On to Obiré

Saturday afternoon Stuart, Cathie and I headed for the village where they work in Obiré, relatively close to the border of Ghana and the Cote d'Ivoire. About three hours from Ouagadougou, we stopped at the Parc National des Deux  Balés for the night, near the town of Boromo, about halfway to our destination.  There we stayed in a what was billed as a newly renovated bungalow, with the intention of seeing some elephants at the Deux Balés national park. The “Deux Balés” is reference to the two rivers nearby. Apparently elephants are the big attraction, although according to a couple of travel books I looked at, there are also supposed to be buffalo, crocodiles, and antelope in the vicinity.

Unfortunately the bungalows at the Campement Kaïcédra were not quite fully renovated yet and the furnishings were rather sparse, not to mention that the power was by generator, which only ran from 7 pm – 2 am. It would have been nice to have known this beforehand, however … Sudenly at 2am the air-conditioner ceased blowing and we were plunged into total darkness … Since we were in the middle of nowhere with no lights from nearby villages, it was pitch black and very still, with only the sounds of the insects and wildlife around us.

 The elephants came by the next morning around 10 am – almost as if they were scheduled! Two separate herds, actually—which first bathed in the river and then dusted themselves with dirt to keep off the insects.