Aw de bodi everyone!

I hope all is well and you’re enjoying the Christmas season. I’m back on the road and it feels good to be mobile again. Diddy Kong is an absolutely swell bike. A smooth running motor, with good acceleration and powerful enough to get me up steep inclines on bad roads (even though it’s still only a 125cc engine). The guys at Honda haven’t been sleeping over the last 36 years. The difference to King Kong is like night and day. I’m very pleased with the new bike.

On the 6. December 2019 I got up at 5 am so as to evade the morning traffic out of Conakry. We had one last lovingly hateful moment in our relationship, when they closed one of the two roads (the one I was on) leading out of the city at 6 am. The sun wasn’t up yet and I found myself having to navigate over to the other road on the rocky and trash covered back alleys of Conakry in the dark. I eventually made it out ok and was happily cruising along the mountains on the outskirts of town towards the Sierra Leone border just as the sun was coming up. Freedom at last.

The border out of Guinea went well with no major hassles. Exiting the country on DK with Guinean license plates was no problem at all. The officer on duty briefly accused my Guinean Visa of being for Australia - I was able to clear him up on this with no further problems :). The Sierra Leone side went well too. I really enjoyed Sierra Leone - I think one of my favourite countries so far. People are very friendly, they speak English, the roads are super smooth and the police that tried fishing for bribes were easily charmed. I think I was a bit relieved to be out of Guinea. Conakry will hold a special place in my heart and I might be back here, who knows.

I made it to Bureh beach by 4 pm. What a beautiful little place. I spent the weekend hanging out with Rahel and her group of friends. Rahel is a friend of Conny and Päsches and is working for the German development agency in Freetown. We stayed at the Austra Leone guesthouse owned by Michael, an Australian court reporter for the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal. The weekend was spent swimming, eating and playing games (including UNO :). On Saturday my bush travel companion Max showed up as well. After leaving Conakry, Max had then travelled to the North of Guinea. He then spent some time in Freetown to get his Nigeria Visa. We’re back on the same route now, which is great :). It was really cool to spend some time just chilling in a beautiful place after the intense motorcycle hustling of Conakry. Just what the doctor ordered. If you’re looking for an off the grid chill holiday destination I can definitely recommend Bureh.

On Monday, 9. December 2019 Max and I headed out East toward the Liberian border. That night we wild camped somewhere after Bo in the bush and the next day decided to stop by Tiwai island, a small animal sanctuary in the Moa river. Mr. Momodou and the villagers were very accommodating. At the end of the afternoon walking tour we even managed to see some monkeys jumping from tree to tree. The highlight of our stay however was the cultural dance in the next village that evening. Max and I gave Mr. Momodou and Lahai a lift with the bikes and we got the picture book full on African village dance experience - complete with fire jugglers, devil dancers and plum wine. I think the dancers enjoyed having some foreigners around as well, as Max and I both got special dance attention XD.

On Wednesday, 11. December 2019 we headed onward to the Liberian border. On the way out from Tiwai we ran into Elhanan from Israel on a 125 cc Boxer. El has been all over Africa by motorbike and gave us a bunch of tips for Liberia. His most defining feature in my opinion however is his pet monkey Chicco (regard the photo).

The border crossing into Liberia was smooth. It was however an intense day with a lot of riding and navigating roads, officers and locals. We were glad to make it into Robertsport before sun down. We found the sea monkey lodge run by Hugo from Langenthal and were permitted to put up our tents for a friendly Swiss price :). Hugo has been in Liberia for years and now has opened the lodge for expat surfers and fishermen. He has basically built his own little independent kingdom, with a couple of bungalow containers, a road that he has to redo every year after the rainy season and a fuel generator. This all at a sizeable financial investment, but Hugo is optimistic for the future. Robertsport seems to have been an up and coming tourist destination in the 70s before the civil war. Now however it’s a secluded run down town with a Robinson Crusoe vibe to it. During our stay there was no surf (a reason to come back in the rainy season) and the fishing would have been super duper expensive (Liberia is ridiculously expensive for some reason - one explanation is because they use the US dollar and basically nothing is produced here). But Max and I had a good time hanging out with Hugo (we were his only guests) and checking out a shipwreck a little ways up the coast.

We headed out to Monrovia on Friday, 13. December 2019 and found an affordable campsite at an NGO run by Joe, a Liberian local. Their aim here is to help local orphans. Max and I are enjoying the wifi and super nice guesthouse. Yesterday we headed into town for some shopping and pizza (yup we splurged :) From what we had heard about Liberia - the place was supposed to be really run down. I however quite like Monrovia. It’s on the beach, pretty clean and not too crowded. The town is built on a hill and the buildings in the centre are reminiscent of colonial times. My hope is that after hustling for 3 weeks in Conakry - I have built up a certain thickness of skin and the rest of Africa is going to be a piece of cake XD.

Max and I are going to head out North toward the Ivory coast tomorrow and hopefully find some jungle path action along the way.

Take care and hugs all around

Chris