Pama to Arly - Day 260

Date: May 5th, 2010
Distance: 107km
Country: Burkina Faso
Song of the Day: Unemployable - Pearl Jam (For the anniversary of my getting laid off.)

I got up early to get out on the road. I knew the day was going to be pretty tough. Getting off the paved road is usually a bad idea. Matt had also said the road might be terrible. Lots of sand and so forth. Still, that was the plan. My getting out early plan didn't work quite as well as I wanted though. I did end up taking a bit of time having breakfast. That was another important strategy. I needed energy.

It was 20km down the road to the turn to the park. That that was alright. No big problems there. Once I made the turn it was just another dirt road. Nothing too bad. A bit sandy in places but I could generally ride through it. Any time the main road was clogged with sand another, or many other, local bikers had made a side path that was better. Plus I was getting a bit of a tail wind which was nice.

It was out there. Really not much in the way of population or infrastructure. I did start to see more wildlife. I got some video of a snake killing a lizard. I wish I had left the camera running for just 10 more seconds. At that point the snake decided the lizard was dead, it picked up the lizard like a kid with a new toy and slinked off into the bush. Ah well.

About 30 km down the road to Arly I came across a Safari camp. This I saw as an expensive place to stay. Still, I thought they might have some of the little sachets of water. Cold water. Well, they didn't. The manager of their restaurant was awesome and gave me a bottle of ice. It doesn't sound like much, but ice means having cool water for a while. Sadly it only lasted about 2 hours. It did help in the heat of the afternoon though.

There was one village before Arly itself. I stopped and was able to get some food. Spaghetti. Oh, that was so good. I even had seconds. Only 100 CFA for the two plates. It seemed like all the little kids in town were watching me eat as well. There was a hotel in town, and I did think about staying, but I wanted to press on to Arly. I really wanted to see if I could do four days of 100+ kilometers.

That wasn't as great a plan as I had hoped though. It was about 5km farther than I thought. So I ended up coming into town after dark. Nothing like riding through the bush at night. Nothing will keep your senses tuned like the fear of being hunted by some member of the Panthera family.

I did get into town okay, and it turned out there was less of a town there than I had expected. In fact, it was really just a forestry camp. I asked about food and loging this is were things got a bit heated. James had told me the hotel was only 4,000 CFA a night. You could also camp at the forestry office for free. The hotel was asking for 10,000 CFA for a room with no electricity or running water. It was 2,500 CFA for any kind of food. I just wanted more spaghetti and they wouldn't change their price. Even to camp they wanted 3,000 CFA. The last straw was when they said they were going to charge me 5,000 CFA to use the road to Benin. I lost it. I told the guys where they could shove it. I said I would rather sleep out in the bush than here. They said the price was set in Ouagadougou, and me trying to change it was akin to corruption. They also informed me that it was illegal (and unsafe) to go out into the bush at night. Finally after thinking it over for a bit, the chef stepped in. He said that I had been given bad information and that I could camp for free. I could also use the Benin road without paying. I just had to tell anyone else coming along that the prices were set in Ouagadougou, and they couldn't change them.

I felt better after that. I was able to set my tent up without any problems. They even offered to get me water for a shower. I didn't really have a dinner though. Just some bread and honey. Still, I didn't want to think about it. I just went to bed.

-Dravis