Today, we drove northeast from Conakry (on the coast) past Kindia to Mamou, and northwest from there to Dalaba [DAH-lah-bah] in "upper Guinea" for a 5-day stay in the mountains. We stopped in Mamou to greet the family of my hosts' guard in Conakry. The family was apologetic that they hadn't known we were coming, and didn't have any food prepared for us. We promised to stop again on our return trip. (Map © 2006 Mapquest)
One of the differences between the US and Africa is the approach to tranportation. In the US, people and luggage are usually trasnported inside a vehicle. In Africa, the outside of the vehicle is just as viable as the inside. In the left-hand picture above, the luggage and people on top of the car are taller than the car itself. In the right-hand picture, the man standing on the left bumper has tied himself to the car so he can nap as he rides!
The countryside here is truly beautiful. The panoramas bring to mind parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Georgia, but with a special character all their own. At left is a view of a valley as seen from our cabin. The weather here is idyllic--clear and sunny, breezy and dry, with pleasant temperatures. Surprisingly, though, even this far south, the harmattan wind delivers a hazy layer of Saharan dust which hovers over the countryside.Another surprise for me is the quality and busy-ness of the roads this far from Conakry (quite different from my experience in Senegal, where roads and traffic both thin within a couple of hours of Dakar). Our cabin home feels like a US National Park, with frequent trucks driving by on the road below us and children laughing in the distance.
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