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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part III

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:12:22

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Thursday, it must be Guinea II

We reach the border. Here the immigration/customs shacks of the two countries almost
abut; The Gambia - Senegal frontier is actually in a single location without more than a
few meters? stretch of no-man?s land between them. Our bags are permitted to stay on the
vehicle; neither customs office seems interested in checking them out. The vehicle will not
unload us at the border, but rather it takes us to the nearest town in Senegal, from which
transportation out is available. All this adds up to an excellent start for a travel day.

We reach the Senegalese border town named Velingara, a small forgettable entity, which
thinks so much of itself that it insists on having more than one gare routiere. The depot I
now want, of course, is the other one, located on the other side of town. Upon arrival
from The Gambia our pick-up is beset by several town taxis which want to charge me a
fortune (starting price is double what I just paid to get here all the way from The Gambia)
to take me across town to the other depot. As I start to walk away, the cabby drops his
price, plunging about 10% every meter of distance I put between us. I follow the crowd
and walk about one kilometer to the other taxi station.

To get to Guinea, which is south of here, I need to pass through a junction called Medina
Gounas according to the guidebooks, which also fail to mention that no taxi from
Velingara goes there. Instead, everyone recommends that I head in the opposite direction,
north to Tambacounda, which is a rail depot (I passed through it on the train from hell),
where I can find a bush taxi for Guinea. I don?t like backtracking, but in this case it is
unavoidable. I get a seat in a Peugeot 505, and its kind driver upon reaching Tamba at
noon is introduces me to an elderly man on the side of the road (I cannot ...