Around Central Guinea

The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa

In a regular town in central Guinea

I make my way South into Central Guinea, and am surprised to spend a genuinely cold night in Dalaba, right in the middle of the country, in the famous Fouta Djallon mountainous region. It’s cold enough I break out my down jacket not used since Canada, and a thick fog rolls onto the highway as I’m driving into town. I break my own golden rule of remote Overlanding and drive in the dark, pushing to reach town. The highway is sealed, though it has enormous potholes every few hundred yards, spaced just far enough apart I can get up into 3rd or 4th gear before having to slow all the way down to a stop as I drop a tire or two into a hole in the pavement as big as the Jeep wheels.

With a huge 18 wheeler right on my bumper I’m pushing too fast in the darkness when I hit a massive pot hole. All four corners of the Jeep slam into the bump stops, and I think the rear end actually bounces a little.

Damn, I really hope I didn’t break anything. It’s pitch black, cold and drizzling, and the Jeep appears to be driving straight, so I continue on in the thick fog, fingers crossed.

The amount of water moving was immense

Mountain roads get rough and windy – like bad logging roads

Where there are waterfalls, there is the potential for hydro power, a fact Guinea has noticed, and exploited. On more than one occasion while searching out waterfalls I come across huge Hydro plants, completely built and run by the Chinese. The military guarding the installations, and the Chinese workers are always friendly and happy to show me around. They’re impressed by my Jeep, though of course the Chinese Engineers are all driving Toyotas.

Hydro power station built by China

American Cola? Not sure what that is

I thought the road I took had a ferry crossing and was surprised to find this bridge

I have heard about quite possibly the best hiking in West Africa, so after again gearing up, and attempting to dry out, I set out deeper into the mountains.

I swam in the pool at the bottom, the water falling was tearing at my skin!

Camping in central Guinea

Exploring the valleys

Wow, Guinea is AWESOME!!

-Dan