(Wandering
Travel
Tales Index – Wandering West Africa Index – West Africa Pix
Dear
Friends and Family,
This
year, we are taking a trip to
Why
For
starters, we have never been there! It will be a lot warmer than winter in
Our
two biggest resources are the library and the Internet. We get as many
guidebooks and look at as many web sites as we can. The idea is to decide which
cities/towns/villages/small grouping of huts might be interesting to visit. We
don't figure out exactly what we want to do in a town, just how many days we
might want to spend there.
For
this trip, Paul looked at 5 guidebooks: 3 different Bradt Guides, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. Which
guidebook to use is dependent on the destination. For Central & South
America, Footprint is by far the best. For Asia, Lonely Planets tends to be
better, however, we preferred the Rough Guide in
Guidebooks we are using on this trip:
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After
doing our research, we create a list of places we want to visit and how long we
want to stay. We get a map of the country (usually from an on-line source) and
circle each place on the map. Next, it is simply a matter of trying to connect
the dots in an intelligent fashion. The guidebooks we use tend to focus more on
logistics than information about various sites. So, they have maps of each town
with lists of places to stay and eat and information about getting from point A
to point B by bus, truck, boat, taxi etc. With the dots connected, we have a
rough idea of our itinerary and what modes of transportation we will use
between places. The initial plan may be changed radically or not at all
depending on how much time we have, if a place is better/worse than it sounded
in the books, if we decide to add/delete a town because of information from
someone we meet on the road, etc.
What Do You Take With
You? (i.e. Paul, Do You Bring Your Telescope?)
Here’s our packing list for this trip (including what we wear heading out):
|
Eagle Creek travel pack |
Locks for backpack |
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Double Bed Mosquito Net |
1 set capilene underwear (Lois only) |
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Silk Sleep sack |
1 long sleeve micro fleece |
|
Princeton headlamp |
3 light weight s/s shirts |
|
Nylon Cord - for clothesline etc. |
2 pair nylon convertible pants |
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Zip lock bags (to keep things dry) |
Chacos (Paul) / Keens(Lois) |
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Money belt - hangs from belt |
Socks - 2 pairs |
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First aid kit |
Underwear - 3 pairs |
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Steripen UV Water Purifier |
2 Soft plastic water bottles |
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Toilet articles kit |
Sarong |
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Digital Camera |
Khymer Scarves to stop dust |
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Sony Notebook Computer |
French phrase book |
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Passport & back-up photocopy |
Guidebooks |
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Journal |
Books to read |
Last year, for the first time, we took notebook computer
with us. It is a Sony VGN-TX670 which weighs in at 2.75 pounds and includes a
memory card reader for our cameras and a DVD/CD writer. We found it to be very
useful and have traveled everywhere with it ever since. We can make phone
calls using Skype, make CDs of our photos, review photos and, of course, edit
travelogues. Believe it or not, the goal is to bring as little as possible. Our
packs weigh about 20 pounds each, including a large supply of reading books.
You
feel miserable for a little while and spend lots of time in the bathroom. On
our
Where Do You Stay? (i.e. At The Holiday Inn?)
Hotels, motels, guesthouses, inns, pensiones, albergues - any place that has cheap rooms for rent. The guidebooks list places to stay in each town. We have no reservations.
Our
understanding is that rooms are in the $20-$40 range in Mali, $10-$25 in Burkina and $5-$15 in Ghana. We'll probably spend toward the high end of the range in the major cities and toward the low end elsewhere. In
some cases, we might end up sharing a bathroom.
We
usually don't know where we are staying until we walk up to the place, ask to
see a room and decide whether or not we like it. Occasionally, we call ahead if
the next stop is a large city or we expect it to be difficult to find a room.
We have never slept out in the cold, but have paid more than we wanted; stayed
in a place we really didn't like or spent an hour or two looking.
Costs to date:
|
Airfare for 2 into |
$250 + 160,000 frequent flier miles |
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$562 (!!) |
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3 Guidebooks |
$40 |
Based
on the reading we've done, we are expecting costs to be around $75/$50/$30 per day for
the two of us in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana, respectively. We are bringing €2032 cash, $533 cash, credit cards and two ATM
cards. The cheapest and
best way to change money is to use your ATM card to get local currency however;
we expect they may be few and far between. Both
The
official language in
How Do You Get Two Months Off From Work?
Ask.
It works for Paul. Don’t ask and don’t work. That is Lois’ method. Actually,
Paul is quite lucky. The people Paul works for have been exceptionally
accommodating of his desire to take a little extra time off. So, thank you
very much to Craig, Thor and Steve.
Click
here to see our intended route. We fly
Air
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|
2 days |
Bani |
1 |
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Segou |
2 |
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3 |
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4 |
Bobo-Dioulasso |
4 |
|
Sevare/Mopti |
2 |
Banfora |
3 |
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Bandiagara |
1 |
Gaoua (not sure) |
3 |
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Dogon Country |
6 |
|
2 |
|
Timbuktu |
3 |
|
1 |
|
Essakane (Festival Au Desert) |
3 |
Larabanga |
2 |
|
Gao (not sure) |
2 |
Kumasi |
4 |
|
Hambori (not sure) |
3 |
Elmina/Cape Coast |
4 |
|
Koro |
1 |
|
5 |
|
|
1 |
Accra |
1 |
|
|
2 |
Happy Holidays & Happy New Year To Everyone!
Lois & Paul
December 22, 2008