Saniquelle, Liberia - Monday 5 November 2007 - Only five minutes left...

I was not ready to believe it when my escort said, only five minutes and we are there!... We have been driving in the dark for half an hour, me helping him with light as his moto didn't have any. And on this afternoon when everything looked as it went ways, except "my way".

We left Danane hospital at 7.45 in the morning and my mechanic showed up one hour early. That was a good start, but...Let me try to tell you about the the day in short; First, the roads were as bad as warned and I got a dejavouz from my Angolan road earlier this year. Second there was those time-consuming arguments about money at the checkpoints and at the last checkout point at Danipleu we were told that the last one trying to get into Liberia were sent back. I said my papers was in order so I will try anyway and after paying the fee for driving over a bridge recently fixed by the village people we were off. Then Betsy halted and the gears didn't want to cooperate at all, me doing some low gear, high gear changes along the horrible roads. Well, the mechanic sorted that problem out fairly quickly and off we went again, my stomach not recuperating at all. The roads became less roads as we continued. More dense bush, then only bush and crossing the "home constructed bridge", more vegetation, less road and then after 50 km on the last stretch of Ivorian land we arrived at the border at 11.45.

The commandante was not present so they had to call him into duty which took 90 minutes and after his stamp and 10 US dollar fee we were cleared to go. Except there was a costumes officer that also wanted some hand outs. He said that he wanted to check the car, and wow, what a thorough check it was. The customs representative asked me to follow him to the office and said that he needed a fee for the search and custom check of the car. Staying/laying in the car to search every inch of Betsy made me moth tired and very sweat, so I told him. "Look at me, I am dripping wet, you should pay me for that search and I left. He didn't give up though, so he asked me back to the office without any luck (for him) and he finally gave up. That took 45 minutes and I was kind of prepared to camp in Dulag because I requested a scout to show me the way to Saniquelle and he was not entirely ready yet.

Do not worry he said, I have to repair my tyre first and as the sun descended rapidly I faired that takeoff would take place on Monday morning. After one hour he came, everything was set and we went off. So far the gearbox have worked well except that hiccup on the Ivory Coast side. All I could tell was that it didn't sound healthy. Then I got a diesel leak!

A pipe had broken and as my mechanic escort had left, I didn't have much choice than to open the bonnet and look very competent. I fixed the leak using a metal tread which made me smile a bit. My uncle is famous for fixing cars with just a hammer and a metal tread. So here I was in the Liberian jungle doing what I am normally not good at. Fixing cars. Well, it worked and we continued on promised better roads which in fact was slightly better but still terrible. "You see, its because of the war..." was the frequently used phrase through the jungle.

And then suddenly he said "Its only five minutes to Saniquelle...". I almost got a tear in my eye, that's how good it felt. And tomorrow we continue to Monrovia.