Doucki, Guinea

2019-03-18 : Indiana Jones in West Africa.


First afternoon at Doucki on 2019-03-17:

We arrive in the middle of the afternoon at Doucki and at Hassan camp at the end of a 2 km track on the left.

We settle under a beautiful mango tree near two or three huts for tourists. Hassan himself is on a tour, a woman calls him on his cell phone and passes it to me. He will be back in an hour.

Gandalf at Hassan campement

Hassan Bah is a 57-year-old phenomenon. He does not look really good. Small, puny, scary teething ("I'll never let anyone tinker in my mouth") but with an inexhaustible energy. He was born and raised in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He is therefore English-speaking. His family returned to Guinea when he was 21 years old, that's when he started to learn French (but I think he had to speak it a little bit before by his parents because he masters it very good and without accent). He worked for WHO some time before leaving as a mechanic on fishing boats to Spain. He stayed there for 7 years and Spanish became his favorite language. Back in the country he set up this hiking center in Doucki taking profit of the natural wonders of the surroundings. It offers a range of excusions at different degrees of difficulty.

Its concept is simple: 45 Euro per night with full board and all kinds of excursions included. It's quite expensive but it's worth it as we will see.
Hassan first proposes a small walk of one hour at the end of the afternoon towards the cliffs, then another in the evening and finally a hike a little longer tomorrow morning towards the Rocher de l'Hyène and "Indiana Johns".
The walk to the cliffs is a small circuit of 2.5 km which begins with us to cross the village where of course everyone knows Hassan. In any case, all the villagers are relatives of each other to varying degrees. In addition to "his parents" Hassan will introduce us to some plants that we did not know yet. Jackfruit, whose large, green, rough-skinned fruit is only ripe for a good month, a fruit that can weigh up to 40 kg and has a reputation for being high in protein and is very popular by vegans.

Jackfruit

He shows us the manioc plants, a vegetable that is ubiquitous in Africa but whose appearance we do not know until today, various coffee trees including the robusta, very common, and the much rarer arabica.

Arabica coffee tree

Coffee beans drying.

We also discover for the first time the guava tree.

Guava tree

Papaya tree

We arrive slowly at the edge of the Doucki cliffs. Hassan takes us down a dozen meters to appreciate even better the view of the Kokoulo valley far below us, lost in the diffuse dust of the harmattan.

Over the Doucki cliffs

The return is made by a parallel path crossing fonio fields. Fonio is a cereal widespread in West Africa, which is content with poor soils and is well adapted to variable rainfall. It is a herbaceous plant and before being consumed the seed must be shelled. It is a very laborious work that hardly motivates the peasants to cultivate it.

The next day: hike to the "Rocher de l'Hyène" and to "Indiana Jones"

We start of course by crossing the village to reach in a little more than 1.5 km the site at the edge of the cliffs in front of the Rocher de l'Hyène. This is a site that will allow us to discover new majestic views of the valley that is lost in the dust of the harmattan as in a thick morning mist.
Slightly below in front of us is the impressive "Rocher de l'Hyène". We expect at any time to see appear Simba and his father, the Lion King!

Start of the hike crossing the village.

View n the valley lost in the dust of harmattan (Sahara wind)

Hassan makes us discover a whole set of rock formations where our imaginations will be able to give heart-joy. Between the throne of the king, the bench, the turtle, the duck's head, the raptor and a multitude of faces there is enough to stimulate our overflowing imaginations.

The throne of the king

Hassan on the" bench"

Turtle and raptor

Christine between the rocks

"Le Rocher de l'Hyène"

We continue north along the edge of the plateau on a path that will take us through a picturesque little village with nicely decorated banco huts.

Passing the fence around a small village

nicely decorated banco hut

The natural wonder that we will discover in a few tens of meters is revealed to us at the last moment. It's an Indiana Jones backdrop that's buried in the lush vegetation at our feet. Hassan did not make a mistake and he named this site as well. We really think to be there. Who could imagine such a merry here.
We will dive into a labyrinth of narrow and deep canyons by sneaking between walls of rock from 20 to 30 meters high between which a small stream with clean and clear waters makes its way. We will go up this small stream about 250 meters which seem 1000 to its source. It's extraordinarily cool here at the bottom compared to the scorching sun "on the surface" all up there.
We come out all trunk from this canyon to reach in 2 kilometers under a leaden sun Gandalf wisely waiting for us in the village. The ride did not quite last 4 hours.

Not mandatory to do !