Burkina Faso

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  Ougadougou, Burkina Faso
Tuesday, May 5, 2009

30th April - Drove through Ouahigouya and Yako before arriving in the capital, Ouagadougou (Waga-doo-goo) to try and get our Ghana visas, which should take 24hrs except that its a public holiday tomorrow so can't get them till monday.  Walked around looking at the sites before finding an internet place, not really much to see in the capital as one of the museums was closed for renovation.  Had lunch at Restaurant de Chine (Chinese), made a change from having truck meals.  Headed to our hotel on the outskirts of the city near the airport.  That night went to see the 'world's worst toilet'-according to Gary - at a local bar.  Basically to use it as the locals do is to stand on the step in the doorway whilst holding the door shut and pee into the room, toilet was a square room with a grate in the middle, looked as though it had been cleaned since last year.



Dist cov. =  207 km



1st - Free day, nothing much of note happened...i.e. lazying by the pool and doing laundry.



2nd - Heading to Bobo-Dioulasso, passing through Sabou, Boromo and Pa.  Staying at Casa Africa on the outskirts of the city center.  Wandered through the Grand Marche and visited the Grand Mosque, which isn't one of the best of the trip that i've seen. 



Dist cov. = 364 km



3rd - Headed to Banfora and into the town center for lunch before going to the Karfiguela Waterfalls.  You need to walk through an avenue of mango trees to reach the falls, at which you can find many people swimming on weekends.  The best pools for big groups are quite a walk up.  Camped at a local campground beside the falls beside local villages on a football pitch.



Tonight we had a tropical thunderstorm and our first rain since Morocco.  A vicious wind blew through the camp, whilst we were watching the locals play traditional music, sand blasting us and as it turned out upon reaching the tents 2 had blown away.  Luckily some locals managed to find one before the heavens opened 20 mins later.  Made for an interesting night with the thunder and heavy rain.



Dist cov. = 100 km



4th - Looked for the missing tent for 2hrs in the morning to no avail, most likely one of locals had taken it inside their house.  Headed back to Banfora before returning to Bobo and Casa Africa.  Most of the group have gone to a lake to swim, I've hung back as I need some peace and quiet from the group.  Spoke with a local called Mardu, a traditional musician, for a few hours...seemed to mostly be with hand signals as his english was 'small-small' and my french isn't that good.  Gary met back up with the group with our visas and ready for Ghana.



Dist cov. = 150 km



5th - Headed for the Ghana border via Pa, leaving Burkina Faso at Ouessa.  Border post in Ghana was Hamale, where a truck coming in was piled high with animal skins and was too tall to fit under the gate, also lots of vultures on top.  Journeyed down to Wa, bush camping just short of it.  The landscape has become a lot more lush, and no more stupid sand for a few months hopefully.  It's also good to be in an English speaking country for a change.  Also had our 10th puncture of the trip, how wonderful.



Dist cov. = 350 km

Total Dist cov. = 8013.7 km

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