12/28/2023 Bikepacking Guinea Day 142 : Any Heavy Fuel

In case you’re wondering, Guinea Pigs came from the Andes, not Guinea. That explains why I haven’t seen any yet!

“Africa is Sick!” Exclaimed Souleymane’s friend.

“No money. No job. We have no work!”

10 days ago, the main oil depot in the capital of Guinea (Conakry) exploded. It burned for a week. Did you know about that? Did it make the news in the US?

“Africa is SICK. Now I pay 40,000 Franc for one liter of gas,” he continued. I scratched some numbers in the sand just to be sure I was hearing him right. Yes, I was.

That is nearly $18 USD per gallon, guys… in a country where the income per person is $3.23 per day. How do they do it? At those prices with that income, you’re only using a motor if you really need it. Somehow, people keep moving forward.

In spite of this, there was a fair amount of traffic on the road. It almost entirely consisted of 125cc motorcycles burdened under the load of multiple passengers or heavy dump trucks loaded with supplies; people sitting on top. The motos turn the engine off for the downhills, and on some of the steeper uphills, a couple passengers have to get off and walk for a little bit. It was largely a constant back and for the between short steep uphills followed by short steep descents.

Souleymane’s friend was a motorcycle taxi driver - on his way back from a 48 hour taxi drive to the city I left 3 days ago.

With 60 days of median income cash in my pocket (or should I say “pockets” because it takes up so much space, I nearly need another bag), you might think I’ve got it made. But all that paper doesn’t do much good if there is hardly anything to spend it on! Even though I’m a “passer by,” I still get to have a small but real taste of what it is like here.

Since there aren’t many places to buy food, today I scored needed calories on the side of the road: overripe bananas along with underripe oranges for sale. Another woman in the next village was selling hard boiled eggs on the side of the road. Score!

Villagers collect these items from their land and wait on the edge of the road to sell them to people passing by. I haven’t had an orange in 7 years, but if you want to run cool, you got to run on any heavy fuel. 🎶

Because dates double as both fuel and “gifts”, I went around to several stores looking for some in Mali yesterday. No one understands me when I say the French word for “dates,” so I always have to pull out my little cache to show them what I’m talking about. The guy said, “I don’t have any, but give me one.” He had been friendly beforehand, so my plan to increase my dates ended up reducing them instead.

I haven’t bothered to go to a hotel yet after reading reviews. If the hotel has a bucket shower, no toilet paper, you need to squat over a hole, and no electricity… well that sounds not even as good as camping because my tent has all that with the bonus of fresh air and moonlight.

I am worried about resupplying electricity, though. With the cost of fuel, it’s not like people are going to be operating generators. I’m near a big town now, so if I cannot find a hotel with electricity tomorrow, I’ll look for an electricity store - a place where people come to charge their cellphones. I saw this in some of the tents in Mauritania - powered by a small solar setup.

This afternoon, Jaleed Mali bobo (at least that is what his name sounded like) pulled over on his motorcycle to offer me a ride. I said my bike wouldn’t fit. He said, “you have not yet seen what we can do with the bicycle.” He was a schoolteacher and spoke English fairly well. Later I saw him pulled over with a huge sack of cooking carbon strapped to his moto. “I had to buy something,” he said as I waved. How the heck was he going to get me, my loaded bike, and a sack of coal all on that moto. I should have said “yes” just to see what he had in mind.

Enough stories. Gotta save battery for tomorrow!