Back in Banfora 2

It’s early Monday morning and I am writing this in bed under the ‘bridal veil’ while waiting for the kettle to boil for our first cup of tea of the day. I  was woken at 5am (in a nice sort of way) by the sweeping crones – 2 ladies employed to sweep the large courtyard free of fallen leaves with small besoms. It sounded as if they were sweeping the Enterprise wheels as well!

We both slept very well last night after a long day yesterday, feeling clean from our hot showers and a good meal in the quirky McDonald restaurant. Chris ate a whole chicken and I had the most enormous burger bun (like a small crusty loaf) with tender meat, salad and chips. It feels perfectly safe here walking the darkened streets and it was like coming home to the Enterprise at the Canne a Sucre.

As I said, Sindou was a lovely place. It took us 4 hours to drive the 50kms along a rather bumpy dirt road, with a long stop part way for a rest and lunch. We drove through water meadows to begin with and could see a small part of the 100 hectare Tengrela Lake. The road then wound slightly uphill through avenues of trees to the first large village. The only traffic apart from pushbikes and motorcycles were the large cotton collection lorries, which raced past us empty and trundled slowly towards us once loaded. The last part of the journey was through wooded areas, palm trees and thorny scrub. The Peaks suddenly appeared before us as we approached the old village of Sindou. We had met a large orange truck on the way, owned by a South African we had met at the Sleeping Camel, and he said we would not be able to get into the Campement because of a deep ditch. The Enterprise managed it without too much trouble due to Chris’s good driving and we parked in the shade of the mango trees. The Swedes, in their Land Rover Defender, had arrived just before us. It’s a small world overlanding and we keep meeting up with the same people. We wandered in to the village to see if there was any bread to buy but it didn’t look as if they had a local bakery. Chris did eventually find some small hard baguettes yesterday.

We had an evening walk up the road to have a brief reconnoitre of the rocks, which had steps cut into them in a rudimentary way. Amongst the rocks it was like another world with paths leading in different directions through the tall dried grass and lots of very spiky plants and trees. We decided to wait til the following day to explore as a brief view of the surrounding countryside looked unsuitable for flying, and it was quite windy even at dusk.  On Saturday morning we again walked into the village and found a shop selling new Chinese motor bikes. I enquired about hiring one for the day, and a young man visiting the shop on his small Yamaha agreed to rent us his own. Chris had waved enough cash at him to make it an attractive deal. We explored the backstreets of the village between the houses and were back at the campsite an hour later for the delivery of the bike. After a quick lunch we set off to take a look at the area by motorbike, having had a trial run up and down the main road. Even going slowly in the Enterprise we miss out on the sights and smells you get from open-air travel.

We spent a good part of the afternoon trundling along tracks which wove amongst the cultivated areas, past cows grazing in meadows and reedbanks alive with small birds. The most common butterflies were large iridescent green and black swallowtails. There were a lot of crops I didn’t recognise apart from tomatoes growing in ‘paddy’ fields with drainage ditches and sluice gates between them. A great white pile of cotton awaiting collection which looked inviting to jump into (but I didn’t!) and huge heaps of corn husks as evidence to what had been already harvested. Several tracks petered out into rough footpaths but it was fun exploring and Chris became quite adept at negotiating the sandy tracks and rocky areas on the motorbike. I did have to dismount a few times.

After returning for a cup of tea and cool down in the shade of the trees we rode back up to the Peaks and had a long walk in a different direction through the scrub, deciding to save the real exploration until the following morning and get there close to sunrise. It was an interesting walk along the bottom of a small escarpment littered with round stones like dinosaur eggs. I wanted to climb up to the hill to see what was on the other side, which we did but it was hard going. We were rewarded with a good view of the village and smoke rising beneath the peaks where they were burning off the grass. The flames looked very fierce and we were amazed that the whole area didn’t burn. The road and the rocks appeared to act as firebreaks. Egrets were landing quite close to the flames, probably hunting insects disturbed by the fire.

That night we had an owl hooting in the tree above us with a very distinctive call. We have not seen a great deal of wildlife apart from birds since we have been travelling, but it is not a disappointment as we saw so much in East Africa a couple of years ago. We did see monkeys near St Louis, a beautiful brindled fox (or jackal) in Senegal which ran across the road in front of us, a basking crocodile at the croc pond in Diema, hundreds of lizards of varying sizes, lots of ground squirrels and something which could have been a monkey while we were on the motorbike, but it was too quick to distinguish. There are mosquitos around at night in some places, but so far the only time I was bitten was the first night in St Louis when we failed to deploy our net over the bed.

Sunday morning we rose just as it got light in order to be up at the peaks at sunrise. Unfortunatly the bike failed to start from cold, so we walked up the road (15 mins) and missed the first rays.  However, it was still spectacular and we were the only people around. We spent a couple of hours wandering amongst the rocks and climbing the peaks where we could to see the views. No chance of flying in that area as the terrain was unsuitable and there was a strong breeze so we just decided to enjoy the area and look elsewhere in BK to get the balloon flight in. There is an airstrip to the east we will investigate today.  It was so peaceful amongst the peaks with the sound of the hornbills rising from the valley below and watching black? Kites soaring just above us.

We prepared for departure at the camp and then sat outside to have a traditional English breakfast – bacon, frankfurters, fried egg and baked beans. There was a German lone cyclist in the camp who had been interesting to talk to, and a group of 8 other cyclists of a more mature appearance who were probably escorted with their luggage. We have met quite a few cyclists travelling around Africa all the way from Europe, mostly on their own. The group had a copy of the Bradt travel guide to BK which they lent to the Swedes and we photocopied relevant pages on our ‘in house’ printer. It gave a lot of information on this region around Banfora. We could stay here a week just visiting the sights. We did try to get to the waterfalls and the Domes de Fabidougou on our way back yesterday. We drove 5kms out on a lovely narrow dirt road following the Tracks4Africa map on the SatNav. The Enterprise was fine along the ridge between the sugarcane fields, lined with papaya and bananas, but we eventually came to a T junction where the track was only wide enough for single-wheeled traffic so we had to turn around a carefully negotiate the track back where ground clearance was a problem by following our wheel marks.

Besides missing out on the possibility of seeing hippos at Tengrela Lake, visiting the cave dwellers at villages similar to Dogon country in Mali, seeing a Baobab tree which can fit 50 people inside, and other marvels, we were not unhappy to miss the falls (which may have been pretty dry) and the large domed rock formations of Fabidougou. It’s off to look at launch sites today. All still very exciting. It’s good to be sitting in the coolest part of the day (14C at present). At night the temperature inside the Enterprise is usually around 30C and feels pleasant when it cools down to 26C. We do have a small fan fitted to blow on us when we are in bed which purrs gently. I have named it Artois after a nice cat we met in St Louis.

Back in Banfora

We have had a great time in Sindou staying at Soutrala very close to the Peaks, strange rock formations which reminded us both of the fairy castles of Cappadokia, turkey and the Acacus mountains in Libya. Who should arrive at the same time as us but the Swedish couple Mia and Crister. I am off to have a shower before we go out to eat at McDonald restaurant, not to be confused with the golden arches! Will update later.

Peaks of Sindou

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

We are at the peaks of Sindou as a possible interesting place to fly.

Africa Sunset

One leg in the air

Bamako Pictures

Can I have gas please?

 Home in the Bush

Ladies with Logs

Sunset over Niger river, Bamako

Still in Banfora

Still in Banfora

It is very pleasant sitting in our courtyard, under the trees at the rear of the hotel. We decided to have a bit of a 'breather' today and remain here a little longer.

After breakfast we walked out to explore the town. They must be used to white faces here as apart from a greeting no-one takes any notice of us. There's a lovely atmosphere to the place and feels much more relaxed. There are shops in abundance and I don't think there's anything we want that we can't buy here, including dried animal parts and other strange objects used in alternative medicines should we wish. There is a strong animist religion in this region, but there is at least one mosque and the call to prayer was quite soothing early this morning. Our first objective was to find gas. There was a small shop with a couple of larger cylinders of butane nearby but they said we could not recharge our tank there. We tried a couple of filling stations but all the tanks were empty so Chris was worried we would not be able to get enough gas for our next flight. He had filled one whole tank and a part tank, very slowly, before leaving Bamako, but we were wanting a reserve and a bit more in our cooking gas tank. We purchased 2 items from one store: a 'draining' spoon for me and a panga or machete for Chris. The shops of course are all open-air and most goods are out on the street. We found a very good vegetable market and stocked up on nice carrots (hard to find since Morocco), aubergine, red onions and a cabbage! The main fruit here are oranges, tiny blackened bananas and pineapple. There are lots of papaya and mango trees, but I think mangoes are out of season. I have had a very ripe papaya from a roadside stall near Bamako.

The people are the main attraction for me, both in dress and looks. Yesterday we saw a very striking man wearing colourful pyjamas, a stripy trilby hat and wellington boots and today, a schoolgirl riding a motor cycle had bright pink high heels with her smart school uniform. Mostly though the women are in traditional dress, either with head scarves tied in a topknot if they have not got a basket or bowl full of something or other on their heads, or they have elaborately braided hair, sometimes with beads woven through. Three young girls trying to sell woven baskets and fans, roasted peanuts in their shells and bags of sweet cakes braved the gardener here and came to see us. They are very cheeky and are giggling behind the entrance gate. We invited them to look inside the Enterprise and I took a photo of them.

We returned from our first shopping excursion to have coffee and mango juice in the hotel garden and to cool off under the trees. There is a beautiful jasmine like tree beside where we are parked that smells delicious. They speak very little English here but my French has improved considerably, either that or the Burkinabe version of the language is easier to understand. I found in Mali that I could understand very little and they appeared not to understand me very well.  I did learn the Mali greeting from Pam which was "Anche". The owner of this hotel is French and comes from Brittany, hence the Crepes Bretonnes on the menu. We haven't met him but the receptionist telephoned him on our arrival to ask his permission for us to park here.

After a rest in the shade we took our almost empty gas tank back to the small shop, where it turned out they had no gas, but the young shopkeeper walked us across town to somewhere that had, so we are now full to the brim in all our tanks, one still full of good British propane and a small one with the dregs from our last flight.

This afternoon I have been catching up with writing and bird identification. While sitting at dusk where we had our barbecue, a fantastic bird flew over, trailing long feathers which I at first took to be  two smaller birds chasing it. I have discovered it was a standard-winged Nightjar.  In the meantime, Chris has been very busy: cleaned the air filter, checked and adjusted the tyre pressures (Ron, your concern over the rear tyres chafing together at lower pressures has been thoroughly tested and all OK), oil and water levels checked and a full investigation of the steelwork supporting the rear box. A bit more welding may be required at a later stage to add more steel, but hopefully that can wait til Ghana where the language will not be a problem.

I missed a wonderful photo opportunity while sitting out eating a late lunch: 2 donkey carts towed by 3 donkeys apiece loaded with ‘hay’ came trundling past the gate.

This evening we will eat in as we have so much food in our store cupboard and fridge. The meal last night was very good, but expensive compared to our stay at the Sleeping Camel, where we had a meal on two occasions (Chicken Yassa, a typical Mali recipe, and a spicy beef dish which I forget the name of), had two loads of laundry done in the washing machine, several bottles of beer, electricity, use of hot showers and three nights parking all for less than the cost of our meal last night.

Tomorrow we will go in search of possible exciting balloon launch sites.