Distance: 540Km
Actually its Bobo Dioulasso, a town just inside the border between Mali and Burkino Faso. I am stopping here in a cheap hotel for the night ready to cross the border into Ghana tomorrow.
When I rode out of Bakamo this morning I had an amazing sense of relief and the illness of the last few days seemed to wash away from me. I don’t know if it was real as I was breathing clean air and my illness was going or if it was psychological. I just know I felt better.
As I traveled South East toward the border the landscape slowly changed from browns and stunted trees to greens and tall trees forming woods. Every other tree seemed to be a Manyo dripping with fruits (yes I did go scrumping).
The border formalities were straight forward with no hassle from anyone.
Over the last few thousand Kilometres I have been nursing a knackered chain on the bike. The problem is that when fully loaded the suspension drops to put extra tension on the chain. This can stretch the chain, especially on bad roads like I had entering Bamako. For this reason I have been running a loose chain; I did consider a stronger suspension spring before I left, it was a mistake to not do it. The chain really needs replacing now; I do have a spare chain and sprocket set. So I plan to do that before leaving tomorrow morning. A few times today I heard the chain catch on the rear sprocket. If it comes off….
One reply on “Day 31: Bobo SomeThingOrOther”
Glad you feeling better. Sounds like a good idea to attend to the chain at first opportunity, do you have a second spare chain as you still have a long way to go? Take care.
John and Christine