A traveler on a plane sees the
farmhouse….and thinks of home.
**Carl Burns**
Today we were leaving Accra. Unlike other tours, any of them actually, we
weren’t leaving first thing in the morning as we weren’t travelling very far
today, so we had a free morning and then we were to meet back at the hotel at
1pm to then head down to the shops for some food shopping and then we would be
on the road after that. Pat and I were
up for breakfast at 8am, and you need to allocate at least 1 hour for this as
the service is not that fast and after breakfast we were off to the main drag
at 9.30am. This morning I had some high
finances to sort out, as I had to make sure I had enough Ghanaian cedes to get
me through the next 3 days, I needed to get my local payment out, which Sam was
happy to accept in the form of cedes, and then I needed some more money so that
I could exchange it into West African francs for the following 2 weeks in Benin
and Togo, which thankfully use the same currency. So after transferring money onto cards this
morning, we choofed off to the ATM for me to withdraw some funds. I passed a few ATM’s to go back to Barclays,
due to the fact that in Kenya their withdrawal limit is higher than other
banks, I hoped that this was also the case in Ghana and I was right. The ATM last night gave me 600GHS (300AUD)
and the Barclays let me take out 800GHS (400AUD) at one time. After using my card for the first time, it
wouldn’t let me use it again and I had left my other card back at the
hotel. Dang. So I met up with Pat and Patty at the Forex
Bureau, where I had dropped them off, and they had forgotten to bring their
cash, so I exchanged what I could get out into West African francs, walked back
to the hotel with Patty and Eve got my other ATM card, and walked back to
Barclays, withdrew more money and then back to the Forex to get that exchanged
also into West African francs. As it
worked out after a few of us had been there, the guy had run out of the WAF and
could only change ½ of the Ghanaian money and now I was left with a wad of
that, which I will hopefully be able to change when we come back to the capital
in 3 weeks, otherwise, Sam my money savior, said he can swap them for me into
WAF. I just HATE having to juggle all
this money and doing double exchanges on it all, when I am normally more
organized than this, but shit happens and I just have to work with what I
have. But it sucks all the same and I
hate feeling disorganized.
At 1pm we carried all our bags downstairs to load up the
truck who was introduced to us as ‘Madge’.
I love that the trucks have names, but really, Madge? I’m pretty sure Tucan have a South American
truck named Madge, but I would prefer a name than a no name truck like the one
we were on a month ago for the Kenya Wildlife trip-all trucks should have a
name. So the bags on Madge, are stored
in a back locker of the truck along with the tents and with Sam climbing up to
the locker (which is a standing room section at the back of the truck) and we
passed our bags up to him along with our sleeping bags. Due to the way the truck was parked at the
hotel, it was difficult to get into the cabin of the truck, so Sam, again,
climbed up to take our hand luggage from us to get it all out of the way so we
could head to the supermarket. So being
a self-proclaimed seat Nazi, I knew exactly where I wanted to sit on the truck
and it was like waving a candy to a kid not being able to get into the
truck. But I figured that one-one could
so all the ‘good seats’ weren’t getting snapped up. Well this was proved wrong as the skinny
string beans could fit through the door, so I got Patty to place my bag on one
of the seats and I felt better that I had the seat that I wanted for at least
the next 3 weeks. The beauty of the
Dragoman truck is that they are drop windows, so no matter where you sit, you
will always have a window that opens.
That is AWESOME, and after getting on the truck there really is no ‘bad’
seat anyway.
So with our bags loaded, we had a quick chat about the
truck and then were run through how the meals would work on the trip. Basically all the clients are the shoppers
and the cooks. We got split into groups,
and as there are 7 of us, we are in 3 groups, and I had Patty, Hadjit and
myself in ‘team one’. We were then given
the task of cooking dinner tonight, and breakfast and lunch tomorrow. We were the first crew off the rank. The other two teams of 2, were also given the
same tasks, but would follow after us in the coming days. I was a little miffed that besides the
budget, we weren’t really given any guidelines on how much to buy and what to
cook. I would have thought that maybe
they would have had cookbook we could have a flick through to glean some ideas
at least from what people on other trips had done, but no-we were to come up
with our own things and just guestimate what we would need. I think because it was a new concept for me
it was a little hard to grasp, but by the time we had walked to the supermarket
we had ideas on what we wanted to cook and I felt much better that we had a
game plan. I was back on board. So armed with 150GHS (75AUD) for 9 people for
3 meals it works out to be 25AUD per meal and broken down again 2.77AUD per
person per meal. It doesn’t sound much
and even after shopping at what seemed a very expensive supermarket getting
everything we needed for the meals, Patty had calculated our total as 161GHS
and after going through the checkout the total came to 160.82GHS so we were
almost exact with our calculations and pretty happy that we were only 10.82GHS
(5.41AUD) over budget. The other teams
were also over budget with Patrick and Eve also over 10GHS and Andy and Pat
over 40GHS (20 AUD) but we are cutting Andy’s team a little slack as he is one
of the few ‘cooks’ of the group and we will be expecting BIG things from their
meal on Tuesday night!!! No pressure of
course!!!!
After carrying all our shopping back to the hotel the
system on the truck for the food is inspirational to say the least. As we are all in groups and cooking different
things, to keep all our stuff separated the fridge was big enough to have 4
plastic containers which was enough for one for each group that was numbers and
we were able to put our cold stuff in there and in one of the lockers of the
truck, again there are grey crates that are numbered 1-4 where we could store
our non-perishables. It is a great system
and then while people were sorting out there shopping a few of us doubled back
to the shops for a ‘grog’ run with me buying a bottle of vodka for 14AUD and
some soft drink and back to the truck again for a brief of the inside of Madge,
before finally hitting the road. While
at the bottle shop I did see a 3L bottle of Smirnoff Vodka for 150GHS (75AUD)
which I think is cheap as chips and I thought for a micro minute to buy it, but
realized it was crazy town and bough the more sensible bottle. I finally got onto the truck and it is
smaller than what I have been on before, which is not a bad thing. The thing that is the biggest and most
challenging thing is the way you get on and off the truck. None of these fold down steps like on
Intrepid, or very steep steps like on Tucan, it is a 2 rung ladder. Yep, ladder and it will be a challenge for me
to haul myself up and down that sucker each day and if there isn’t a better
reason to lose some weight, will be that ladder. There are 2 handles that you can hold onto to
help you in and out and also a hand rail once you have made the second rung,
but a challenge it will be all the same.
Inside, there are only 18 seats and they are a little
squishy, but certainly comfortable and no overhead space to speak of with
hanging nets to put all your stuff. It
is a good and bad thing as there isn’t a lot of room to stash crap and a bad
thing as there is not a lot of room to store crap. Sam and Zoe had gone to a lot of trouble to
firstly clean the truck as she had been sitting dormant for the last 5 months
in Accra and then they had also tapped all the national flags of the 9
countries that we would be travelling to and there would have been over 100
individual travelling quotes also tapped to the roof for us to read and
appreciate. There is a message board at
the front of the cab where there is a map of West Africa and highlighted out
trip through to Senegal, the truck rules, the 5 overland rules, some general
information and also an information pocket where Sam will place the information
he has printed from the internet pertaining the country that we are currently
in. It is very organized, very
professional and I just know that we are on GREAT hands. We were shown where the safe was, the first
aid kit, the small library that Sam had stocked from London a few weeks before,
the esky’s at the back and also located at the very back where the roof opens
and we can sit and look out the top of the truck on slow driving days, game
viewing days etc……. Yes it is a compact
little truck and I think Madge and I are going to get along just fine for the
next 2.5 months. Just that ladder will
be my thorn, but suck it up princess, it is after all an overland trip.
So the FIVE LAWS of overland:
1.
Consideration
This is to each other and also
to the locals.
2.
Co-operation.
With Sam and also Zoe mainly and
also to each other with time keeping.
3.
Participation
Including truck jobs, setting up
camp and meals.
4.
Open Mindness
Be open to the region you are
travelling, the culture, the people, fellow travelers and the style of travel.
5.
Flexibility
Remember that plans change due
to weather, truck, country issues and to always keep a good attitude while
travelling.
They are very good and important ‘laws’ and even though
they do seem obvious to the ‘normal’ person, sometimes it is extrodinary that
some travelers wouldn’t think about some of the above and you just wonder
sometimes why they bother to even leave their own countries. Trust me I have seen a few of these ‘types’
of people in my travels. This particular
group, because of the itinerary and the travel experience of all of us, I think
we are all on the same page and I really don’t think we will have any issues
based on my 2 days spent with them so far.
But time will tell. Entry on and
off the truck is via a combination padlock which is an EXCELLENT idea after the
fiasco we had with the keys for the door on my South American legs where there
were literally tears and tantrums over who got the 2 spare keys for the
truck. They also have a set of keys for
all the outside lockers in a place where everyone has access, so if you know
the combination to the truck you can get in without having to accost people for
keys and getting people upset. It sounds
trival, but when you are travelling for an extended time, these things seem
bigger than Ben Hur in the moment. Each
overland company I have traveler with has their pros and cons on how their
trucks are and how things are run and that is part of the excitement in travel,
that things are different and part of the reason to travel, well why I travel
anyway.
So after the brief on Madge we were on the road at
3pm. The second we pulled out onto the
main road, we hit traffic, where we crawled through the city for the next 1.5
hours before we finally hit some open road.
Sam thought that the total trip would take 2 hours in total, so we were
going to arrive a little later than expected into camp, which I was fine with, but
felt maybe we could have left a little earlier taking into account the unknown
for them and for us and trying to avoid arriving in the dark and having to put
the tents up for the first time at night.
It felt good to be back on the truck.
The Dragoman windows are big open meter long drop windows and to me this
is the most important feature of an overland truck. The upside of being stuck in traffic was
getting to interact with the hundreds of street sellers that are all located at
stop lights and stopped traffic selling their wares. It is smart to be selling food and drinks to
a captive audience that is stuck in traffic, very entrepenurial actually and it
is interesting to watch them all from a bird’s eye view of the truck. The women carry their large baskets and
plastic containers full of their wares on their heads, the nut ladies look like
they have glued all the nuts in place the way that they are stacked, and the
water people must be carrying at least 10-15kg on their heads at any one time. Because of the truck we are a sight to behold
and draw a lot of attention, and with that comes the contact with the
locals. I guess we look like a bit of a
cash cow, with a truck of orbruni’s in it, but besides the mosquito net that
Sam bought we didn’t generate a lot of business to them all as we crawled at a
snail’s pace through the city. Stopped
in traffic we also got to chat to locals that were cramped into trotro’s, taxi
drivers and anyone else that said hello.
It is a great way to interact with the local people and they are all
willing to have a chat and flash their beautiful Ghanaian smiles.
We arrived into Akosombo and found the camp at 6pm. It was a beautiful location right on the
banks of the Volta River and as it was a fast moving river there were hardly no
mozzies, considering we were inb mozzie timing and it was a nice spot to pitch
our first tent, even if it was in the dark.
The great thing was wewere here for 2 nights and would get to enjoy the
surrounds tomorrow. It was starting to get dark quite quickly and
by the time we had parked and got the tents off the truck it was dark. Not ideal for our first night putting up a
new tent for the first time and I really think we should have left Accra a
little earlier than what we had, but that is just some constructive criticism
from me, we couldn’t change it and no point getting mad, so after Sam showed us
with one tent, the A frame tents were not that hard to erect and they were
bigger than any of the ‘other’ overland companies I have travelled with. I was on team one for cooking duties and
after the tent was up, we then had to try and help Sam where we could unload
the truck for dinner. The first night is
always a mad scramble as no-one knows where everything is and we have to keep
bugging Sam and Zoe, but this will only last a day or two as we find our
overlanding feet. We got there in the
end and before long we had the spaghetti simmering in a pot and our onion and
fresh garlic cooking and the mince in not long after. It smelt delicious and it was during this
time we thought of a name for team and it is ‘Cooking with Gas’ which is
exactly what we were doing and we felt proud as punch that dinner was on the
way. So we know (which will be handy for
my other legs of the trip) that 15.kg of mince, 2x1kg of packet pasta, 2 jars
of spag sauce and 2 onions comfortably feeds 9 people with an option for
seconds for some. It will just be trial
and error as the trip goes on to make sure we have enough food for each meal. With 3 teams, we will pretty much be cooking
every 3rd day, so it isn’t too bad and I was kinda glad to be the
first cab off the rank! As there are
only 7 of us, our camp consisted of 4 tents.
We were given the option of a tent each if we wished, but I think there
has to be said it is cool to be sharing a camping experience in Africa with
some-one and I don’t think it would be the same being a Nigel in your
tent. No it is better shared and Pat and
I, I think we were going to get along just fine.
It is SO humid and we are all very sweaty and it is
something that I think we will have to get used to. My hairdresser asked if I wanted to cut my
hair shorter because of the trip, I said no as I wanted to show my
God-daughters how long my hair had grown but I am having second thoughts on it
now as I swim in a sea of sweat, but I’ll just throw my hair back in a ponytail
and sweat it out with the everyone else, and that is the best thing we are all
as sweaty and grimy as each other so you don’t feel to conscience about it,
well while you are with the group at least.
After dinner, we had to pack up the whole kitchen, including the table
and cooker, even though we were using it in the morning, as Sam always wants to
be ready for a quick departure should we need it and not so much in this
region, but to get into a routine, so once that was done the guys grabbed a few
beers and went and sat at one of the lakeside tables and I took the chance to
have a wonderful, beautiful COLD shower and then was in bed by 9.30pm. There wasn’t even a hot water tap, and even
if there was it would not have been touched anyway, it really is a sauna out
here, so hot and humid.
So with our short day on the truck completed, we have
officially started our overland journey that will take us through 3 of some very
exciting West Africa trips and I am glad to be back on the road again and I
think I am going to have a good group to travel with.
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