Day 8, November 2: San to Ouagadougou

No pictures for this day...it was awful. We left at 6 a.m and headed South toward Bobo Dioulasso. The road made a "y" at one point and we asked the gendarmes where to go. They said straight was 80km and rough while right was 80k and smooth. Easy decision! We thanked them and headed off. My gps was on the fritz and after about 20 minutes I got it to kick back on, showing that the turn right wasn't the same, actually it made the route 190k instead of 80k. Again, dodging the rough road cost us big time We arrived at the Mali border around 10:30a.m and got across into Burkina after some confusion at the border. Of course nothing is marked and no one helps. In Burkina for some twist of fate the two guys were type - a and anal, one guy twisting his face at the dirt from my hand that'd gotten on the form. He took it from me and attempted to wipe it off, to no avail. He didn't know i'd been using my glove (still on) to wipe the dipstick off all week :). We got asked 80 questions and when asked if i'd ever served in the military I told them that I was a private assassin, not government. They shrugged and checked no, letting us pass on into Burkina. It took us about 2 hours to get to Bobo, which was under heavy construction. The asphalt had been torn up and the road was very dusty. I loved it. We gassed up and asked where we could find a supermarket. The guy didn't know but directed us to a bigger Shell station with a "Shell Shop." It was on the way but the roundpoint where we needed to turn was blocked off, blocking the Shell station off too. We zigged and zagged down some alleys and ended back on the main road, doubling back in search of our cold cokes. When we got to the roundpoint (blocked off on that end too) I'd failed to notice that bikes were going up the wrong land of traffic, forming a two lane road on one lane of asphalt. I saw my error and jumped the 10" curb, putting me in traffic and on my way to the Shell. JJ tried to follow but crawled really slowly up onto the curb (i think it was his first time), I waved to come on, but he went so slow he ended up with both wheels off the ground. I'm sure he thought it was my fault! I got a good look, got off my bike to help but by the time i'd gotten there two Africans had helped him over. We bought two big cokes at the Shell and enjoyed our K-Cliff bars for lunch. Neither of us finished our 1.5 liter cokes (surprise) so we gave them to the street kids that had come up to stare at us.

The road from Bobo to Ouaga was long, really long. Ok, it was only 360km but after having already ridden 7 hours, the 4 that were left seemed like eternity. The ride was uneventful, other than being forced off the road by an 18 wheeler and we made it back to Burkina Manganese around 5:30 pm. We'd ridden nearly 12 hours all to avoid a dirt road that'd put us there at 2... The guys at Burk. Manganese were kind as usual and took us out for drinks again. We talked to Ron until about 8:00 and then headed to eat at a local restaurant called Espace Gondwana, which is a sand-floored outdoor/indoor restaurant that feels like it's Moroccan themed. The atmosphere is really unique and calming and both our meals were amazing. We called it a night and went back to sleep at around 10 pm with a 6 a.m. departure the next day.