Abidjan is the biggest city in Côte d'Ivoire and is the first city that we have visited that actually looks like a proper city, with skyscrapers and bill boards. We were staying in the yard of a beach front hotel about 20 km from the city as there are no camp grounds in the country. I was thinking is would be a bit like Dakar where we just had access to a toilet but the hotel also had a shower and swimming pool that we could use which is great news after 3 nights bush camping.
We had a day to explore the city so we all headed in on a public minibus and then took a taxi across the bridge of the river to the cathedral. The cathedral was a bizarre design as it looked like one of the supports to a suspension bridge. The city was quiet as it was a Saturday morning and not a lot was open but it was nice to just to wander without many people in the streets especially as it was so humid. We all met up and took another bus to Grand Bassam for the afternoon.
Grand Bassam is another 20 odd km in the opposite direction from our camp. It's a beach resort popular with the locals and is the old colonial capital. During a yellow fever outbreak in colonial times a lot of people moved to Abidjan and permanently resettled there. We got off the bus early so we could visit the craft markets and thought that the main centre of the town would be near. Unfortunately it was miles away so we had a long and sweaty walk down the main road before we found town. We walked to the French quarter which is an island and stopped for a lovely and much needed meat and chip lunch despite the fact it was 4pm. The beach was packed with young locals all in the sea or playing football on the sand. The one thing that we noticed was that no one was sunbathing , everyone enjoying the sea. All in all a great and busy day out.
Cote d'Ivoire has been a great place to visit. There weren't many attractions but the people were again very friendly and we got no hassle from any one. It was also amazing to see how much the climate, vegetation and even fashion changed from previous countries. We had a very long, dusty and definitely the most bumpiest days drive to the border where we got stamped out very easily just in time to hit the Ghanaian side as they were locking the gates so it was another border camp for us!
Again no photos of Abidjan just yet as they are stuck on my camera card.
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