Heading south again ...

We eventually reached Fada N'Gourma at 8pm or so, in the dark I could just make out La Belle Etoile, the auberge we were meant to be staying at. However the bus driver refused to let us off as our packs were buried on the roof under a motorbike. He continued into town another 2km away and we waited for our packs to come off the roof.

Looking around in the dark, there didn't seem to be much in the way of transport, not a taxi tout in sight ... I started chatting to some guy who had been on the bus with us who told me he worked for an NGO. He rang a friend for me who rang someone with a vehicle and so a taxi was organised; after a 20minute wait we finally jumped into a 'vehicle' which was probably held together with glue; however I got the drivers number for the return journey the following morning (or rather his brother's number) and thanked him.

La Belle Etoile was fantastic, a great little auberge but unfortunately the kitchen was shut as the owner was away, on my return to Ghana I discovered the owner was a friend of Olivier & Danielle's! We wandered up to a petrol station where there was a Togolese run restaurant and got some dinner, and bought a few drinks in the flash shop on the forecourt! Maddy & I sat up for a while watching a praying mantis, chatting & listening to someone in another room snore incredibly loudly!


We awoke the next morning to see a Swiss family who'd arrived in their own vehicle and were incredibly snooty towards us and a Toureg from Niger who turned out to be a guide with his own vehicle. Lovely guy, we had a long conversation over breakfast together about the problems in Niger around Agadez & Arlit, the region he's from. He offered to drive us back into town so we could continue onto the border of Benin.

Arriving at the bus station we discovered that there weren't any buses that went over the border. We wandered up to the gare routiere and eventually found a minibus heading our way. To enable us to have a seat together the driver yelled at all the passengers (mostly female) in the bus to get out and rearrange themselves, it was a little embarassing! Our minibus reminded us of the previous nights taxi; held together with string & glue; once on the road all we could smell was petrol. I was very concerned that we'd catch fire and sitting in the back row there wouldn't be an easy escape route through the entrance door . So for 3hrs we drove with the back door being held open by yours truly - my arm ached!!! Several times we stopped to refill the leaking petrol tank ... once we were in a village and bought some small melons which when we opened them were full of mushy juice & pips, very little flesh inside.



We finally got to Nadiagou, the border post for Burkina. To our relief we were ushered out of the minibus into another newer one! Dani & I got the front seats & Maddy was rather squashed in the back. I went off to find food & water, there wasn't much around but plenty of fuel & wine!!!

















We sat in it for what seemed like hours until we set off again with lots of faces peering in at the three of us. The driver finally got us star but only 300m to immigration before another 16km down to Porga & Benin's immigration post on an excellent road. Finally we were in Benin, however, I developed the most horrendous headache which I was convinced was the sun & hoped that it wasn't malaria ...

We were fortunate at Porga, probably the nicest border post I've come across in W.Africa. The Immigration Police were incredibly friendly, it was the first border post I've been to where they want their photo taken with people. Unfortunately with the headache I was sitting on the step holding my head in my hands drinking warm water & swallowing aspirins! The minibus had gone on into the village and we discovered our driver & passengers in a bar. But the bar didn't have anything to drink despite crates of beers along the walls. Dani needed to 'go' I asked where the bathroom was & was told to go 'a la brousse' so we ventured out. She looked around & changed her mind deciding to hang on for a while. Eventually we got going again and I was suprised how green this side of the border was in comparison to the area around Nadiagou. Another hour or so down the road and we were in Tanguieta, by this stage Dani was in pain and raced straight for the 'conveniences' which as I suspected were dreadful ... coming out we were asked for 150CFA, I laughed at him and eventually gave 50CFA!

We'd decided on the way that between my headache, Dani's pains and the fact that the journey up to the edge of the Parc National de la Pendjari at Batia (we were aiming to stay in the Campement Relais de Tanougou) would be a lot of negoiation to find a 'cheap' transport option that we'd stay in Tanguieta. Whilst Dani & I were away in the bus station, Maddy had organised the packs & found a man who offered to take us to Hotel Le Baobab, for free. I immediately saw something wasn't right here, to be driven up to a hotel (we didn't know the price) for free - there had to be a catch. No, the guy was honest (hoping to take us up to the Park later ..) and took us to Le Baobab. We had a look around and I suspected it was well out of our normal price range, but our very smart room with one single & one double bed & en-suite bathroom in a 'case' was all for 10,000CFA - it was a bargain! We swiftly moved in & then went back outside for a few drinks before finding out what was happening that night for New Years Eve's festivities!

The place seemed almost full. We were the only non-French there, the owner had arranged a party in the garden for all of us at 6,000CFA each and we saw the New Year's in, in a bit of a sombre fashion ... I've never been with a group of people who were so sombre, especially considering they were French! The following morning, Maddy got up at the crack of dawn to join a French guy who I'd been chatting to the night before who'd offered her a lift down to Cotonou .. she had to leave early to get her flight from Accra home ...

Ouagadougou

We left Banfora early in the morning and got into Ouagadougou around lunch time with a short snack stop in Boromo. We were all very impressed with the service on the Rakieta bus; clean, air-conditioned, videos & great drivers. It was like something in Europe ...

Arriving in Ouaga we got a taxi down to the Catholic Mission, it was a bit of a mission finding it but finally the taxi pulled up outside a gate and a guardian eventually came to open it, we found ourselves on a street to the side of the Cathedral. I went through wanting to find out if there was any room for us and left Maddy to pay the taxi, which in hindsight was a stupid move. She didn't have the correct change for the taxi and had a lot of touts around her, one of which paid for the taxi. Understandably she was rather upset.
We walked into the park like ground and went to find one of the 'sisters' being a Catholic Mission it accepts ladies and the occasional man - they told us they were full; we thought that our tattered dusty apperance possibly put them off, they sent us to the 'brothers' who gave us a dingy room for 6,000CFA and as soon as we came out of the gate we were pounced on by a group of 5 guys one of which had paid for our taxi. However they were incredibly aggressive and refused to take no for an answer or Maddys attempt at F*** O**; only when I said similarly in French did they step back ... it was very threatening and not letting us pass them was getting a little worrying - one of those situations when I had yell, but not something I like doing in Africa where things are usually done peacefully.


Dani took us a great restaurant that we'd passed earlier in the taxi (she'd really found her feet!!) and we realised it had rooms: so taking their guardien for protection Maddy and I crept back to the brothers passed our gang of boys and managed to get our packs out of the room and creep back to an ecstatic Danika who was waiting at Le Samaritain for us with lunch ordered!!! We had a room for about 14,000CFA basically a small suite with only air-con in the room. I'm not good with air-con so offered to take the little living room with a mattress on the floor and putting up my mossie net made for some interesting gymnastics between the 3 of us! Maddy & Dani shared the bed, but as it was I was up most of the night freezing! Later that night my friend Issaka I'd met 2 years previously when we were both backstage at a Johnny Clegg concert turned up to see us. He invited us all for lunch the following day!

So, on Sunday I went out early to go in search of bus tickets to Fada N'Gourma ... after getting several taxis around town I eventually ended up back at a Rakieta depot and then promptly bumped into the Germans we'd met at Diebougou bus station who were spending their last day shopping. On my return we all went off to the bronze artisans shops not too far from the auberge and again we met the Germans! We had Sunday lunch with Issaka and his family; he heads up the Burkina Chamber of Commerce. I finally met his wife Angelique and 3 kids, he took us all to a great restaurant in Ouaga - Le Foret where we had far too much food before heading off on another cracking Rakieta bus from a depot next to the Libyan cultural centre to Fada N'Gourma. I can't say enough about Burkina's transport system ...

However, I think Dani ate too much at lunch and slept most of the way to Fada N'Gourma on the bus ...

Banfora

We spent a wonderful day in the Banfora region. Getting a private car was well out of our price range at 20,000CFA for the day and I was planning to get bikes to go around but Maddy wasn't having any of it and kindly offered to pay for a car & driver, in the form of Ima.




















Ima had a fairly relaxed day. He drove us through the sugar cane plantations, up to the Domes of Fabedougou and then onto Karfiguela Falls where we jumped out and spent several hours in the sun, swimming, picnicking and escaping the dust of the Harmattan.


We then continued on through a number of villages and then onto Lac de Tengrela, in order to find some hippos. Dani & Maddy went out in a boat but only saw a few from a distance and those were more or less submerged apparently.

















Our final evening we treated Dani to McDonalds; we knew there was a McDonalds restaurant in town but didn't let on that there weren't any hamburgers & chips ... the food was excellent however!

Diebougou & beyond ...

We arrived at 'Le Relais de Diebougou' a nice enough hotel, managed to get a room with a double bed & a mattress was brought in for Maddy after a fair bit of negotiation. We had a few drinks with our minibus driver & his friends and the hotel cooked us a great meal.

The following morning it was decided to unfortunately miss the Lobi region via Gaoua as our driver had said it would take 8 hours to go from Gaoua to Banfora. We decided to catch a bus to Bobo Dioulasso and see the mosque. We walked the kilometre to the bus station, bought tickets and settled down for breakfast in a shack with coffee & omelettes. Some 'nutter' was there entertaining us all when another bus to Ouagadougou turned up with a German couple on board; they came over to join us for breakfast and were busy chatting to us when their bus started to leave! Luckily they caught it! Our bus came and again there wasn't any room to sit down so it was standing room only but Dani got lucky with a lovely Burkinabe lady who offered to let her sit on her knees!


We rolled into Bobo a few hours later in time for lunch and got a taxi across town to the mosque, as soon as we got out we were pounced on by touts - the most annoying & frustrating part of travelling in Africa. Ignoring them we walked across a square and found a small restaurant, ordered lunch and chilled out deciding to take it in turns to see the mosque. I received a text message on my phone which had us all in shock; JB was in Abidjan having buried his father the previous day, I'd sent him a text from us all and the one received said that he now had to bury his brother; the one that had malaria and we thought he was on the mend, the kid wasn't 14 but 9 years old!

Dani & I went off to the mosque, as soon as we arrived we were met by a guy just getting off his scooter claiming to be an official guide and wanting 1,000CFA; I ignored him but he went on & on, so I decided to speak Japanese to him asking him if he could speak Swedish. Completely perturbed by this white woman & child who didn't speak English, French or German (he tried all) he left us in peace! Hallelujah!!!


Maddy went off to see the mosque alone & received similar hassle and we all decided it was time to get a bus to Banfora which we hoped would be quieter and we wouldn't receive as much hassle. The bus station was minutes from the restaurant, we bought tickets and found ourselves in Banfora by 5pm or so. We picked Hotel de la Comoe from one of our guide books and turned up to find a gorgeous courtyard garden and a room for 7,500CFA for the three of us. However the room had two single beds, so I got the short straw this time and had a mattress on the floor which made things a little cramped.

Over the border to Burkina Faso

We left Mole Motel and got to Larabanga; the nearest village to the park. We wanted to see the mosque but the villagers were adamant that we had to pay to even go near it ... fed up with so much hassle early in the morning we went back to the 'bus stop' to wait for our bus to Wa. I found a cafe nearby to get a coffee for myself & Maddy whilst she & Dani got the cream crackers & vegemite out for breakfast.

The bus arrived, full, we were offered standing room only and managed to arrange ourselves on the back step. Further along the road a witch doctor jumped on board telling us of a stone which was a miracle cure for scorpion bites, a string which would prevent pregnancy ... he did well, had us all in stitches & seemed to sell a lot ...

Eventually we arrived in Wa. We wanted to cross the border to Gaoua, Burkina Faso a little further north in Lawra over the river so needed to find someone to stamp our passports but being Boxing Day, immigration was closed. We also needed some food, drink & money ... but it was all proving a bit of a problem, so asking a pharmacy that was open to change money the owner sent his son with us to another pharmacy that would do a black market exchange. We settled ourselves in the tro-tro station and got some food & drink and I went of to ask around about transport/immigration options. I discovered that our only real option was to get a tro-tro up to Hamale, the border town in the very north-west corner of Ghana.

Getting on another packed tro-tro we 'sensibly' paid for 4 seats to give us a little more room, it was a long 80km and 2.5hrs on dusty roads to Hamale, Maddy & I had the task of unbraiding Dani's hair en route! We finally pulled up at a police post to discover the driver didn't have a licence and the police needed a bribe to let him continue into town. As soon as we got out we had some guy offer to show us where the border was, we wandered down to it with him and went through the ridiculous formality of showing our yellow fever card - something I've never come across when leaving a country! Our passports stamped we were outside the immigration office when another guy showed up claiming to be Burkinabe and would organise transport the other side. I smelt a rat, his French wasn't very fluent and he was determined to stick with us saying we'd get a lift with his brother. We trudged the 500m between the two borders with Dani saying 'I think I'm going to like Burkina more' and Maddy & I hoping she was right and that we'd all enjoy it more than Ghana.

Burkina's formalities were a lot more relaxed with a lot of welcomes from the immigration officers, it was already 4pm. We spotted a shop nearby and I discovered that the owners were Mauritanian .. we had a chat bought some warm drinks and waited for our guy to return from his 'brothers house'. He told me that I would have to go to his brothers house to negotiate the fare; I refused, asking the brother to come to us if he wanted any business. He turned up and demanded 40,000CFA to get us to Diebougou 60km away. We were getting a lot of aggression from the Ghanaian 'brother' and finally they walked away. I found out where the gare routiere was and left Maddy & Dani with the Mauritanians and our packs to find out if we could get a taxi ... or else it was back to immigration & sleeping on their floor for the night!


On my return I was stunned to find the 'brothers' back, harassing the Mauritanians for telling me where the gare routiere was; they were incredibly aggressive and it finished with the Ghanaian brother getting on the back of a scooter screaming 'I'll burn your shop down'. Watching a herd of cows go past, we wondered what to do when M.Sala turned up, I'd talked to him at the gare routiere and he offered us a minibus and driver for 18,000CFA eventually ... we were on our way in Burkina ...

Christmas Elephants

Christmas Eve we woke up in Tamale in a super king sized bed. Dani had the middle spot and a good nights sleep whilst Maddy & I were on either edge both battling during the night to stay on the bed as Dani did her best to hog it all!


We went off shopping in Tamale, Dani & I trying to find somewhere for breakfast, which wasn't easy - I was either blind or Tamale seriously lacks somewhere for a coffee in the centre of town! We wandered around the market, sent e-mails home whilst Maddy organised our bus tickets to Mole National Park, she managed to get the final 3 seats! We eventually got back to the hotel to pick up our packs and headed back to the bus station to be greeted with chaos. The Mole bus was (as we'd heard was normal) 4hrs late, we waited in the sun for what seemed like forever before it finally pulled into the bus station.

Yet again the journey was fraught; a Ghanian man who didnt have a reserved seat decided to sit on Dani - all hell broke loose and 2 Danes on board with us also tried to help out, she found it all rather amusing; I was fuming!!!


Arriving at Mole Motel in Mole National Park I was thrilled that something had gone right. I'd rung from France in November to reserve a room, something I never normally do; preferring to do my own thing rather than being time pressured by reservations. However this year was a bit different and for a 12yr old from New Zealand to see elephants for Christmas would be a bit special! We were given our room key only to find warthogs blocking the way to the room which made it all the more real for Dani ... We had a meal with our new found friends Aksel & Marie, the Danes before heading back to the room to finish the whisky Maddy had brought with her & the gin I'd bought in Casablanca airport. I was madly wrapping Christmas presents on the veranda outside our room whilst Dani was sleeping probably convinced that we'd forgotten it was Christmas & that she wouldn't get any presents!

We awoke in our hospital ward like room, enormous with an en-suite bathroom but no running water at 6am to go out on a bush walk at 6.30am. Dani woke with a flashing Christmas hat on her head, a stocking full of wrapped presents at the end of her bed & the day started well.

Joining Aksel & Marie (who were staying in their tent!) we wandered over to the park office and met DK our guide and started the walk being told not to drop any litter. Fair enough! So the first place he took us to was outside the staff quarters which had a lot of warthogs, baboons & monkeys all drifting through the staff rubbish dump, full of tins, plastic and other environmentally unfriendly objects.



We didn't see that much wildlife with our guide, DK bushbuck, crocodiles, kob antelope, baboons, monkeys & warthog and after almost 2hrs walking we headed back up the hill to the Motel which overlooks the watering hole below. I decided that Christmas Day was laundry day; the water was back on for a time so I was filling buckets so I'd have a bit to do the clothes in when we heard knocking on our door & someone screaming 'there's elephants'. Everyone rushed to the viewing point over the waterhole and sure enough there was an elephant. DK returned and
took everyone down to the watering hole, Dani got within 30m of her Christmas elephant! I was standing at the top of the hill watching them all when I spotted 3 more come out of the bush ...

We spent the afternoon by the pool, having lunch, being proposed to by a Chinese construction worker and watching other guests being attacked by a few thieving monkeys!!!

Long, long road trip ...

Leaving www.busuainn.com at the crack of dawn we had a taxi organised to take us directly to Takoradi tro-tro station for 13 cedis and from there picked up a 'Benz bus' (Mercedes Benz minibus) to Kumasi. Our intention was to get to Tamale for the night so that we could stayed in Mole National Park for Christmas.

We sat in the minibus for 5hours to Kumasi, it was a long Sunday and listening to political speeches the whole way was incredibly boring hearing voices drone on and on!


Arriving in Kumasi we took a taxi to the other side of town to the Tamale tro-tro station to find another Benz bus that had 3 seats left. I was concerned that if we didn't take them up on the final 3 seats we'd be stuck in Kumasi for a while; but we decided that 30minutes sitting on the side of the street, getting some sustenance before getting back into a crammed tin box was preferable. I do my best not to travel at night; the best way to find yourself in an African hospital or worse due to the amount of accidents on the road.

Eventually the second Benz bus filled up and yet another argument started over the cost of our luggage with the driver wanting the same price for our packs as we'd paid for our seats ... I refused to give in and finally got the 'normal' price! On this part of the journey we met some lovely Ghanaians who helped us out, including one who decided to pay for the use of the loo & to buy more food for the journey, refused to be repaid; it was great to see there were some friendly Ghanaians!

It was a long dusty road from Kumasi with endless roadworks heading north, the dust covered us all. We finally pulled into Tamale at 9pm and wandered off to find somewhere to stay for the night.

We headed straight to the Al Hassan Hotel. I had my doubts when I asked the nightwatchmen at the National Bank of Ghana next door about the place; smirks on their faces. Passing a lamp post complete with a drunk woman dancing around it, my fears heightened. We walked in the door & it was spick & span .. polite guys on the desk .. Maddy & Dani went off to see the room and Maddy told me to get the phone out immediately as we'd better start ringing around. Dani's nose was screwed up as the room had smelt so bad ... we organised another place and got out to get a taxi. Only then did I tell Dani that she'd been to her first African brothel!!! We ended up at a great place the other side of town called Las Hotel, our room felt like it was underground but it was 'clean enough', had a TV in the room and a great chinese restaurant on the roof, so we had a good meal the night we arrived!