Day 118: Man – Yamoussoukro

After 11 nights we leave Man. A totally strange feeling to have stayed in one place for so long, and a totally strange feeling to be “en route” again. We're both not quite fit yet, but it's good that something is changing again.

We drive through rubber plantations, teak plantations, banana plantations and probably also cocoa plantations – we can't always identify it. Côte d'Ivorie/Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer. Plantations are still being built on areas that have been cleared, some of them illegally, and child labor seems to be a huge problem.

We drive to Yamoussoukro and meet Ian and Catherine there who are coming up from Abidjan. We're leaving that out for reasons of time, even though they both absolutely rave about supermarkets that have everything your heart desires, cafes, cinemas, pedestrian crossings where people stop... Ian also got a few spare parts for us there.

There are two sights in Yamoussoukro: The palace of long-time President Felix Houphouët-Boigny, of which you can only see the crocodiles in the palace moat. And the huge cathedral, his gift to the Vatican.

We arrive too late for the cathedral, the crocodiles are real – pretty strange.

There is no campsite in Yamoussoukro and since there are two Nations Cup soccer games today, we stay at the diocese and sweat at night in four small single rooms!

By the way, we didn't eat in the restaurant with the very special menu, but instead took a taxi to an Italian restaurant.