Mooving through Burkina Faso

We crossed into Burkina Faso effortlessly due to us being firmly outside of the tourist zone and cheaply too as Mick is a master at ‘playing the game’ which you have to do to avoid the constant request for, ahem, “formalities.” Once into this little known country changes were evident. It’s much more rural than those we’ve visited before. Where previously most people seemed to want more here everyone just seems happy with their clean and tiny village communities. Around these villages the land is farmed so in addition to the village’s water pump from the well they seem to be self sufficient. Nobody here thinks they’re from Jamaica unlike in the Gambia or Senegal. So first stop then was ‘Casa Africa’ which we had previous information on which turned out to be adequate for what we needed. On arrival two other bikes were there too, one an Irish registered GS1100 and the other a South African GS650 Dakar. The big Beemer was being ridden by Mike and Linda with the smaller Beemer ridden by Corbus who Mick knew from an internet site. As well as these people we also met Ivan and Marian, a French couple travelling in a very old 2CV van!! They are proper travellers all of them, no bling.
The second day started very well as DHL delivered on time and finally I had my second passport. Things have been all going too smoothly for too long so to address the balance...I had an accident. Cruising at 120kph along a pretty quiet road I moved to beyond the centre line in readiness to overtake the obligatory donkey and cart in my lane whilst rolling off the throttle and covering the brakes. All good until a cow off the road to my left makes a last second dart across the road into what has now become a small space between me and the about to be overtaken D&C. With nowhere to go and a now hesitant cow blocking any free passage there’s nothing for it other than to scrub off as much kph as possible and brace for impact... At around what felt like 70kph I catch the rear end of the cow, spinning it around and in the process my front wheel is put into the full right lock position. Much skidding later and despite my best efforts to salvage the situation the laws of physics win and me and Des hit the hard stuff with a bang and are sent in a 20 meter skid across the tarmac into what was thankfully an empty oncoming lane. The outcome of all this was a broken front brake lever, a very badly bent rear brake pedal, what appears to be twisted forks and also some ‘patina’ to the bar end, tank, crash protector, lower fork, hand guards and pannier. For my fellow Tenere riders you’ll be pleased to know that all said and done the bike faired pretty well after what felt like high side. My riding kit also did its bit with all the armour areas protecting me despite some scuffs and rips, although not surprisingly my gloves disintegrated. As for the cow it limped off out of site and me, a small bruise on my right pelvis and a bit of a sore right big toe as something slammed onto it after I’d hit the deck. Since that little episode we’ve arrived in Ouagaudou and are waiting for three visas which will take 6-7 days. We’ll use the time to service the bikes and try to straighten out big Des...