Driving a Tacoma around the world

Côte d'Ivoire


Beautiful beach camp at Sassandra - Anunu-Eco

After the warm hugs from Sierra Leone and Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire felt like the cold shoulder. The people were more reserved, often offended that we didn’t speak French (we really try but it is horrific, even when we know the word, 50% of the people can’t understand our pronunciation) and the fact that it took us two unpleasant tries at the border to get in didn’t help. On the upside, despite rumors of difficult police and military check points, we were never stopped. The few we passed just waved us on. Of course, not all our interactions were negative, and we did meet some kind and engaging people, but Côte d'Ivoire was not a West African travel highlight for us.

We were finally allowed to leave the Danane border after 5 hours of sitting in three consecutively higher level officials’ offices to get permission to pass through (it was the first day the land borders had re-opened since closing for COVID and things were a little wonky). It was getting late and darkness was upon us. So our first stressful experience was finding a hotel without any data (Orange sim card offices closed by the time we were released) but we managed, thanks to the iOverlander app, which gratefully works offline.


Our mostly coastal route through Côte d'Ivoire

We made our way to Man to spend the night and for some hiking. With waterfalls and rainforest, the area is reputed to have some gorgeous walks. But then we started reading about other travelers’ experiences hiking in the area. People reported being besieged by hopeful guides, repeatedly asked for money to pass through and park at villages on the way to hikes and even some frightening interactions of increased demands for money along the trail that made them feel unsafe. What to do?

There is a constant tension for us in traveling in areas where people have so few resources and being asked for money is common. We completely understand peoples’ need to earn money to feed themselves and their families. They know we have more resources than they do and their entrepreneurial spirit comes into play as they try to figure out what to offer us that we would want to pay them for so that there is a mutual exchange.

But we have to choose how and when we donate, tip or pay for excursions and guides. This is our life, we travel full time so paid activities and donations cannot be daily occasions. It is uncomfortable for us to be surrounded by people asking for money so we try to avoid or minimize those experiences. For a walk along a well-used trail, hiring a guide did not feel like something we wanted to do. It was also the season when the waterfalls would be at their lowest. So in the end we left without hiking. Maybe a mistake, but the next travelers we spoke to a week later said they showed up for a hike and felt so uncomfortable by the crowd of people surrounding their truck asking for payment that they also left without hiking.

Our hope is that some of these situations improve as people develop systems for tourism that put a fair price on experiences and give clear guidance to travelers what to expect in terms of costs. This is especially important where everything is cash based and ATMs are limited to larger urban areas. Several times we have embarked on a walk with a guide and had additional people join with added expected payments for different services. At some point you start to feel taken advantage of. Or you run out of money.

So we left Man, after an extended 2 hour wait in the Orange office to obtain sim cards. More plastic seat time, sigh . . .


Driving south across Côte d'Ivoire from Man to Sassandre on the A5. Thank goodness it was the dry season.

We decided that the best way to get over our general grumpiness with Côte d'Ivoire was to head to the beach and camp through the weekend. We knew that part of our general discontent was residual fatigue from being turned back at the border, and a lot of back-to-back intense travel days. We looked at Open Street Maps and chose a route that looked like the most direct one. When we checked it against Google, a different route was suggested but we decided to ignore Google. (Dawn downloads OSM for each country on her phone and Andy downloads Google maps so we have two systems). Google laughed at us that day. Our cross country drive took 8 hours. Lesson learned - next time check the satellite map to see if the road is paved.


Many hours and miles of this. The A5.


Truck-swallowing potholes


Beautifully dressed women pedestrians sharing the road


And local buses


Villages along the way





People in West Africa dress colorfully and spectacularly, even when just going about daily business


In the end it was a beautiful drive and we were glad to have had the experience. Just three times longer than we thought.


A semi-desperate camping spot - pulled into an abandoned truck scale now being used as a palm nut sorting area. The security guard agreed to let us sleep there for “a little something.” A great bargain!


And the next day - pavement!! These three wheel motor carts are a common site in West Africa, transporting both people and goods


The extraordinary women are able to balance anything on their heads

And then, one of our kind people stories. We were looking for an informal camp near the beach town of Sassandra. Open Street Maps got us to a point where the roads just petered out. We heard live music so Dawn got out and walked down a path to the beach. A huge party! Immediately a young man came over to ask if she needed help. She showed him the camping area on her phone and he walked her there then showed Andy the grass bank he needed to drive down. We had arrived. We were the only campers on a remote beach - no hotels or restaurants, just a small village with people walking by with a friendly “bonsoir” (one of our few French words we can say understandably).


The road to the beach before it went to single path


View from camp– we managed to communicate in sign language with the kind and hospitable owner, paid a small fee, and received fresh coconut.

Then we needed to take care of some business - re-stock supplies, visit some embassies and check out the “Manhattan of West Africa.” Abidjan felt big and modern - our first skyscrapers in a couple of months. We had heard that driving there was a challenge but after the motorcycle-filled streets of Conakry it seemed calm. Freeways were all paved, multi-lane and traffic going the way the street signs indicated. It actually felt like a pretty easy city for us to navigate around.


View of Abidjan skyline


Hard to see but this tree in downtown Abidjan is crammed full of bats


Commonly cited as the number one site in Abidjan, “The Pyramid” built from 1968-1973 with the intention of capturing the spirit of an African market. The artistic bones were there but the building had seen better days, the street level windows were full of old cardboard and the building looks abandoned and disused.


The modern side of Abidjan


Beautiful street sculpture

We had a fruitless visit to the Nigerian Embassy –no visas being issued– re-supplied, stopped by an art gallery featuring modern African artists (featured in Lonely Planet as a place to go but unfortunately mostly between exhibits and empty) and headed on our way.

Back to the beach! We drove along the coast to Grand Bassam to check out the possibilities of beach camping. The area was pretty sealed off with private enterprise, hotels, cabana rentals, restaurants, so we just kept driving and ended up in Assinie. What a gorgeous place - relaxed and cozy with clean beaches. We ended up at a hotel that overlanders had camped at in the past and landed in a restful paradise. Hotel La Bahia let us camp in their parking lot, use the pool and private beach, showers and toilets all in exchange for agreeing to eat in their beachside restaurant. Sold! We don’t relax and rest a lot but it was really what we needed. We sat by the pool for the first time in about a year. We read books, walked on the beach and crawled into our own camper bed at night. It was definitely rejuvenating.









Feeling rejuvenated after some pool and beach time

Well Côte d'Ivoire, you grew on us. Not every country can be a favorite. Maybe we didn’t give you enough of a chance and should have investigated some of the outlying areas more. But the Ghana visa and our timeline calls (Cameroon before wet season, better three hours too soon than a minute too late) so we say au revoir.

Thank you for reading!

 

That is not an angle I'd be comfortable with!

 

No kidding! And the dude was barreling along on the wrong side of the road. Makes me laugh about how uptight people are in North America about being concerned about other people driving Tacomas that are heavier than the GVWR. What a joke…

 

Ghana


Nzulezo, traditional stilt built village on the water

Our entry to Ghana was rough and we were not feeling the love. Customs officials gave us a huge runaround and delayed us at the border for 26 hours as we did not have a Carnet de Passage for the truck. (See West Africa Visa and Vehicle Permit Costs blog post for details).


We were so excited to enter and explore Ghana!

In the end they only let us through with a 10 day transit permit restricted to a route along the coast. The permit cost us a whopping $500 and set us up to dislike the country and everything about it. (Every other African country charged an average of $10 to bring a car in.) But in the end the people of Ghana (most of whom are not customs officials) won us over and we were able to let go of our border experience and enjoy the piece of Ghana that we were allowed to see.

We later found out that this particular border - Elubo - is notorious and that overland travelers frequently get taken for an expensive ride and/or are subjected to hours of delays and paperwork.


Our least favorite camping spot to date - customs parking lot at the Elubo border while we waited for our transit paperwork to be processed


GPS tracker installed in our truck to make sure we stay on route


Our $500 transit sticker

In Ghana, we had planned to explore the interior, spending several weeks visiting remote national parks. But as we have found, traveling West Africa means being able to switch gears and change itineraries at a moment’s notice. Expectation is the root of all heartache.

Even with our mandated, restricted route we found places and met people that made our time in Ghana special. On the corridor we traveled, (border to border through Accra), it was more developed than many of the countries we had been in recently. With frequent contemporary gas stations, supermarkets, paved roads with street lamps and English speaking locals it was easy to navigate.


Our eight day government mandated route through Ghana

For our first stop, we made our way along the coast to visit a traditional village built on the water. Founded 600 years ago by people from Mali escaping a war with Senegal, Nzulezo was fascinating and charming. The people gave us precious and heartwarming insight into their lives. We went there with a local guide who had grown up in the village and built his own family home there. The village is developing its tourism opportunities and visits are easy to set up through a visitor center on the mainland. You are connected with a guide, then taken by boat. We appreciated the clear communication from the organizers, a printed price list, and an explanation that we would be asked to donate to the local school (we did) and hopefully tip our guide (we did). It is comforting to know exactly what the financial expectations are.


Children in the village are given their first canoe when they are ready to go to junior high school on the mainland so that they can paddle themselves there. Primary school is on site in the village.


Bamboo fish traps


It was clear that being on the water and in boats was very much integrated into daily life


Kevin showing us his family home that he built himself


Young boy building a chicken coop


Young woman pounding cassava to make dough





Main street. We were being given the experience of seeing village life as it really was, laundry on the lines, food being prepared, houses being rebuilt.





Continuing our journey east (as prescribed by the Ghanaian government) we headed to the beautiful coastal area of Butre. We found what was becoming a familiar scenario, a camping spot outside of a small hotel on the coast. We paid the hotel a minimal amount ($5) to access their beach, showers and toilets. We had reached the point in our travels where showers where were always cold (no water heaters), but we also couldn’t imagine why we would want a warm one.


Camping at Butre, at Hideout Lodge


Something about the traditional canoes always makes us want to take a photo


Gorgeous beach walks on clean beaches

Much as we enjoyed the people of Ghana, there were a few drawbacks to the increased awareness of tourism dollars. We wandered down the beach in Butre and saw a beautiful village. As we approached a man came up to us and suggested that he could be a village guide for an eco-tourism tour. (Somewhere a big memo went out to all would be tourism operators that if you use the word “eco” people will pay lots of money so tours and hotels are branded accordingly). We explained that we were just walking on the beach and didn’t need a guide, thank you. He was very persistent, saying that we should pay him money to use the bridge and come to his village and in the end we turned around. It was a disappointing interaction all around. We would have probably wandered through the village on our way, maybe bought some bread, fruit and had some conversations. He wanted to manage that for us. We totally get it, people are trying to make some money for basic food and necessities. But the day before we had gone on a tour, paid for a guide, made a donation to the village school, and that was our budget. (Partially just because we had given the Ghanaian government $500, not that we were bitter). Being a tourist comes with its downside, sometimes dollars get in the way of genuine experiences. We didn’t want to pay for curated village visit that day, we were just wandering.


Who could complain about a campsite with this view???


Dutch overlanders Jeroen and Ghislaine pulled in the second day and we had fun swapping stories and hearing about their journey

Next stop, Cape Coast. The symbol of colonialism at its worst, a visit to Cape Coast Castle felt necessary. The building went through many transitions in its time, from a Swedish fort, to a British slave trading center. Estimates vary but at least 12 million people, and probably many more, passed through its horrific slave dungeons during the time of the Atlantic Slave trade in the 16th - 19th centuries. Hearing and seeing the realities of the heart breaking infrastructure built around the slave trade brought home the atrocities in new, disturbing and impactful way.


Entrance to Cape Coast Castle (the word castle just seems wrong)


Elegant architecture built over dungeons where millions of human beings were kept while awaiting their transport to final destinations as slaves in Europe, the Caribbean and North America.


The riches of Ghana (ivory, gold, salt) attracted a succession of European powers to the region. With 66 years of independence the nation is still trying to overcome the impacts of 400 years of colonization.


View of the thriving Cape Coast port today


Plaque speaks for itself


Slave dungeons, hundreds of people kept with standing room only, minimal light and ventilation, no toilets. The floor was bricked and has never been cleaned having several inches of human waste…


It was a serious day and one of reflection. An important visit. Cape Coast is one of three remaining castles along the Ghanaian coast, used as centers of colonial power by a succession of European nations.

Our next stop was Accra. As is always the case with big cities, we had two goals, grocery shopping and visas for upcoming countries. We found a centrally located budget hotel ($30 a night including breakfast and secure parking) and explored on foot.

Accra was a curious blend of African tradition with its lively street markets, and contemporary consumerism with glossy air conditioned restaurants and shops. It had been a few weeks since we ate in a restaurant so we decided to indulge ourselves.


Our favorite Accra dining experience - Wok Boyz Asian street food - it had been a long time since we had good Asian food

We were turned down for visas at the Nigerian embassy (we were expecting it but tried anyway, have been trying in every capital city since Monrovia) so decided to spend some time exploring the city. Lonely Planet recommended a company called Ghana Nima Tours for walking tours of the city so we sent an email and were immediately set up with a guide for the next day. We had an insightful and interesting day with Hamzah who walked us through his home neighborhood of Nima.


Busy Nima street corner

Translated as “city of the king,” Nima is one of the oldest and largest Zongo settlements in Ghana (Zongo refers to people re-settling from the Northern countries, typically predominantly Muslim). The famous Nima market is enormous and Hamzah led us through its narrow pathways lined with stalls with everything consumable (and some things not). He explained each product’s use and smiled as we had friendly conversations with the women who were selling their goods. People wanted to talk, wanted to know our names, where we were from and what day of the week we were born on. They were shocked that we did not know - it is the foundation of some important traditions including a special name. We were greeted with smiles, and cries of “white people!” as we walked through.


Spice and grain stalls


Rice is a staple food throughout West Africa and women prepare enormous amounts of it at a time in large metal bowls


Good cheer everywhere as people enjoyed poking a little bit of fun at us





Dried fish - another staple. Every product always displayed with an eye to design


A brief roof top break with Hamzah, our walking tour guide.





Neighborhood slaughterhouse. In Africa, everything happens out in the open, practicality rules the day. Torching the skin off the cow parts.

Hamzah also showed us where he grew up and described life in the compounds of Nima. A compound is a shared walled area. There are communal wells - water is turned on once a week and everyone collects what they need for the week so that it can rotate and be turned on in the next area. Toilets are shared. Electrical power is common but people pay upfront and most people minimize usage - as Hamzah said, a light bulb and a TV. He also described close knit communities who watch out for each other, cook for each other and take care of children together, regardless of religion.


Custom coffins are a cultural tradition in Ghana - beautifully carved and painted to represent something important in the deceased person’s life





Ussher Fort in Accra, built in 1649 by the Dutch, the British used it as a base to hold slaves and later as a prison where Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president and a key player in the struggle for independence, was imprisoned during the British colonial era.


Stocking up on fruits and vegetables. The stall owner kindly hand picked avocados for us to eat on each of the next three days according to ripeness.


We will take being blurry to highlight this fantastic GOIL gas station crew. The young people in Ghana are amazing, curious, smart and hilarious. Our truck had been unhappily pinging on very low octane gas for a few weeks so we were taking advantage of the reputed higher octane levels in the gas at the GOIL stations in Ghana and filling up whenever we could.

Next we took a bit of a risk and headed a tiny bit north to see Amedzofe, the highest mountain village in Ghana. We had checked with our transit sticker issuer to see if we could go to the Volta region and he said we could. We were not 100% convinced we wouldn’t get in trouble but decided to take the chance.


On the way - our first roadside wildlife since the warthog in Senegal!


This baboon was hoping for something


Just hanging out in the trees by the road - no problem

We split the journey up to the Volta region by staying at a nice river camp halfway along. One again, we parked with a small hotel that allowed us to use the facilities. Many of these places are empty right now as tourism has not come back to pre-COVID levels. People seem happy to have us stay, sometimes charging nothing in exchange for a promise to use the restaurant or bar, sometimes charging a nominal fee. Although not wild camping, these sites gave us comfort, security and more privacy than camping outside a village.


And some lovely Austrian overlanders were already on site! We enjoyed our conversations with Eveline and Manfred in Der Rote Jumbo.

We made it to Amedzofe, center for mountain, waterfall and rainforest walks and were welcomed instantly. People asked if we wanted to stay and we explained that we wanted to hike. We were escorted to a small eco-tourism booth and showed a price list of options. We really didn’t want to do a guided hike, but had known that the trails were maintained and controlled by the village so were expecting the necessity. With the waterfall at end of dry season drizzle level and the mountain peak nearby looking hot and dry, we opted for the rainforest canopy walk.


Friendly village youth walking ahead of us to show us where to park

The village had obviously worked hard to build the suspension bridges for the canopy walk and they were impressive. It was not quite the hike we thought we were coming for (total walk was about 1/2 mile although steep), but we appreciated the enthusiastic conversations with people along the way and our hiking guide, Dennis.


Canopy walk bridges at Amedzofe






Taking a moment to appreciate rainforest as far as the eye could see


And a final camping night on the grounds of Mountain Paradise Lodge, across the canyon from Amedzofe


Approaching the border to leave Ghana - time for Togo!

Well, we approached the border feeling like we had a reasonable taste of Ghana and were ready to move on. We reached the Ghana border at 1 pm. Five hours later we were still there, sigh. It was one of the more confusing borders we have been to - Mauritania takes first place. When we walked up to customs we were approached by fixers and declined their services. When the customs officer saw our transit sticker she called over a fixer to show us the way to the office. From there the afternoon just got crazier and more confusing. We were passed off from one person to another, with our paperwork being handed over to people not in uniform (which we never do). But it was clear that the officials were using the fixers as their customer relations agents and we didn’t really have a choice.

Then we were told that we needed to pay more money to have the transit sticker removed and be cleared to leave. Andy basically blew a fuse and refused. So we ended up in another big boss office who agreed with us that we had already paid a lot of money and shouldn’t have to pay anymore. So he called the folks who issued us the permit and yelled at them for charging us so much and for not including the exit costs in the price.

Five hours later we finally had the tracker removed and exited the border. On the bright side, the Togo entry process only took about 45 minutes, vaccine record check, visa on arrival and $10 vehicle permit. We were good to go!

So Ghana was a mixed bag for us in the end. We feel that there was much more to see that we missed. But it was also one of the trickier countries we had visited. In places, tourism is developed and clear, in others it is just developed enough for people to see opportunity but still at the uncomfortable place.

We are also aware that culturally we are people who respond well to clear expectations and price lists. The most uncomfortable situations for us are crowds of people asking for money or not knowing what the actual cost should be so that we know if what we are paying is reasonable. We logically understand the African way - you negotiate until both parties feel happy with the outcome - but we just aren’t built that way. In the end, knowing that we did in fact (as we had suspected) paid way too much for the transit permit to drive the truck across Ghana made us feel less happy about our experience in the country. We basically paid half of our country budget for a big huge sticker. We would rather have donated it to a school.

West Africa continues to challenge us, and we are learning beyond our wildest expectations. Most places we go we are the only white people and we stand out and attract a lot of attention, stealth tourism is impossible for us. Our introverted selves are learning how to cope. Not used to the heat, we spend days at a time sweating and when it doesn’t cool down at night we get cranky. But the overall positives of exploring these outstanding places and meeting some of the most incredible people all make it worth while. At the end of the day we are lucky to be on this journey.

As always, thank you for reading!

 

I love reading ur stories, Keep it up and Godspeed

 

Wow, Ghana was quite a challenge. I wonder if the GPS tracker they installed was even functional? Any way to tell if it was? I wonder why they did not want you travelling inland in Ghana?

 

What a wonderful travel log, I hope you put all this in a blurb or other type of book, or maybe sell it on Etsy or Amazon as an e-book? I would totally buy it.

 

Purely political control. But also in the age of Covid, the outside world can bring a lot of issues for them as vaccinations are not widely available in remote areas like they have there.

 

Sure is great stuff hey? Yup, I would buy the book too.

Here is their blog where you can find all of this in one spot. https://www.roguewanderers.com/blog

 

Well thank you! Sounds like a lot of work compiling it into a book, but it’s possible. I just hope we’re providing good entertainment and fueling peoples dreams before it all turns into a blur in our minds.

 

Yes, it was definitely a step more challenging than Ivory Coast. My understanding is that Ghana has been strict for years regarding travelers. I think that they have built up a bureaucracy of control. No idea if the device was functional. Since they only gave us a ten-day transit visa they wanted us to take the most direct route from Ivory Coast to Togo. Our experience would’ve been much different had we had a Carne de Passage, which is a third-party guarantee that if our car does not leave a country then the insurance company will pay to the country the value of the car. Ghana probably has very high import duties for vehicles brought in and sold there. So theoretically someone could drive in a vehicle then sell it there and then fly out. Thus the government misses out on taxes. So when people drive cars into Ghana they require them to have this special insurance. We didn’t have it because it would’ve cost us (because it’s registered in the USA) $1800 for six months plus we would’ve had to deposit $60,000 at the insurance company as well. European vehicles are 1/5th the cost. Usually countries just require a temporary vehicle import permit which Customs monitor when you leave.

 

You already did the hard part your writing is great. I’m sure you could probably come up with something pretty good just with some edits in the photos you’ve taken. It would be easy to maybe find someone willing to do it gratis. A good place to start would be a book publishing place like blurb but seriously I wouldn’t self publish it. I would use one of the freebie ones.

 

Wow, those are crazy prices! Who has $60K for a deposit? Imagine if you did not get it back.

 

I really enjoyed this thread...

 

Not getting the deposit back is a real concern. With very large banks failing, there’s no reason why an insurance company holding our deposit couldn’t fail as well. In general banks use insurance companies to help manage risk

 

Having to put a large deposit down AND pay premiums seems a bit extreme, unless there are many other things they cover.

Hopefully better luck and less drama getting your Nigerian visas.

 

Hopefully Nigeria is a smoother trip. I am looking forward to the pictures and tales of Nigeria. A good friend of mine’s wife was born and raised in Nigeria, and still has family there.

 

Nope. All they cover is the event that if your vehicle doesn’t leave the insured country then the insurance company pays the country your deposit and everyone but you is happy. My understanding is that Egypt and Ethiopia require a deposit to their country 3 to 5 times the current market value as a refundable deposit, i wonder how quickly you get that back. We’ll take a closer look at the situation when we get closer

 

Oh don’t worry, we’ll have some good stories about Nigeria… Since you’re reading our blog you are more up to date than most people and can guess where we are right this second

 

Great thread! Can’t wait for more photos and stories!!