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GHANA
To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.
7th January
We left Ouagadougou for Po and then crossed the Burkina border without any problems.
The customs officer in Ghana however, was very thorough and actually came out to inspect our Land Rover and to question things inside, the first time ever!
He was very courteous once finding that everything was in order and then lengthy details were written out in triplicate with a copy given to us.
One last office to go for a stamp and signature but it was already gone 5 o'clock because of the delay at customs. Whilst waiting however, we were entertained by a very large, Customs lady abruptly ordering a 'hippy' looking guy to open his bags for inspection and then jumping back in alarm on finding they contained a large bird of prey and some scorpions!
He was apparently a 'medicine' man and used these in his shows!
We found the Sacred Heart Catholic Social Centre in Bolgatanga just in time before it got dark and camped in their yard. The security guard and his son settled down a short distance away to watch everything we did and when there was a power cut at 9 p.m. they kindly brought us a candle!
8th January
The church bells began to ring between 8 and 9 a.m. and adults and children arrived wearing their very best clothes for Sunday meetings in the yard, as well as inside a building.
The women looked beautiful in their African prints as did the little girls in their party and bridesmaid type dresses with lacy socks and shiny shoes and clutching little bags.
Some of the boys looked like pageboys with their bow ties and waistcoats.
They were all very curious about us and our vehicle and we had to exchange emails with many of the boys who all wished they could visit England!
We said our goodbyes and headed south, where we followed more slash and burn amongst the savannah vegetation on each side of the road, before reaching the town of Tamale. We have witnessed the palls of smoke from slash and burn all the way from Senegal, in addition to the smoke from burning piles of rubbish, the hundreds of open fires needed for cooking and the smog created by all the traffic.
We stayed at a Catholic Mission Guest House again in Tamale. Lots of trees and shrubs and very quiet. We parked at the end of one of the little roads between the rooms to camp and were given the use of a bathroom. There was another power cut around 9 p.m. again but we had the candle ready!
9th January
Compared to the other countries we have gone through, the north of Ghana appeared much poorer and we were even more aware that we probably looked like a palace on wheels. We received some hard, unsmiling stares from people.
Gone were the beautiful African clothes, apart from church on Sunday. Women now tended to wear various T-shirts and a wrap skirt, girls the same and men, shabby European type shirts and trousers, the result we presumed, of the many shipments of clothes from various charities. Many children were without shoes and wearing very old and tattered clothes.
Villages also looked poorer, herds of cattle when we did see them, were much smaller, as were the herds of goats. Donkeys were hardly ever seen pulling loads, instead people carried everything on their heads or on bicycles or mopeds.
Gone also were the piles of fruit and vegetables for sale at the sides of the road, instead there were piles of firewood, thatching grass, cattle fodder, sacks of charcoal and huge yams. Bread stalls were frequent in the towns selling either 'tea' or 'sugar' bread and there were now complete loaves to be had, although they looked very white and the texture heavy. The tea bread that we bought in Tamale yesterday however, was very tasty but we found it hard to find potatoes or tomatoes, even in the market.
The absence of dogs was also very noticeable but we have been told that dog meat is eaten here.
Money had certainly not been spared however on three enormous churches that we passed.
We left Tamale for Kumasi, following the flat, savannah scenery with its large, blackened areas. It is amazing though, how quickly the new, bright green leaves begin to grow on the charred trees and bushes.
'God Bless you and Goodbye from Kintampo' read the sign as we left this town and where we had seen plenty of oranges, melons, bananas and pineapples for sale.
We now passed green grass verges at the sides of the road and dense, leafy woodland, it could have been England except for the palm, banana and mango trees as far as the eye could see.
Villages were beginning to look more structured now with bungalow-type homes and thatched or corrugated roofs and a few of the houses had gardens.
The countryside became more undulating with wooded hills and various crops were growing in the fields. It was amazing how the scenery could change so rapidly. For the first time, we saw huge bunches of green bananas still on their thick stalks, for sale at the edge of the road.
The tarmac gave way to orange dust, road construction and long traffic jams about 50 kilometres before Kumasi. It must have been horrendous for the villages at the edges of each side of the road, as passing traffic hurled clouds of dust over their homes, although washing still hung out to dry!
The sky began to look very black and we could see lightning in the distance. A few drops of rain quickly turned to a steady downpour (our first since Morocco) and by the time we reached Kumasi the streets were becoming flooded.
Our GPS helped us find the Presbyterian Guesthouse situated high on a hill above the town. A lovely, old, colonial building with a large, grassed area and palm trees at the front, which provided space for camping. The rain had begun to lessen which was just as well because a big, overland truck was also there and everyone had quickly taken all the rooms! We made sure that we didn't park under a palm tree as many of the large and heavy branches had broken off during the storm.
10th - 11th January
We really liked Kumasi and spent two great days exploring the huge, central market..... what an amazing place, although we saw only a fraction of it. It is the largest market in Ghana and one of the largest in West Africa. We became lost amongst the crowds, the hundreds of stalls, the noise and the smells.
I bought some batik cloth and a girl took us through a maze of alleyways to Richmond and Alex who worked in a tiny shed, making clothes with their old Singer sewing machines. Richmond seemed confident that he could copy the trousers that I was wearing just by looking at them. Did he not need any measurements I asked? Apparently not and he promised to deliver them tomorrow to the Presbyterian Guesthouse, as we would never have found his little workshop again!
Two ladies then took us round more alleyways to find some shea butter, a famous skin softener made from a huge nut and very expensive in England. It was amongst the spices (we would never have thought to have looked there), huge, creamy lumps like large slabs of pale cheese. My small portion was cut off and wrapped in paper and cost a tiny fraction of what I would pay in the UK!
It was very hot and humid walking round and there was a long, uphill walk back to the Guesthouse but visits to town were always such sociable outings. Many people called out greetings to us and stopped to talk, nothing was too much trouble for anyone and everything was done with big smiles all round! A great place and my trousers were fine!
12th January
We have been eating well with abundant supplies of bananas, pineapples, melons and papayas from the market and exchanging news with other overlanders. Some of the big overland trucks were also heading down to South Africa but others were turning round after Ghana to head home.
We left Kumasi today and visited Lake Bosumtwi, the largest, natural lake in Ghana filling a crater 8 kilometres in diameter and surrounded by hills, lush greenery and many banana trees. There were beautiful villas amongst the hills all with fantastic views of the lake.
Clouds had gathered on the way again and we had more rain but it cleared the air and cooled the temperature.
We stayed at Hans Cottage Botel, about 20 kilometres from Kakum, with a restaurant built on stilts over water containing crocodiles, although we didn't see them. In the evening the trees by the water's edge were full of little black and yellow birds weaving their nests, which hung down like balls suspended by a thread.
We parked on a tarmac drive in front of a row of rooms and slept in the Land Rover using showers by the large swimming pool. We enjoyed talking to Niels and his wife about his interesting work as a forester in Ghana.
13th January - 15th January
Happy birthday to our daughter Debbie. We hope you have a very special day!
We set out to visit the Kakum National Parc, 360 sq. kilometres of preserved natural rainforest. It also has Africa's first ever built, rope, canopy walkway, 40 metres high and 333 metres long and divided into 7 walkways. The introduction to this, once up in the canopy, was with a fairly easy walkway but once left on your own they became much longer and higher. Although only two people were allowed to walk on them at any time, they creaked and groaned alarmingly and swayed from side to side, this was not for anyone who did not like heights and a few people did turn back! I found that by fixing my gaze on the tree at the end of each walkway and by walking with longer, firmer strides rather than shuffling along clutching the ropes it helped and although I was glad to reach the end of the 7th walkway, it had been an amazing walk with wonderful views from high amongst the canopy of trees.
We met Richard Afful and his family, now living in Botswana but back in Ghana for a holiday. It was lovely to share our adventures with them and we hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday. Thank you for your invitation when we reach Botswana, it would be lovely to meet you all again.
We headed down to the coast that evening and decided to spoil ourselves and spend a couple of days at the very beautiful Coconut Grove Beach Resort. We took a villa situated right on the edge of the sandy, private beach amongst the coconut palms. It was really strange to have our own front door to enter by, a suite of rooms to walk through and the wonderful sound of the waves crashing on to the shore!
We were lucky to share our 2 days at Coconut Grove with some great people, Jack from Tiawan with Angie from Mexico and Dominic and Sheena from Canada. We really enjoyed their company, sharing experiences and Bill his round of golf with Jack! We enjoyed our evening meals around a large table set out on the beach and the food was excellent! We hope you have all returned safely to your home countries as lawyers, doctors and drummers! Thank you all for your good wishes!
All good things must come to an end and we left Coconut Grove after a very relaxing 2 days and entered the real world again.
We took the road to Fort St. Jago to visit the castle of St. George, situated at the end of a rocky peninsular at Elmina. The castle had been built by the Portuguese in 1482, captured by the Dutch in 1637 and then bought by the British in 1872. It is one of the oldest but very well preserved buildings still standing in West Africa and is now a Unesco World Heritage Site. St George, along with the chain of other forts and castles on Ghana's coastline, was originally used as a trading post to store goods brought to the coast such as gold, ivory and spices. However later, as the slave trade took over, it was enlarged and used as a prison for keeping slaves.
We explored the castle including the dungeons. It was dreadful to think how the slaves were kept in such terrible, overcrowded conditions and in almost total darkness, before being shackled and led out of a small, iron- barred door set into one of the walls of the dungeons, to the waiting ships below. The dank smell was overpowering, so after exploring other rooms and parts of the castle, we climbed to the top, where there were wonderful views across to Fort St. Jago on a hill opposite, the shore down below with its boat building yard and then the town of Elmina itself, with its busy port. Crowds of people were everywhere as it was the weekend.
We drove on to Anomabu where we camped on the sand under the coconut palms at the Anomabu Beach Resort. It had its own beautiful, clean sweep of sandy beach, plenty of sunloungers under thatched shades and the huge waves made it great fun for body boarding.
Esther and Allard from Belgium arrived in their ambulance Land Rover and it was great to share news.They were returning slowly to Belgium after a trip through West Africa. We hope you enjoy your return trip and arrive back safely, also Allard's parents, who came out to visit you.
Franka and Jossef from Germany also shared lots of information on Cameroon with us. We hope you also have a great holiday.
17th January
We moved to Big Milly's Backyard a bit further along the coast at Kokobrite, another popular place for backpackers and campers, with a great atmosphere and good food.
Nanje and Jelle arrived in their Toyota after having made their journey through West Africa from Holland.
They are thinking of shipping their vehicle to South Africa, and as we have been undecided as to whether we would be driving or also shipping further south, we decided to investigate the shipping possibilities with them in Tema the next day. It was also to be the start of a good friendship.
18th January
It took us hours to get into the Port area of Tema because of roadworks and chaotic traffic jams into Accra and then Tema itself. After struggling with this for two days to visit various shipping companies, we all decided to find somewhere to stay, closer to Tema.
19th January
We discovered Akwaaba Beach Guesthouse and Resort in Teshie, a delightful place owned by Helene from Switzerland. There was a beautiful garden shaded by large palms in which we could camp and a small private beach area. The food was excellent and served in the garden, it felt as if we were staying in the garden of somebody's private home. All the rooms were full of beautiful fabrics, paintings and wood carvings and we were all made to feel very much at home. Helene's love of animals resulted in many local cats and kittens arriving and then staying with her and every day the row of little bowls in the back garden seemed to grow longer!
We met Joyce and David at Akwaaba, they had taken over a year to drive to Ghana from the UK and were now going to settle there for a while. They have bought their own piece of land by the beach and plan to have their own home built there.
21st January
Nanja and Jelle sadly had to return to Holland today but plan to be back in South Africa in July. 'Jeffrey' their Toyota, will be stored in a container with the shipping company 'Exel' in Tema until they are ready to have it shipped to South Africa. We do hope that we will meet you again somewhere soon, but we will keep in touch!
25th - 27th January
We still continued to relax comfortably at Akwaaba. We have been frequent visitors to Osu in Accra for the Internet Cafes and where we were introduced to Ryan's Irish Pub for beers, steak pie and mash and Frankies for very good shwarmas, milk shakes, fresh juices and wonderful ice cream!
We visited the Arts Centre and bought some beautiful, wooden, male and female masks with decorative metal work, that we were told celebrated the Yam Festival. Also the lively and colourful Makola Market to look at the beautiful batik fabric and glass beads. I loved these markets, full of colour, crowds and noise with stalls in every possible space displaying everything imaginable!
28th January
Today is National Cleaning Day and everyone was out sweeping the streets and cleaning out sewers! Even the school children clad in their uniforms were out in the streets with brooms, getting covered in dust and dirt. Bonfires were everywhere. We met Peter James as we left the supermarket in Osu and being a Land Rover enthusiast, he was interested in hearing about our trip. To our surprise we discovered that he worked for Hull Blythe, one of the shipping agents that we had visited in Tema with Nanje and Jelle. Having lived in Angola for a number of years, he kindly offered to meet up with us in the next few days to help with advice on the next stage of our journey.
31st January
We visited the Aburi Botanical Gardens today, about 38 kilometres north east of Accra and situated in the lush Akwapim Hills, over 400 metres above sea level. An avenue of tall, elegant palms stretched from the main entrance. Paths then led through numbered lawn areas with many different species of plants, some native to West Africa, others from different parts of the world, some endangered. The enormous, silk cotton trees were very interesting with their huge, buttress roots. The wood, roots, flowers, fruits and seeds of many of the trees all had their uses, some medicinal. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet of the gardens and when clouds which had gathered over the distant hills brought a sudden downpour, we sheltered under huge, banana leaves to keep dry. There were many beautiful, old, colonial buildings in the grounds, the largest of which, was originally a Sanatorium, built in 1875 for convalescing Government Officials. Most of the buildings however, were sadly in need of some restoration to return them to their former glory.
Our day was complete with a great evening spent with Peter James and his delightful son Louis. We were invited back to their lovely home for an excellent meal, where we shared our adventures, Peter having had many, after living in various parts of Africa for some years. He also conveyed really positive thoughts about our next stage of driving through Nigeria and down to Angola before entering Namibia. However we would really like to to try and join up with other overlanders who are attempting this stretch, rather than doing it on our own.
5th February
We left Akwaaba at 7 a.m. today to spend a day in Peter's boat on the River Volta at Ada Foah, about 120 kilometres east of Accra.
We stopped to look at the beach at Ada Foah, almost deserted, with huge waves and crumbling, old, colonial buildings. These must have looked wonderful in their time, but today were disappearing in a mist rolling off the sea and looking a bit like a ghost town. Ada did however, boast a very large and impressive church and people were drifting inside for the morning service.
Our day on the river, followed by a barbeque with an excellent bottle of South African wine, on a deserted stretch of beach near to where the river flowed out into the open sea, was certainly another highlight of our trip. Many thanks Peter and Louis for being able to share so many experiences with you in one day and for your great company again!
8th - 9th February
Emergency dental treatment was needed for Bill to repair a broken tooth and Peter had recommended Dr Dennis Ilogu from Nigeria, at The Beaver Clinic Dental Practice in Accra. We quickly got an appointment for an inspection, X-rays and a verdict and the next day a finished crown was fitted, thanks to a very sophisticated and expensive piece of equipment sitting in the surgery and an excellent dentist of course! All finished in 2 days and now pain free!
Bill was very impressed and we would certainly recommend this Practice to anyone needing dental treatment. Dr Ilogu was very interested in our journey and came outside to look at our Land Rover.
Many thanks for such an excellent job and for helping us out so quickly!
12th February
We returned to Big Milly's for the day to meet up with some more overlanders who were planning to drive south, Charlotte, Craig and Sebastian. Our plans however, did not quite tally, as they wanted to spend much longer exploring the countries from Nigeria to Angola, so we wished them a safe journey and maybe we will see them in South Africa.
Safe travels also to Si from Yorkshire who had driven down in a VW Dormobile - great vehicles!
We also spent some time chatting to Andy from South Africa who was returning by motorbike to his home country and had many interesting stories to tell. Whilst in Mali he had travelled with one of the camel caravans from Timbuktu to the salt mines in Taoudenni and back again, a total of 36 days living as a Taureg. He has promised to send us more details about his trip later and I can't wait to receive them!
To date then, we have not been successful in finding another vehicle to link up with for the next stage of our trip. Do we continue into Togo and Benin? The rains will soon be beginning in Angola and roads there can become impassable so we have to decide quickly.
16th February
We shared a meal at Akwaaba this evening with Peter and Lieve from Belgium who are also staying there whilst spending 6 weeks in Ghana. We really enjoyed your company and wish you all the very best with your new restaurant which we will certainly visit if we are ever in Belgium.
17th February
For various reasons, we have finally made the decision to ship our vehicle with Exel in Tema to Durban, South Africa. This was never our original plan but we console ourselves with the idea, that it may be possible to drive back through the missed countries on our return journey, although that of course, will depend upon our route. We took Moby to Exel in the morning and put him safely into a container. We then completed the necessary paper work with Frank who was dealing with the shipping arrangements.
Back at Akwaaba, we had lunch with Raphael who has plans to eventually drive back to Spain. He has kindly offered to take us to the airport when we are ready. We have got to know a lot of very interesting people during our stay in Ghana, some for a short time and others for longer. Our Land Rover has created a lot of interest and conversation amongst the local people in Ghana. People have frequently stopped to ask about our vehicle, expressing a real interest in our travels and many locals have leaned out of their car windows whilst waiting at traffic lights to admire Moby. The steering wheel on the right hand side has always been regarded with great humour!
Moby has been our home and performed faultlessly throughout our entire trip so far and we are going to be extremely sad to have to be parted from each other for a while.
We hope that Exel, the shipping agent in Tema will take good care of him!
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