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, fonio, and rice with a sweet potato/amaranth leaf and palm oil sauce. Beyond the food the vibes in the village were just great. Everyone was friendly and happy to chat, and would share mangos and oranges.

But I wanted to get on the road. There are so many places I still want to see in Guinea. So after my coffee and a bean sandwich, addressing a flat tire, and some parting pictures, I got on the trail.

Today, I took the scenic route towards Kelimbou, a Jaxanké village and my next destination. That’s what this trip is all about. I quite literally chose the path less traveled, and it certainly made a difference. For one thing, the route I took today meant I knowingly signed up to push my bike up some sections of trail that were far too bouldery and steep to be ridden (in either direction). This was very slow going, as was the bush trail riding today in general. I think it was worth it.

In fact, today was possibly the most beautiful day of riding of the whole trip so far, maybe my whole life. I spent a big part of the day going up and down along a ridge line, often with views in both directions of huge green valleys, massive cliff faces, and more mountains in every direction.

I am constantly dismayed at my inability to capture the landscapes here adequately in photos. Part of this might be the haze. You see much farther and clearly in person than the pictures show. There’s also just something else that doesn’t come through in pictures… maybe it’s the scale and grandness of these mountains, maybe it’s the steepness, maybe it’s ineffable. Either way I’ll keep trying.

Taking the scenic route paid off in the epic-ness of todays ride, but I came up short of my intended destination of Kelimbou. But I don’t view this as an issue. That’s how this trip is built. I have food and water and a tent and easily found a grove of forest on the edge of a field to tuck into and camp. I could easily have sought a host in a nearby Pulaar village— they are universally friendly. But it’s honestly nice to have a quiet night out in the woods. I sleep better out here than I do even in hotels most of the time. The thing that keeps me from getting good sleep most often in Guinea is not comfort, but noise. There is a vastly different standard for how much noise is appropriate to make around people who might be sleeping, in villages and cities alike.

Anyway, I’ll make it to Kelimbou— where I have yet more extended host family— easily for lunch tomorrow.