There was a thunderstorm during the night and it rained hard for a while. At a certain point the generator was switched off to be switched back on around 5am. It was nice and cool outside. We got up early to make a head start. We had along day ahead. A quick refreshing bucket shower later we had packed our stuff, paid and were ready to leave.
The first 180km were full of stretches with tons of potholes. That slowed us down but we knew and calculated it in.

We stopped in a little village to have a coffee and some bread with vache qui rit.
Along the way we again met several police and gendarmerie check points. All very friendly and just wanted to welcome us to their country. Literally just in for a chat. Shortly before Mamou a gendarme stopped us. When we lowered the window, he saluted us in a very clumsy manner.

It was clearly difficult for him to formulate a sentence. He tried to chat a bit before he told is that he had just made fresh coffee. We looked at each other and expected an invitation to join. But no, he asked if we had something to add to his coffee. I apologised and wished him a nice day. Other officers also seemed to be under influence of something other than fresh air.

We continued to our turn off point to Conakry.
The weather started clearing up and the sun became dominant. The thermometer climbed from 24°C this morning to above 34°C.
The route national 1 is brand new. It winds itself down from the highlands to Kindia and beyond to Conakry, the capital of Guinea. The tight bends around the mountains, the inclines and declines, drivers racing like mad men, it is a very dangerous road to drive. Overtaking is done at the most impossible spots and bends. The sides of the road are littered with car and truck wrecks. No kilometre passed without a wreck.

We had try to time our arrival at Conakry International airport between large passenger flights not having to wait too long for our visas to be processed and printed. Unfortunately, when we entered the outskirts of Conakry, we discovered that a large truck had skidded down a hill and blocked one side of the city motorway completely. This caused a complete traffic chaos as cars tried to pass on all sides. We stood still in one spot for more than 30 minutes before it started moving a bit again. Madness all around us. We moved slower but our timing was gone as we had lost more than 45 minutes.
Once passed the major traffic jam we encountered another smaller one. It seemed to be caused by the arrest of one of two fighting men by police who attempted to take the guy away on a motorbike, one gendarme in front of him and one behind him while still heavily gesticulating and shouting to the many bystanders. We quickly tried to pass them. The dashcam recordings will be great, I assume.

Arrived at the airport we found a cozy spot for Eeyore to park. Without any problems or checks we were let into the terminal until we passed the immigration offers from the other side and led to the visa on arrival booth. More than 40 Chinese were waiting there in line. In the end it took us about two hours. Some money exchanged in the arrivals hall and we were ready to celebrate our visa and official legality in Guinea! A quick check at Eeyore on the parking when we passed him on our way to the restaurant across from the airport. We ordered each a salad, first veggies since Abidjan, and a nice pizza.

In darkness we fought our way back to the chalets we had rented for the night at the edge of town that took us again more than an hour. The driving even at night is crazy. Plenty of motorbikes buzzing and honking around you, taxis coming as close to you that a stamp would barely fit between your and his wing. We found an open Shell station and quickly filled up for our trip back into the highlands tomorrow.

Today we have been on the road for nearly 16hours and drove 472kms. That brings our total to just over 1700km so far.