Having seen the elephants,we lazed about in the ridiculous heat,various people came and went trying to spot these wonderful creatures, but with no luck,including a very chatty young French girl who had been to this park several times,but had no luck and was cheesed off that we had seen them within a couple of hours of our arrival. This morning as we were leaving this lovely spot and were giving the night watchman a lift home(complete with bicycle  strapped to the Landy roof) a mile  up the road he suddenly points toward the bush and there were the elephants.

elephants in bush

Abandoned car,got camera and within 50 meters there they were,but despite them  being so close,it was still hard to get any decent pictures.family of eight (?) including two babies and several juveniles (Michael say’s it’s because he watched so many Tarzan films,that he spotted them so easily!) All this and before 8:00 am !

ahh a baby

Arrived in Ouagadougou,applied for Ghanaian visa’s at the embassy without a problem,infact we were quite happy to sit in this air-conned room all day,but sadly had to  leave,found an arty place to stay in town called Yiri Suma,very unusual,with pretty garden and plenty of African arts and crafts about, for which this city is known for.

Mud built Mosque - note permenant scaffolding

Such a pleasure driving in Burkina,with no hassle,having not been stopped once. Arrived in Bobo -Dioulasso, Burkina’s 2^nd largest city,a charming place,but we got horribly lost,whilst looking for The Grande Mosquee. After many arguments and Michael doing a spot of shopping in the hardware shop, we decided to press on to Boromo to find a camping spot in The Parc National Deux Bales,typically we came across The Grande Mosquee when leaving town,so I hopped out for a few photo’s ,it is pretty impressive,built in 1893 a fine example of mud architecture with conical towers and wooden struts,which support the structure and act as scaffolding during replastering!

After getting lost once more in Boromo,two guy’s on a motorbike showed us the way to Campement Le Kaicedra- a tranquil spot on the river with plenty of birdlife and the promise of possible elephant sightings when they come to drink.

We had just set up camp,cracked open a couple of ice cold beers (from the newly working fridge) and guess what an enormously loud trumpet from what sounded a bit close for comfort, but very exciting nonetheless!The guy running the camp then approached us,to see if we wanted to go elephant spotting, so off we went, after a long walk in some serious heat, we saw three -my first ever, just across the river

I was snapping away (one day you will get to see the photo’s when we eventually get some up!)

swimming elephant

Kept on thinking I could hear them close as I lay in my tent that night,but Michael was just laughing at me.We are going out again this afternoon,so will keep you posted . These elephants are quite rare many think west african elephants will be extinct in the next 20 years so we were very lucky.

Fixed the fridge at hotel -. hero for a few minutes, set off next day everyone was more chilled as we approached border and finally got to Burkina Faso – you can see why people comment about the place, very smart welcoming officials, professional polite and good humoured – a joy. Sorted formalities very quickly including visa plus needed lesser passe as carnet not valid here – I had not noticed but customs guy pointed to fact it was not on list.Went on a mission to waterfalls, failed rear brake calliper flopping about,with both bolts missing – strange you can never undo them without huge effort. Fixed by local boys in town in few minutes no messing about.

Camping failed , ended up in posh little place ( Dilling please note!)