The plan for today is 530 km from Monrovia Liberia, across a border, to Freetown Sierra Leone. We were supposed to leave at 8:00am and I was at my bike with my luggage strapped down at 8:00, and so was Ahmed, but ... we weren't moving until 9:00am. I lost a lot of sleep on this trip being on time and then waiting around. Ahmed tried to get people out on time, but getting West Africans to adhere to a schedule is a Sisyphean task.
The Liberian guys with their Land Rover escorted us out of Monrovia through incredible traffic. I saw a motorcyclist fall in front of me in traffic --- he didn't look injured, but crap(!) what a reminder to be careful!! Little, 3-wheeled taxis are everywhere. The Liberian guys with their sirens and aggressive horn usage cleared a path and we pushed our way out of town. It's about 100km and 1h20m to the border which we reached at 10:20am, again beating Google Time.
At the border, I was surrounded by kids, one of whom knew EVERY flag on my suit, including Andorra and San Morino! He didn't speak any English, but his geography knowlege (at least flags) was incredible.
I gave my leftover Liberian dollars to a woman with a baby.
We were through the Liberia exit at 12:10pm only one hour after arriving. Then roughly 1:40pm before we were on our way into Sierra Leone, call it only(!) 2.5 hours for this border crossing. Google says 5.5 hrs to go the 385 km to Freetown. It gets dark at about 6:30pm. We arrived at 8pm, but the support vehicles arrived much later, like 2am! They got in very late because the pickup truck blew a head gasket (or something, the diagnosis is not clear even now). The riders were eating dinner at the hotel at 9pm, but the poor support crew was really taking a beating. Dan getting in at 2am, to sleep by who-knows-when, knowing one of the support vehicles is trashed, is about to really stress him out. Tomorrow is looking like a forced rest day. They are going to try to get the van converted and make some progress tomorrow, but that looks impossible to me.
Day 4, Monrovia to Freetown
| Time | Minutes | km | kph avg | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:04am | 40.5 | out and ready to go but... | ||
| 8:45am | 37.1 | 24 km | 38 | actual departure |
| 9:22am | 12.7 | fuel stop | ||
| 9:35am | 37.8 | 39 km | 63 | |
| 10:12am | 16.1 | snack stop in Kle | ||
| 10:29am | 47.8 | 79 km | 99 | |
| 11:16am | 52.8 | waiting to exit Liberia | ||
| 12:09pm | 2.4 | 0 km | 5 | cross the bridge |
| 12:12pm | 88.2 | wait to enter Sierra Leone | ||
| 1:40pm | 24.3 | 41 km | 101 | |
| 2:04pm | 6.9 | brief stop entering Zimmi | ||
| 2:11pm | 2.3 | 1 km | 38 | |
| 2:14pm | 21.3 | regroup at traffic circle in Zimmi | ||
| 2:35pm | 55.6 | 94 km | 101 | |
| 3:31pm | 1.4 | security checkpoint | ||
| 3:32pm | 62.4 | 105 km | 100 | |
| 4:35pm | 66.7 | 1 hr fuel stop | ||
| 5:41pm | 107.6 | 138 km | 77 | |
| 7:29pm | 18.5 | fuel stop in Freetown | ||
| 7:48pm | 6.9 | 4 km | 36 | |
| 7:55pm | arrived New Brookfields Hotel, Freetown | |||
| 11h56m | 6h25m moving | 527 km | 82.0 kph | 54% moving, 331 minutes of breaks |
We waited at this gas station for an hour while Dan went back to find the support truck broken down (4:35pm)