Last of Ouaga

Yesterday was very good in lots of ways. We have had 2 very good night's sleep parked outside Les Palmiers, so we have been able to use all the facilities here without the cost. We started the day by going to watch the Moro-Naba ceremony which was much more elaborate and interesting than the Lonely Planet led us to believe. Through a case of mistaken identity we got a front 'seat' for the spectacle.

While waiting to collect our Ghana visas, Chris had both pairs of his brown leather shoes cleaned and polished at a corner stall. We then drove out of the town to the north past parks, experimental garden centres and big open reservoirs which serve the city, to try and find propane. We ended up at a large industrial area where a man who spoke good English asked to buy the Enterprise. He was the Director of a nearby plastics injection moulding company and next door there were 2 gas manufacturing places. He went with Chris to find out about propane. They were very helpful but confirmed there is no propane in the whole of Burkina. We have a contact in Bamako should we ever wish to return to fly in Mali.

We had a siesta parked in a quiet street near the Visa d'Entente offices and then were successful in receiving these and ready to set off for the next set of countries. Niger is included and I got quite excited about driving to Niamey, the capital and then south into Benin from there, but our family will be relieved to hear that we have decided to follow all the safety advice and give Niger a miss. We will be setting off soon for the Benin border via Fada N'Gourma.

Ouagadougou has grown on us - the pollution, heat and traffic we encountered at the start when we were a little exhausted has abated. It has been so interesting having a view from the high windows of the Enterprise of the passing people and traffic in the street. Some cyclists should be in the circus with the amount of piled high boxes and bundles they carry on their shoulders while negotiating the steep speed bumps and driving one-handed. "Carrot head" has taken on an entirely new meaning: some ladies blatantly display their carrots while peeling them as they walk, while others hide their wares under mounds of carrot fronds so that they look as if they have a vegetable plot on their heads!

We wanted to spend our last evening here with a night on the town, so chose the Baratapas as a likely place. Unfortunately after driving across town in a taxi we found it had closed down so returned to the next street along to look for a restaurant run by nuns, who sing Ave Maria at 9.30pm! This time we found they had closed early (tired nuns?). Chris had been directing the taxi driver with the satnav, which showed the next nearest restaurant close by was Zaka which the driver knew. It was a stroke of luck: we were the only customers there until much later, and they not only had food but live music as well! the rice and spicy sauce (with meat) - a Burkina speciality - was delicious and went well with the local beer. The band consisted of 2 wooden xylophone like instruments (bigger versions of the one on the boy's head in the photo below), 2 drums and a stringed gourd like 'guitar'. At first they sounded very plinky-plonky but as the evening went on it became better and better. one of the drummer's fingers moved so fast on the skin of his hourglass shaped drum they were a blur. He came and gave us a special rendition. Another group of tourists arrived and 2 young men on the stage gave a dance performance to the music which was spectacular, including somersaults. We kept thinking how much brother Tim would have enjoyed joining in with the band.

We have taken quite a while this morning to plan the next part of our journey. Up until now we have had recommendations from other travellers where to aim for so this next bit is of our own making. Coincidentally there are a younger Swiss couple here in a Land Rover, also aiming for South Africa, who are leaving today for Benin and may decide to do the same as us and maybe do a complete tour of West Africa this time and leave the difficult bits out. We will have a look at shipping possibilities from Ghana to Namibia later.