Dakar-Timbi trip

Well here we go. I finally have time to get to the story that everyone’s been dying to hear, my bush-taxi trip from Dakar, Senegal to Timbi Madina, Guinea. for those of you that don’t know I started dating a young lady named Sarah (I’ve mentioned her before) back in April. Unfortunately the first month of our dating relationship we were far apart, because I had just started a one-month long trip through Gambia to Dakar, Senegal. that’s the preface as to why I decided to take this crazy trip, because she left to return to the US this evening and if I hadn’t taken the trip when I did we would have only gotten 3 days together before she left. Friday, May 11th 2012, I decided that I was going to go by taxi back home, because the people that I had come with weren’t leaving until May 16th because of car problems. my original plan was to jump in a taxi at 5:30 AM on Saturday May 12th, but after some talking with Jason, I decided to go and try and get a taxi at midnight, so that I could be in Tambacounda (Central Senegal) by early morning, then from there get a taxi to the border, and reach Koundara (Border city in Guinea) by 2:00 PM, and make it home to Timbi by around 8-9 PM. Jason hopped in a small city-taxi with me and we went to the grand taxi station. I should tell you that I had 27,000 CFA ($54). Once at the stand I was placed in a taxi that was going to Tambacounda, and was told it would leave shortly, once it filled up. Jason left the taxi stand at exactly midnight. After he left a guy walked up to me, told me that the price for the ticket was 10,000 CFA ($20) and he was the apprentice of the guy who ran the taxi stand. I paid him and didn’t think anything of it. Well 12:30 rolls around and there’s still only 2 of us (myself and a Senegalese man) in a taxi that can fit 6 passengers. 1:00 AM rolls around, and there are still only two of us. I decide to go to sleep, figuring I’ll wake up at around 3 and we’ll be full and on our way. Well I fell asleep at 1:30 AM, and woke up at 2:15 AM to find out that the other guy in the taxi with me decided to bail, but another passenger showed up, so we were back to 2 passengers. then 3:00 AM rolls around and one more guy shows up. We now have half of the taxi full, and are just waiting for 3 more passengers. I go back to sleep at 3:30 AM and wake up 4:00 AM to find out that we’re still at 3 passengers. By 5:30 AM we had a fourth passenger, and then by 6:00 AM we had a full taxi and were ready to leave. as I’m getting back in the taxi, a guy walks up to me, hands me a receipt and asks me for 10,000 CFA for my ticket. To make a long story short I ended up paying $40 for a $20 ticket, because the “apprentice” was a fake, and walked off with my other $20. at 6:20 AM we finally pull out of the taxi stand and are on our way to Tambacounda, about the time I expected to be there. we reach Tambacounda by 2:00 PM and as soon as I get out of the taxi a man walks up to me and asks me where I was going. I told him that I was on my way to Koundara, and he says all right, well hop in my taxi I’ll take you to Manda, about 30 drive, which is the farthest into Senegal that Guinean taxis are allowed. The catch is he wants 25,000 CFA ($50) to take me there, but I only have 7,500 on me. I have to pull out my emergency $100 bills and exchange that into 50,000 CFA and we finally come to a price of 20,000 to take my to Manda. we then get to Manda and before I even get out of the taxi he tells me that no taxis are leaving Manda for Guinea until Tuesday because that’s market day in Manda, and this is a Saturday. He then adds that he’ll try and find a taxi for me but if he can’t find one, then he can drive me to Koundara for 55,000 ($110), which I don’t have. At this point I only have about 30,000 CFA. he tells me that he can take me to the border for 35,000 and he wouldn’t budge on that price. I gave him $10 worth of Franc Guinean to go exchange to make up for the extra 5,000 CFA. he comes back and by now I’m running off very little sleep, no food and it’s about 3:00 PM. I was beyond frustrated with this guy and the situation, he’s just ripped me out of over $100 for a 2 hour trip, but I listened to him in Tambacounda, and after that he was my only option. He stops and gets gas in Manda, and there he finds another taxi driver that will meet us in Calefoure (30 kms from the Senegal-Guinea border). This guy is going to be right behind us and he’s going to pick me up in Calefoure and take me to Koundara. we get to Calefoure at 5:30 PM and this guy pretty much drops me off, asks for the last 10,000 CFA and is about to leave, when I just explode on him, showing him my empty wallet and in an extremely frustrated tone tell him that I’m still in Senegal, I have NO MORE money left, I have no clue if this taxi is behind us or if he just said that to comfort me, and so to make things better he buys me a little sack of water, and gives me “his” phone number and tells me to call him if I have any problems. I’m almost in tears, not know where I am, how I’m getting home, and with no money left. By now I’m just praying that the Lord will give me strength to get through this, and that he’ll bring this other taxi soon. 15 minutes later this taxi showed up, and I hopped in and was finally going to make it to the border. In this taxi were the driver, the owner, and 5 other passengers. As soon as I got in the taxi the owner turned to me and asked me what my name was, where I was from, all kinds of stuff to just get to know me. He then told me his story about how he knows what it’s like to be on an adventure (something I was definitely on). He traveled up through Europe, going through Spain, France, Belgium, all the way up to Sweden. He then spent 30 years in France before being called by the Guinean gov’t to work for them in Gabon. After 3 years there the head of the Embassy changed and so they cleaned house, and he was left without a job. he decided to buy a taxi and drive between Senegal and Guinea and meet people. We ended up talking for the entire 30 km trip. When we got to the border it was already closed. They wouldn’t let anyone through so our options were either to turn back and go the whole way back to Manda just to try again in the morning (although no taxis leave till Tuesday anyways), or we could spend the night here at the border. Well the owner of the taxi was just doing a passenger pick-up at the border so he was waiting for his clients then he was heading back to Manda, but he didn’t want to just leave me and one other Senegalese guy stranded at the border. He told me to wait by the taxi while he tried to figure something out the “African” way, which is pretty much try and talk your way through and if that doesn’t work give them a little money “gift” to thank them for helping you in advance. he came to back about an hour and a half later and said he found a way to get me into koundara within the hour. Which meant I’d be in Koundara by 9PM. He said to just wait there across the street, because he found a kid who had a moto who would take me into Guinea through some back roads. I was about to get smuggled into the country. Thankfully this kid took one look at me and realized it’d be too risky without a stamped passport, so I didn’t have to worry about that after all. This is my favorite part of the story. Now comes plan B. The owner of the taxi then takes me and this other Senegalese guy over to the kid, and grabs the kids by the arm and says, “These two guys are my friends, if I hear they got even ONE scratch on them, I’m holding you responsible.” He then turns to us and tells us that this kid is a good friend of his, and his parents own a café right here on the border, and that he’s going to pay for us to have some food (the first food I’ve had all day and it’s 8:30 PM), and then this kid will give us some mats to sleep on. He also adds that we’re safe here, no one’s going to rob us. The police and douanes are on one side of the border, and just down the street about 150 feet is the Army Baracks and the gendarmes. As long as we keep our bags on us we’re fine, if we leave them sit somewhere they’ll most likely get stolen. I then pull him aside and ask him how much I owe him for the ride from Calefoure to the border, cause I still hadn’t paid him, and he told me that he was in this for the relationships, not the money so whatever I wanted to give him was fine, but he wasn’t going to ask for any money. So I looked through my pockets and found 1500 CFA ($3) and gave it to him and told him that I didn’t need CFA anymore so he could have all the CFA I had left. After that he walked me over to the café and bought me and the Senegalese guy some coffee and bread, and then told us that if he wasn’t around in the morning was because he passengers had come and he left, and not to think that he had abandoned us, or something. After he left to go join his driver and wait for his passengers, I drank my coffee and ate some bread, it was really nice to finally have something to eat. After that both the Senegalese guy and I grabbed the mats, through them down on the side of the road and went to sleep. I slept with my one backpack (the one with my computer and bible) under my head, and then bear hugged my clothes’ backpack. By 9:30 I was out, but unfortunately didn’t stay out, I ended up waking up every hour on the hour. I’d wake up, check my bags were still with me and then fall back asleep. After 2AM I only woke up once, at 4. I finally got up at 6:00 AM, when the border opens and by 6:15 my passport was stamped and I was ready to go, all I had to do was wait for the first taxi coming from Senegal to come through, but if I was told the truth the previous day, none would be coming through until Tuesday. 6:30 rolled around and still no cars had shown up, then came 7:00, followed by 7:30, then 8:00 and still no one from Senegal had come. At 8:05 a car came from the Guinea side, drove right around the border patrol barrier, and dropped a sack of rice off at one house and then went over to a small corner store and started dropping off cigarette boxes, so we asked him if he was heading into Koundara and if we could get a ride. He charged us 25,000 GNF (about $3.50) which made me laugh cause I’d just spent over $110 just to get to the border. We pulled into town around 9:00, and I got a taxi to Labe (La-bay) for 95,000 GNF ($12) by 9:30. That ride was extremely uneventful which was nice, and we pulled into Labe (280 km trip) by 2PM, and I made it home to Timbi by 4:45 PM. The two noteworthy things about the Guinea side of my trip, were: 1) I was sitting at the back window on a dirt road from Koundara to Labe, so by the time I got to Labe I was CAKED in dirt, I looked Latino. 2) I surprised Sarah by coming home 40 minutes before I told her to expect me. She was surprised. It was cool. Haha So that’s my trip from Dakar to Timbi Madina. It started at 11:30 PM Friday May 11th, and I finally got home at 4:40 PM on Sunday May 13th. It was a long trip to say the least. One that I’m glad that I did, so that I can say I’ve done it and now have a cool story to tell with it, but one that I would prefer to NEVER do again. Knowing me though I’ll think I learned something from it and try it again and run into a whole new set of obstacles. Thank you all for your prayers, they were much appreciated and heavily felt from 6PM on Saturday until I got home! Blessings, Mark