Bridge on the Gambia to Dar Salaam
Made it. It was a very challenging ride, but I’m back in Dar Salaam and it’s great. I sleep well on the buggy banks of The Gambia River in the palace of my Big Agnes tent, and the morning is cool and quiet. I succeed in getting up early, getting out of my tent by 6, and on the road before 7:45, afte...
Tougue to near Koubia
More very difficult roads in the morning. I stop in the town of Koubia in the afternoon to charge my phone and eat some food. Since I didn’t have my phone I couldn’t take pictures, but there was a bustling market, where I bought attieke and extra tomatoes and bananas to adorn it, and two large mango...
Bafing to Tougue
Slept well at my campsite along the river. The only issue was cows wandering down to the river to drink. They were very polite, walking calmly, but made enough noise to wake me up a couple times. Had to fix a flat this morning on my front tire. This one was not a snakebite, found a piece of wire in...
Dabola to Bafing
Beyond Dabola, I’ll basically be in the bush until I get back to Kedougou.-- no more cities between here and Kedougou. This is the home stretch. It will be hot, and it will involve climbing back up and over the Futa Jallon. I’m very excited about it. In fact, with the end of the trip in sight, I’m f...
Kankan to Karoussa
I don’t leave today until after lunch because I tell Moussa, my old Senegalese friend here in Kankan, that I want to check out a gold forge. Kankan, being the major city of haute Guinea, is a way station for a lot of the gold produced in the region. There are gold mines nearby that have been active...
Exploring Kankan
At first, Kankan was a tough nut to crack, although I very much like the clean and comfortable accommodations at the Catholic guesthouse. My first full day in Kankan all I could see was the filthy streets and the sprawl and the intense heat. It’s a very big city, probably the second largest in Guine...
Kerouané to Kankan
Kerouané continues to deliver this morning: bean lady and coffee are both easy to find. You really can’t ask for much more than that. I’ve sincerely enjoyed this town, and there are mountains around here that I imagine I could explore and entertain myself amongst for many days. But I am at a point i...
Beyla to Moribadougou (Simandou)
Today was one to remember. After a very pleasant stay in the dormitories of the Catholic Church in Beyla I consider my next move. The folks at the dormitory are extremely generous with me, and even have a nice breakfast set up on a beautiful dining table. Coffee, and bread and sardines. They insist...
Boussou back to N'zerekoré
Today I’m headed back to N’zerekoré. But first, some breakfast. I hobble from the guesthouse into the central part of Bossou, my legs tight and sore, to find that it is market day. These markets don’t begin particularly early, and at 9 AM most people are still just setting up. I find coffee no probl...
Mount Nimba Hike
I sleep ~decently~ and am up by 6:15 and chill in my room drinking water, eating bananas, and browsing twitter. What’s going on with Elon Musk? I really can’t make my mind up about this guy. He’s somewhere between a narcissistic troll, and the visionary society needs to push things forward. People I...
N'zerekoré to Boussou
While at the Mission I get to know one of the old men who works here. I don’t know exactly what he does, but he’s knowledgeable and friendly. He tells me his brother is a professor at a university in North Carolina. I ask him if he knows about climbing Mount Nimba. Mount Nimba is the tallest mountai...
Expoloring N'zerekoré
I spent 4 nights in N’zerekoré, which is a major city, and a pretty one, with green hills visible from many places in town. I immediately took a liking to it, in no small part due to the outstanding and cheap accommodations at the Mission Catholique. It’s truly an oasis of calm in the middle of the...
Macenta to N'zerekoré
Beautiful day of riding, until my rear tire ripped through. Remarkably similar to what happened to me outside of Labé. In both cases I was 50-60 km down a paved road from a major city, and easily able to get there by moto. Only difference is I was not expecting it this time. The first time I knew my...
Gueckedou to Macenta
This morning I am up early because the weather report is showing the chance of rain at my next destination, Macenta, tipping past 50% as early as 1 pm this afternoon. I don’t put too much credence into the weather reports for this area, but I also figure it would be nice to have an afternoon in a to...
Kissidougou to Guekedou with detour to village of Koladou
I did not sleep well last night, for a few reasons. This is inconvenient because today I have big plans. Kissidougou to Guekoudou is only 84 km, straight down a road that is probably paved (its well paved through Kissidougou). This will leave me with extra time, so I check Lonely Planet for things t...
Faranah to Kissidougou
The hotel is Faranah is great. I am woken up at 7 by a very loud gardener. I am somewhat annoyed at this. He is speaking Malinké as loudly as a griot would speak in front of a crowd of 50 people for a performance. Malinké is often spoken this loudly. It is a lyrical language, widely regarded as a pa...
Mamou to Faranah
Whew. That was a day. The most miles I've ever ridden in one day. I’ve been studying and pondering the stretch of road between Mamou and Faranah for a while, trying to figure out how to approach it. The only community of any size between the two is a dusty little road town called Marella. There isn’...
Dalaba to Mamou
My hotel in Dalaba is charming, but dingy. Deeply indented foam mattress, no running water— just a full bucket in the shower—, and in the morning I realize that the janky electric outlet didn’t charge my external battery. On the other hand, there is Pulaar art everywhere, the hotel is in a very plea...
Ditinn to Dalaba
After the waterfall hike I backtrack to the village of Ditinn. I was going to go back into the main village to find some lunch, but there was a lady posted up by the side of the road. I decided to give her a shot. This was an excellent decision. She had rice with sauce and beans at the same spot, wh...
Mount Maci to Ditinn
After the hike I found a nice plate of attieke in the village of Maci. I am starting to find attieke repetitive to some extent, because it is very commonly the one meal that will be available in a small town. But when I’m hungry, like I was today, I don’t mind. And the fish is always good. Roads tod...
Tianguel to Pita with detour to two waterfalls
Wonderful day. As usual I slept way better on a straw mattress in a village than on a foam mattress in a hotel. The people in Tianguel were so nice, and the little boutique, the only business in the whole village, had excellent Guinean coffee. I couldn’t communicate a whole lot with my host, Djibril...
Labe to Tianguel
Labé definitely pulled me in a bit. I enjoyed the decadence of drinking coffee, eating mangos, and writing all morning in the leafy shade at my $15 hotel. I also felt like I was overcoming a bug of some kind, but after these days of rest feel great. There is a tension I have had, and continue to hav...
Exploring Labé
I bought 6 mangos today. When I got back to my hotel I sat on the stoop in front of my room and ate half of one of them. It was really, really good. Surprisingly, unexpectedly good; excellent texture, pleasantly tart, and perfectly ripe. What was my first thought, upon consuming this delicious half...
Reflections on Doungee
March 23rd I’ve spent the last week or so, since I left Yembering, pretty deep in the bush. I’ve been going from one Jaxanké village to the next, through some of the most beautiful, and rugged country I’ve ever seen. It’s been extraordinary, and very immersive. I’ve been, as they say, deep in the sa...
Kelimbou to Labé
My morning in Kelimbou is one of the most pleasant and beautiful I’ve had yet. This humble, small, depopulated village still has a lot of energy to it, and people are happy to share their lives with me. I still cannot get over how epic the views are, from basically everywhere in the village. Great s...
Kerouané to Kelimbou
I slept well in the Kerouané guest hut until about 4:15 am when every dog in the village joined in a chorus of sorts, including a kind of call and response number. I was amazed at how loud the dogs managed to be. But I was even more amazed when, in the morning, I mentioned this annoyance to several...
Toubacouta to Kerouané
Very pleasant morning today in Toubacouta. I slept great. The bed is very firm, a homemade straw mattress. In my opinion these are superior to the foam blocks available in stores here, which are marketed, as are all mass produced (read: Chinese) consumer goods, as being an improvement over the thing...
Doungee to Toubacouta
Slept decently, perhaps even well both of my nights in Doungee. I can’t get over the feeling that I want to stay longer here. The village has a realness to it, a hardiness, that is incredible and deep. I’m up by about 7:30. First thought is coffee. It’s my addiction on this trip. But it’s easy with...
Day in Doungee
I sleep well in Babacar Minté’s small round hut, though I am woken at midnight when he comes in to drop off his rifle after a nighttime hunting excursion in the woods. Since I am in his bed, he gets to choose a wife to sleep with, I suppose. After a couple Nescafés I wander outside and notice a comm...
Change of course due to shredded shifter cable
Slept really well in my tent in the woods. In the morning I wander into he village next door, Bendougou, which is small, but just large enough to have a boutique with a lady selling “beignets” (greasy balls of fried dough), and with a thermos of hot water for some coffee. Thus I have my minimalist b...
Salamata to near Bendougou
It was hard to leave Salamata, even after spending yesterday as a rest day looking around the village. The food was fantastic. My host El Hadji and his wives made sure I was really well fed, with a variety of my favorite dishes: caba tó (kind of like fufu but made of corn) with peanut/okra sauce, fo...
Salamata
Today was an *instant classic,* a day I will remember for my whole life. Today is the day I began doing what was the initial and core interest in this whole trip-- visiting the old, isolated Jakhanké villages in the Futa Jallon mountains. I took my time in the morning looking around Badougoula. It i...
Gaoual to Badougoulaa
Today was a great day— good biking, and ended up in an awesome spot. Gaoual, where I woke up this morning, is hard to love. Out of the largish Guinean cities I’ve been to it might be my least favorite. It has all of the chaos and filth and noise of a large city with none of the advantages. No atm, n...
Madina Jakha
Today was a great day. I found a cafe in Koumbia with good coffee, good food, and some very fun and thoughtful interlocutors. One of the most wide ranging discussions I’ve had on this trip. After lunch I took off to visit a Jakhanké village I’d been told of in the region. After about 2.5 weeks down...
Hotel Bel Air
On Google maps it’s clear that there is one real hotel on the beach in this area: Hotel Bel Air. Yesterday, on my way from Boffa I called the number on Google maps to ask the price. The guy who answered told me that the hotel was under construction and closed. Ok bummer. So I settled for a “rustic”...
The Sacred City of Touba
The area between Gaoual and Touba (see last post) is hilly, beautiful, sparsely populated, and about as economically marginalized as anywhere I’ve seen in Guinea. Pulaar villages of 50-100 people where time stands still. No schools, no shops, no infrastructure. Just some fences enclosing a dozen or...
The other other Touba
My next destination is Touba, Bagadadji, northwest of Madina. There are several Toubas in Guinea and Senegal. It gets confusing. That’s why the Touba I am headed to today is clarified by including the sous-prefecture: Bagadadji. The most well known Touba is in Diourbel, Senegal. This Touba is the cu...