I can't even remember the number of times I've seen the blog Journey without Maps recommended or linked to by people I like, or the amount of times I had a good laugh reading it. So of course I was pleased to see Côte d'Ivoire finally make an appearance there, even though in passing. The author, based in Liberia, describes his 35 hour bus journey from Abidjan to Bamako as "The most miserable bus in the world". Here's an excerpt to give you a taste:

We stopped in Yamoussoukro, the capital, but not really the capital since all the government buildings are in Abidjan, and Yamoussoukro only happens to be the birthplace of the first post independence president/despot. Check it out – he used his ‘personal money’ to build four lane highways, a four star hotel with an observation restaurant, and the world’s largest basilica. No one lives there.

While the bus was stopped and bus attendants reloaded luggage, I caught a glimpse of my bag and relaxed. After Yamoussoukro the bus stopped anywhere and everywhere for no apparent reason. People would buy fruit from the window and the bus driver would hop out and walk around. At no one point was the bus mobile for more than thirty minutes straight. It was miserable.

The trip was scheduled to take 24 hours, but at around midnight we consulted a map and performed accurate measurements with our fingers to work out that we were pretty close to Abidjan and not so close to Bamako. My legs cramped up, so I took advantage of every stop to stumble outside in a daze and stretch. At one point I realized how tired I was. This thought was immediately followed by the realization that after 18 hours on the bus, we had the same bus driver… Who was probably very tired as well.

Then it started raining and we noticed that the bus was actually speeding up, taking corners like an F-1 race car on a chicane. Was the driver trying to kill us? Instead of building a giant basilica, couldn’t the president have invested a little money in high school physics classes? Or a driver education program? I peered over the driver’s shoulder and discovered why he was going so fast: he had no windshield wipers. Now, we are in rainy season West Africa, it is literally a wall of water outside, and the driver is driving faster so that our speed forces the rain off of his windshield. I leaned over to Gunna and said over the noise of the pelting rain, “I don’t want to alarm you, but there are no windshield wipers.” Gunna was alarmed.

I'm planning to go to Bamako from Abidjan and, although Texas in Africa disputes the claim of being the most miserable bus in the world (on the grounds that the author had a seat and, apparently, no digestive disorders), I'm not sure I'm ready for such a journey. Read the rest of the post here.