Nick Hewer: Countdown to Freetown Page #4

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we said six o'clock, so...

It's 5:
45.

Yeah. So we're in good time.

How many hours, do you think?

It will take us maybe ten hours.

How many kilometres is that?

More than 500 miles.

I guess from now until

we hit Freetown in...

I don't know how many days

it's going to take us,

I can learn a bit about West African

business, I guess, small businesses,

how they work, and put it

to good use when we get there,

so that I'm not talking as

some sort of western accountant

but actually as somebody who

understands it a bit better.

Look, here's some woodworking place.

Hold tight.

It's all very well

dragging this thing down to James,

but it would be rather useful if he

knew about the cost of cutting wood

and all that sort of stuff,

so shall we ask these people?

You'll translate for me?

No problem, I will do it.

How do you cut...? He cuts by hand?

With his hand, like this? Yeah?

'This chap can saw wood very quickly,

'which surprised me, so he does

that sort of plank in three minutes

'with no apparent effort,

which is extraordinary,

'so he actually doesn't need a saw,

I think, but how does he charge?'

That's the issue. Because

when James gets hold of that saw,

he needs to know how to charge.

Is it per metre? Is it per minute?

What is it, by type of wood?

I don't know.

As he crosses the border

into Guinea, Nick faces two days

on the rough tracks.

This road is so bad that

we're going to run out of time.

There's a river down there?

Yeah, a big river down there,

Gambia River.

So it comes from the Gambia?

And what about crocodiles?

There are no crocodiles

on this river.

Security concerns on this section

due to Guinea's recent history

of violent military coups

mean Nick must keep moving,

no matter how bad the road.

We're not going to get robbed?

No.

Not in Guinea.

Not in Guinea. Never.

Wow. We shall stop and have a look.

We've sheared a bolt off under here.

One of these has gone.

Well, it's inevitable, really.

What is more dramatic is this...

..so we're beginning to

come adrift here.

No, we just carry on.

The trailer damage

reduces Nick to 15mph,

just making a truck stop in

the next village before dark.

The trailer was set at

the lowest possible level,

it was very stupid - of me,

because I knew all along

it was riding too low,

and like everything else,

it got overlooked

and we're now raising the tow bar,

which means that we won't be

grounding every other minute.

Only by those two holes,

but, you know, every little helps,

as the supermarket keeps telling us.

In return for raising the tow bar

and replacing the shorn bolts,

Nick leaves the diesel

from his generator.

Le gasole, c'est pour vous.

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