Old Handmade maps of the Bakoun Forest

Old Handmade map of the Bakoun Forest, Guinea.

Within the old files of the prefecture of Togue we found handmade maps of the Bakoun forest, one of many classified forests inside Guinea. Rough paper, colors faded by time, reference lines made with light pencil and ruler, rusty old paper smell, these are no doubt pieces for collection. Bakoun is the area where I will be working, approximately 300 squared meters of barely untouched inhabited forest. There are old notes reporting signs of leopards, buffalos, waterbucks, chimps, baboons and even lions, although the latter are long extinct here around. It’s wild, the first live report I got from this area confirmed that it's infested with Tse-Tse flies, which besides being a mayor annoyance for field work, is a good sign that there is plenty of wildlife around. For now this hand sketch and a couple of boring digital maps is our only reference, soon there will be more to show.

Guinea, views from the road.

Guinea, views from the road. from Alejandra Aponte on Vimeo.

Shots of our 2 days journey from Dabola to Togue, Guinea. The way was long and tough, only compensated by the feeling of getting closer to the region of the Fouta Djallon. With only one way to go there was no much chance of getting lost, however frequently the road branched off to access small villages and we found our selves asking for indications to go somewhere in the middle of nowhere. And surprisingly people pointing in a "always straight away" direction. We also lost some luggage from our poorly packed roof, showing our obvious in-expertise in the matter, luckily we managed to notice before loosing the big pack of toilet paper, also our only supply, that was lingering out ready to fall out. And, of course, after so many hours in the same car we had nothing interesting to talk about so we did the typical "let's-buy-a-chicken break", where we had to decide among a huge variety of options which chicken would continue the trip with us. 

Despite long driving times and very poor road conditions we are here, one step closer to the heart of the Fouta Djallon.