I woke, had breakfast and set about refilling my water cans. During which Bas and Ellie said goodbye and left to drive to Tema. As they had arranged to meet the shipping agent and put the car into a container for its journey to South Africa. They gave me the details and directions to the place they were going to stay at in Accra. As I could also camp there and it is close to the main street in Osu. Which is were we planned to meet each other later in the day. It was around 10:00 by the time I had finished filling the water cans and had packed the Landy. I left Aylos Bay and headed for Accra. The first part was a nice drive but I was all to soon snarled up in a traffic jam on the outskirts of Accra. The bonus of this situation was that I had plenty of time to work out where in the city I was, and therefore work out which turnings to take to get to the places I wanted to go. The first place I went was a branch of Barclays Bank to see if I could use my MasterCard to get a cash advance. Once there I was told that it could only be done at the head office branch, on the other side of town. Because of the traffic situations I figured it would be better to try the find the Land Rover garage first, which was reported to be not far from where I was. So I set off to find the Land Rover Garage, and spent two hours driving around trying to find it and asking people for directions. In the end I gave up and headed down ward the coast and the head office branch of Barclays. It took around 40 minutes to finally get the cash in my hand. Which turned out to be bundles of cash, as 1 pound is 16,600 Cedi and they like to give it to you in notes of 5,000. I had been warned about this and was the reason I had brought my small rucksack into the bank with me. By this time it was late afternoon and so I set about driving round and finding the Kuku Cottage, which I had been given directions to. After getting a bit lost and then doing circles in the back streets I eventually managed to find the place. Bas and Ellie weren’t there yet and so after checking with the owner that it OK to camp, went for a walk around the main street in Osu. One the lads from the compound called Richard kindly decided to tag along and show me around. In the process I stopped and called Jason (the guy I met at Aylos Bay) to see if they (him and the girls) were still planning to go out that night for a few drinks. Indeed they were and we arranged to meet in a local bar. On returning to Kuku cottage I found Bas and Ellie had turned up. I told them of my plans and we all left to meet the others. We arrived at the bar a bit early, and so order dinner. I was not to long before the others showed up and they joined us for dinner. After which we moved on to another bar called Duncan’s and spent the rest of the evening there drinking and chatting until late.
I woke early and someone in the compound thought it was a good idea to sweep the area at the crack of dawn. The swishing sound being one of those hard noises to ignore. I had some breakfast and once Bas was up and about we went down the internet café. We spent two hours there and then went for some lunch. The bonus of staying close to the Osu main high street is that there are loads of places to eat at, serving everything you could possibly want. After a nice lunch, I returned to the Kuku cottage and worked on website stuff for the rest of the afternoon. I often surprises me just how much time it takes to write up the diary and short out the gallery page. I then had a snack for dinner and carried on with website stuff until late. I then went for a quick beer with Bas before returning and crawling into the roof tent.
After again getting woken early by the mad compound sweeper. I spent most of the day in the internet café. I up loaded the updates for the site I had been working on. Down loaded various things. Checked up on other overlanders sites, answered and wrote e-mail’s and also posted messages on Lonely Planets and the HUBB notice boards. The message I posted out lined my intension to drive down the west coast, and the fact that I wanted to meet other overlanders to do it with. I hoped that other overlanders would be checking the same sites for other information and would see my message. I guess time will tell. Early evening me, Bas and Ellie headed down to a Irish theme pub called Ryans Pub. As they had a big TV and where showing the Netherlands vi Portugal Euro 2004 semi-final. We had dinner there and by the time the match started a large Dutch crowd and formed to watch the game. Unfortunately for them Portugal won 1-0, which gave them an excuse to drink given more beer. But never the less we had a fun evening.
Once up and about I done some washing and then took a walk around the area and did some shopping. Not all the shops were open as 1st July is Republic Day and a national bank holiday. I returned to the Kutku cottage and then went with Bas to the internet café. We spent the rest of the morning there and then went for lunch. I returned to the cottage and carried on playing on the Laptop. Early evening we again made our way round to Ryan’s Pub and this time ran into some other overlanders. They were a German couple that had driven down with a converted fire truck. It was in fact based on the same type as Werner had, the German bloke I met in Senegal and Gambia. Unfortunately they had to fly home to sort out some problems they had with a business they own. But where going to leave the truck with friends and return later to carry on their trip. Shortly before they left we moved inside the pub and had dinner whilst keeping an occasional eye on the football to see who was going to play in the final.
I woke, had breakfast and packed up my gear. Then drove across Accra and round the area I was told the Land Rover garage was. After a couple of laps of the area and a few turn offs here and there, I finally found the garage. It looked promising, as it was a clean modern building with new cars in the display room and a massive workshop at the rear. I approached one of the salesmen and explained that I was looking for a spare wheel carrier. He took me to see the head mechanic and he found all the appropriate parts numbers etc on the computer. Through one thing and another I then had to wait for an hour for the quote to be processed and then it was not complete. But the price they gave even for the partial quote was just ridiculous. So much so I laughed at the guy and walked out. On the way back to Kuku Cottage I stopped at the Total service station to get the prop shafts greased. Matt (the English backpacker I gave a lift to) spotted the Landy and came over to say high. He explained he had been to the Nigerian embassy and you could get a visa issued with no problems. Which is good new if I continue to drive down the coast. We went and had lunch together and court up on each other’s adventures and current plans. I then spent the rest of the afternoon in the internet café before returning to Kuku cottage. The last half of the day my stomach had started to feel progressively bad. Combined with the fact I had never been able to shake having the runs since I was ill with the bad water, I decided some thing needed to be done. I then went round to one of the local pharmacies and explained the problem. They gave me a broad spectrum antibiotic to short it. Within a couple of hours of taking the first pills my stomach was feeling a lot better. We then all went and had dinner at one of the local restaurants and spent the rest of evening at Duncan’s (street bar).
I woke and went to buy some bread for breakfast, had breakfast and spent the morning chatting and working on website stuff. Which included playing around with the backgrounds and type fonts to try and make the diary and other text easier to read. Bas and me went and got some lunch and then went round he internet café. Tyrie, one of Verena’s housemates from Exeter, had responded to my e-mail and had arrived in Accra. She also gave a time and place she would be that night for us to meet up. She had spent the last couple of months working for a NGO east of Lake Volta. Unfortunately she felt she had made very little difference to the people she was supposed to help and was a bit disillusioned will the whole thing. When we had finished in the internet café we walked back to Kuku cottage dropped of the laptops and met Ellie. We then all went down to Ryan’s Pub, which was where Tyrie said she would be. Sure enough she was there. We spent the rest of the evening having dinner together, chatting about what we had been up to and our plans for the future. It was only a same that I was on the antibiotics and could not drink. But none the else we had a great evening and didn’t leave the pub until after 12.
I woke late, had breakfast and carried on working on website stuff for an hour or so and then went down the internet café with Bas. We spent the rest of the morning there and after dropping off the laptops we headed back to Cantonments road (Osu, main street) to find some where for lunch. Along the way we ran into a Dutch guy we had got chatting to the night before in Ryan’s Pub. He was working in Accra as a website designer. He told us of a nice place to eat and he joined us for lunch. On the way back we done a bit of shopping and buy that time it was long before we had to meet Tyrie. As we round the corner of the street to get to Duncan’s, we spotted her walking up ahead. We catch up with her at Duncan’s and stayed and had a drink and chatted. We then all walked back to Kuku cottage to pick up Ellie and returned to Duncan’s and wait for Will to show up. Will was working in Accra and knew Tyrie from when they where at Uni together. It was not long before he turned up and explained that he was still feeling a bit rough from the night before. So we stayed for another drink before moving on to Ryan’s Pub. Once there we found our selves a prime spot in front of the TV as they were showing the football finals of Euro 2004. Bas was rooting for the Greeks as it was the Portuguese that had knocked Holland out. To everyone’s surprise the Greece won 1-0. During all this we had dinner and had a few beers and all in all had a great evening.
I woke, had breakfast and slowly packed up. As I had arranged to meet Tyrie before I left and I want to wait around until Bas and Ellie were up to say goodbye to them. On queue Tyrie turned up and we spent around an hour chatting before we said our goodbyes ass all of them were flying out that evening. Tyrie to Edinburgh and Bas and Ellie to South Africa. Because of delays with shipping their car they were not sure if they would get the papers before they left. I had said I was going to Anomabu Beach Resort and that was where the Belgium couple who were also shipping there car on the same boat, where staying. Bas wrote out a short letter and told me what they looked like, so that if they were still there I could pass the information on. I finally left and crawled my way through the traffic and west out of Accra. Once out on the open road it was easy going again, and it only took a couple of hours driving to reach Anomabu and find the beach resort. Once I had signed in and found a spot to park the Landy I went to look for the Belgium couple. It was not hard at all as they were having lunch in the restaurant. I introduced my self and explained I had a message for them from Bas and Ellie, handed them the note and relayed all the information. I joined them and another guy called Frank for lunch and we spent a lot of the afternoon chatting. Late afternoon I decided I would take advantage of the free use of the body boards and went surfing for an hour or so. It was hard work as I hadn’t been surfing for ages and there were no clear rips to help you get out behind the waves. So it was a constant battle to reach the beak line. But still I managed to catch a few rough waves and enjoyed just being in the surf again. I then had a shower, and after making dinner, joined Serge, Carol and Frank in the bar/restaurant. We wiled away the evening and Frank explained all about his for a medical NGO in Cote De Ivory. It sounded like there was never a dull moment and it was obvious that he got real satisfaction from his work and felt he was making a real difference to the lives of the people they helped. I was late by the time I crawled into my roof tent and fell asleep to the sound of the waves pounding the shore.
After waking to the sound of a falling coconut, I had some breakfast and sat on the beach reading my book. Serge and Carol came to say goodbye and to have a quick look around the Landy before they went. They said they knew of other overlanders who where on there way down and would send me there e-mail address. After they left I notice a newly fallen coconut near the Landy. I decided to have crack at trying to open it. I done the shack test and there was liquid inside, which is a good sign of it being ripe. I went a got my machete and carefully started to remove the husk. After a bit of effort, prising and twisting the husk came off. I was then left with the brown hard shell and a couple of swift whacks with the machete split it in two. I didn’t manage to catch a lot of the liquid but what I did catch tasted good. I then cut out and tried the white inner, which was really good. I then cut out and washed the rest of the coconut and put it in the fridge for later. All this time a passing American tourist had been watching me and was amazed, as he never knew coconuts had an outer husk. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on website stuff and only stopped for lunch. The rest of the afternoon I spent walking along the beach westward to a fishing village. Where I stopped for a while and watched them launch the boats to go a set the nets. There was one hairy moment when one of these massive 20 meter canoes they were trying to launch was court by a wave, turned sideways and thrown onto the rocks. It took 20+ men to haul it round the right way by pulling on ropes attached to the front. Which their second attempt they were successful it breaking through the waves and out into smoother waters. Which was made even more difficult by the smallness of the outboard motor they were using. On my way back I got a closer look at some of these massive canoes, as some were being worked on above the high tide line. Once back at the beach resort I tried to call home to wish my Mum happy birthday, but couldn’t get through. I then walked into the village of Anomabu along the road, done some shopping and looked around for a communication centre. All the ones I found didn’t do international calls. Once back at the beach resort I tried again from reception, this time got through, but was greeted by the answer machine. So I left a message and said I would call later in the week. I then returned to the Landy, made and ate dinner before retiring to the roof tent to read before going to sleep to the soothing sound of the waves.
I got up, changed into my swim gear, picked up a board and dived into the surf. I spent an hour or so paddling around and catching what little corners sprung up here and there. Even though the waves are quite big, because of the shape of the beach, in most cases, the whole wave breaks at the same time. This has the added effect of not producing any strong rips to help carry you out. So I made the best of the smaller and random corners closer to shore. It was all good fun and I came out the water tried but happy. After a quick shower to wash the salt off, and had a relaxed breakfast. Then moved into the bar/restaurant and cracked on with website stuff. I spent the rest on the day there until 16:00 and only stopped to enjoy a nice lunch. During this I had got chatting to the manageress of the site who was very interested in my plans. I then made a cup of tea and sat by the beach reading for a while, until the light started to fade. I set about making dinner, which was Yam and soup. I had never cooked Yam before and so check with the chef how to cook it. It is a root vegetable and you can do all the same things with it as potatoes. Once cook to my tastes it even tastes like sweet potato and has a similar constancy. Never the less in was a nice change from the usual pasta or rice that normally accompanies my camp cooking. After dinner I spent the evening pouring of maps and the Lonely Planet, deciding where I would head next, and after that read my book, until I felt tired and went to bed.