| Cisse Yaya riding a Harley Pan American |
| Cisse Asmi (Yaya's brother) riding a BMW R1250 RT |
| Badr riding a BMW R1250 GS Adventure |
| Yacou 1111 riding a Honda Fireblade RRR |
I got up really early, packed and set out to meet up at the specified 5:30am for 7am departure. Ha! I was the first one there and The Motochecker arrived at 7:30am and we didn't depart until 7:51am. Not a good start to a very long day with a border crossing. But these guys ride very fast. Hooligans! But very skilled hooligans. We were making 60% of Google Maps Time.
Along the way we stopped at Colonol Fiifi's stomping ground, the 2nd Infantry Battalion at Myohaung Barracks. They gave us chocolates, showed a nice history presentation, and served us a really nice lunch. Thanks Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Nana Nyarko Osae, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Infantry Battalion.
The first border crossing at Elubo went like this:
Then we were met by four motorcycle riders from the Côte d'Ivoire riderz club in Abidjan who escorted us into town, another 3 hrs (I think we were 8 + 5 + 4 = 17 bikes into Abidjan).
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Being met and escorted by these enthusiastic local riders was a real treat! Awesome bunch of guys.
It was a long day, but the roads were good. The final traffic in Abidjan in the dark took an extreme amount of focus. It was very intense. The hotel restaurant stayed open and we arrived at about 11:15pm. A very long day — 19 hrs. I shared a room (and bed) with Rufus. He started out sleeping on the floor, but then got cold and moved in with me. A little weird, but OK.
The ride stats for today are 17h45m start to finish, ~2h initial delay, 2h32m stop at the 2nd Infantry Battalion, 4h22m for the border crossing, leaving 90 minutes of breaks and 427 minutes of moving time, compared to 608 minutes of Google Maps time. While moving, we did 70% of Google Time which is really damn fast.
Participants on this first day:
Day 1, Accra to Abidjan
| Time | Minutes | km | kph avg | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5:10am | strapping my baggage on the bike | |||
| 5:14am | leave Ibis Styles Hotel | |||
| 5:26am | 0.6 | Arrive at the Shell Station meetup point, fill fuel | ||
| 5:26am | 1.4 | 0 km | 1 | |
| 5:28am | 143.8 | Wait around at the Shell Station meetup point for 2h24m | ||
| 7:51am | 175.6 | 220 km | 75 | finally depart almost 2hrs after plan |
| 10:47am | 1.6 | map | ||
| 10:49am | 3.7 | 3 km | 54 | |
| 10:52am | 12.6 | fuel stop Shell | ||
| 11:05am | 4.0 | 1 km | 20 | |
| 11:09am | 37.6 | Muohuang Barracks | ||
| 11:47am | 1.8 | 1 km | 20 | |
| 11:49am | 112.6 | Army lunch ~2.5hrs | ||
| 1:41pm | 38.6 | 25 km | 39 | |
| 2:20pm | 2.7 | map | ||
| 2:23pm | 66.0 | 107 km | 97 | |
| 3:29pm | 33.0 | fuel stop before hitting the border | ||
| 4:02pm | 3.8 | 2 km | 39 | |
| 4:05pm | 50.6 | border Ghana Exit at Elubo | ||
| 4:56pm | 1.0 | 0 km | 19 | |
| 4:57pm | 1.9 | map | ||
| 4:59pm | 1.2 | 0 km | 23 | |
| 5:00pm | 206.3 | border Côte d'Ivoire entry at Noé, 3h26m | ||
| 8:27pm | 9.5 | 10 km | 62 | we're finally moving into Côte d'Ivoire (total 4h22m for this border crossing) |
| 8:36pm | 1.4 | map | ||
| 8:38pm | 37.7 | 49 km | 78 | |
| 9:16pm | 11.7 | fuel stop at TotalEnergies | ||
| 9:27pm | 59.7 | 72 km | 72 | |
| 10:27pm | 4.0 | map | ||
| 10:31pm | 5.9 | 9 km | 96 | |
| 10:37pm | 1.8 | highway toll plaza on A. Abidjan-Grand Bassam | ||
| 10:39pm | 16.1 | 17 km | 65 | |
| 10:55pm | arrived at Hotel Onomo | |||
| 17h32m | 7h07m moving | 519 km | 72.9 kph | 41% moving, 625 minutes of breaks |
