West Africa, part 3: Natitingou and the Burkina border

This part of the story documents two long travelling days--not the most thrilling of all, but there are still tales to tell.

We were lucky to catch the bus north to Natitingou: we turned up at the main junction in Dassa-Zoumé at around 10:45am, knowing that the (once-daily) bus had left Cotonou at 7am and that it could be upon us any moment--but not having any clue where it might depart from. Fortunately it sidled up just as we were asking a zemidjan driver where we should wait. Just as well, too, because had we missed that bus the journey could have been much longer and more arduous. As I mentioned in part 2, buses are a far more comfortable way to get around, so long as they're well ventilated. On one bus we took later on in the trip, all the other passengers inexplicably closed the windows, denying us the wonderful draught! I guess they must be used to the heat...

In every town and city along major routes, there is an army of (mainly) children and young people waiting to descend on any bus or bush taxi which stops, however briefly. They'll surround the vehicle trying to sell you various items of food and drink--often thrusting their wares in through the windows and sometimes even boarding the bus in an attempt to sell. Most of the time this was welcome--we were usually ready for sachets of 'pure water' (as opposed to mere chilled tap water) and for a snack or two. The food varied in quality. We avoided most meat sold this way, because it was usually pretty dire. Millet cakes, deep-friend bread-style snacks and cakes were often available, and were normally at least edible. But the best roadside food, by some margin, was the mangoes: far smaller and sweeter than the mangoes we get here, they're wonderful--and they cost around 150CFA (19p) for six! And look how much Becky is enjoying hers in that photo. Sadly they grew scarcer as we went further north through Burkina Faso, as the land became gradually more arid. We really noticed the gradual decline in the quality of roadside food as we went through Burkina Faso and Mali, which are both poorer and less fertile than Benin.

We didn't spend long in Natitingou, our last stopping point in Benin, but it seemed pleasant enough (see photo of mosque). I was amused by the speakers on the outside of the Cathedral blasting out what sounded like choir practice--obviously in a bid to compete with the mosques which always have loudspeakers for broadcasting calls to prayer. We saw both churches and mosques in nearly every town, despite the fact that from Natitingou onwards the populations were overwhelmingly Muslim. On the face of it, the two religions seemed to be coexisting impressively--but obviously as fleeting we aren't in a position to make accurate judgements about that sort of thing.

The following day was another long day of travel, but a successful one--we made it all the way to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, though it took 13 hours. Most of this was spent crammed in a Toyota Hi-Ace van with around 22 other people (yes, really)--and what's more, the van was piled up to twice its original height with luggage, and every time we stopped the driver had to go and tug something in the engine in order to get us started again! It was probably our most uncomfortable journey, since for large portions of it, there were five people squeezed onto our row of seats which would most comfortably have seated three. Luckily there were no other major troubles--we crossed the Burkina Faso border without drama, and obtained a visa without any requests for bribes or anything like that.

We arrived in Ouagadougou exhausted; nevertheless, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed to explore the next day. But for that, you'll have to wait for part four!