A few days in Gabu

On the minibus to Gabu we got chatting to a few Sierra Leonians, who said that it was fine to visit Sierra via Guinea, even though there were recent riots and military over-reactions, and the visa was going to cost £80 (£20 on the border apparently). Shame, but we had to meet Kerry and had a whole other trip planned. Next time.

First place we went to for accommodation was (again) reccommended in the guide book - "good rooms", "located in gardens" with a "discotheque and video lounge". It turned out to be a few hot tin shacks in a dusty driveway, a few dying trees about. About turned and walked back to the main road. Kids running past shouted "blanco, blanco", which was wierdly funny. Got a couple of rooms with fans, showers and double beds in Hotel Vision on the other side of town. I somehow ended up with a room to myself and we went for a wander.

Gabu was very similar to Bafata - long market road (much more variety in Gabu), every other shop being a Morrocan/Lebanese-run corner shop, or a hands-on mechanics, fixing generators or mopeds with hammers and a successful trial-and-error method by the roadside. We ate next to one of these mechanics every day - a small shack serving omlette and onion with mayo in a half-baguette, and a cup of Dilmah tea (quite expensive in the UK). All for about 30p. Bargain.


We had nothing to do here and thought we'd have a couple of dirt-cheap days to account for the more expensive parts of the trip still to come - trekking in the Dogon Country, Mali, and staying in Ghana's Mole (Mol-ay) National Park. Again eating a lot of meals by torchlight, a trying experience when you have bones from fish or chicken to contend with, and also had one memorable meal from a butchers by the roadside. In small packets made of concrete bags was some roasted generic meat (goat perhaps), with mayo, crumbled stock cube and onion. We got a bag each and ate back at the hotel. Barnes and Dree attacked it and really enjoyed it, but there was too much knuckle and not enough meat for my liking. I'll stick to my hard boiled eggs and chilli powder thanks.

The next day was Saturday and there was a night club in Gabu - Jomav - which apparently had the loudest sound system in Guinea-Bissau! Thought we'd check that out! Firstly we went to get hair cuts from the campest man I have met in a long while. He was wearing a long yellow moo-moo and was warbling to Celine Dion as he "cut" our hair. I say "cut" because his generator was down so he resorted to shaving all out heads with a razor blade and comb (that ol' chestnut)! Quite strange experience, but needed the barnet cut as it was reaching 40 plus each day.


Then tried to buy some booze, but found none. A lot of the countries we are visiting are mainly Muslim, and so we had to head to the club dry. Went back tot he rooms and played some cards till we'd hit the dance floor about midnight. But Mother Nature obviously didn't like the Kanye West/ 50 Cent/West African rap that was going to be played. Another night of heavy downpour during the "dry season". It flooded most of the compound, and there was no way we could've navigated the already potholed roads with all the rain as well. Clubbing on hold.


The next day we were lucky enough to catch some football in a warehouse further down the main road. Four TV's were set up on various stands - an oil drum, some boxes etc - and showed games from all the major leagues in the world. During lunch we paid the 150 francs (CFA), about 20 pence, and watched Liverpool stuff Man Utd, sans Gerrard. Not happy. Later we headed back and saw Barcelona demolish Zaragoza (including a tired-looking Jermaine Pennant) 6-1 in Spain. The atmosphere was great - this was where all the men came to watch the matches and there was about 200 guys on benches facing the screens, wearing all sorts of football shirts, staring earnestly ahead, as well as the few bats circling overhead. I did think a man was about to get lynched when he tried to change the channel, but he sensibly heeded the not-so-polite calls of his peers!

So with our fancy new haircuts - Dree having a small wave-fringe, looking like Kryton from Red Dwarf, and me and Barney rocking the skinhead look - we were ready for our return to Senegal, hopefully getting an entry stamp this time, and to Tambacounda.