Crossing to Bissau

Hi BoBers,

The border crossing into Guinea-Bissau was uneventful again, apart from the Senegalese police being confused by us putting on sunscreen. We decided to break up the route with a boat from the border town of Sao-Dominigos to Cacheau. The boat ride started with the drivers taking shots together. It middled with the boat crashing into the mangroves and getting stuck. Thankfully, it didn’t end by crashing into the dock. We arrived in the evening and bizarrely managed to haggle a place in the courtyard of a fancy hotel for 3USD per night.

The roads leading to Bissau from the border are not in good condition. Often they’re so potholed that the sandy piste next to the road becomes the preferred route. By the time you get closer to Bissau, perhaps for the best, the entire road is just sand. This is the main road from the border to the capital. Guinea-Bissau is considerably poorer than Senegal. Not great for road tyres but BoB but BoB and I were cruising with my new offroad monsters.

Guinea-Bissau is also considerably boozier. As soon as we crossed the border, red and white wine casks were being sold by the side of the road. The first large town we stopped in had many people drinking on the street on Thursday afternoon. It was fun, but started to get a bit chaotic by the evening. Quite often it was harder to find a coke than a beer. One night I ticked off one of the random items on my trip bucket list by setting up camp while completely blindfolded.

I had multiple punctures when we arrived in Bissau. I was still using tubes for my old 35mm tyres that were clearly stretched well beyond their limits. We found a lovely hostel for the night and prepared ourselves for the ferry across to the Bijagos islands.

Tipsy J&BoB

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