Danane to Daloa

The previous day was still fresh in our minds but there were some things to do. First was to find an ATM. Not easy in Danane. While in the back streets a guy stepped out and stopped us. He was just friendly and soon his friends had come over to see us. They wanted photos standing with the bikes. We found the ATM after riding around town and asking various locals. Never would have found the bank as it was down some back roads in amongst shacks but the bank itself was all modern and fresh. Money in hand we could buy sim cards, fuel, food and water. We then set off for Daloa. The ride was fine but I was just waiting for the inevitable roadblocks. There were a few but the police weren't really interested in us and a few of them just waved us through. Others were friendly and checked passport or licence, all stuff I had. The further from the border we got, the less likely we were to get stopped by customs. We made it to Daloa and found a quaint hotel for the night.

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Daloa to Abidjan

The ride to Abidjan was uneventful. generally good roads but I was still worried about the loss of documents. We found a hotel and headed straight for it. It didn't have much curb appeal but was a real little Oasis inside. Major bonus was that it had big steel gates we could hide the bikes behind. I parked my bike inside the grounds and decided that it would stay there until I had sorted the document problems out. I would need a Carnet to get it into Ghana and I didn't have one any more. It was in Cote d'ivoire in what I'd say was a state of limbo.
First thing to do was to replace the lost documents. I spoke to the Carnet office but they said that unfortunately there is a lot of procedural stuff to do so it would take a week plus shipping time to replace the Carnet. At best that would be 9 days.
I requested a replacement V5 from the DVLA. Back in the UK, Belinda rushed off to get my yellow fever card re issued, passport photos reprinted and some UK stickers. They are a requirement in some countries and mine was on a lost pannier. With all that together Belinda DHL'ed it to Abidjan.
While waiting we used the down time to get our Cameroon visas. What an effort that was. Although we requested expedited service on the form, they took our passports and said come back in 8 days at 4pm.
We used taxis to get around Abidjan as I wasn't going to risk riding my bike. We went all over trying to find chain lube. Seems it is an alien concept in Abidjan. Even Yamaha said they didn't sell it but we could ask the maintenance dept. if they had any.
The DHL folders arrived and we collected the new documents and Carnet. The hold up now was due to the Cameroon visa. We went back at 1pm on the 8th day and they said come back at 4pm, it's not ready yet. Went back at 4pm and still no action. About eight people all hanging around waiting for their passports. After 6pm we finally got the passports with visas. That was all we needed, next morning we were keen to get going. On our way to Ghana.

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