THE HARD WAY HOME: Hit and Run

What a horrible horrible day, firstly our camp the night before turned out to be only metres from a train line as the combination of the tall grass and the sun hanging low in the sky we did not notice and at about midnight we thought there was literally a train coming through our tent!! This was only the beginning oh a really shit day. The ride into Conakry was beautiful through the mountainous jungle but then the bottle neck of a penninsular city began funneling every man, dog, cow, bloody you name it it was there somewhere into one point. We dodged in and out of cars, the going was frantic, then I haerd a bang, glancing in my mirror Amy was right there...ok all is good but then I heard her horn tooting frantically, I turned around to see her slowing and her face grimacing through the visor of her helmet, something was wrong; She managed to bring the Baja to a halt and I looked for a spot to park, a masive drain to my left and the busy road to my right I just pulled up and left my bike running on the side of the road as I ran back to her.

She was in pain and I noticed her pannier on the right side on an unusual angle and the left one was actually nowhere to be seen. Whats wrong I asked? A car just hit me....shit I said outloud.... I think I broke my ankle was the reply....OK I said just sit still? she was still pertched on her bike, cars all around and a big fat policeman was suddenly there wanting to help, I told him slow down, she is hurt help lift her from the bike. I then noticed as I looked up the car behind had something wedged under it, holy shit it was her missing pannier, I picked Amy up and lifted her accross the drian to the side and layed her down on the ground, by this time a crowed had formed and more police lingured, my bike still running I run back to it and shut it down, at the same time trying to tell the fat policeman not to touch her foot. Running back to Amy I saw a man dislodging her pannier with great force and then throw it in the bushes, bloody hell all I wanted to do was help Amy but I had to control the circus around me. Stuff the pannier, I made her comfy and loosened her laces, together we removed her shoe and sock, it was bruised, the ankle was fine but the side of her foot back from the little toe was turning black. We are no doctors but we could tell it was not broken after a little prodding and pushing, it seemed not as bad as we first thought. More police and a crowd of about 50 people around. Police wanted to know what happened but we got no number plate, they speed off!! Then another man arrived by my side with the missing pannier in the bush, I thanked him. I inspected it, was a mess to say the least.

The spot it happaned and the ditch on the right

So on with her shoe, loaded the mothership with her panniers and set off into town, Amy was lucky, cant beleive how tough she is.

And then to top it off once we arrived into Conakry at the catholic mission where we were going to stay a policeman on a little scooter trailed us in ranting and raving about some wrong turn we did, poor bugger he did not realize the mood I was in...I let him have it, tell him not to f&#k with me as I have had a very very bad day explaining what just happened.....I would have been a sight, covered in red dust and dripping with sweat, I threw the panniers on the ground and showed him the result....he quietly asked for our papers, gave them back hoped on his piss ant scooter and slowly dissappeared.