Côte d'Ivoire — Rogue Wanderers

*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.

*Beautifully dressed women pedestrians sharing the road*

*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.

*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.

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!