The Final Run to Elmina: Mole National Park to Elmina: 20th November to 24th November

Imagine this, an escarpment with a small motel, camping area, swimming pool (!) and restaurant. From this point you can see forever over the National Park and wild life reserve. In the distance there are soft blue shapes of tall palm trees and forestation and, directly below us, silver water holes where you can quietly observe animals such as elephants and water buffalo coming to drink. Even at 7.30 in the morning, when we arrive, it is hot.

Some of our group have been here before and they set about giving the bus a massive and well needed clean. This is Jon’s last day before setting off for Accra and his return home to the UK, so three of us take a guided trek in the park and are able to watch antelope, baboons, python and crocodiles close up (but not too close!). Another amazing and very special experience.

Sadly John, Aubrey and the Bedford depart later in the day for Accra. Those of us left camp on the escarpment that night and are joined by baboons the next morning. They came like hooligans looking for trouble and breakfast. The camper next to us had bananas on its roof. An open invitation and there for the taking, plus dried milk and other things which took their fancy. An exciting beginning to the day as we set off for Kumasi.

Arriving later in Kumasi was like taking the lid off a beehive. Noisy, swarming with people surrounding the bus but ignoring its existence. Momentarily overwhelming, exciting, intimidating and massively attractive at the same time. The centre of Kumasi is a huge market, selling everything from chickens to second hand flip-flops. It took some calm and careful negotiation to drive through to find the Presbyterian House Lodge, which was our home for the next two nights. Set in its own grounds, an old colonial style building with camping and rooms.

Our last day of the journey finally arrives and it is with some mixed feelings that we drive into Cape Coast to meet up with Aubrey who has arrived ahead of us with the Bedford and the volunteers already established in this area. The drive in is along a coastal road stunningly beautiful, with the sea crashing onto mile upon mile of white beach lined with palm trees. We have arrived a little travel weary and despite the dust and dirt, everything we originally set out with in the vehicles was unchanged – however, the travellers certainly weren’t! Full of incredible memories, experiences, sights and sounds which will take months to unravel and digest.

Arriving in Ghana: Bandiagara to Mole National Park: 16th November to 20th November

The customs procedure at Burkina Faso seemed to go smoothly, the officials were very nice and everyone was happy. Unfortunately we were directed to go in a certain route as we left and the Bedford took down another telephone cable outside the customs area. Everyone took a sharp intake of breath.

Undeterred and perhaps practiced at this by now, Aubrey and team hastily and miraculously fixed it together and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

We drove until dark looking for a good place to camp. Supper was a ‘dig deep into the food box’ affair which we were glad to eat and finally in the dark we all gazed at the black sky and there were shooting stars everywhere on this night.

As often has been the case we awoke on Wednesday morning at the crack of dawn to a sea of little faces peering at us. All children, of various sizes, they stayed interested in us for a while and then slowly drifted off.

Burkina Faso has great place names like Ouagadougou and Grom-Grom but we are going today to Bobo-Dioulasso. Bobo-Dioulasso has a very famous market called the Grand Marche. As there is some business to do and food to buy, we also snatch 30 minutes in the market and which is heaving with activity and what we have become familiar with in terms of a local market. Exciting, claustrophobic and an attack on every sense.

Following this, the day’s drive through arid flat country side with images and sights which in many ways even a camera would find hard to capture.

Another and final border is close. We leave Burkina Faso and pull in for the night with the Ghanaian border in sight.

This is probably one of the worst night stops ever. We even have to sweep the rubbish out of the dust to find a clean spot to set up but everyone gets on with it and tea and beds are prepared.

In a cloud of red, red dust the next morning, we arrive at the ‘Welcome to Ghana’ sign. This is in English and in big letters over the entrance to the Customs and Immigration post. It feels so close to the final leg of the journey that we are both happy and sad at the same time, but, as a final hurdle, it turns out that we don’t all have visas to enter the country.

It is agreed with Immigration that in order to obtain the visas we will drive to Wa with an official who will accompany us to the visa office and sort it out. This will involve additional costs and undoubtedly in-depth discussions, but we know it is possible.

For around 2 hours we drive on a sandy dirt road, sometimes a corrugated surface and potholes or half the road missing. You cannot stay on the right side of the road just pick your way through and everything passing does so in a cloud of red dust. Meanwhile we are pumping in dust which bellows in through every gap and moves around the bus.

The official is a smartly dressed young man in uniform who wears a hanky over his nose and tries in vain to keep clean. At some checkpoint we are also joined by a fireman who needs a lift. He is also very clean.

To further complicate the day’s events there is a loud bang from the tyre and we have a puncture. Fortunately we have just reached a tarmac road and this helps the repair considerably.

The fireman, the immigration officer and 3 police officers who were just passing by, plus the Sabre team, change the tyre. On we go but before we reach Wa it is obvious the radiator is leaking and after obtaining the visas this will also need fixing. On top of all this there is a presidential election on December 7th and the president is parading through Wa this afternoon. There is an air of chaos and excitement in the streets.

Meanwhile the practicalities of overland travel have to be dealt with well into the evening in an atmosphere of oppressive heat and dust. The final destination of the day, having obtained the visas and fixed the radiator was a village on the edge of Mole National Park, reached by a further drive on red dust roads in conditions which were challenging and apparently fun to drive on! There were also snakes on this road.

Crossing Mauritania: Nouakchott to Bandiagara: 12th November to 16th November

Careful consideration took place regarding our next stage. After relaxing for a couple of nights, a most welcome rest involving showering, clothes washing and most importantly, not moving! The heat in this city is stifling; it is really noticeable as there is no wind. The journey down was at least windy! We planned to make a border run in a one go, this was due to security issues along the road to Mali. The reality of the proposition did not hit home until we had reached Mali! The road was over 500miles long before the turning we needed. After an early start our great plan began to be eroded by circumstances out of our control - a local transporter lorry had jack-knifed across the road on a downward slope. With desert all around, this meant there was a queue, approximately 60 other vehicles lined the road.

We were going nowhere. Well actually this was not entirely true as other cars were working out a detour through some little villages and we decide to do likewise and, as they say, "cane it" over the sand, where we get stuck (page 3 of the sabre handbook "digging trucks out of the sand"). Time moves on slowly in the heat and eventually we get going after a massive team effort and return to the road. The jack-knifed lorry is moved and we all move. Despite the fact that the landscape was stunning, with terracotta and rose coloured dunes, soft green low spread trees, chiselled cattle with elegant camels silhouetted against the earth, there is a sense of urgency to get to the border as soon as possible and cross into Mali. We passed through Aleg with a feeling of unease, remembering that this was the place where a group of French tourists had been shot by bandits the previous year. Nothing prepares you for this town - a sea of waste and rubbish with makeshift huts squeezed together, hostile, edgy and we are out of our comfort zone.

We need to be clear of this area and it looks like we will be driving through the night. So we stop briefly and Kerry produces a Master Chef style tea from bits and pieces in the food box. Back on the road, we drive until 4.30am. At times we almost ran out of road which became track, rock and potholed. It became an endurance test for the drivers. With everyone exhausted, we stop early in the morning for a brief sleep and then push on to Foulani and then the border. Everyone, without exception, is hot and tired and the day is spent driving. Getting through the border presented the usual headaches, not helped by the Bedford demolishing the telephone wire to the customs post, but eventually we arrived in Mali and immediately felt the difference in mood and atmosphere. Donkeys are replaced by 125cc motorbikes, there are crops growing in the fields, good(ish) roads, and a much greater sense of affluence. It is now Saturday and we rough camp on the road between Bamako and Segou - a great camp where we attracted some considerable attention from the local community and ended the day by exchanging teddy bears for freshly picked groundnuts and cementing relationships.

Sunday morning and we set off early, the roads are good and busy, there is plenty of activity with people travelling to work on bikes and carts, minibuses, totally overloaded, some with goats on roof racks. We arrive in the early afternoon at the Auberge Kansayp in Bandiagara in the Dogon region of Mali. This little auberge, with its flowers, lizards and flaky paint with a river alongside full of people washing themselves and their clothes, was our starting point to meet our guide for our long awaited trek to the Dogon villages and the spectacular cliff top site of Teri. So at 7.30 the following morning three of us and Abdullah, the guide, set off in the bus. The drive itself was incredible. At first, through rich agricultural land of onions and potatoes, followed by a massive, rocky terrain, the sheer scale of the landscape with its panoramic vistas was overwhelming. The road conditions were challenging to say the least but we visited three villages and for us it was one of the unforgettable highlights of the journey. The uniqueness of the region, the architecture and culture provide lasting and rich memories. That evening, on our return, we packed up the bus and set off.

We rough camped that night and prepared to leave early on Tuesday morning to visit the largest mud mosque in the world at Djenne. To reach Djenne at this time of year we needed to take the ferry which we caught by passing through flooded fields interspersed with beautiful pools filled with white, spiky water lilies and looking like a French Impressionist painting. In contrast to this Djenne turned out to be slightly disappointing. Although the mosque itself is impressive and the shadows cast from the sun upon it resemble the abstract shapes of the local Bogolan cloth, only Muslims are allowed into the building and the town itself is not particularly appealing. We returned to the ferry and made tracks to the Mali border and Burkina Faso.