LIVE LONG AND PROSPER IF YOU CAN

Live Long and Prosper

Or as the retired Polish fighter pilot in Banfora translated “Have a long life and make a lot of money”!  The adventurous grandparents are having a lot of fun. We are sitting in the carpark of the OK Inn in Ouagadougou drinking Shwepps tonic and Gordons gin with ice while we consider the future. The sad death of hot-air and gas balloonist friend, Dr Janet Foulkes, from cancer yesterday has reminded us that you must live every day as if it were your last.

Carpe diem doesn’t quite get to grips with the way we think (Chris talking). Don’t just seize the day, grab it by the throat and shake it until the pips squeak!!

Today has been interesting on the journey to Ouagadougou. To start with we have a clean windscreen for the first time in a month. We had a tour round Bobo in the Enterprise, stopping for a quick walk around the mosque. Pics to follow. Had a second breakfast with pain au raisin from the Boulangerie Patisserie plus coffee at a café where all the young men were gathered (very pretty waitresses) before setting off for the 360km drive to the capital.  Saw cotton loading lorries, pickers on cycles with conical baskets on their backs, men fishing in lakes from reed rafts, vultures, parakeets, villages with spiky roofed granaries, a man on a bicycle with 30, repeat 30, 5-gallon drums.

The road to begin with was the best road in Africa, but deteriorated later until after the 3^rd diversion on bumpy, dusty red laterite roads. Our newly cleaned Enterprise is again somewhat dusty.  We are following the route via small scale paper map, Tracks4Africa, and better still another mapping system we got from Chas, a motorcyclist in Bamako. Chas was one of 3 motorcyclists, the other 2, both called Tony, one from Sheffield who had our balloon on his Facebook page.

We have had some very good news that our friend Chris Wood has checked out as a gas balloon pilot over the weekend. Chris is another of those naturally talented people who seems to be able to master whatever he sets his mind to. Congratulations, Chris!

A special thank you to Ellen and Peter for being such good friends and watching over things at home. Enjoy your holiday in Sri Lanka.

We will be here 2 or 3 days, or maybe longer, to get our Ghana visas. We have free parking and wifi and use of swimming pool showers at the rear of the OK Inn provided we have at least one meal here. Believe it’s quite expensive. We are eating in tonight.

Live long and prosper!

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