Articles by Doug Nienhuis
I am a Canadian, and I am currently traveling through Asia with a touring bicycle. These are stories and pictures from my trip.
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Monday, February 19 4:49 a.m.
I’m awake even a bit early for me. That’s because my bed finally collapsed at about 4:00 a.m. It was giving way bit by bit the whole night. Boards fell away here and there and I just kept twisting my body to avoid the bigger holes. It was odd but the bed actually became more comfortable as a form fitting cocoon …
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Saturday, February 17 – Morning in Dalaba
Today is my official goodbye to the Fouta Djalon. I’m leaving Dalaba, cycling to Mamou where I hope to leave a bag of extra stuff with the Forest family and tomorrow morning I’ll be heading east towards Kankan. I’m not terribly excited about the prospect but who knows? Perhaps Haute Guinee (what they call the region) will surprise me …
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Friday, February 16 8:30 a.m.
Yesterday was a day for taking stock of the pummelling that my gear underwent on my tour through the Fouta. Even in the first couple of days it was clear I hadn’t really prepared for it or known exactly how serious it could be. This was when I discovered that cooking pots nested together loosely will beat the crap out of …
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Thursday, February 15 7:15 a.m. Dalaba
From Labe to Dalaba is 95 kilometres of “goudron” and I zoomed through them in six and a half hours. After the rough roads of the previous days I felt like I had wings and joyed in the sensation of easy movement. This mood was helped considerably by the fact that from Labe to Pita it was practically all downhill …
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Wednesday, February 14 5:47 a.m.
The electricity in Labe stays on most of the time but it surges and drops off so constantly that the light in my room is more like a strobe light. I find it’s better to turn the light off and use a candle instead. Sometimes no electricity at all is better than just a little bit. I shudder to think what …
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Tuesday, February 13 – 8:00 a.m. Labe
Every once in a while in the life of a cyclist a day comes along that is like a gift. Yesterday was such a day.
It started early for me as usual. I woke up before sunrise, did battle with the legions of spiders that had moved in on me during the night and quietly shifted my gear and bicycle …
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Sunday, February 11 6:30 a.m. Lelouma
I’d like to go back in time, visit every one of my informants about the road from Telimele to Lelouma, and give them each a sharp little slap. And that includes the PCV’s in Telimele. Jessica and Greg told me the road was pretty steep in parts. They also told me there were deep ruts on those steep pitches and …
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Thursday February 8 5:23 a.m.
I had dinner with Jessica and Greg last night but it wasn’t a success. I don’t know why but conversationally speaking we didn’t hit it off. Perhaps it’s because of a difference in our ages. I’m probably twice their age. I didn’t think of that till now but I wonder if it’s much more apparent to them and they were uncomfortable …