my seven months in west africa

[fairclo]

well thought id write a bit about my recent trip to west africa, I lived with friends in cote d'ivoire for about half my trip and the rest i spent traveling all around west africa, i ended up going on a road trip from gibraltar through the sahara back down to cote d'ivoire, i went to morocco, western sahara, mauritainia, senegal, mali three times, burkina faso, ghana. anyone interested in going to this area i highly suggest it, its usually difficult to travel here but the situations you get into are hilarious, i accidently practiced my bad french with the leader of the rebel army and prime minister of cote d'ivoire, got rides from rebel soldiers, slept on a highway cause my home city got shut down by the rebel army and my bus was stuck there for the night (there was ice cream so it wasnt to bad.) i took a slow boat to timbuktu that was the most uncomfortable five days ever but also one of the coolest things ive ever done. i saw a funeral in the dogon country in mali, randomly ended up partying in a whore house in timbuktu, randomly stayed with a family in their remote village after knowing this guy for five minutes, smoked myself retarded in ghana for a week and partied with rastas and visited slave castles with the locals, the list goes on and on but it is by far the most fun ive ever had in my life and my next trip is hopefully gonna be back in africa not sure what part yet.

[simply_angelic]

Nice sounds like a blast. Can't wait to get to that part of Africa...supposed to be beeeeeaaaaautiful. Definitely jealous.

[skankthenightaway]

wow, sounds like you had quite the adventure! I'd love to get myself to Africa one of these days.
Maybe you can share some pictures with us

[Rhine]

Sounds like you had a good time! How did you like Côte d'Ivoire? I have a friend from the French Foreign Legion who was there and said it was beautiful.

[mermaidnz]

omg. you *have* to post pictures one day!! sounds so amazing!

[worldwidemike]

Wow, sounds like an awesome adventure.

There is a possibility I may be going to Mali early next year. Any tips that stand out in your mind? I have a friend that works for the British foreign service in Nigeria, and we were thinking of heading to Mali together. What are the roads like? Places to stay...?

I'd love to hear more...

worldwidemike

[fairclo]

cote d'ivoire was awesome never really had as much trouble there, there are a lot of rebel checkpoints there but its not nearly as bad as like lonely planet makes it out to be i never felt like i was in any danger there.

you should go to mali for sure and go to bamaco, dogon country(must go), and timbuktu(must go), djenne was cool but kind of a hassle to get too but its pretty cool to see the giant mosque there but its really just a day trip, id highly suggest staying in sevare over mopti cause its much more laid back, in mopti there are tons of guys coming up wanting to be you guide and sell you shit. roads were pretty shitty usually and bus drivers and taxis are nuts, the last bus i was on my driver started racing another bus going about 70 on a two way road around sharp corners and everyone was standing up screaming at him probably the closest i came to real harm on my trip besides getting malaria. the only real tips are to only go if you are a pretty patient person and not to have a real tight schedule cause you do a lot of waiting which i didnt mind to much cause i like just sitting around people watching but some of the people i met along the way got real annoyed by it. id also suggest taking all public transportation its a cool way to meet new people. and take a slow boat to timbuktu its pretty sweet. the overnight camel trips into the sahara are pretty awesome too and not to expensive if you talk them down some. hope that helps some ill have to get some pics up sometime

[mbo108]

That sounds awesome. Ever since I found out my dad went to Ghana in the early 80s I've wanted to go there. He got me some carved African head bookends (even that young i was a dork) but I still have them holding together all my old guidebooks.

so Mike, um, is 3 a crowd?

[worldwidemike]

'Course not...I'll keep you posted. What's holding everything up is I have to "bid" on my vacations here at work, and we haven't done it for next year, yet. Don't want to promise my friend I can go if for some reason somebody else with higher seniority snags that vacation time!

I'd read Michael Palin's "Sahara" book, and the part on Mali sounded great. Thanks, fairclo, for the good tips. I'll remember that I can't be a schedule nazi and set up an itinerary like it was a covert operation or something...

Did you meet anyone who'd rented their own car over there, and were driving themselves? That's what my friend wants to do...normally, I'm much more budget oriented than that, but with a couple people, who knows?

worldwidemike