Crossing Ivory Coast and to Togo

This was our last night in Liberia, and tomorrow would be a long day leading to the border with Côte d’Ivoire. There was talks there were loads of roadworks, forcing to take small muddy roads, ruts were really deep with rocks too. We eventually made it to the border early afternoon. Multiple buildings, our passports were travelling from one to the other. It was really hot that day and I was starting to get impatient. Again, the insurance guy tried to rip us off. He was adamant Jonas insurance was a fake and so he wouldn’t give it back, stopping let us go as he was getting the custom officer involve. After playing the fool for a while Jonas managed to get it back as the insurer got fed up with him while I was trying to get my hand back on our passports. We swiftly move on the Ivory Coast side. The officers seemed more chilled here, although there was history of trouble here with the customs. I sat in front of the custom officer, his boss was slouched in all laziness in an armchair on the side, sunglasses on, gold chain, his 90s BMW park under the tree in the background, you get the picture ! The officer wasn’t very talkative, he registered my bike details and let me go off to Immigration. That was quick… ! The officers there, were much friendlier and it was a smooth passage. As one of them said to me “we have been talking German with your friend” me thinking, oh wow..that’d be a first. As we leave, Jonas tell me, “Well..Yes they tried…they welcomed me with a big “Hi Hit**r !” Can tell you that would have not gone down well in Germany !” And we laughed.

The road leading to the Ivory Coast border.

That night we aimed to stay in Danané. Some small and steep tracks through the jungle to get us there, we stayed at a little hotel settled on one of the back street. This is a real treat tonight, lovely and secure place with AC in the room, after such a long day, it doesn’t get any better to be rewarded like this. I always loved that sort of surprise, especially when you don’t know where you will be sleeping. We ventured out to get some dinner, the usual chicken/fries/couscous/salad with a beer everything coming in a huge quantity, there was no way we would finish that dinner. Once again we were back in a French speaking country and it sort of reminded me of my travels in the French Caribbean somehow. Abidjan was a couple of days ride, we made it to Man late morning and took the opportunity to get some cash, petrol and sim cards. The plan was to stop a little before Daloa to set camp that night, but our pace was slow, the road was so full of big pot holes making it impossible to maintain a constant speed. We struggled to find a place to set camp that night, road side were busy but after a couple of hours we decided to head on one of this small roads out the main road, it was surely leading to a village but we could find somewhere in the field I spot a tiny overgrown but still muddy path between a cocoa and banana’s plantation. Getting off the bike, I follow the tracks for a while.. that will do ! Letting a few local past by so we didn’t leave trace of where we would be going, we wedges ourselves between the overgrown herbs. After a couple of kilometres exploring we stopped over a patch of land that was suitable but still, there was some freshly cut trees, I didn’t feel quite peaceful that night, anyway, we would be leaving early enough the following morning as it was set to be a long journey to Abidjan. I crashed out early that night, slept in my gear, ready to leave. In the meantime the village seemed to get more alive as the night was getting darker it, couldn’t be that far. As I managed to snooze fo a bit, a chainsaw started working actively…it eventually stopped at dawn. Fab.

Wild Camp in Ivory Coast - the chainsaw night !

Well at least it would give us a chance to arrive in Abidjan reasonably early and to stop for lunch in Yamoussoukro. A little local restaurant, with two “plat du jour” fish or meat. I decided to go for the meat ; I must admit I am not sure what it was but it certainly was tough ; until later that day we keep seeing people selling raccoons and all sort of wild animals by the side of the road..must have been one of those !

Arriving in Yamoussoukro felt like a bit of western life had suddenly been dropped into the journey. I always had in mind that for some reason Dakar would be the last town with modern facilities, but actually not that much. I could suddenly now have a coffee at the Total petrol station while the service station shop was actually full of product to buy, from Nutella to French wine. It felt so strange, but really good at once. I have always relished ; while on a journey ; having my little coffee break wether it was driving down the M6 or crossing Africa.

It was Friday approaching 2:00pm as we refuelled and savoured that much needed coffee when life came to a halt. It was prayer time, and now impossible to get out of the service station as hundreds of men, standing next to each other filled the station, the floor covered of carpets, listening at the call of the Muezzin.

The road to Abidjan was incredibly peaceful and easy, the only highway I came across, which for once wasn’t a bad thing. The plan that night was to make it to Grand Bassam, at Chloe’s place. Chloe is an Irish lady that settled in West Africa years ago, and has a great knowledge of the area, she holds a forum to help travellers like us and recently created a place for travellers to stay and meet. Max, and Englishman has been here for a few days and was waiting for his flight back home. Max had started the same journey as mine but unfortunately his bike has broken up in Sierra Leone and son he carried on the journey to Ivory Coast by public transport. It was good to speak to another fellow motorbike traveller and to share stories. Although I was travelling with Jonas, travelling by car or motorcycle is a completely different experience, I am already thinking to do it all over again with a 4x4. We stayed there a few days with Jonas while waiting for our Ghana visa, this is where I encountered my first strong storm of the journey, thankfully I had set up my tent under a shelter which was cutting off most of the rain..

The sea in that part of the world ; the Gulf of Guinea ; is really strong, the shore is steep, shaped by the very strong waves. Making it nearly impossible to go for dip, the waves would get you on the ground with no more water than below the knee.

Exchanging story with other travellers at Chloe’s I heard the closest border to Ghana was corrupted a lot, making it hard to cross without Carnet de Passage, I decided to travel a bit more north up the country towards Abengourou (as I travel without CdP) to go across to Ghana via a small border, this was a 700km detour, but I was just seeing it as discovering a new part of the country, and I am so glad I did so. Still the immigration and custom officers where a bit funny on the Ghana side, they couldn’t see my bike frame number, which is well hidden with the bigger tanks and the mud all over, it took some convincing and I was eager to get away as the sunset was approaching quickly and we just had barely enough time to ride to the designated camp for that night, the Bia National Park.

It’s been raining the few past days Night at the Bia National Park

To most countries in West Africa, the inland is really different to the coast life, and it is no different to Ghana ; the Gold Coast ; has it was known before its independence has a really different feeling inland, which I preferred. The first couple of days, travelling through the jungle were really refreshing, although it wasn’t long since the rain has been there and so muddy where the tracks.

As we head south that afternoon, the sky was getting darker, I could feel the rain coming, we had come off the tracks and were on what look like a brand new tarmac road, surrounded either side by flooded fields. Those fields were not flooded because of the rain, those fields were flooded to search for gold and other precious minerals. The area felt strange, it was under control, the Chineses had impounded lands, build military looking compounds under high security, they had the task of building roads but there is clearly something else going on here. There was no question of wild camping anywhere around that night so we reached the next town and found a perfect treat for the night. We reached the coast the following day, it felt good again to stay a couple of days by the beach. This coast has a strong history known for its role in the former transatlantic slave trade. Elmina, only a few kilometres away and Cape Coast had the two biggest forts build for that purpose.

As we approached Cape Coast, I lost Jonas in town, we couldn’t contact each other so I waited by a place we mentioned, hoping he would eventually find me. His car had suddenly broken down in the middle of the road, it sounded like the battery, he managed to get it started and met me, but we wouldn’t go any further that day as it really needed fixing, it sounded like the alternator was gone. On the side, Jonas hadn’t been feeling well for the past couple of days himself and was worried that malaria had got him so we decided to stay there for the night so he could get to the hospital to do a test. Thankfully it wasn’t Malaria, a really bad cold, rest was needed so we decided to take it easy and stay one more night at this hotel/guest house just by Cape Coast castle, whose owner was Russian and help Jonas to get a good car mechanic around to sort the car.

I was still worried about the noise on Harriet and was looking forward to get to Lomé in Togo where I would get a full checkup, the price of the bad roads and tracks was showing up through with the appearance of leaking forks. The last night in Ghana, just on the outskirt of Accra hasn’t been great, I didn’t sleep, it was too warm albeit being by the sea, the breeze was barely getting through the net of my tent, the owner of a restaurant had let us sleep on the car park in exchange of eating at the restaurant, there was worst deal around. He had rooms too but the tent on this occasion felt like luxury, the owner was kind enough to bring us a couple of bucket of water to shower.

It was going to be anyway one of those night that I wished away. Getting around Accra that night had been another typical African city nightmare, roads are particularly good over there but the traffic madness hasn’t change. I took the opportunity of a red traffic light to buy some bread from the people running along the various lane with all sort of things for sale. I was surrounded by lots of local sellers in no time, they were just curious and wanted to ask me tons of questions, making me hold up the traffic as the light went green, I stalled. They stopped the traffic on the nearby lane so I could reach the kerb. The bread in Ghana is good, a mix between bread and brioche. So different from a country to another, variation of heritage.

After Jonas’ car broke down in Accra, looking for the issue. Your usual African loaded car

We left early morning but the traffic was already building up, I filtered and escaped out of town stopping at the first Petrol station, they always offered big shadowed space, the perfect place to enjoy a nap while waiting for Jonas. The heat was exhausting, but we were soon to be at the Togo border. The place is quite big and confusing at first with plenty of insisting fixers desperately trying to get their hand on you, forcing their way. You have to been quite strict with them.

Finally we were in Lomé Togo ! I headed straightaway to Tony Togo were Harriet would be looked after and due for a big service. After being worried since Sierra Leone about a noise, it seemed that it was only a matter of valve clearance, what a relief ! She was now ready for the second part of the journey. While Harriet was been treated with some TLC we headed to the Gabon embassy in quest of more visas. For some reasons, Jonas seems to attract all policemen around. I was in the car with him when a policeman appeared in the middle of the road, 50 metre ahead, his arm in halt position. In despair, we suddenly diverted at the junction before the police barrage and adopted the usual behaviour of playing fool. Only when we thought we got away, one of the policemen had caught us with his bike. Ask for the papers, and disappear with Jonas. They were asking for money again and again. As we weren’t far from the embassy, we claimed we had an important meeting there and would stop on the way back, praying they would forget by then ! Unfortunately they were still there and didn’t forget, but we had one of the most hilarious moment, when the police boss came to ask money, changing his voice, he started singing with a very high and ridiculous pitched voice “money, money, money”.

Togo would have been worth discovering a bit more but the expiration date of my Nigerian visa was quickly coming, Christmas was a few days away and we decided to spend it in Benin. Jonas’s chances to get his Nigeria visa in Cotonou were getting slimmer and with the greeting season holidays coming it would get harder to get official papers in due time.

Cooking dinner for the last night in Togo.