Return Trek from Tombouctou...

I got up at quarter to 4, threw the rest of my things in my bag and went outside to wait for the 4X4 that was to take us back down to Mopti. The 4X4 showed up just before 5 and we left for bumpiest 12 hour ride of my life. We crossed over the Niger River and went south through Dogone country in Mali where an escarpment juts out of the Sahel forming a monolithic mountain range of sorts and is very stunning and quite pretty. The ride was hot and long but, with the exception of a 15 minute delay for a flat tire, uneventful.

Around 5 we arrived in Mopti and went in search of a bus that would take us to Burkina Faso. Unfortunately, we had missed the last bus to both Bobo or Ouaga, the two major cities in Burkina Faso. However, the aged attendant at the station told us that we could catch the bus to Koutila and from there we could get a bus to Ouaga, and we could even, with a little luck, catch it that same night. We waited around for about an hour before the bus showed up, but when it did we bought our tickets and were rushed on the bus to get the best seats as we were told the bus would fill up fast and leave “very soon.” Two hours later we left Mopti.

The trip from Mopti to Koutila took nearly 8 hours. The road was not bad, but the bus itself needed to be in a museum (or junkyard); plywood on some of the windows and most of the floor, seats that most of the padding had been ripped out long ago and would shift when a bus hit a bump, and a driver who seemed as if his foot was keeping beat to a song. We would accelerate like mad for 5 seconds, then he would take his foot of the gas for 5 seconds, then back on, off, on, off…this went on until after 3am when we finally arrived in Koutila and, of course, there were no more buses of any kind still running to Burkina Faso. We asked when the first bus would to Burkina would leave and they told us around 8. We found a nearby guesthouse and crashed for a couple of hours after having traveled for nearly 24 hours straight (the guesthouse ended up being terrible with a dirty shower, no toilet paper, a room filled with mosquitoes, and an owner who in the morning tried to overcharge us). We got to the station just after 7 only to find out that the first bus out would not actually leave until 11, but it would go all the way to Accra. We bought our tickets and found a place at the station to camp out for a few hours. After we had been waiting for less than an hour we were told that the bus would not leave until 2. We waited.

And waited.

2 came and went. At 3 we got a bus and were finally headed towards the Mali/Burkina border. We reached Ouaga after 3am and stopped in the station. Usually we stop in a station for 10-15 minutes so that people can stretch, get something to eat, or go to the bathroom. This time though the driver got off and most of the bus did too. I asked what was going on and was told that the driver was tired and so we would stop here for 6 or 7 hours. I asked what we were to do and the lady told me “wait.” We got off the bus and found a table that during the day was used to as a stand to sell whatever. I set it up, laid down, put my turban over me, and went to sleep. Sometime shortly before dawn, I was awoken by a man with a huge stack of fresh bread, apparently I was using his bread stand table as my bed. I got off only to realize that my entire right leg was asleep. I stumbled through the station until I found another table that was unoccupied, climbed up and fell back asleep.

Around 8 am we were all back on the bus and heading south towards the Burkina Faso/Ghana border and eventually towards Accra. It was very interesting to watch as the scenery changed from the brown, sandy, barren Sahara Desert when we left Tombouctou, to the sparse vegetation of the Sahel as we journeyed through the remainder of Mali and Burkina Faso, to the lush green as we continued in o central and southern Ghana. We reached Accra after 3am and it was good to not only be back in Ghana, but back in Accra as well. The trip as a whole was amazing. The return trip took all of three full days on the road and was by far the hardest traveling of my life; more that 50 hours in three days were spent moving in either a bus or a 4X4 over potholed roads, in less than luxurious vehicles. When all was said and done, I had a great time and I will remember the positives much longer than the negatives.