Liberia - Ivory Coast | Harper - Tabou information
 

The internet seemed pretty quiet on this crossing, so I figured I'd make a thread about this route.

The border formalities are no problem and everyone was pretty nice on the Liberian side. The only issue was after I was informed that the ferry is "commercial" (read unregulated and they don't care if he ****s you). I should honk at the water's edge and he'll come get me.

After talking to the ferry guy he said it was $50, which I scoffed at and said I would pay something reasonable or wait for the UN ferry which was docked 10 meters away. He wasn't interested in negotiating at all and he took the ferry back across the river (a 5 minute trip).

After waiting two hours for the UN ferry, it was about 5pm and I figured that I needed to get across or risk camping in the no mans land. I grabbed a $20 and the money I had in my pocket, which come up to $32 and honked for him again.

This time I drove up on the ferry before telling him that I didn't have the $50. Obviously I did, but there was NO way I was paying that much to get on this hunk of shit:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...0/IMG_3702.JPG

After about 30 minutes of talking and calling his boss, which actually made me feel better because it meant that it wasn't a complete scam on me, but in fact on everyone, he finally agreed to take me across.

Once on the Ivorian side, the immigration official told him to take me back because it was 5:45 and he was done for the day! Keeping in mind that I was at the other side of the border for over 3 hours and not a single other person had been through, so odds are this asshole only does about 10 minutes of work a day.

After telling him I'd happily sleep on the ferry and deal with the formalities in the morning, he got his stamp out and let me through. I ended up camping about 20 minutes down the road and finally I'm in Abidjan!