After getting to bed about 12:45am the night before, I was at breakfast at 7:00am (5 hrs of sleep) for a claimed 8:00am departure. After pictures and everything, we were actually moving at about 8:45am but then we took pictures for 15 minutes and actually got moving at 9:00am. But, no border crossing today. Just an easy 580 km ride to Man on good roads. We arrived at around 5:30pm, so we made very good time. On interesting thing along the way is that in Côte d'Ivoire, motorcycles do not pay road tolls. Instead, you ride around the toll stations on walking paths. When we got to the first toll station, they directed us to go backwards on the highway a 100 meters or so, then turn onto a dirt path around the tolls. You pop out maybe 200 meters past the tolling station and continue on your way. Weird but nice. We did this about 4 more times this day. We stopped for group pictures in front of The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro. It's a a really big church with seating for 18,000!
At the first fuel/snack stop, I had a millet/yoghurt drink called Drahael Dêguè. Every time I try to buy some milk, it seems to end up being something like this --- a mixture of yoghurt and grains.
At our destination we met a German and an Austrian who were riding from Germany to Accra on old TransAlps. They were taking it easy. I was jealous ;-)
Again we rode very fast, 6h16m vs 9h0m Google Time, so 70% of Google Time. We did manage to arrive in daylight. But we had 3h30m of breaks. I would prefer to leave earlier, ride more gently, and stop for more pictures.
Day 2, Abidjan to Man
| Time | Minutes | km | kph avg | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:45am | 58.1 | getting ready to depart from Onomo Abidjan | ||
| 8:43am | 4.1 | 2 km | 31 | |
| 8:47am | 5.1 | Morning pictures at the convention center | ||
| 8:52am | 6.7 | 4 km | 40 | |
| 8:59am | 0.1 | Actual departure 1 hour after the 8am goal | ||
| 8:59am | 23.7 | 21 km | 53 | |
| 9:23am | 28.0 | fuel stop and snacks for a half hour | ||
| 9:51am | 16.5 | 20 km | 73 | |
| 10:07am | 2.4 | regrouping after toll plaza and saying goodbye to our Abidjan friends | ||
| 10:10am | 95.7 | 198 km | 124 | |
| 11:46am | 8.8 | fuel stop | ||
| 11:54am | 3.7 | 4 km | 71 | |
| 11:58am | 60.4 | fuel stop and lunch | ||
| 12:58pm | 7.5 | 8 km | 65 | |
| 1:06pm | 1.2 | pictures at The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro | ||
| 1:07pm | 2.2 | 1 km | 28 | |
| 1:10pm | 4.4 | 8 minutes for pictures | ||
| 1:14pm | 121.7 | 199 km | 98 | |
| 3:16pm | 18.6 | fuel and snacks stop | ||
| 3:34pm | 86.2 | 127 km | 88 | |
| 5:01pm | 20.6 | final fuel stop | ||
| 5:21pm | 7.3 | 4 km | 34 | |
| 5:29pm | arrived at Hotel Hôtel Amoitrin Man | |||
| 9h46m | 6h16m moving | 589 km | 93.9 kph | 64% moving, 210 minutes of breaks |