Back to the coast ...

We headed out early in the morning at around 6.00am, it was light and I hoped that the previous night's zem driver wouldn't forget our arrangement to pick us up with a friend of his. Thanks to him I had left 10,600CFA at the bus station with the guardien ... I was worried that I'd never see the money or the tickets the guardien had promised to purchase for me. Arriving at the bus station on foot, I was thrilled to find that he'd got the final two tickets for the Lome bound bus. We hung around for a bit with Dani watching TV in the corner of the bus station whilst I managed to buy the most foulest coffee I think I've ever had in Africa!

We unfortunately had the back seats but on yet another great Rakieta service. The first few hours of the seven hour drive south were stunning. Pulling into Atakpame, we stopped for a short while to refresh, buy food and get drinks. I rang the Ghana Embassy in Lome to ask them whether we could put in for visas in the morning (Friday) and receive them the same day; some brusque woman told me it wasn't possible, it would take 48hrs therefore we would be stuck in Lome until Monday and the cost had risen to 12,000CFA.

Finally we pulled into Lome & I asked a man what the 'going rate' was for a taxi to Aveposo as Gianni had told me that 'Chez Alice' was a cheap and cheerful option to stay at. The man turned out to be a priest heading south for a conference; we all piled into a taxi together and dropped him off at a seminary before heading out to Aveposo.

Chez Alice was a fantastic option, we got a room for 3,500CFA on the edge of a courtyard garden with monkeys, dogs & cats running around. Dumping our packs outside the kitchen we met Alice who remembered Gianni immediately! We sat in the most gorgeous open air salon having a drink as the humidity of Lome was really getting to us. Dani decided to go & get her pack from the kitchen & move it to the room, as a joke, I said she could bring mine through too ...

We wandered down to the beach, beautiful but looked incredibly dangerous for swimming in, although we spotted what looked like rocks about 400m out, we later found out what they were ...

Heading back in, we met a Slovenian couple who had just landed; their first time in Africa they were trying to get to Nigeria but hadn't yet got visas organised. Having dinner together Dani told them of our trip so far, possibly went too far as they were looking more & more worried as she went on & on!!

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 ...