Day 25 - 27th March Head up into the mountains and the highest town in Guinea

Photo above - road tripping through Guinea. More photos below

NB I doubt I will have internet for the next few days, but will update when I can

4wd into the mountains

At about 9am we hit the road again to head into the mountains in central Guinea. We have picked up some 4WDs as the roads are apparently difficult. As we were leaving the town of Kindia, there were trucks everywhere all lined up, but I could not work out whether they were heading out in convoy or what.

Apart from trucks and a few motorbikes, there was very little traffic once we got out of town. The landscape was a bit up and down, was fairly barren, with bits of light forest, Palm trees, a few goats and cattle, the only things to see for a while.

Another village visit

We pulled up to stretch our legs, and wandered over to the village over the road to take a look around. As usual friendly and happy villagers let us roam around. The chief was there and he gave us some fruit.

Road traffic accident 

The next few miles rose quite steeply with hairpin bends, and this stretch was absolutely littered with trucks wrecked at the side, or broken down in the middle of the road. One we came across, the accident had just happened and all the villagers had come out to have a look. I don't know whether it is badly maintained vehicles or bad driving?

As we pressed on, the trucks going up or down became like mobile chicanes as we tried to weave in and out of them to overtake whilst avoiding oncoming traffic. At the top of each hill, villages have sprung up as trucks park up before the next ascent or descent.

Roads start to get bad

We stopped to get a light lunch of plantaine, rice, veg, hot sauce and 10% beer, then hit the road again. Shortly after we started off again we hit the bad roads. Essentially a tarmaced minor road, that has broken up pretty severely and is returning to it’s dust road roots. Pretty bad, but we still encountered the odd truck and tanker using the road.

We stopped at a junction just closed to the source of the river Senegal, and which also marks an area where Chimpanzee are protected. After a couple of hours we came across two articulated lorries broken down blocking the entire road just before a hairpin. We had to drive down the slope off the road, make a trail through the bush, then go round the lorries and back up on to the road. We only just managed to avoid getting bogged down in the loose dirt. A normal car before had got hooked up as they tried to get back on to the road!

Highest town in Guinea

We arrived at the small mountain top town of Dalaba at about 4pm. It has a population of 6,500 and is the highest town in Guinea, with an altitude of 1300m (4,265ft). We went to see the ‘casa a palabra’, a finely decorated building used for local chiefs meetings, and previously the place where Guinea independence was planned in the late 1950s. Next to this is the villa of Guinea’s first president, Sekou Toure who used it for holidays due to the slightly less harsh climate in the mountains. It stopped being used in the latter part of the 20th century. It was left empty for a while, then there was a plan to use it as a hotel but there were not enough people coming to Guinea, so now some of the land is used to house students.

House of Miriam Makeba 

We went round the corner to see where the famous African singer Mama Africa (Miriam Makeba) used to live. She was born in South Africa, but opposed Apartheid and had to flee the country, ending up in Guinea. She eventually went to the US in the 80s, where she married the leader of the black power movement. We were shown the remains of the house by the man who used to be her cook, and has the keys. The property actually belongs to the Miriam Makeba Foundation of South Africa.

Finally, we made our way to the hotel. Tomorrow we drive deeper into the mountains, the home of the Fulani people.

The roadside village we stopped at

Chief of the village

Villagers 

Another villager who insisted I take her photo even though she would not see it, which I always find strange 

Not an accident waiting to happen, but rather an accident that just happened 

Rough roads in Guinea 

Rough roads in Guinea 

Miriam Makeba's house when she lived in Dalaba, Guinea. A restoration is planned, but it is in a bad state of repair

The house has been empty for decades, but furniture and kitchen appliances are all still in the house.

Chiefs meeting house, and place where Guinea's independence was planned in the 1950s