Bamako, Mali overland to Accra, Ghana (and what a long road it was...)

Ok, so I'm back in Bamako, Mali now about to head to Segou this afternoon but thought I would try and at least start a little updating on my trip over the past month or so.

Let's see where to start...

On Monday the 14th of May, I hopped on a bus with Kathy headed for Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina-Faso (any of you having trouble pronouncing that city? Don't worry, I didn't have a clue myself until I got there. Really, just sound it out the way it is spelled or, as most people do, shorten it to "Waga"). We left at 8am prepped for the long journey ahead: 3 days on a bus until we arrived at Accra on the southern coast of West Africa (check out the map I have on the left side-bar for a little geography lesson - it was a long trek!). Many hours later, a 5 hour stop in Bobo after just missing the connecting bus, we finally arrived in (ok, say it with me) Ouagadougou about 4am the next day. Whew! Leg #1 complete.

We had expected to get in around 10 pm and get a chance to rest in the really nice Peace Corps rest house but with only a few hours till our next bus, we tried to catch few winks at the bus station. The preferred, nice - possibly even air-conditioned, but direct to Accra has left the day before on it's once weekly route so we were forced to find a 'no-name' company (CTI, see picture) to make our way south. If you've read my "transport" post, you'll know this was a bad idea and just asking for trouble - not to mention the fact it would be a almost 24 hour journey on the nice bus.

After all my travels around West Africa and especially after this trip, I've come to appreciate the perils and sheer danger involved with traveling by road around the region. On my entire trip, I saw at least five major accidents. Two were on this bus heading south before we even reached Ghana.

We arrived what must have been 10 minutes or so (just enough time for a large crowd to gather but not long enough for anything much else to have happened) to see a huge semi flipped over. Since we must have been the first vehicle to arrive, the driver and assistant were loaded on our bus to get a ride to the next town to get medical attention. The driver had a gash on the top of his head and the assistant had his right arm twisted around with the elbow on the wrong side of his arm. It was a pretty awful sight. To get an idea of how ignorant the people here are, everyone agreed and thought it was a good idea to pour half a bottle of some lady's perfume on the drivers head - all I can imagine is they thought the alcohol in the perfume would help, but jeez it must have hurt! We didn't get too far and just as we were arriving on the outskirts of the next town, an ambulance raced up and took them away. Hopefully they were OK.

The other accident I saw on this bus was the most disturbing. Throughout all of West Africa (besides Ghana) people get around on motos (a cross between a supped up moped or dumbed down motorcycle). Few people actually own a moto, but due to how poor most people are, if they own a motorized vehicle, it is a moto and not a car. Never-the-less, they also don't wear helmets - such a small percentage it is pretty much negligible. This adheres to the short-term view most Africans hold towards the future and how ingrained 'Inch-Allah' is in the culture - meaning 'if god wills it' or 'god willing'.

The bus slowed down (and as is typical, a lot of people on the bus stood-up or leaned into the aisle to see why) and approached a crowd of people that spilled into the road. We crawled by the edge of the crowd and from our elevated vantage point, got a glimpse of the scene as we continued down the road. There was a woman lying on her side at the edge of the road with another woman sitting by her side next to a large pool of blood. I'm pretty sure that woman was dead. We had slowed down but at the speed were going, I still only got a quick glimpse and was left with that image in my mind as we continued down the road. Tragic. Sobering. Real.

To be honest, I think we saw a few more accidents on the road south, but, as bad as it sounds, they are so frequent, I can't really recall when, where, etc. I saw an accident - I see so many. It scares you riding buses around when you frequently pass not only moto and car accidents, but pass by crumpled up buses and various other modes of transport that you frequently take. Trust me, I would rather choose other options and when I can I do, but usually I don't have a choice. That is life here, and the only way to get around is on these roads. You just hope that you don't meet the same fate.

The rest of our trip went as usual, we spent a lot of time stopping at gendarme stops and police checkpoints, stopped for a few hours to change a tire, and other various delays. Eventually, we arrived around 7 or 8am in Kumasi where we caught another bus the final 4-5 hours to the capital of Accra.

I'm going to end it here since I need to go catch my bus back to Segou. I'll try and write some more in the next few days to finish this multi part update on my Burkina/Ghana/Togo/Benin trip.