Days 151 to 160
Diary Index
Days 171 to 180
I was woken by the feeling the Landy had just moved. Sleepy as I was, I thought I must have imagined it, until the Landy moved again. A which point I heard someone fiddling with the back door padlock. I took a sneaky peak out of the side window of the tent to see who it was. I could see some one standing there, but could not see their face. I swiftly open the tent door and shouted at the guy, who bolted straight away. I jumped out of the tent, but by that time the guy was long gone. I then checked around and found a pickaxe wedged in the back door padlock. I pulled it out and locked it away inside Kuku Cottage. I then climbed back into the roof tent, but didn’t manage to get back to sleep. So I just lay there dozing until it was time to get up. I told all the people in the compound that morning, and a few had a suspicion they knew who it might be, and would ask around. After having a wash and getting some breakfast, I got on with website stuff. Around late morning I packed up and drove to Busy Internet and along the way fuelled up the Landy. I then spent a little time on the internet before meeting up with Pete. As we had arrange to meet there for lunch the night before. We had lunch, and court up on each others news from the last couple of weeks. After lunch we went back to the internet and I sent my update for the website. I then drove Pete back to his place and after staying a short while I continued on, and went and found the VSO office, which is in the same area. Once there, I wrote and left a notice on the message board, hoping that someone interested would see it. I then drove out of Accra to Big Milly’s in Kokrobite. It took me an hour an a half crawling through the traffic, and so I was glad when I finally got there. I walked straight out onto the beach and sat there drinking a coke, until the sun started to fade. I then set camp and made some dinner. I then spent the rest of the evening talking to various people who where also staying there and enjoyed a few cold beers.
The day did not start well. Whilst making breakfast I noticed I had missed a couple of calls on the mobile. So I positioned in on top of the rear door to get a better signal. Unfortunately when packing up I forgot it was there and closed the door on it, which cracked the screen. The phone still worked but I could not see anything useful on the screen. I walked up the village were the signal was better and phoned Verena and left here a message on her voice mail not to send me any texts for a while. With that done I had wonder around and back down to Big Milly’s. I then spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading and chatting to various people I met around the camp. That evening there was live music in the form of a local drum based band. Who were pretty good and many of the band and the locals took it in turns to dance to the rhythmical beats until late into the night.
After grabbing some breakfast I took a walk down the beach. All the way along boats were coming in the with the days catch and groups of people were haling in nets. I stopped and watched for a while to see what they had court. Further down the beach I came across a small group haling in a net, who looked liked they needed help. They signalled me to come join them, I thought why not and got stuck in. It is a lot harder work than it looks, and everyone on the line really has to pull hard to make any progress. I took over two hours to pull in the 500 meters of net. For my trouble I was given a kilo of prawns, as everyone who helps shares in the catch. I then walked back down the beach to Big Milly’s and boiled up my prawns. I was sat pealing my prawns when I hear a commotion on the beach. As it turned out an American girl had got into trouble in the surf and was getting taken out to sea. Six guys swam out and brought her back in. At least this time this story had a happier ending than the first. After lunch, I chilled out reading, before going in for a swim, had a wash and continued on reading until early evening. I then made some dinner with the freshly catch prawns, which tasted really nice. After which I joined a couple I had got chatting to for desert at the Italian restaurant just round the corner. There we whiled away the evening until late, before returned to camp and going to bed.
After a long over due shave, I had breakfast and the couple from the night before joined me for some English tea. As she was English and he was Ghanaian. I then left Big Milly’s and drove back into Accra, and gave a young Dutch couple a lift in. As they had also been staying at Big Milly’s. Once back in Accra I went round to a photo lab and got some more passport photo’s made. As I had only two left form the ones I did in Morocco. While I was waiting for them to be processed I popped down the road to get more money out. After picking up the photo’s I stopped at one of the street stalls who sold bits for mobile phones, and asked if he could repair mind. He knew of someone who could and we agreed a price (10 pounds), swapped my phone for his, and he went off to get it fixed. During which I sat on the guys stall chatting to his friend. Sure enough the guy came back with a new screen fitted and working. I then drove round to the Nigerian Embassy and applied for the visa. I ended up having to explain my full story, as they wanted to know why I had not got a visa from England before leaving home. But they believed me in the end and told me to come back tomorrow to collect it. I then spent the rest of the afternoon going to different insurance agencies to try and get the Landy insured. As my last local insurance which I bought in Mali had run out. I had no luck as they said they couldn’t insure a foreign registered vehicle. I then drove back to Kuku Cottage, set camp and made some dinner. I then gave Leif a call and met him at Duncan’s for a drink. There we spent the rest of the evening chatting a watching the world go by.
After breakfast I cracked on with some washing and hang it out. I then packed the Landy and drove round to The State Insurance Company, which was my last hope for car insurance. They could not help either, but said it should be possible in Togo. I then went drove down to Busy Internet and spent a hour or so there. I then drove round to the Nigerian Embassy to pick up my visa. After a short wait the guy appeared and returned my passport with the valid visa inside. He had given me two weeks, which was what I had asked for. I then drove straight round to the Togo Embassy and applied for their visa. They said come back later that afternoon. So I called Leif and we met for lunch at Papaya’s. After which we drove down to James Town and had a wonder round the market and back streets. Along the way I bought a new padlock and a second hand skirt and we got to see how most of the people live and work in Accra. Which is a far cry from the air conditioned offices of the select few. By the time we got back to the Landy it was time to go pick up the Togo visa. Along the way I dropped off Leif at his place. I then collected my passport with no problems and returned to Kuku Cottage. After sorting out my washing, I made dinner, read for a while and then went to Duncan’s for a drink and to see who was down there. After around two hours I saw no one I knew and wandered back to Kuku Cottage and went to bed.
The first stop of the day was at the British Embassy, as I wanted to enquire about getting a second passport. After walking down there I found out that the Consular section was closed on Wednesdays. Once back at Kuku Cottage I drove the Landy down to the High Street, where all the banks HQ’s are in Accra. There I got out money from the banks and changed it into Dollars and Euros at the Forex Bureau. With that sorted I drove round to the Benin Embassy and applied for their visa. They told me it would be ready 09:00 the following day. I then drove down to Connect Internet. Once on the internet I saw that the English guys who where travelling down in a Range Rover, had arrived in Accra. I gave Ben a call and we arranged to meet straight away. It was not long after I reached the street side that I saw then coming down the road. I waved them down and we properly introduced our selves. I then went and got my Landy and got them to follow me round to Kuku Cottage, where we left the cars and went back to Papaya’s for a late lunch. Stuff, we walked back to Kuku Cottage where we spent the rest of the evening chatting.
After breakfast and packing up my gear, I drove round the Benin Embassy to collect my passport. They had not done it yet, and after a quick chat to the bloke arrange to come back in half an hour. To kill time I wondered roundthe corner to the Peace Corps HQ to see who was around. The guards on the gate where being a pain in the neck a didn’t want to let me in. But I ran into a volunteer coming out. We got chatting a I explained about my trip and she told me what work she was doing in Ghana. By the time we had finished chatting the half an hour was well up and I popped back to collect my passport, which this time was ready. I then dropped the Landy back at Kuku Cottage and walked round to the British Embassy. I collected the forms to apply for a second passport and went back. I filled it out, sorted money and returned with the Landy. After a prolonged debate they would not give me a second passport on the grounds that there was too many pages remaining in my current passport. So frustrated I drove back to Kuku Cottage, where I found Ben and Steve had returned from there errands. Steve had managed to sort himself a flight back home, but by a costly, 4 day journey via South Africa. But it was the only way, as all the flights direct from Accra were all booked up for months, because of the collapse of Ghana Airways. Ben then suggested that we go to Big Milly’s for the weekend. I didn’t fancy spending the weekend in Accra and I had done all the jobs I needed, so I agreed. After a brief stop at the supermarket to stock up, we drove through the crawling traffic to Big Milly’s. After showing the guys round the place, we set camp and spent the evening chatting a sinking a couple of cold beers.
Steve, Ben and I spent most of the day playing around on the laptops. Steve showed me some very interesting software, which allowed you to use satellite images combine with GPS coordinates to navigate with. In the late afternoon Ben and Me went in for a swim, while Steve went for a walk along the beach. We then chilled out on the sand drinking beer until the sun went down. For dinner we went round the corner to the Italian restaurant, where we tucked into pizza (the best in Ghana) and pasta. After we returned to Big Milly’s we got some wine and got chatting to two Dutch girls. Unfortunately a couple of annoying Ghanaian bloke imposed them selves on us, and it took them quite some time to get the hint to leave. There we stayed for the rest of the evening until we went to bed after a hard days relaxing.
We started the day with one of Big Milly’s cooked breakfast, which was a very close attempt of an English breakfast. Well satisfied we spent most of the morning playing on the laptops and slowly packing up. Late morning we left Big Milly’s and drove back into Accra, first stopping at Busy Internet, spending an hour on the net and getting lunch. After which we drove up to Maxi Mart, had a wonder around and got some drinks. During which Verena called and we chatted for a while. I then said goodbye to Steve and Ben took him to the airport to fly out. I went back into Accra to Kuku Cottage, and got after get there Mum and Dad called and I spent around an hour chatting to them. During which Steve got back from the airport. We then walked down to Ryan’s Pub, as it was Arnica’s leave party, and we had arranged to meet Will there. The evening went with a swing, had dinner there and chatted and drank the night away.
I had a wash, refilled my water jerry’s with filtered water, and used the remaining credit on my mobile to talk to my parents. I then had breakfast at the back of Ben’s Landy, after which I went off to fuel up the Landy and get the prop shafts greased. I then returned back to Kuku Cottage to see if Richard had returned as I was supposed to sell him the mobile SIM card. But he still was not around so I left it with Steve. We then said our goodbyes and swamped contact details. On the road again, at last! I drove out of Accra to Tema and onto the border with Togo. Just before entering the border area I changed my remaining Cedi’s into CFA. It then took an hour to run round all the offices and cross the border into Togo, Lome. I then drove onto Chez Alice and met up with Henry who was camping in the same compound. We chatted for a while and then I made dinner and set camp. I then spent a little time writing my diary before going to bed.
Days 151 to 160
Diary Index
Days 171 to 180