Tour de Guineas

Legend

Cycling
Driving
Boat
Hiking
Motorbike
Hitchhiking

Manda, Senegal ‐ Dec 18, 2015
Koundara, Guinea ‐ Dec 17, 2015

+9

Koundara and out
Touba ‐ Dec 16, 2015

+36

Speaking with our generous hosts in Touba, Guinea.
Kounsitel
Where we finally stopped biking ‐ Dec 17, 2015
Thiaguelbori

+28

Labé to Kounsitel
Lafou ‐ Dec 16, 2015
Labe ‐ Dec 15, 2015

+15

Labé
Hafla
Timbi-Touny

+10

Douki to Labé
Douki ‐ Dec 14, 2015

+25
Morning Coffee after leaving Telimele

+46

Telimele to Douki
Telimele ‐ Dec 12, 2015

+46
Boundou-Pouke
Tarihoy

We happened to hit Tarihoy on market day. This was one of the brightest, most animated markets I'd ever seen. We enjoyed lots of bananas, coffee and beans.

+55

Konsontami to Telimele
Silati
Bergue
Konsotamy ‐ Dec 11, 2015

+24

Sangaredji to Konsotami
Bembou-Silati
Diandian ‐ Dec 10, 2015
Sangaredi

All we knew leaving Boké was that we wanted to get to Telimele, and that we wanted to get there the scenic route. So we set out due east and were surprised to find the road in excellent condition. The reason for this became clear as we approached Sangredji, which as it turns out is a major bauxite mining center. Bauxite is the world's main source of aluminum. Just think, your sweet mountain bike may have from from the Sangaredji "Mine de la compagnie des bauxites de Guinee!"

+45

Sangaredgi
Belidima
Tanene
Boke ‐ Dec 8, 2015

We got to the city of Boké late on the evening of the 8th, after more than 100 km of biking along rough roads, eight border post stops, and one bribe. We stayed in this city for all of the 9th, and rolled out on the morning of the 10th.

+8

Boké
Kalounka

+12

Crossing into Guinea
Dabiss
Kandiafara
Guinea-Bissau/Guinea Border
Gandembel, Guinea-Bissau ‐ Dec 7, 2015
Mampata

+2
Quebo
Contabane
Mampata
Xitole
Bambadinca
Jugudul
Nhacra
Safim
Bissau ‐ Dec 6, 2015

We spend one more night in Bissau after taking the ferry back from the islands, then caught a car the next morning towards the border with Guinea. We had originally planned on biking, but decided that Guinea-Bissau, well, once you've seen one road-side cashew forest, you've probably seen dozens more. It is a flat country with a fairly uniform roadside landscape. By taking a car we bought ourselves some much needed time to experience the mountains of Guinea, the real prize, by bike.
Bubaque ‐ Dec 5, 2015

Back to Bubaque
Eticoga ‐ Dec 4, 2015

+3

A cultural experience in a village

Eticoga, a Village Experience

I was excited to spend a night in a village on the island of Orango. The Bijagos Archipelago is known for its unique culture, which is said to be matrilineal. Orango is the largest island in the archi...
Orango Parque Hotel

After seeing the hippos we boated back to the Hotel, where we took an afternoon nap before hiking into an island village for the evening
Hippo Pools

I recommend zooming in with the satellite mode on the maps, you can really see a lot of detail, including the exact lagoon were the hippos reside.

+26

Hippos of Orango
Orango Parque Hotel ‐ Dec 3, 2015

We finally arranged to get a ride on a boat owned by a French guy named 'Johnny." However, Johnny was not along for the ride, instead, his captain,

+6

Boating to Orango
Bubaque ‐ Dec 2, 2015

The next morning we biked back to the 'city' of Bubaque, where we began the process in earnest of figuring out how to explore other islands in the archipelago.

+22

Getting to know Bubaque
Far Side of Bubaque Island ‐ Dec 1, 2015

On our first night in the Islands we biked straight down the only road to the far edge of the island, where we found an abandoned white sand beach. It was a nice place for an evening swim, and a peaceful spot for the hammock.

+12

Praia Bruce
Bubaque

+7

Bissau to Bubaque
Bissau ‐ Nov 30, 2015

The ride from Canchungo, through the city of Bula was uneventful, save for an incident at the bridge over the Rio Mansõa with a drunken policeman. He took issue with Dan speaking Pulaar (which is quite the opposite of how most people react), but was somehow charmed by my Mandinka... A lesson was learned; if you know you are going to be getting into a situation where you will be interacting with gendarmes or police, it is best to do it in the morning, before they are likely to be drunk.

+10
Pont Amilicar Cabral
Bula

Bula is a crossroads town along the main route between Ziganchor, Senegal and Bissau. The road was straight and direct.

+7

Canchungo to Bissau, via Bula
Canchungo ‐ Nov 29, 2015

The ride from Cacheu to Canchungo was along a good paved road. The scenery was nice, though rather repetitive, with cashew forest plantations lining the road on both sides most of the way. We got to Canchungo

+5
Cacheu

In Cacheu, right after the ~3 hour boat ride from Varela, we ran into a troop of scouts who had come to the city for a cultural festival. (Remember that the US is one of the only countries in the world to have gender segregated scouting) The mood in the city was festive, with quite a few European and South American NGO workers around. We ate delicious plates of rice and fish with a delicious, spicy red sauce, then took off towards Canchungo on bike.

+8
Boat ride from Varela to Cacheu

Although Sembou emphasized that we had to be at the beach by 6:00 AM, we did not leave until just after 8:00 AM. The beach south of Varela was totally untouched, clear, white sand, and there were fish literally jumping out of the water on both sides of the boat.

+9
Varela ‐ Nov 28, 2015

Arriving in Varela after a taxing ride along sandy trails, we went straight to the beach to meet with fishermen who might be able to take us to Cacheu. The beach here was almost completely empty, but the fishing nets were full. We met a man named Moussa Diatta who spoke both Mandinka and Pulaar (we don't speak Portuguese creole, remember), and he helped us negotiate with a fisherman named Boussa Sembou, who agreed to take us to Cacheu in the morning for a decent, but very reasonable sum.

+6
Cashew Forest

After getting off the ferry on the other side of the river a man volunteered to show us a shortcut to our destination, the town of Varela, where we heard that we could catch a boat to Casheu. This sandy trail took us through cashew and palm forests.

+6

Boudjiete to Varela
River Crossing at Boudjiete

This pirogue river crossing would be the first of many boat trips during the trip.
Boudjiete

A short but sandy ride east from Cap Skirring took us to a town called Boudjiete, straddling the Bissau/Senegal border, right next to an apparently unnamed mangrove river. Although this was the point at which we entered Bissau nobody every asked for our passports or visas.

Boudjiete river crossing
Cap Skirring, Senegal ‐ Nov 27, 2015

A week after we finished the Peace Corps, Dan came and met me in Cap Skirring, where I had just spend several luxurious days with my girlfriend Erika in an Air BnB just down the beach from the Club Med. During this week I prepared for our trip, getting the bikes tuned up, and attaching welded steel racks.

+4