Not that anyone would advise flying to Guinea this week,
but that had been in my plans just a few days ago. That necessitated
the 21st century ex-pat-in-Africa ritual of researching how to fly from
one country to its next door neighbor. Although having long since
obtained my PhD in this subject, I am struck by the double shock of (1)
how difficult this logistical information-gathering still is; (2) how
infrequent, indirect and expensive the flights are. West Africa in
particular, a checkerboard of francophone and anglophone countries,
remains astoundingly difficult to move around in, even just crossing a
single border.
Case in point, to fly to one Mano River Union capital (boasting two
airports nonetheless), to the capital city of its larger neighbor:
Monrovia to Conakry. There are no direct flights, at all. There are not
really any connecting flights, either, in the more conventional sense
of, getting halfway there and having to stop and switch planes.
There is only very, very, indirect. Like, Casablanca indirect. Or,
slightly better, Dakar indirect. No wait, that involves flying in the
opposite direction, to switch in Accra first. Same with the third Mano
River capital, Freetown, which is directly in between the other two:
that itinerary goes on to switch in Banjul before heading back down to
Conakry. Twenty-six hour journey, that one: more than ten hours longer
than driving.
How about from convenient little Spriggs-Payne, which, from the middle of last year, has once again been host to the puddle-jumper network of ASKY Airlines?
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