John A. Doces
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​De Dakar à Bassam

Stuck in the jungle

6/6/2016

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Literally.  So, we tried to get from Korhogo to Bondoukou on the north side of the park.  We made it some distance, the roads were terrible, and eventually became far too tough.  It would have taken a very tough 4x4 to get through them and even that might have been impossible.  The roads up north were very rough which is why one can understand the civil war between the north and south in 2007.  Too much neglect.  

Anyways, we turned around and went around the southern part of the park.  The road was "better" but still tough.  Eventually they took their toll and after the sun had set and it was dark enough the car died in the middle of nowhere.  Just the jungle.  We got out of the car and were met by swarms of bugs.  All kinds, flying ants, mosquitoes, jumbo flies, moths, crickets, and just about anything else you can think of.  I have never seen so many and so many different ones.  (My sisters would have hated it.)  We alone couldn't jump the car, and we stopped a truck carrying workers and even with them it wasn't going to happen.  One of them looked under the hood and then told us we were out of gas.  I hoped this was true but had my doubts because we had just put in gas in the town before we got deep in the woods.  We stopped a guy on his motorcycle who happened to be making the trek.  He had his wife on the back, child between them, and baby in front of him on a vespa of sorts.  He agreed to drive to the next down, get us gas, and bring it back.  Unbelievable.

So we waited in the car which presented an interesting dilemma.  If we close the windows to keep bugs out we sweat bullets but if we open them we get attacked.  Hmm.  I've had more fun.  Eventually he gets back to us and we put the gas in and it's not the problem.  More good news.  We try to jump start several times, but to no avail.  So we decide to send, Madou our driver, with him back to the town to try and get a truck to tow us.  While Adou and I sweated it out, he miraculously showed up with a truck and a young guy and his twelve year old brother who towed us to town in a beat up old diesel truck.  We checked into a hotel, the guy fixed our car (it was a wire or something), and we hit the road the next morning.  I paid all who helped us but seriously people just went out of their way to help.  African hospitality is the best.  
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    John Doces.  Je vous écris de la Côte-d'Ivoire en Afrique.

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