I have gone to Guinea on several occasions but this time around going there is very painful as the road from Port Loko to Kambia is not good. There are a lot of pot holes on this stretch, (Port Loko to Kambia) which made the 208 miles journey very painful for me.
I went along with a 13 man delegation made up of 7 cyclists and 6 officials to witness the 3rd edition of the ECOWAS cycling tour for peace in Guinea.
The journey started on Thursday 28th November 2008 at Pyke Street around 6 pm with a Toyota van and a jeep. The mood was very quiet since the delegation was leaving without any per diem or allowances.
Our first stop was the Post Office on Siaka Stevens street where the president of the association Winston Crowther paused to convert some Leones to dollars. Our second stop was the Ross Road petrol station where the vehicles were fuelled.
The road to Port Loko is fine but from Port Loko onwards the journey became tedious as the road was riddled with so many potholes causing the drivers to slow down considerably and also because the light was fading.
We were able to reach the Sierra Leone Immigration office by 12:45am but the road was closed down to vehicles coming from Sierra Leone and Guinea. We were directed by the police officers at the check point to the blocks where the immigration and custom officers are staying. The officers were fast asleep but after several knocks on the door they woke up and wasted no time to attend to us. They went through our passports and stamped them.
After going through all the protocols we were able to leave the immigration scene around 1:30 am. After this point we had to go through three more check points before approaching the Guinea boundary.
The “sorriest part” of the journey was when we got to Pamelap around 2:10am. We were unable to continue the journey as the officers who were manning the check point at that time said the officer who is in charge of processing our passports had gone home. So we had to pass the night at Pamelap.
Some members of the delegation had to come out of the vehicles to find a place to pass the night while some had to sleep in the vehicles. Yet others still found solace on tables or chairs in abandoned trader stalls, adding to the pains we took on during jumping in and out of potholes.
Although we were not allowed to pass, those who were seemingly engaged in commercial business started passing through that route from 3am to 5:30am after greasing the palms of the officers. We watched as the human traffic grew because most of us were unable to sleep due to the rough conditions.
The police officer responsible for stamping our passports arrived at 6:30 am and about 10 minutes late he started going through our documents.
After he had finished stamping our passports we went to find food to eat. We naturally fell into two groups – one group went to eat rice while the other went to drink tea with bread.
We started again at about 8am and we were able to reach the Sierra Leone Embassy in Guinea at about 11:30am. We were received by the Consular officer M.S. Kamara who forwarded us to the Head of Chancery Victor Abdulai Sheriff, who in turn introduced us to the Deputy Ambassador Alhaji Foday Lahai Koroma. After the introduction the leader of the delegation Mohamed K Kabba who represented the Youth and Sports Ministry explained to the Deputy Ambassador the purpose of our visit.
Our next port of call in Conakry was the Guinean Ministry of Youth and Sports office and we were shown there by the consular officer M S Kamara of the Sierra Leone embassy.
At the Sports Ministry we met with the organizers of the competition and some members of the Guinea cycling association including their President Yeroh Bah.
We were later briefed by a senior member of the sports council on how the competition will be run before we were taken to our first hotel at Nongor the L’Eau Vive run by a Sierra Leonean with all the staff speaking Creole. This made it very easy for us.
When we arrived at the Hotel there was no proper arrangement with the management and the Guinea Cycling Association. At the hotel there was no accommodation or feeding for the Sierra Leone delegation.
We were at the hotel until 5pm before rooms were given to us with three rooms to the officials and the cyclists were given a big room where they past the night and they were able to adjust to the situation.
We were able to have our first food in the hotel at around 7 pm and 3 and a half hours later we were called to take our dinner. After dinner everybody went to bed because we were tied.
The following day early in the morning the 7 cyclists took their bicycles and went for a light training before joining us for breakfast. After breakfast we were informed that we had to leave the hotel for another hotel in the town. We were then taken to a bigger hotel – Royal Riviera hotel with a swimming pool where 7 rooms were given to the Sierra Leone delegation.
Since we arrived in Guinea we never saw the Liberian delegation it was only at the Royal Riviera hotel that we met them outside.
I was staying in room 164 alongside Solomon Collier. Most of my time in the hotel, I spent looking at CNN or watching the English premier league.
Our first meal at the hotel was fish and chips. After that management at the hotel informed us that the hotel will only be responsible for 11 people from each country. So if the remaining people want to eat at the hotel each person should pay 300,000 Guinean money which both countries never agreed to because the money is too much so they decided that those who do not have food at the hotel will get food outside the hotel.
About two hours later some members of the Salone delegation went to the technical meeting. By 8pm we went to take our dinner and immediately all the cyclists went to bed as the following day was the race which was on Sunday November 30th
On the real day for the race we were the first to take our breakfast after that we were the first country to arrive at the starting point ready for the competition. The race started at about 10am and it ended about two hours later. We won it for the third time in a row and we started celebrating until we got to the Sports Ministry to receive our prize.
After the prize giving ceremony we went to Royal Riviera hotel with our two giant trophies. The next day we visited the Sierra Leone Embassy where the deputy Ambassador and staff of the embassy praised the cyclists and they gave us some few drinks and a 100 dollar note was put into the champion cup by the Head of Chancery Victor Abdulai Sheriff.
After that some members of the delegation went around the town on a sightseeing tour. As soon as we returned to the hotel in the evening, we started packing our belongings as we were supposed to leave the following day for Freetown.
We departed Guinea early Tuesday morning December 2nd At the Sierra Leone immigration office when we informed them of our success the officers who were working at the immigration office were very happy for the victory they gave us some drinks and some amount of money was placed in the cups.
After leaving immigration some member of the delegation went to find food and drink before we continued the journey. We finally arrived at the national stadium at 7 pm in the evening. We wasted most of our time in traffic at the East end of the city.
By Bernard Turay
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