Thar she blows, the Harmattan over the dusty roads towards Ouagadougou. I'm handling the bike on an angle & squint my eyes to avoid getting sand in my vision. Its a long hard day of riding but we push ourselves to make the distance we planned. Thirsty, dirty and with a mouth full of sand, we arrive to Ouaga exhausted.

playing in mounds of cotton in Western Burkina Faso

Hay carrying cyclist on some remote dirt roadWe chilled in relaxed Ouagadougou whilst waiting for the troubled bikes to arrive from Mali as Leo & Dereck arrive by public transport. We spend over a week ordering bread from the balcony, eating at a cheap local restaurant & drinking condensed milk coffees. After the bikes finally arrive, the convoy diminishes back to the original team of Rob & I as Leo & Dereck head to Lome, Togo to fix their bikes.

Cannes Sucre, fields of sugar cane near Banfora

Rob & I head to Boromo to spot elephants by the river but disappointedly so, no Dumbo sited, just their grassy remains.

elephant spotting in Boromo

We head further west to Banfora, where we board a sinking pirogue (buckets of waters scooped over the edge) on Lake Tengrela & spot hippos surprisingly close. We climb the Domes of Fabedougou (which are almost identical to the Bungle Bungles in Oz), see the pics of Sindou & swim in the nordic fresh Karfiguela waterfalls.

Lake Tegrela near Banfora

Hungry hungry hippos

Domes of Fabedougou

We decide to reunite with the boys at Mole National Park in Ghana when and if their bikes get fixed, so that's where we are heading.