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Burkina Faso - April 2008

Route
We entered Burkina from the border with Ghana at Ouessa from where we drove west to Gaoua and then Bobo-Dioulasso. From Bobo we diverted briefly south to Banfora and Lac Tangrela before heading to Ouagadougou. Finally we drove north to Ouahigouya and over the border between Tiou in Burkina and Koro in Mali. We were seven days in the country.

Visas
We used our Visa Touristique Entente in Burkina Faso (see our Niger section for details). The immigration officer recognised it straight-away and we had no questions over it's validity.

Border formalities and checkpoints
A police officer on the Ouessa Ghana/Burkina border stamped our passports in but across the road sat two bored customs officers who just signalled vaguely to where the office might be. We didn't find it. When we exited Burkina the customs officers wanted to see our temporary import papers but we acted dumb and they let us pass.

The Tiou/Koro border into Mali is quite spread out. The first thing you hit on the Burkina side is a police and customs stop (no barrier) 18km before the border. The police here act on behalf of immigration. There is nothing at the actual border. Malian immigration is a further 5km on and is also managed by the police. Malian customs is in Koro itself on the main road.

General driving conditions
The main highways are well maintained; the dirt roads are a challenge in places but road building is in progress. There are less vehicles on the road (so less dangerous idiot taxi drivers etc) but many more mopeds, bicycles and livestock. This is most noticeable in Ouagadougou where you need to have your wits about you to avoid hitting the weaving bikes.

Specific driving conditions
All times are 'time moving' from our GPS and so are driving times only.

  • Ouessa to Gaoua – 1½ hrs on very good tar. Peage on the Diebougou-Gaoua section: 200FCFA.
  • Gaoua to Bobo – 5 hrs on dirt piste. There are three ways you can do this: straight across from Gaoua to Banfora and then up; back up to Diebougou and across via Nisseko; or right up to Pa and across on the highway to Bobo. The latter is what the locals advise as it is all good tar. We took the middle route and at the time they were fixing the road so we drove mostly on the diversions which were very slow and very dusty.
  • Bobo to Lac Tengrela (via Banfora) – 1 hr on good tar followed by 25 minutes on dirt road.
  • Bobo to Ouaga – 5½ hrs on good tar. Peage of 800FCFA
  • Ouaga to Ouahigouya - 3 hrs on good tar. Peage of 400FCFA
  • Ouahigouya to border - 40 mins on dirt piste.

Accommodation
Camping is generally in hotel grounds. Bush-camping would be possible in many places, particularly along the Diebougou-Bobo road and in the north where it is less populated.

  • Gaoua is very difficult for accommodation. Hotel Poni, next to the market, is the only place to camp in town but the place is a thoroughfare and the shared ablutions are an abomination. Hotel Hala is out of town on the Diebougou road and the rooms and food were expensive with no camping available.
  • In Bobo we stayed in two places: Pacha, which is within reasonable walking distance of Bobo centre and has good facilities, and Casafrica, which is just as good, cheaper and more central. There is no security at the latter and so you get a few hawkers and beggars coming in. Pacha is 2km west of town on Rue Malherbe.
  • In the Banfora area you can camp at both the waterfall and Lac Tengrela. The camping at the waterfall is in the car-park slightly away from the falls but the camping at the lake is beautiful. There is a family who have set up a cafe under some mango trees and they let us camp for 1000FCFA (extra to the 1000pp entrance fee which you only need to pay on your first day). They have made a very basic open-air toilet and shower cubicle but there is no water other than the lake. We got a moto-taxi from them to visit the falls for a day. Lac Tengrela: N10.38.879; W04.50.214
  • Ouaga - OK Inn is behind the truck park in the south of the city and has loads of space to camp. It's free and there is a swimming pool and good ablutions, although the reception staff are very snooty. Other overlanders have told us that you are obliged to eat in the restaurant but we weren't told this by OK Inn. However we ate anyway and didn't regret it as it was one of the best meals we've had in Africa (and pretty reasonable at around 4,200FCFA for a main). N12.20.100; W01.30.824
  • Ouahigouya - Hotel de la Liberte was central and allowed camping in the car-park at a reasonable price. N13.34.848;
    W02.25.595

Music
Burkina is every bit as important to West African music as Mali and Senegal, especially the drummers who work throughout the region. The music museum in Ouaga is excellent with inhouse musicians, who after your visit demonstrate how each instrument is played in a special auditorium. Bobo is littered with excellent venues, ask at the French cultural centre or anyone who comes up to hawk you souvenirs or music CDs, although the most popular is Les Bambous.

Food, water and beer
There was good fruit and veg in most town markets and bargain mangoes between Banfora and Bobo (note that they dry up further north). Restaurants to recommend are: the 4 Seasons restaurant in Gaoua (300m up from the market on the Diebougou road), Dan Kan in Bobo, where we ate great cous-cous and sauce for 500FCFA (check the speacials board rather than the menu), and the restaurant in OK Inn. If you are a meat eater, try to have some beef whilst in the country.

We got cleanish water at all the places we stayed apart from the lake. The two Burkina beers to choose from are So-b-bra and Brakina, which has a startling resemblance to Biere Niger.

Money and fuel
We used our visa debit card in ATMs in Gaoua, Bobo, Ouaga and Ouahigouya. Fuel stations are frequent and diesel is cheaper in the south (583FCFA/66p per litre) than in the north (603FCFA/69p per litre).