Brilliant Burkina Faso

At the end of January, we left Ghana with its well-worn tourism and headed for roads less travelled in Burkina, taking a week to get there via Togo. Our original plan was to get there in time for the Festival-au-Desert in Exile from Mali, but that had been cancelled, leaving us with no fixed itinerary, free to wonder until we got tired.

Burkina is an amazing country: so laid-back and beautiful in its raw, Sahelian way. We soaked up being on the edge of the desert, driving through low scrubby bushveld and miombo woodland, stopping for water at small village pumps and passing little surprises of small damned rivers where villagers were washing (themselves and their vehicles), cattle were drinking and where even our Pegs could have a little splash or two.

Our first stop was Kompienga Lake, close to the border with Togo and Benin. We camped in the parking lot and used the freezing cold pool. Abundant bird life held our attention (we saw nearly 60 birds there) and one evening, a herd of ellies made their way to the water's edge. And we weren't even in a reserve.

On the way to Ouagadougou, we bush-camped for two nights. Burkina-Faso isn't very densely populated, so it was relatively easy to sneak into the bush away from villages. Harder to keep Peggy quiet as she chased bats and swallows competing for evening insects. One morning, we managed to get slightly lost finding the road (see Jen's earlier post). Do you really get lost, or do you just see more than you bargained for? I wonder how the toothless men on bikes who we asked for directions would answer that?

Ouaga was a real surprise. Wide streets, gentle traffic and great shopping – gorgeous fabrics and stunning brass work at the artisinals. By now we have the space to stock up on curios, but not the money. Memories will have to do. In Ouaga, we camped in the parking lot of the OK Inn Hotel. Parking lot camping was a bit of a feature of Burkina!

From there we went on to Bobo-Dioloussa, stopping at the Parc de Deux Bales en route, where Peggy had her first close encounter with elephant who came to drink at the river next to the camp. She wasn't that impressed and barked a lot at them. Imagine being allowed to camp in a national park with your dog! And then not getting kicked out when she barks!

In Bobo, we saw the beautiful stick-and-mud mosque and then visited the old town which was interesting, until we were shown the sacred catfish flopping around a stinking pool of water! Part of the tour is to throw chunks of bread into the water and watch the catfish wrestle for it. Hard to understand sanctity in such a cesspit.

Having had our fill of cities, we headed for Lake Téngrela near Banfora where we hung out for another 5 nights, laughed at by hippos joking in the lake while Peggy stalked hundreds of Jacanas screeching at her in the reeds. We racked up our 100^th bird here. 100 birds in one country! Djin also racked up another marriage proposal. These men would stand a better chance if they could remember her name!

Further south-west, the landscape becomes more hilly, with peculiar rock formations. At Sindou, we stopped for 2 nights to see the peaks at dawn and dusk. It's hard to describe them and the photos don't really do it justice. Mostly, we had the whole place to ourselves which was a real treat. Even further into the south-west corner where Burkina, Côte d'Ivoire and Mali converge, we visited Niansogoni where villagers once moved their homes up into the cliff to escape marauding tribesmen and other nasties. They only came out 33 years ago, disbelieving that the country had been independent for 27 years and the colonials were long gone. We had visited a similar place at Nano in northern Togo and we showed our guide photos from there and from Pays Dogon in Mali as well. (No, we didn't get to Mali: those pics were from a previous trip!) He had heard of these places, but was blown away by the visuals. One good reason to have a laptop with all your photos on it!

We took really minor roads to get back to Banfora, seeing even more marvellous landscape on the way. Near Banfora, we stayed for 2 nights at Campement Baobab (not a bao in the whole establishment!) and spent International Women's Day at the Karfiguéla Falls, cooling off after walking to the fantasy land of the Dômes de Fabedougou in the midday sun. Only mad dogs and English women, they say!

On our last night in Burkina, we arrived late at Diébougou, near the border with north-west Ghana. We hit a blank with the guidebook, so I asked at the police station for directions to a cheap hotel. The man on duty knew of none, but offered us the police station's backyard, complete with brambles and curious neighbours stopping to stare. What a way to end our Burkina adventure!