Thursday, September 18, 2008

Leaving Freetown

Having got the bikes sorted and running really sweet again we headed off through the lion mountains towards the Guinea border, we stopped the night at a place called Kundara to give us a full day off road to the border,
This trail was really tough going the rains have played havoc with the terrain, some of the river fords were so deep they were up to my tank,
we arrived at the border leaving Sierra Leone to find yet again no bugger there, so carried on to the guinea side only to find the guy hadn,t got a stamp for the passports or carnets
I suggested he just looked the other way and we would slip through, hey ho, nothing ventured an all that, but no way, he gave me a letter to take to the Prefecture in the town 30miles down the trail, we were going to stop the night there anyway:
What on earth this guy had done to deserve posting to this place god only knows, but he had definately upset someone
So , plotted up at a hotel and then went to present ourselves at the prefecture
Sorry mate he aint in the office, recuring theme here yes??
Ah, but he,s at home I was told , you,ll have to go there,
by this time I,m pissed off, hot, tired and its way past beer o,clock but I aint got a stamp in my passport and this lot love their paperwork
So off to the guys house with the letter firmly gripped in my sweaty paws, his manservant told us to sit in his yard whilst we awaited the head honcho.
Out he comes and I present him with said letter and showed him the passports and carnets,
This is sod all to with me, says he, my guys at the office should of done this, go back there at once and how dare you interupt my dinner.
Back to the office where I assume the cop had had a phone call to tell him what to do, he just writes all the details down and tells me to piss off back to whichever stone I had crawled out from under,
GRRRRRR I still dont have a stamp but at least I,ve delivered the letter, it was like when the teacher gave you a letter for the headmaster, I still don,t know what was in it but its now way past beer o,clock so we go back to the hotel and relax and get a early night in thinking that we had made everybody happy.How wrong could I get it
BANG BANG BANG on the door in the morning, OPEN UP ITS THE POLICE, lo and behold its the head honcho and his driver,
he wanted to know our date of births and our professions, that was it!!!! the guy had missed the info off the form last night so the top man came to do it himself, service hey
I still dont have a stamp and never got one, we left Guinea the next day and the border into Mali was a breeze, we arrived last night and checked into a real shithole as it was a early start for us, we vacated at 7.30am and went to the Burkina embassy to get our visa, sure no probs, come back at 3pm and I,ll have them ready for you says the lady
There is a really nice hotel round the corner so sod it we have checked in for the night and will try to get a early start tomorrow.