Getting to and around Conakry

Many boats are moored in the harbour, few seem to go anywhere...
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Wild and free in Conakry is not the most accurate of titles but it does rhyme. The reality here I principally came here for a work purpose but through this saw some (indeed quite a lot) of the city.

Conakry perhaps fairly described as something of an outpost so far as West African cities are concerned. I had to take three flights to get here from Accra. Three connecting flights in West Africa is no mean feat believe me. My Emirates flight was delayed by an hour meaning I arrived late in Abidjan had little time to connect to Air Senegal International flight. Transfers were shut so we had to bribe this guy to take us land side where I was able to check in and return in time to be one of the last on the plan to Dakar. It was strange having to negotiate such bureaucracy in an airport that would  put London Heathrow  to shame in most respects.

Share taxis have a set zone based fare so small you would be unlikely to contemplate bargaining

...and some are just are not to!
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The Senegal flight was not in the same league as Emirates but I have had far worse. The airline is part of the Royal Air Maroc group and people said it was better than most other regional airlines. Well, they said it before I flew but  then when I arrived in Banjul and made my next connection nobody had told me about the 6.5 hour delay to the next leg of my journey. I eventually found a lounge where after some protracted negotiation (but no financial inducement) I procured entry to what was a relative haven of peace and tranquility compared to the anarchy that is the departure area of Dakar International Airport.

A view of the peninsular that is Conakry - has it the longers coastline of any capital city?
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The lounge was decked out in a burgundy colour with an open bar (not well stocked but hey - the concept is rare for West Africa) and had windows overlooking the airport. The staff were not overly friendly which is a theme I am becoming use to and is probably more a reflection of their Francophone mannerisms and my inability to converse in the French language. Thus, they are probably charming and warm people. Eventually my final flight was due to leave. There was an apology for the delay given with an explanation it had been stuck in Conakry. In fact the plan had been on the tarmac at Senegal when I arrived 7 hours earlier and was being sent to Banjul and Bissau to cover two flights in one and from there I believe onwards to Conakry from where it returned with the passengers it was scheduled to bring back had it left Dakar on time. This crazy arrangement did not only catch me out, a guy who had been forced to pay an even greater bribe than I back in Abidjan did not realise the Bissau flight was going to stop in Banjul so he missed it all together (and why should he know - the flights are usually separate). As the man at the gate told me 'you are lucky, you have a plane coming' (note - speech marks are missing from my keyboard).

Loading the van for a trip up country
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So, eventually I reached Conakry which is another legend. Lonely planet suggests it may be the worst airport to navigate in Africa but I had a 'fixer' waiting for me so I had no major worries.  I was shunted into  a VIP lounge and left there whilst he negotiated all the hurdles. I had all my bags with me in the cabin, a tip for any connecting flights in West Africa someone had given me so I did not have to venture into the reclaim hall. Nevertheless, I did wonder if the guy had actually stolen the sign with my name on at one point and then fled with my passport as the room where I was deposited had almost emptied by the time he reappeared. I say almost as there was one other British speaking Guinea novice there whose 'fixer' had either not shown up or left. I would have had my fixer help but he could not understand any English and this other guy was supposed to head up country.

For some, only free and very dangerous forms of travel are possible
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Outside we got a taxi which drove deserted streets at break neck speeds through some of the less salubrious suburbs of Guinea until we were stopped by the police. The guys then used my presence to negotiate this without paying a bribe which can be anything from 1000 - 5000 Guinean Francs (about 8,500 = one pound) and  then proceeded to my hotel where I was asked to pay 50,000GF and told they were out of receipts. Welcome to Guinea. I have covered my hotel separately and grabbed what little sleep I could there before being awoken by my local contact for an intensive day of meetings. I had inadvertently set my alarm to the wrong time in my extreme tiredness so I was inadvertently an hour behind. He must have thought I was mad.

Colourful fishing boats both in...
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My contact asked his driver to find me a 'safe hotel driver'. These guys have yellow licenses in their windows and are, it seems to me, a license to rip visitors off. To be fair most taxis in Guinea are shared, its economy is 'shot to bits' and few can afford the luxury (seldom has a word been used more loosely) of their own private hire even at the modest price picking one of the street is. It is therefore often hard to find a regular hire taxi on the street.

For those who visit you need to know that taxis should officially have a bit of yellow paint on them, usually in the form of a stripe. People buy a car, hit hard times and then turn their car into a taxi. Others may not be able to actually afford the yellow paint (or just want to operate as a taxi occasionally) so they do so in cars devoid of the yellow. These will not however be registered taxis and are probably best avoided though everything here is relative (though it is a moot point as to those with the yellow are all registered). If you get an entirely yellow vehicle you will have no way of knowing if the taxi is official or not.

...and out of the water.
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A second taxi fact is that it seems they must all have some defect. Some have a missing light, others a missing number plate, many sport a few fairly serious dents, quite a lot have apparently badly worn break pads, a some miss a window or two, the odd one has a boot that will not shut and occasionally there is one with all the above defects and then some. I should also mention that if you find one with a working seatbelt you are doing very well (though it is apparently legal for drivers to wear them). As is the case elsewhere in the world know your price before you set off. Ask locals what is fair and bargain hard to get somewhere near that figure.

Share taxis have a set zone based fare so small you would be unlikely to contemplate bargaining and would likely get very short thrift if you did. Only the poorest of the poor will do so but it is a sad fact of life that many here fall in this category. The share taxis as small four seat cars that usually carry seven plus any children or animals. An additional problem to the discomfort is that drivers will be reluctant to move far or fast without a full load so you can sometimes wait for passengers going the right way and with the money to pay. Also, drivers ar supposed to pay tax at certain places and this also proved to be a source of argument and delay in my experience.

For people who cannot afford the shared taxi the next option is the mini van. These are even more packed (hard to believe but true) and if going up country will possibly have everything but  (or perhaps even including) the kitchen sink on the roof.

Anyway, I digress as I am at the stage of the journey where I did not know any of this and was blindly using my rip off driver who it transpired was a graduate in psychology. Few people in Guinea seem to have the luxury of doing what they were trained to do. My driver, though possessive of his sucker passenger, was basically a good guy and keen to help me. He did a few good things for me during my stay such as fend off angry police after I took a picture but doubled the fare negotiated by my hosts driver siting a linguistic misunderstanding (they both speak French). Anyway, for what its worth his name was Barrie and he works  out of the hotel I reviewed. He  will charge you around 250,000 Francs a day  when you can potentially get around in great discomfort by shared taxi for a bout 3/100th of this sum. I cannot say much about where we went as it was work stuff but we did of course go to Indochine (reviewed separately and another French style eating place the next day).

Prior to signing off it is right that I mention three other forms of transport that I did not use. One is the helicopter service that you can use to go up country or to Sierra Leone. It is probably not advisable as there seems to be much discussion about the safety of the helicopters but if you are in a hurry! Another mode of transport that you will almost certainly not use is the train; they are only used to carry the minerals mined up country which really, in an ideal world, should make Guinea a more prosperous place than it is.

Last but not least there are the boats. Specifically I am thinking of fishing boats but there are other types of boat as one must expect in a city that has perhaps a longer coastline than any other city in the world (could someone confirm if this is so). Fishing boats are very colourful and you may use them to visit some reportedly beautiful islands not far off coast though I did not have time to go. Sadly, fishing has suffered as western states increasingly fish off the coast around the Gulf of Guinea but it is still a major livelihood for many. As for the larger boats, many seem to  just left to rust away but there are still some comings and goings out of Conakry harbour.