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 town, instead of arriving after dark like usual. Macenta is only about 84 km away, so if I leave reasonably early I could easily be there by the early afternoon.

So I am up by 6:45. The morning views from my hotel room are beautiful. I can’t believe that the best view I’ve had in Guinea is in a 100,000 GNF room. Hotel pricing has correlated very little with quality. I’m out of the room by 7:30 and enjoying the cool morning air. The rain did arrive last night, around midnight, and pounded hard for a couple hours. Things seem to dry and drain remarkably quickly here, and the roads are surprisingly puddle free. The road also, just south of town, becomes paved again. And nicely paved at that. In fact, I realize that this road is brand new. It was paved within the last few months. It hasn’t even been painted yet and has almost no skid marks. It continues at this quality for a few km south, before I enter the work zone at the edge of the new pavement, where I find Chinese led crews laying more pavement, and doing other preparatory work. Most of the equipment operators I see are Chinese. I pass a couple large fenced in yards with huge piles of sand and gravel and parked equipment. This is-- whatever your opinion on Chinese geopolitics-- development in action. Roads are roads, and they are very important.

After I get past the work crews the pavement ends, but the road remains good. It has been graded, and is smooth and fast, hard packed gravel. After about 10 km of this I hit pavement again. Now it’s a much older road. I see a sign indicating it was funded by the EU. This road could be 30-40 years old. It is much narrower and looks much more like your classic old African highway. Vegetation encroaches from both sides. But it’s a paved road, and I am happy to be able to keep going at a good pace.

Today, and throughout the last few days, I think frequently about how lucky I am to have the bike that I have. It’s not just a good bike. It’s a very good bike. It’s also a bike that was/is not produced in extremely large numbers (especially with recent supply chain disruptions), and is somewhat coveted among people who know gravel bikes. I don’t know if there is any bike better suited for the massive variety of terrain, I encounter on a daily basis here in Guinea than this Crust Evasion. I simply cannot believe sometimes how well it handles treacherous, fucked up, steep rocky trails, only to become, once I hit a smooth paved road, a bike that feels almost as fast and streamlined as a road bike.

I remember very clearly the day I picked the bike up. I jumped at the opportunity when I saw the Craigslist post. I’d been searching for months at that point to find anything like it. Similar bikes were sold out at every store in the Bay Area, and I was told if I ordered something online, I’d be lucky to have it by December (this was in May-June of 2021). I dropped everything and drove to Mill Vally to check it out. What’s even more miraculously is how perfectly the bike fits me. It’s truly rare to have the stars align like this. The Futa Frolicker has and continues to serve me extremely well.

Lonely Planet says that “While the forest region begins in Kissoudougou, the real beauty kicks in around Macenta.” While I understand why they say this, I don’t really agree. Macenta has bigger, more dramatic hills, and even mountains, than the areas the north. And they are indeed very beautiful. But this need not take anything away from the amazing scenery I experienced yesterday in the hills around Kissidougou.

That being said, Macenta is a very pretty town. It’s a lot smaller than Kissidougou or Gueckoudou, and I stop multiple times on the outskirts to observe the houses built amongst bright green hills. The center of town is quite busy. It’s compact, with all the main market activity taking place within a few blocks of the center. I get into town right on schedule, at a little after 1 PM. It’s a beautiful day, and the skies are not threatening at all. This gives me a chance to do something I haven't done in the last few cities I’ve visited: check in to a hotel, take a shower, and go for a stroll during daylight hours.

The hotel I find is a small miracle. It’s right in the middle of town. The driveway into the compound cuts straight off the main road, and yet somehow the hotel is tucked away, a little oasis of calm and relative quiet. The lady who manages the hotel is really nice and friendly and is a Christian Malinké. I’ve never met a Christian Malinké, before her, that I can think of, but she tells me it’s not an uncommon phenomenon. The room is simple. No AC, and only bucket baths. Power will come on at… sometime this evening when Macenta turns on the central generators. It’s priced appropriately, and also has a nice little porch with some seats where I can already see myself eating several mangos.

After washing I venture into town. It is not hard to find a nice meal. In fact, it turns out to be one of the best meals on this trip. Meat stew and bean sauce on rice, to which I add sliced avocado, and of course, hot pepper sauce. After lunch I tool around town for a little while, and buy some goodies: mangos, sour milk, bananas. The sour milk game (known as nònò) is especially strong down here, I am delighted to find. It’s sold either piecemeal in plastic bags, or for $1.33 you can get a whole liter and a half in a big water bottle. It’s chunky and gets a bit more sour if you leave it out. Absolutely delicious stuff.

As the afternoon wears on the clouds get a bit more threatening. I return to the hotel and read and write for a while and eat fruit, and chat with Denise, the owner/manager of the hotel, and before I know it, a full-on storm rolls in. It’s so beautiful and epic to watch, and the cool wind feels amazing. Trees swaying about, lightning and thunder growing stronger. Soon it is dumping rain, and I am cozy and safe in my little hotel room. What a vibe.