Days 141 to 150
Diary Index
Days 161 to 170
First job of the day was to get on with some washing. Namely my bed cover as it is always a chore as it takes ages to wash and dry. That done, I cracked on with work on the website and spent all day finishing an update and getting ready for it to be uploaded. In the evening, after dinner, I again went round the corner to Duncan’s to meet the American Peace Core group for a few drinks and a chat.
Again I started the day by dong some washing. This time, the second bed cover. I never like washing them together in case they are not dry by the evening for me to sleep on. The rest of the morning I spent putting the final touch’s to the website update and burned it onto CD. After lunch I then walked the couple of Km down to Busy internet café, and spent two hours there uploading the update and checking/replying to e-mail. As I walked my way back, I stopped at a couple of travel agents that I spotted and enquired about flights to South Africa. As I feared the flights were not cheap and ranged from 850 to 1200 US Dollars. I arrived back at Kuku Cottage around 18:00ish, got some dinner and got changed. I then went with one of the guys from the compound for a walk into town. As all week there was a festival to celebrate the harvest, and so there was stages with live music and plenty of bars playing loud music. The festival started after the first of the current settlers arrived in Ghana. As at first they had no food and when they harvested there first year of crops they celebrated, and ever since then they have celebrated every year. Now, at least it the city, I think it is jus an excuse for a party. I enjoyed the walk around the streets and through the bustling crowd. But because of the walking earlier in the day I was tried and didn’t stay long. On the way back I stopped in at Duncan’s for and Coke and a quick chat to the Americans, before going off to bed.
After checking in the Land Rover manual to see how much oil I needed I went of down the garage to buy engine and gearbox oil. Once back at Kuku cottage I borrowed a couple of buckets off the neighbours and changed the engine oil and oil filter. I then drained and changed to the gearbox oil with help from one of the guys in the compound. As you have to use a pipe and funnel to get the oil into the filler hole. With that done I packed away my gear and went and had some lunch, before driving down to the main Total garage on the ring round. As they don’t have the 80/90W gear oil for sale in cans, and only have it in barrels to change it at the service stations. There I got the guys to change the transfer box and differential oils. It cost me 140,000 Cedi, which is less than 10 pounds. I then topped up on Diesel and drove on to the Motorola workshop. As I wanted to see if they any VHF radio antenna connects to fix the broken one’s on my two radios sets. Unfortunately they only had the one, so I just got one changed. I drove back to Kuku Cottage and made dinner before spending the evening at Duncan’s again chatting to the Americans.
After the usual get up routine, I spent the morning changing the front brake pads. As the old ones were really worn out, and was a straightforward job. I then checked the rear brake shoes to fine that they were also worn out, but there was also oil leaking from the hub. I checked the other side and it was just starting to leak as well. After packing up my gear I got some lunch and then drove down to the Land Rover dealers to see if they had some hub seals and brake shoes. They had the seals but no brake shoes. So I bought the seals and drove back, along the way stopping at the internet café. Once back it was too late to start work on changing the seals, and so after dinner I settled in for an evening of playing around on the computer and listening to music.
I got an early start and spent most of the morning changing one of the rear inner hub seals and removing the old brake shoes. I then took the brake shoes down the road to have them relined. I then went and had some lunch at Papaya’s and whilst there I met a Norwegian guy called Leif. He had come to Ghana to see what the opportunities were to live and work here, and whether he liked the place. I then went back and changed the remaining rear inner hub seal on the other side. By the time I had finished it was time to pick up the brake shoes. This I did and once back refitted and adjusted them. I then gave the brakes a quick test by driving the Landy up and down the compound and they proved to be working well again. As I had most of my stuff out of the back, I got out the water filter and refilled all my water containers. I then went and had a shower got some dinner and went and met Leif for a drink. It was late by the time I came back and I was really tired from all the work that day and soon was in bed fast asleep.
When I woke it was raining outside, and a I was in no rush to get up and sat reading a listening to music for a while. After breakfast I spent all morning working on website stuff. After lunch I met Leif who came round to have a look at the Landy and my trip pictures. We then went down the internet café, were I showed Leif the laptop zone. I spent around an hour there and Leif went off home. After dinner I carried on writing up diary entries on the laptop, before jumping in the roof tent and reading for the rest of the evening.
I had a wash and shave and because it was raining I stayed inside and got on with some website stuff on the laptop. After a couple of hours the rain has lightened to a light drizzle, and so I went for a walk to the British embassy. I managed to find a direct route through the back streets, which was a bonus. Once there I went and saw the foreign consulate section to get travel advice for Nigeria. The lady there kindly printed out the information from the Foreign Common Wealth website, and also included the information for Cameroon and Gabon. Strangely enough the only other two people in the room where from Nigeria and I asked them a few questions to get a local view of the situation. They overall answer was be careful and don’t go out at night. I then walked back to Cantonments road and a restaurant/bar called Monsoon. As I was thinking of going there for my birthday meal. Unfortunately the rumour I heard about it being closed for staff holidays was true. Slowly I made my way along the street toward Papaya’s. Going in and out of various shops along the way, checking them out and dodging the rain, which was now coming down heavier. Once there I had lunch, during which I got chatting to a local businessman. I then wandered back to Kuku Cottage and spent the rest of the day until late evening working on website stuff. As I decided to finally try and complete the vehicle pages of the website. Which was something that I didn’t get to complete before I left home.
When I woke it was raining, so I heated some water and had a wash and shave. After which Mum and Dad phoned to wish me a happy birthday and we chatted for over and hour. During which I opened the birthday cards that Mum had sent along in the parcel I had received a couple of weeks before. They where really nice, both were hand made, with pictures of the Landy on the front and a message inside. One was made by my mum and the other by my Aunty. After I had finished the call, Richard one of the guys who lives around Kuku Cottage also gave me a birthday card and some little doughnut balls. I then spent a while reading before Verena phoned. It was nice to hear voice and we chatted for a while. I then carried on reading for the remainder of the morning. I then had lunch and as the weather had improved and the sun was out, I decided to go for a walk down the beach. I got my stuff together and off I went. I walk straight to the beach front and hoped I could then walk along the water edge to Labadi beach. I soon found out this was not possible, as most of the coast along the edge of the city running east was used as a dumping ground. So I made my way back to the main round and walked along there. It wasn’t until I was right at Labadi beach that I could get to and walk along the sand. As beach go it was O.K. and there was a little wave and you could hire body boards. But I just relaxed on the beach for a while, before getting bugged by a hawker and deciding to walk back. By the time I got back I was soaked through with sweat and had to go have a quick wash. I then settled down with a cup of tea and read until it was time to get changed and meet Will and Leif for dinner. Once all together we wandered down to Noble House Chinese restaurant and had a great meal there. We even treated our selves to a bottle of red wine, with was very nice. After dinner we walked down to Ryan’s pub for a few beers. Leif went home early and me and Will stayed until the small hours, and both left Ryan’s a little worse for wear. All in all it had been an enjoyable birthday.
Unsurprisingly, I woke to find I had a hangover, and could still taste that nasty chilli vodka in my mouth. I had a bucket shower, which helped me to wait up and made me feel better. For breakfast I just had 2 litres of water, and then went off down the internet café. After a brief wait for the connection to come back on, I checked my e-mail and message boards. I found a couple of positive messages and made arrangements to try and meet a couple of potential co-travellers. I then went for lunch at Frankies and had a big burger and chips, which sorted out the remainder of the hangover. After lunch I went and checked out the price of bicycles, but they were expensive for what they were, did some food shopping and went back to Kuku Cottage. I then spent the rest of the day working on website stuff, and only stopped briefly for dinner. I spent the last part of the evening chatting to some Dutch teaching volunteers, two of which were staying at Kuku Cottage in one of the rooms. They were over for a three month posting and would be teaching in primary schools in and around Tamale.
I made egg fried bread for breakfast, for a change, washed my tea towels and cleaned all my cooking stuff. I then spent some time sharpening my machete and other knifes. As they had become blunt just through use. During which I chatted to one of the guys from the compound. I then gave Leif a call and went to meet him for lunch. We went to Osu food court and I had a pizza. After that I showed Leif where the second hand bookshop was, and left him there to find one he liked. I then went back to Kuku Cottage and carried on working on the information I wanted to add to the website. Around early evening Will called and invited me for a drink at Sevens Bar. As he was already down there with someone who used to go to the same school as him back in England. So we spent the rest of the evening there chatting about what each other was doing in Ghana. During which Pete called to say he was back in town and we arrange to meet the following day. It was quite late buy the time I got back and was soon sound asleep.
Days 141 to 150
Diary Index
Days 161 to 170