A young Guinean biked 4,000 kilometers to attend university (3 photos)

25-year-old Mamad Safay Barry from Guinea dreamed of enrolling in Cairo's prestigious university, but he did not have money to fly to airplane. However, he still decided to take a risk and went on the road to bicycle





Mamad Safay Barry from Guinea really wanted to enroll in Al-Azhar University in Egypt. There was no money for the plane, and then Mamad decided to pedal.

In four months he crossed Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Niger, Chad and was arrested three times. But his story attracted attention, and There were people in Chad who paid for the flight.

Then the dean of the university in Cairo found out about the guy’s adventures and offered him a place with a full scholarship.



"I slept in the forest and in the mountains. I slept leaning on my bike because I was afraid it would be stolen from me. Sometimes I only ate once a day. I couldn't find water to wash myself," he said. Arriving in Togo, the young man was arrested by security forces and interrogated without good reason. "They asked me a lot of questions. I answered everything, but they didn’t let me go,” he explained. Barry said that he was released only nine days later and sent to Benin. He ate there bread that I found on the street, and fruits from trees.