With my limited time in Burkina Faso I decided to visit Banfora, a town in the south of the country surrounded by beautiful scenery. I hired a scooter and to take me to the area’s two main attractions: The Cascades de Karfiguela, a series of picturesque waterfalls, and the Domes de Fabedougou, an interesting rock formation nearby.
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| Part of the upper falls at the Cascades de Karfiguela |
My driver, Hyacinthe, first took me through green fields to the waterfall, and we started hiking up the cliff to the top of the falls. The river reaches the edge of a cliff and descends in a series of falls. The longest and final drop is about thirty feet, with smaller drops above that are safe for swimming. I spent some time climbing on the cliffs and swimming around, until rain forced us to find some temporary shelter.
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| Part of the upper falls at Karfiguela |
During a break in the storm, we moved to the Domes de Fabedougou, a formation of sedimentary rocks perfect for climbing and scenic views of the surrounding landscape.
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| Hyacinthe drives closer to the rock formation |
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| Hyacinthe sits atop one of the rock formations |
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| Atop one of the rock domes, shortly before the rain began again |
After a pleasant day lounging around the town of Banfora itself, I caught an afternoon bus back to Bobo-Dioulasso. Before dawn the next morning, I went to the bus station and bought a ticket back to Bamako. My flight left just after midnight, so I needed to be at the airport in Bamako by 10pm. I allowed enough time for the bus to break down once – this is Africa after all – but when the bus had a flat tire and broke down for good, I found myself running the risk of missing my flight.
I grabbed a seat on a bus that happened to be passing by, which itself broke down on the outskirts of Bamako. I managed to get a taxi to the airport afterwards, arriving just in time for the Turkish Airlines employees to tell me my ticket had been cancelled and I would not be boarding the flight. After a chaotic series of phone calls with help from frequent flyer friends, I found myself rebooked on a flight a day and a half later, which would finally get me back home. and bring the summer’s trip to a conclusion.
