To Burkina!

We got up early (surprise, surprise) to make the earliest bus possible across the border to Burkina Faso - our fifth country, well six if you count France! We walked the few kilometers to the gare routiere as the sun rose, and got there to discover that there was no big coach across the border to Ouagadougou (pronounced Waga-doo-goo, like the song!), capital of Burkina. So we had to sit and wait for a minibus to fill up. We'd done this a lot of times and realised it can take a while, so we dumped our bags, got breakfast and started playing cards for a few hours.

After a wait we jumped on the bus, and took pretty much the same route as at the beginning of the Dogon trek, winding roads through the plateau at the top of the escarpment - beautiful scenery, especially the view across the plain below. We stopped off in Koro, closest town to the Burkina border and had to swap to another minibus that was going to Ouigah, another small city where we could then get another minibus to the capital. We ate at a street stall in Koro, and had arichnade sauce over rice (peanutty, and very bland, but good travel fodder), and also got ripped off for the drinks. They overcharged us, considering they had just gone next door to the shop! Dree tried to throw the money on the table in anger, but it fell on the floor, which caused a bit of an argument.

Back on the next bus, we weren't too sure if this bus would make it - there were no window panes apart from the front, so dust poured through the vehicle, and the side door (next to me) was tied on with rope! We felt quite glad when we did get going, that the driver kept to a slow pace. Literally caked with the red dust though - the colour of Africa! Also in front of us was a man who was the spitting image of John Bowles (Si and Jay's dad).

We eventually got stamped out of the country and into no-man's land (where they pronounced all our names correctly, even Barney's, which usually comes out as Paul, Tony, Barry etc), before a very long drive to be stamped into Burkina. We had no problem at all, thanks to our visa from Colin in Tunny Wells (see previous blog in Sept), but three Arabian guys had some bureaucratic difficulties from the unhappy border guard. We got chatting to some passing kids walking their camels - as you do. We stroked them quickly, before they began spitting, and Barney even got on the back of one!

Back on the road, all legally into the country (unlike Senegal!!!), we got layered up again with some red dust, hair clothes, bags; all the same colour. We got stopped a couple of times to check our papers on the road, and once to unload all the bags piled on top of the bus for Customs. As with all these stops in Africa, you have to get out of the car, and after showing papers you have to walk about 20 metres and get back in. Pointless.

By this point dusk had fallen, accompanied by another fantastic African sunset - the Harmattan winds from the desert turn the whole sky red. We arrived into Ouigah about 9pm and were shown to a close guesthouse. All we wanted to do was dump our bags, eat, shower, sleep and then get the first bus the next morning. Unfortunately, it was too late to try and drive all the way to Ouagadougou. The guy tried to get us to tip him, although he said he worked for the hotel, but actually did not.

Our first bit of food in Burkina was an experience. We ate at a roadside 'maquis', where they serve barbecued food for eating there or takeaways. Sitting on small benches, drinking 500ml Fantas (a treat as they cost the same as smaller ones; small things eh?), we tucked into our food by torchlight. We had onion, tomato, chilli paste, bread and some random tough meat. We couldn't really work out what it was, and after asking the chef after, we discovered it was the stomach of a cow. Really strange texture, but we wolfed it down after an exhausting day.

Ouaga tomorrow?