Our camp is in the middle of a forest close to a waterfall, I have no mobile Internet, even for satellite connection I have to walk out of the forest. In exchange we have a nice pool under the waterfall where we could take a shower. The first after a few dusty days without.

I am still in love with Guinea, its absolutely stunning.
Today we crossed the highlands, saw rivers with cows and monkeys bathing, huge cliffs, big trees like in the rainforest, and the first banana and coconut palms. And
of course hardly any roads. If you know a good construction company, tell them there is a nice job in Guinea.

We are so close to the equator (10 degrees north right now) that it gets dark extremely quickly. Now half an hour after sunset, it is pitch dark like in the middle of the night. We still have to do our covid tests for the entry to Sierra Leone tomorrow and eat something, lunch was canceled in
favor of a few more photo stops today.

Tarmac wasn’t invented here, that is sure. The pretty short 300km stage took 13 hours today, on highest level national roads which look like this

and this (with a 40% slope that you can’t see in the picture)

or this

We are 10% behind the leading team, have to hurry up and no time for sightseeing, but this is a place I have to come back again.

An early start was the key to make it today. After around 150 vehicles crossing, the one ford in front of yesterday’s camp got pretty rutted and we expected long queues and many stuck cars. As we heard in the evening it was even worse, some teams drowned their cars completely.

By that time we were on the (there still present) road to the mountains already, enjoying the 18°C.

As quickly as the road was disappearing, the hills were getting greener and the air at least not hotter. We passed by a huge waterfall and had to cross many rivers. One of the waypoints was a town called Mali (unfortunately without boundary signs, I would have loved to take a selfie with a Mali sign in the background).

The roads were in such a poor condition, it took us 4 and a half hours to cover 63 kilometers. Climbing on rocks, driving around huge potholes, paving the road by hand with the tones lying around, fording rivers, and trying not to destroy the car was a pretty exhausting job for the whole day. One thing you don’t have to worry too much about in Guinea are other cars. They are not existing. Everybody is riding a motorcycle here, indeed much better suited for the poor roads than any big SUV.

The camp tonight is located at the airport in Labe, the finish line was in fact in the middle of the runway. It looks like no plane has landed here for many years.

We crossed the border into Guinea today and suddenly everything is green and lush and beautiful. The sudden change of my perception might have to do something with my sickness in the last two days, too, but the first impression of Guinea is very positive.

There was a coup two years ago and the country is still governed by an army controlled temporary government, you see soldiers everywhere (and they are easy to spot in their sky blue overalls). But they are extremely friendly, explain to you that they are only there to protect you, and you don’t see the typical rude tone between the authorities and the local people either.

The stage was short and the border crossing easier than expected, we had time to walk into a village in the afternoon.

We were invited by a friendly man (on the left in the following picture) to visit his house and of course didn’t reject the opportunity.

His wife is crushing millet, the others a (some of) his children. He’s got a square house which seems to be a sign of wealth in Guinea, and the number of chicken and goats, plus the fact that the stew simmering above the fire included some kind of meat, indicates that our man is well situated as well.

I asked the man if he would allow us to peek into his house and he gave us a tour of the mansion.

For comparison, this is a simpler hut, one single room with a bed inside and nothing else.

Our camp is in a grassy area with huge trees and I think it will be the first night to use our mosquito sprays.