Burkina Faso

Surprise Surprise and Go West

We took the scenic secondary road from Bandiagara in Dogon country, down into the escarpment and then via Bankass to the border. Again we had a smooth crossing at the Koro border post. We were given a 7 day transit visa and were through and into Burkina Faso in an hour. The road through to Ouagadougou was in good condition and we arrived in the late afternoon at the OK Inn, a popular stop-over for over-landers. Ouagadougou immediately struck me as a nice city, when compared to other we had been to on the trip. It certainly was far superior to Bamako in Mali. Like Bamako, there are hundreds of bicycles and mopeds. What is noticeable is the number of woman driving mopeds, which is quite different to Mali. The religious mix in Burkina Faso is 50% Christian and 50% Muslim and this probably explains this observation.

As the number of days we had to spend in Burkina was limited we intended to maximise our time. We arrived on a Sunday and planned to get to the Ghana embassy Monday morning to apply for our visas. That evening, we called an Australian friend we had met in Bamako and got some info on restaurants and bars. We ended up going to a restaurant called Le Verdouant which is famed for its pastas and wood fired pizzas. Indeed it lived up to its reputation. After finishing our pizzas and a cold beer we headed towards the sound of live music. Luckily it was only about one block away and we entered a garden area which had a stage and a number of well positioned tables. This turned out to be a really good spot as bands could randomly turn up and play. It was a lot of fun and the extremely friendly waitress called Mariam, after serving us a few SoBaBra beers (which we managed to clear their whole stock) managed to get us on stage to dance African style. I am sure Jane will end up putting the video on Facebook.

The following day we got to the Ghana embassy in good time and were told we could pick them up the following day at midday. The rest of the day we spent lounging around the OK Inn swimming pool and catching up with administration chores. We had been told by other travellers that the Banfora region, in the west of the country, was a must visit. Also Jane really wanted to see elephants and we had read that Nazinga reserve in the south of Burkina on the Ghana border was the place to do this. Hence, we planned to leave for Banfora the following day, stay for a couple of days and then head back 300km westwards to Nazinga before crossing into Ghana. Sounded doable, but once on the road to Bobo Dioulasso it dawned on us that to do this in the available time we had left in Burkina would be tough going. The road to Bobo started out poorly from Ouaga but the further you got from Quaga the better it got. Also it was very apparent how much greener and bushier it got the further west you travelled in Burkina.

We had no real plan of where to stay in Bobo and choose a small place called Villa Bobo, which was recommended in the Lonely Planet. One thing that attracted us to the place was that Xavier, the French owner, was very knowledgeable on the Banfora region. Once we got to Bobo, we could not find a sign for Villa Bobo or we could not find anyone that had even heard of it. Eventually, after driving around aimlessly for an hour we asked a local to call the number in the Lonely Planet and a person greed to meet us at the Minister of Transport building on the main road into Bobo. We went and soon someone turned up on a moped and beckoned us to follow. We set off after him, and about 200 metres he stopped and we had arrived at Villa Bobo. There was not even a sign post on the villa itself, but we were met by Xavier and welcomed in.

Xavier turned out to be a very interesting person. He had been in Bobo for 7 years and before that was living in Corsica where he was a member of a vocal band that performed in the opening ceremony of a French winter Olympics. The other thing to note about Xavier is that he makes the best jam you will ever try...and I am not joking. His mango and pineapple jam is to die for and, for this alone, I recommend Villa Bobo. Besides the jam it is also very reasonably priced. Xavier is not into marketing, but prefers people that are willing to call him personally for directions. Banfora is renowned for its mangoes, and Xavier will not use any other to make his jam. With my newly found addiction, I was eagerly awaiting an opportunity to test this out.....and the sooner the better !

That evening, with Xavier’s help, we made a schedule for the following day to visit Sindou peaks (50km along a dirt road from Banfora), the Karfiguela waterfalls and then the Domes du Fabadougou. We also decided that the trek back to Nazinga reserve was too much so opted to cross into Ghana via the Quessa crossing directly into the north western corner of Ghana, According to Xavier, the Quessa crossing was a small one and very easy to navigate. Furthermore, the road from Bobo to Quessa was mostly tarred road accept for a 50 kilometre stretch.

That evening we went to a local restaurant called Bankan and had a gorgeous peanut-stew meat dish with rice...and it only cost about £1 each. We had not found much really good African food (accept at Le Thiosanne in Senegal) so far on the trip and this meal certainly made up for it.

The following day we headed off early with our guide Amadou from Vila Bobo towards Banfora and the Sindou peaks. The road from Banfora to Sindou is a rough dirt track through African villages and due to its poor condition it probably means that this area is not visited as often as it should. The peaks are sandstone and have been carved by the wind and rain forming a weird and silent landscape.

The next destination was the waterfalls and we had to backtrack about 40 kilometres toward Banfora before taking a non-descript left turn which led to an even smaller dirt track through a landscape of rice fields. After navigating some water-logged sections and crossing bridges that were about the same width as Proper Job we arrived at Baobab Camp where we had a great fish pizza. After lunch we headed to the falls. The temperature had become hotter as the day went on, but it was thankfully still relatively cool compared to that we had experienced in Mali. We arrived at a small camp near the water fall and, after paying our parking fee, we headed off with our swimming costumes in tow. The walk to the waterfall was really nice as the path winded its way through an array of amazing massive trees full of birds. We climbed the hill to the waterfalls which, looking down over the jungle, reminded me of a setting from a Tarzan movie. I had read in other traveller’s journals that the best pools to swim in were further up river so we continued walking for another 10 minutes until we found them. Upon arrival we found a few Europeans who were also enjoying the plunge, so we donned the swimmers and leapt in. The relief from the heat was most welcomed and we spent the next 2 hours wallowing in the falls. Eventually though, it was time to move onto destination number three, the Domes of Fabadougou.

The drive to the Domes took about 15 minutes and we arrived in late afternoon. Again the rock structures were sandstone, but were completely different from the Sindou peaks. We climbed to the top of the Domes and as the sun went down, the Domes became a lovely hue of red.

On the way back to Bobo, Amadou had been asked by Xavier to pick up a load of mangoes for his next batch of jam. We stopped at a place that Amadou insisted sold the best mangoes. On arrival, we were immediately surrounded by woman shoving mangoes and cashews in our hands and pockets. It was mayhem, but with a little theatrics we managed to get things under control and Amadou selected one lady’s whole supply of mangoes. That evening, we tried them and they were divine, the best we had so far tasted on our trip. The trip to Banfora is certainly worthwhile and we wished we had more days to explore this very interesting region.

That evening we ate at a restaurant owned by a French friend of Xavier, which was conveniently located just down the road from Villa Bobo. The owner Patrick, is a very patriotic person from Brittany (the Celtic region of France). Coming from Cornwall (the Celtic part of England), we immediately hit it off and had a great evening eating some more fabulous African food followed by more mangoes.

The following morning it was time to depart for Ghana and, after having one more of Xavier’s mango and pineapple jam breakfasts, we grabbed our bag of mangoes and said farewell to Xavier. We eventually managed to find the tarred road to Quessa and made good progress until we hit the 50 km section of laterite road that we had been warned about. On the whole though, the route was good and we reached the border at 11.30am. The crossing went very smoothly and within an hour we were through.

One thing to note on the Burkina side is that the customs office is very easily missed and is a couple of kilometres back from the police and immigration office. Luckily for us a customs officer was sitting under a tree having lunch with some police friends and he agreed to take our customs form back to the office so we didn’t have to back track.

The people of Burkina Faso lived up to their reputation as being super friendly and we wished we could have stayed longer as it is a much under-appreciated country.

So, with a massive Welcome to Ghana sign at the border, Jane and I were back in the country after almost a 30 year absence.