Trekking / Hiking in Fouta Djallon

Why here

The Fouta Djallon is one of West Africa's great walking landscapes, a cool green highland of sandstone plateaus that break away in cliffs and gorges and pour off the edge in waterfalls. This is the water tower of the region, the source of the Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia, and its terraced hillsides are farmed by Fula herders and villagers whose way of life gives the trekking its character. Trails link village to village across the plateau around Labe, Dalaba and Pita, past the falls of the three cascades, through gallery forest and along escarpment rims with long views over the highlands. You walk between guesthouses and family compounds, sharing meals and paths with the people who live here, in a form of slow community trekking that has become the country's signature journey. The climate is mild by West African standards, the birdlife is rich, and the sense of a place still largely outside mass tourism is complete. For a traveller who wants real village-to-village walking in a corner of Africa few reach, the Fouta Djallon is the reason to come to Guinea.