ‘normal’ – these random experiences certainly stick out though!
It looks scary but I guess there will be a moment when you see the reality of travel such as this.