Crossing Borders in Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry
Update 78 (January 2025)
Ziguinchor to Conakry, Guinea
I think it was Boxing Day when I left Senegal for the Guinea Bissau border. Leaving Senegal was easy. I just handed over my motorcycle Temporary Import paperwork to customs, which they kept. Getting stamped out with Immigration was also a quick job. I think I left the country in about ten minutes.
Getting into Guinea Bissau was also straightforward. I had organised my visa for Guinea Bissau way back in Rabat, Morocco. My memory is a little vague on whether there was any Customs office at the border. But basically I had to ride to the next town of Sao Domingos to the Poste de Douanes (Customs). They completed a Temporary Import Permit for 5 days for 2,500 West African Francs ($4 US). I tried to get longer but no joy. I would have to visit the douane office in Bissau.
Breakfast at Le Flamboyant Hotel in Ziguinchor, Senegal. It was a good hotel and price (when booked direct).
Into Guinea Bissau now and heading for the capital of Bissau on the same day.
The road was a mix of potholed dirt, potholed bitumen and some good bitumen. There were two or three road toll points for 250 francs (40 cents). One was to cross the bridge over this river.
One of the main streets of Guinea Bissau. With each country that I enter my thoughts turn to the task of getting the next couple of visas arranged. Guinea (Conakry) is the next country. The only way to get a visa is through their online eVisa system. For the previous ten days I had been trying to process my application. No matter what I tried I could not get past an error with their payment system. And nobody would answer their support emails. Something changed when I updated my address to my Bissau hotel address and suddenly it worked. I still had three working days and a weekend to wait. So I got to know Bissau quite well.
Just on the left is Darling Supermarket. They were really nice and had a relatively good range. What they did have was the best cashews nuts I have ever come across. Guinea Bissau is a big producer of cashew nuts. Darling was selling some from a local supplier that were definitely A Grade, and I would pick up a container each visit.
I also needed to visit the douane (customs) office to get an extension on my motorcycle Temporary import. This is the office to find. I actually asked about it at a government office about one kilometre away. Once he understood my question, the kind man took me to the correct office in his car and helped me find the right person.
Bissau has a terrible history as a major centre for the Portuguese slave trade. The country gained independence in 1974 and as recently as 1999 the city was decimated by civil war.
Bissau passenger port.
After 6 nights in Bissau, I moved on. Crossing over Rio Corubal.
There was a small town after Rio Corubal with a douane (customs) stop. I thought this might have been the border crossing office and stopped. I had a confused conversation with the man, who still stamped my motorbike permit but told me I should go a little further to the douane office in Contabane.
The confusion continued at Contabane where the douane officer told me I should cross the border along a very different route to what Google Maps was saying. He was saying his way was shorter, even though it did not exist on Google Maps. He enlisted a local English speaking man. They convinced me to go their way, I was still a little sceptical about the detail, but from my experience Google Maps definitely cannot be relied on in situations like this. This time I had to pay 5,000 West African Francs to process the Temporary Import paperwork.
I rode another 100 metres to the Immigration office. While at the Immigration office, the official asked some local men crossing back to Guinea to show me the way, which they were happy to do.
I think it was around 3pm when we left the Guinea Bissau border offices. We started down a proper track, but within 500 metres we had turned off into the forest and started following a narrow trail. I did find most of the route on my Locus Maps app, although at times it just showed as a walking trail which was exactly what it was at times, if that. It would be a bad idea to go this way without a local showing the way.
Looking back at the Contabane Immigration office on the left.
Looking forward towards Guinea. That is the motorbike I was following with three locals.
After a while we arrived at this small village and the first Guinea Police checkpoint. There was another smaller police checkpoint in the middle of the jungle a short distance further. The behaviour of both lots of police was quite unappealing and I was glad to get through.
This map shows my recorded route in blue. Google Maps was directing me around through Quebo and along the N3 into Guinea. It was certainly the only possible way to go if you had a car.
After a while we reached the Kogon River. These wooden boats were the only means of crossing. It took some convincing from my guides, but really I had no choice but to give it a go. It became obvious the locals didn’t really understand just how heavy my bike was, but it went fine.
I am not sure who this guy was. But he seemed confident and I was happy to let someone more experienced at this to get the bike loaded.
The man in the helmet was riding the motorbike I was following.
On board safely. They got a big branch to lean the bike against and three of us jumped on with the lady and baby, and the old man paddled us across.
Unfortunately I have no other photos. My guides lived in Boke, the next main town and were in a hurry to get home. Boke was only about 90km as the crow flies from the Guinea Bissau border offices, but it took almost 5 hours to get there and was dark for the last 1.5 hours.
The afternoon was full of highlights though. The route was a mix of single track, or deeply rutted twin track that required some real skills to keep the bike upright. There were some amazing smaller river crossings, sometimes quite deep, but at least with a firm sandy bottom. Passing through the villages was fantastic too. The locals were all amazed to see me and more so the motorbike, and would smile and wave. It seemed to be bath time for the young kids in the fresh clear streams. Sometimes there were elevated foot bridges a couple of planks wide to get over the deeper creeks.
The route is obviously bicycles or motorbikes only. And one of the policemen was saying the crossing is not for foreigners, but it was unclear how true that was. It would definitely be wise to have a local to follow. And I don’t think I would take a motorbike heavier than mine. And I don’t know about crossing in the wet season. I assume the locals still have some access but it would be very difficult, especially on an adventure bike.
I thanked my local guides and said farewell to them at Kisoumaya. There was a police checkpoint there where I was stamped into Guinea. The road improved from this point and luckily became a wide new dirt road as it became dark, although it was still under construction and slow going at times.
UPDATE – Upon trying to exit Guinea Conakry I had major trouble with my visa. It seems having the eVisa document and being stamped into the country was not sufficient. I needed to go to Conakry Immigration and also get a visa page in my passport. The Guinea eVisa website information seems to be centred around airport arrival and says nothing about this for land borders. So if you arrive through a land border make sure you check the full requirements.
I made it into Boke around 8pm. I had no phone service, so it was a matter of using the simple hotel info from the offline version of Google Maps and riding around. I eventually found a basic hotel. Maybe it was the worst I have stayed in. Probably not the grimiest, but the lack of running water and no toilet seat marked it down.
In the morning I still had to find the douane or customs office. I rode around Boke trying to find it and asked a couple of people. Eventually I found the police headquarters and asked them. They were super helpful and one English speaking officer guided me there in his car and helped as a translator through the customs process. I paid 100,000 Guinea francs ($11 US) for the paperwork and was ready to leave.
After messing around getting an Orange SIM card I left Boke around 11am, bound for the capital city of Conakry.
The roads were relatively good, although trucks, dust, potholes, road construction and the heat made it hard work.
Getting into Conakry was 40kms of congested city traffic. The roundabouts are especially painful. For some reason they all become a rocky mess and you just about need a four wheel drive. I did find a better hotel and had a break for a few days
I also needed to organise my visa for Cote de Voire. For overlanders, there is a semi online process for paying the fee and making an appointment with a local embassy. The appointment system did not work but I just walked into the embassy and they had my visa ready to collect three hours later.
Lunch one day. I couldn’t work out what to order and saw a man eating it. I didn’t like it much. It was fish and very dried out, bony and pungent. You win some and you lose some.
Afternoon football takes over the city streets.