Crossing into Cote d'Ivoire


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Africa » Mali » District of Bamako
December 6th 2015
Published: December 7th 2015
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02/12/15 we cover 400K and camp close to the Côte d'Ivoire Border north of Nielle, 03/12/15 some slow processing from the Ivorians after forgetting to stamp a third of the passports at immigration. Within 20 mins of clearing the border we are escorted to the local guandarmary (likely a border tip off) to check through the passenger docs, a slow 1.5 hour wait before we proceed on route via Ferkessedougou to Kohogo. 04/12/15 After staying the night at The Mount Korhogo Hotel 8 of us head out in a couple of taxis for a tour of several artisan villages in the district, including a sacrificial site which is regularly used by the local (animalistic) religious people; seemed mostly feathers but some skulls etc. After a short walk around town and its large mosque we enjoy a bbq spread, later those who are still awake head into the hotel "poro nightclub" for an Ivorian boogie. 05/12/15 set off @ 9am and stop at Boekae for some market food shopping, get to Yamasoukro at 5pm camping on the lawn at the "Hotel Reserve" poor wifi but did get to watch Bournemouth beat Chelsea on canal sport hah. 06/12/15 we set off @ 9 and spend the morning touring the vatacans largest church in the world, commisioned by the ex Catholic president Felis houmphry Bounge the basilica was built as a slightly larger duplicate of St. Peter's in Rome with a capacity of 18000 people, 37 acres of marble, 75000 sq feet of stained glass it's hugley impressive yet utterly ridiculous. 30% of Côte d'Ivoire is christian with a minority of that being Catholic so it's not clear how many there are for sure but on a Sunday mass we saw less than 20 cars arrive hah. She cost 300m which doubled the country's debt, possibly not worth the money but the stain glass alone is astonishing. We leave "of our lady of peace" at 11 and head for Abidjan, staying inside a hotel for a nice change with wifi that actually works, magnifique!


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