burkinafaso
Burkina Faso
Monday 17th December 2007:
After having our documents all stamped we drove on for 35kms before reaching the Burkina Faso frontier post. We pulled over to the left, waking up the policeman sleeping in the shade of his hut, and eventually managed to negotiate paying for our 7day Burkina visa. We had hoped to change money at Bankass or Koro, but these were very small villages without banks and with it having been a weekend we hadn't even thought of changing money when we got to Mopti or Sevare. We both hoped there would be a facility to change money at the border, as has been the case so far, but sadly this was not so. We needed to pay CFA10 000 each for our visa, which we offered to pay in Euros. He said this wasn't possible, and eventually after many calculator conversions, we understood that we needed to include the extra commission charges, which the bank would charge him. We paid this and got our 7days stamped into our passports, after he painstakingly wrote down our details. We drove drove on to the customs to have our carnet stamped and were on our way to Ouga within minutes. We briefly stopped off in Ouahigouya and changed more money at the EcoBank, who don't charge commission, the other banks have been charging 2%.
Lots of the people cycle around and there was a marked increase in the road cyclists. We felt very sorry for them because the roads are red sand and very dusty and as we drove passed, they disappeared in a cloud of red dust. Most of them wear mouth masks or turbans, not helmets, and now we know why.
We entered into Ouagadougou (Wa-ga-doo-goo) just after sunset. It was dark, smoggy and felt like you were driving through thick fog in the middle of the night, except there were hundreds of bikes and mopeds weaving everywhere. There were even vultures on the street lights along the main road and many goats and sheep in the market places and along the streets. We managed to find Hotel OK-Inn, which is behind a truck parking centre on the way to the airport. We drove in and went to the very smart reception to enquire about camping, both covered in red dust and looking hot, dirty and tired. Initially they seemed a bit reluctant to let us camp, but then agreed, telling us it's free to camp and use the amazing swimming pool, but encouraged us to make use of their bar and restaurant. They also warned us to watch our belongings.
The security guard ushered us to a clump of trees in the car park to park with 3 other overlanders camping, slightly away from the main hotel car park. We opened up the tent, hoping to cool it and met our wonderful Swiss neighbours, Gerhard and Theresa (www.chblog.ch/kadonga), who are also travelling down to South Africa, but will probably ship their vehicle from Accra to Walvis Bay or Cape Town. They invited us to join them for a drink by the pool. Everything was covered in red dust, including us, and we were both very keen to test the pool and cool off before doing anything else. We loved our swim and then sat with Gerhard and Theresa for the most delicious, but expensive fillet steak dinners (CFA4200 each). We both really enjoyed our meals, especially as we haven't eaten anything like that for a long time! We had such a good evening and think these two should be given honorary Namibian citizenships as they are such fans of Namibia and were impatient to get there!
Off to bed for our first sleep in Burkina and almost unbelievably in Ouagadougou, somewhere we've heard about for so long and now we're here.
Tuesday 18th December 2007: Hotel OK-Inn, Ougagadougou, Burkina Faso
GPS Info: N12° 20' 07.1" W01° 30' 49.8"
Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 8468
Happy Birthday Landz. We hope you have a very special day and are very spoilt.
We woke up early and were cheerfully met by Gerhard and Theresa. We got ready and shared a taxi to the Ghanaian emabssy in the middle of town to apply for our visas. They were hoping that their visas might be ready earlier than 2pm, otherwise they would explore Ouaga until then.
We jumped into the green taxi and arrived at the tranquil Ghanaian embassy, filled out the forms and then realised Heidz only had 3 photos instead of 4. Gerhard and Theresa had told us where they would be if we wanted to meet up with them for a drink in a nearby garden restaurant.
We walked in to the Photo Luxe and had 4 horrible photos done and then handed in our visa applications, which we were then told wouldn't be ready tomorrow at 2pm, but only on Thrursday 2pm as it's a Public holiday tomorrow. Eventually we managed to arrange for them to be ready for us to collect on Thursday morning, meaning we could then head straight on to Ghana. The visa cost CFA15000 each and you need 4 photos.
On our walk to the photo shop we passed a school called Lycee de Nelson Mandela and all the children were dressed in a kahki school uniform.
We caught a taxi back to swim in the hotel's pool to cool off and went a different way via Ouaga's centre. We walked around to see what shops are around us and found a boulangerie with fresh bread for lunch, a supermarket and even a shop that sold gas piping so now Ross doesn't have to dismount the gas bottle every time we want to cook. We washed Duzi2 to clean off all the red dust that has made everything red, including our clothes. This was Duzi2's early Christmas present. Then we enjoyed the wonderfully cool swimming pool. It was so hot and didn't seem to cool off at all.
Our wonderful, Namibia-loving neighbours came back and joined us later at Duzi2 for another evening of fun and laughter. They are hoping to ship their Toyota Landcruiser soon and get to Namibia without delay. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up with them when we're there with Mom and Paps around the end of March / April, all going well. We had ham and onion omlettes, a welcomed changed from pasta, rice, couscous and beans!
Wednesday 19th December 2007: Hotel OK-Inn, Ougagadougou, Burkina Faso
GPS Info: N12° 20' 07.1" W01° 30' 49.8"
Miles Today: 0 Total Miles: 8468
Today is the Festival de Tabasci du Mouton, a Muslim feast day when every family slaughters a sheep(CFA30 000), or goat, while the rich slaughter a cow (CFA100 000). The reasoning behind the feast and the slaughtering bares a striking resemblance to when Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, to test Abraham's commitment and obedience, and God rewarded him by providing a ram in the bushes as a sacrifice instead. Theresa was telling us that she'd been told the feast is because a Muslim man had wanted a son but couldn't have one.
Eventually after many years he got a son and was told by god that if he slaughtered his son he would get favour. Just before he slaughtered his son, his god placed a sheep in the bush for him to slaughter instead. This is why the Muslims slaughter a sheep and everyone has a big feast.
The celebrations and explosions started early and we'd both decided we didn't really want to see the slaughtering so today was our rest day to spend at the pool. We waved good-bye to Gerhard and Theresa as they left and should meet up with them in the next few days in Mole National Park, in Ghana.
After seeing the simplicity and space in their converted Toyota we tried to do a further sort and down size of our stuff. We now have more space and all our foodstuff fits into one wolf box! We relaxed a bit at the pool enjoying the last of our Moroccan pistachio's and a bar of delicious TopDeck chocolate Ross had brought back with him in September. We did washing and loved cooling off in the pool. While we were doing washing, we watched the vultures circling above obviously with all the slaughtering going on outside, they must have managed to get some tit-bits. The air was really hot and still so it didn't take long to feel hot again.
Thursday 20th December 2007: Hotel Ok-Inn, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
GPS Info: N12° 20' 07.1" W01° 30' 49.8"
Miles Today: 10 Total Miles: 8478
We spent all morning writing and editing our updates, we were so far behind...then the early afternoon uploading all our photos. After many hours, we jumped into Duzi2 and drove to the Ghanaian embassy to collect our visas. We were given 3 months! Ouagagdougou isn't as daunting to drive through as it first seems.
We've finally used up the last of our Gibraltar diesel, in the spare jerry, as we will fill up the jerry with fresh diesel in Ghana where diesel is supposed to be very cheap. While we were filling up the rest of the tank, we saw a man who was basically a walking shop with his display of clothing on a hanger in his one hand, the selection of colours and sizes piled high on his other arm and head, and his warehouse literally out the back, in a back-pack. This is a typical scene in Africa. We also saw beautiful fresh bunches of flowers, including water-lillies, amazingly still looking fresh in the extreme heat.
We stopped off at 2 supermarkets, one very expensive one in central town, where we were able to change money, and then at the more reasonable Merina Market close to the Hotel Ok-Inn, to buy some supplies. We treated ourselves to some lovely minced beef for a real spaghetti bolognaise dinner and some chocolate muesli for Christmas morning, as our present to each other. It was so strange to be so hot and be listening to Christmas carols about 'frosty' and 'white' Christmas. The carols are the same as we have in SA and in the UK. We also had to chuckle at the one supermarket's Christmas display of nativity scenes and Christmas trees sprinkled with false snow, placed right under the air-conditioning, for the extra cold feel. We can't wait to tuck into our Christmas presents and treats Mom and Dad, Mom and Paps.
As it was now too late to drive far enough out of Ouga to find a bush camp we went back to our same spot to spend our last night in Burkina.
Friday 21st December 2007: Hotel Ok-Inn, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
GPS Info: N12° 20' 07.1" W01° 30' 49.8"
Miles Today: Total Miles:
Today we're heading out of Burkina Faso and onto Ghana to spend Christmas in Mole National Park. We wish you all a very merry Christmas, wherever you're spending it, and a 2008 full of God's best things for you. We will be thinking of you so much Mom and Dad and hope you have lots fun at the Steads on the 25th. We will definitely be missing spending Christmas Eve with Mom, Paps, Nat and Clint, but will be thinking of you all the time. We'll be home this time next year and hope to have more than just chocolate muesli to celebrate Christmas with!
We wish our gran, Granny Herta, a very happy birthday for the 27th December and hope you enjoy your time in the Midlands.
We really hope your baby daughter has arrived as an early Christmas present Claire and da Mexican, so you don't have to wait anymore.
Update updated ...
After we initially intended leaving the hotel parking lot very early to get on our way, Heidi suddenly found she could get a connection to the WiFi in the hotel reception while sitting in Duzi2. We decided to make the most of it and send you that quick Christmas update while we could, and to check any last minute emails. Your online "e-Christmas card" was beautiful Mom & Dad. Thank you both so much. In this setting in deep dark Africa, with vultures sitting on the street lights and heat and dust everywhere, it was a complete contrast and like a breath of fresh air. We looked at it before Christmas as we weren't sure when we we would get access to the internet again.
Luckily we were already on the Ghanaian side of Ougadougou, and with diesel filled up yesterday, we headed straight out of town. The road down to Ghana is straight, with very good tarmac, so we bumbled on down towards the border. We had initially thought of visiting the village of Tiebele, which is supposed to be very picturesque. After getting down to that area of Burkina and finding out that it was 40km along a dirt track, it would mean an 80km round trip on a road probably similar to the road to Sangha in the Dogon country. We decided it was probably better to give it a miss as we wanted to cross over to Ghana today, and still try and make it to Mole National Park if possible.
We stopped off at a shop in Po, just before the border, to stock up with Coke supplies, as Ghana is supposed to be the land of Fanta, and bought some Ceres fruit juice as a treat. After initially thinking we had missed the Burkina Faso Customs and passport control in the town of Po, we found it was actually right on the border line, amidst a huge number of trucks and people trying to persuade you that it was cheaper to change CFA currency to Cedi's with them, before crossing rather than afterwards.
We were eventually directed to the little customs shed on the left which we found was piled high with old tv's, hi-fi's, radios, bicycles, mobylettes (mopeds) and even a chicken running around. Business was looking good for the customs guys. After producing our carnet, we were then shown into the building to a very comfortably air-conditioned room at the back where the main guy was fast asleep with his feet on the desk. He was friendly enough when he woke up though, and promptly stamped our carnet in the correct place and wished us well on our journey. It was a pity it was so quick as we could have enjoyed the air-conditioning for a bit longer.
Passport control was also straightforward and we soon crossed over to Ghana to be met by the green uniformed police.