For the trip back north, we chose a bus that didn’t require us to change buses in Bobo. Which meant it became a very long trip. Eight hours on the bumpy road. Loud movies, and when they ran out, loud Nigerian music. And a constant honking – almost as if the driver wanted to make sure that no one along the road missed his approach. How will I ever survive the 24 hour bus trip from Ouaga to Ghana?
On the bus Elli and I tried a very popular Burkinabe soft drink called Youki. It turned out to be coffee flavored. Like a carbonated Frappuccino. Strangely good, actually.
But when I tried to photograph Elli with the bottle, the road just wouldn’t stay flat for long enough for the picture not to become blurry. And I thought: What a fine illustration of the state of the roads in Burkina Faso. This was the good, paved highway between the capital and the country’s second largest city. And still, full of potholes.
On the way into Ouagadougou, we drove past yet another car accident, this time involving a petrol truck. That made three car accidents that we had seen in a week, one on the road to Kaya, one on the way down to Banfora, and now this. The state of the roads in Burkina Faso is not the best, but neither is the quality of the drivers.
Katja Malmborg 