-Miriam Beard-
They do say that all good things must come to an end and
after 18 days, approximately 2200km, three new countries and 8 new friends,
today was the last full day of the trip.
We had to haul some arse from Keta to Accra, as Duckie and Patti were
flying out tonight with the tour officially finishing tomorrow morning with a
night in Accra included. There was also
talk of me trying to submit my Guinea visa this afternoon and I’m not sure of
the details on how I would catch the group up with me having to wait in Accra
till Monday and the group leaving Sunday morning, but we will just see what
time we get in and then tackle that visa problem when we get to it. I am just hoping that the other people don’t
have it either so then I am not on my own.
We will see. With Duckie flying
out tonight, it means I get a single room for the night, which really is the
start of my ‘singledom’ for the next 28 days as the next group that is joining
Zoe, Sam and I are numbered at 4. Four newbies
plus me makes 5, the odd woman out. So
it is a small group and I think one of the smallest I have been on and
definitely the smallest overland group I have ever had. The next section mainly is hotels and guesthouses
and even though I have always thought that I would want a roomie on my trips, I
think I am going to enjoy having my own room before the next and last section
that has 12 people joining us in Freetown.
I am going to make the most of that room and space on the truck while we
can.
We had an 8am breakfast time, but we are now back in
Ghana and the service runs on Africa time and was eventually served at
8.30am. Normally it wouldn’t matter so
much, but we just had to be careful of time due to the girls flights. We did have one stop before we hit the open
roads and it was at a slave fort that was built and run by the Danish from
1784, a 10 minute drive away from the hotel.
Fort Prinzenstein is a fort located at Keta, Ghana which was used
in the slave trade.
Many such forts were built in Africa, but Prinzenstein is one of the few
that lie east of the Volta River.
It was initially built by Danish traders
in 1784 for defensive purposes in a war against the Anlo Ewe and
to keep the area safe from other colonial powers. The Dutch West India Company had
built Fort Singelenburgh at the site of the current fort in 1734, but
the Dutch abandoned the fort in 1737, probably because of the Dutch siding with
the defeated Akwamu in
the Akyem-Akwamu
conflict. The fort was used as a dungeon
for slaves awaiting transportation to the Caribbean.
In 1850 the fort, along with the rest of the Danish Gold
Coast was sold to Britain. The fort was used as a prison for a period
before it was partially destroyed by the sea in 1980.
It was the first fort that we have been to that has not
been restored. It has been left to decay
over time and 75% of the fort has actually be reclaimed by the very seas that
housed slaves waiting for their time to be sold and then transported by the
very same sea. The main building was
closed and locked, but there were some dungeons and rooms ocean side that were
open and we could walk around the that section and peer inside through fencing
of the inside. We were lucky that word
had spread that we were in town and the key materilaised with a guide and we
were then taken inside to get some more information. The second that you stepped through the gront
gate into the courtyard, my first thought was what were the slaves thinking
when they did the same thing 300 years ago.
Most of the slaves were kidnapped and stolen from the north and bought
to Fort Prinzenstein, where they would wait 1-2 months in rooms no bigger than 6mx8m,
100 of them in a non-ventilated room until the British took over and then they
installed iron bars/windows in each room for ventilation. The men and women were segregated so as to
keep venereal disease to a minimum while they waited for their transportation
and the age of a slave could be told with the amount of teeth in their
mouth. Once they had 32, they were
classified an adult and sold accordingly as they made the most money from adult
slaves. We saw drawings on how the
slaves were ‘packed’ into the ships like animals, they were fed like animals
having to lick the water they were given and try and eat the food that was
thrown in through the bars. I still find
it hard to believe that this actually happened so long ago, but then crazy
stuff has happened all through history that just seems surreal. Look at Hitler, the Rwandan Genocide, 9-11
and most recently the Westgate Siege. It
really is a crazy world we live in and I just keep constantly putting myself in
the slaves shoes and it is quite frightening.
We were shown some of the inner dungeons and one still
had the shackels from the original slaves, a set of keys hung too high up a
wall for anyone to reach and there was a spot on the floor that looked like it
had eroded away, but our guy explained that is where the slaves tried to dig
their way out with their fingers into the hard coral ground that the fort was
built. Some of the walls of the fort had
the writings of people that had relatives or come from the lineage of a slave
that was sold and they were very touching to say the least. The one that moved me was:
I came close to my ancestors and the hard
reality of slavery.
It made me cry and tremble.
I am from Virgin Islands of USA.
I am black and I am proud.
1998.
The whole place is just so moving and I am glad that they
haven’t restored this fort, as you get its full impact, atmosphere and what the
slaves actually saw all those hundreds of years ago. We scaled up some of the outside walls to
have a look at the view from the top.
The walls were made from oyster shells that were found readily in the
area at the time and from clay bricks that were bought from Denmark. They were over 2m thick, the slaves would
build the walls that were later to imprison them and to stop the noise of the
prisoners when they were in the dungeons and cells so that they could not be
heard screaming. Oh My. What a dark history this slave trade of West
Africa is and I never realized the history, the amount of time that slavery was
accepted and the millions of people that were sold like animals. They literally would walk the slaves, joined
at the neck by chains to a market, side by side with other sellable commodities
and they were picked out like you would select a drink from the fridge. Just awful that such a scenic spot was the
site of such horrific events.
After an hour at the fort and a somber start to the
morning it was time to hit the road for the last time. We had been told it could take 2-4 hours to
get to Accra and leaving at 10am, I think we had plenty of time on our
hands. Hopefully. It wasn’t going to be so much the conditions
of the road today, but rather the traffic, especially once we hit the city
limits. It was a Friday after all and it
was a good thing that we had gone to Keta yesterday and didn’t try the border
crossing and the haul to Accra on the same day as I am just not sure we would
have made it all. At one point in the
last few days there was talk on me trying to get my visa in Accra tomorrow, depending
on what time we got back and then the plan on how I would catch the group up if
I had to stay in Accra as they drove out on Sunday morning. It was not an ideal plan for me and I am glad
that decision was taken out of my hands getting into Accra too late to even
considering it an option.
It was a beautiful drive on our way out with the lagoon
on our left and the ocean on our right.
We could see people fishing in both bodies of water and with the salty
wind in my hair and time to reflect on what a great trip this has been and how
much I’m going to miss everyone was a little sad. But I am lucky I get to continue on, meet new
people, explore new countries and my journey continues for another 7 weeks and
with a smile on my face with that piece of information, I just sat back and
watched the world pass me by. It was a
pretty easy ride, in regards to the condition of the roads, but I think today
was the most that we have been pulled up at the police check points and one of
them made us all get out of the truck with our passports that were quadripple
checked by for separate officers all standing together in a line. We then had to walk to a small office to
register (wasn’t this done yesterday when we crossed the border?) and 20
minutes later we were back on our way.
As I was getting into the truck one of the traffic police told me that
he wanted to marry me and when Sam closed the door, he asked why Sam did that
as if he was having a serious conversation about a marriage proposal to which
Sam replied that he would have to be a lot nicer than that and we had to get
going!!
After a few more police checks it became quite clear we
would not make it back to Accra and the hotel by lunch time, so we stopped at
Accra Mall for a 45 minute mad dash for something to eat. As the truck is massive for a suburban
shopping mall, we parked outside the centre boundary, just off a round about,
which was well and truly out of the way and we hustled across 2 busy roads,
entering the wonderfully air-conditioned shopping center and with a start it
reminded me immediately of Westgate, where the siege had taken place in
Nairobi. It was a ‘western’ mall by all
counts and it made me think of what people in Nairobi are still trying to
digest as more stories, accounts and certainly the blame game is
beginning. We followed the food court
signs that got us to an alfresco outdoor area and after having a quick scan on
what was on offer, we all decided to have Chicken Inn, which is an Africa
equivilant to Kentucky Fried Chicken even though they also have that in Ghana,
just not at this center and after a fairly lengthy wait for what technically is
fast food, we wolfed down our meals and with a quick stop at the bathrooms on
the way out-which was like luxury, with flushing toilets, hand soap and a dryer
for your hands, it was a touch of ‘western’ after roughing it, and really we
did rough it for the last 3 weeks. After
being out of ‘western’ circulation for so long, it doesn’t take much to
appreciate the small things, like hand soap and I think it is actually a good
thing as people just get so caught up in their daily lives I think sometimes
they forget just how lucky they are for starters and possible take things for
granted and everyone I think needs to take a step back (maybe not so much a 3
week trip to Africa) but take a step back and take the time to actually smell
the roses.
So with us all back on board and receiving a bollocking
from the traffic police for parking where we did, we were again back on the
road for the final stretch of the drive, our last drive back into Accra. It was now 2.30pm, and even taking into
account Friday traffic (which I saw 3 weeks ago when I arrived and it was
horrific) it seemed the girls were going to make their flights no problems
tonight. We really only had 10km to
travel, but with traffic and a few wrong turns it took 1.5 hours for us to
finally turn into our hotel street. The
street itself is rather a side road, and it is bordered on both sides by large
rain drains, and with cars parked on one side of the road, there is only room
for one stream of traffic, and traffic there was. Sam took the bull by the horns and got out of
the truck, telling the oncoming cars to stop, so we could get through and then
they could get around us, but what seems like all of African drivers do, is
they are impatient and think that they can just ‘slip’ through, but with the
size of Madge and numnut could see that you couldn’t do that. Well after a 20 minute car shuffle we finally
got to the gate, where again Sam had to ask people to stop so that Zoe could
get the turning circle required to get the beast through the gates, which was a
mission anyway, and within minutes we had a crowd of 20 and half of them were
telling Zoe what she should be doing and none of it was the same and she just
had to ask them all to be quite so she could listen to Sam. It was an exasperating time, especially for
Zoe, while in the back we were trying to get onto the hotels Wi-Fi while we
waited, no use putting in our 10c worth.
But with a car being moved and Zoe’s expert driving, we were reversed in
and the motor switched off for the last time (well for the others anyway).
We were to meet for dinner at 7.30pm and in the meantime
goodbyes were said firstly to Patti as she heads to East Africa to do the 8
week overland trip with Dragoman there and at 6.15pm it was time to say goodbye
to my roomie and bed sharer, Duckie.
Considering there is an age difference of **cough cough** we got along
splendidly and she rates up there as one of my best travel buddies. As we were saying our farewells I gave Duck
one of my kangaroo pins, so she can think of home (she is Australian but been
living in the USA for 30 years) and also of our trip together in West
Africa. I helped her with her bags to
the cab and with a final hug and a wave goodbye she was swallowed up in the
Friday night traffic. Ho Hum, I hate
goodbyes. And then there were 5. Harj was leaving tomorrow and then the rest
were leaving on Sunday after we departed, so I still had a bit more time with
the others and hold off on the goodbyes for a few more days.
In the time I had before dinner, I loaded 4 blogs before
the internet went down, which is a tradgdy as I had planned on being stuck to
the Wi-Fi as I wanted to load ALL my blogs and photos, at least to the end of
the trip, before I start the new section on Sunday, but after checking with
reception it is a network error and for the coming days I knew it was going to
drive me nuts. I also remembered to
collect my bag of souveniers that I had left at the start of the trip and I had
actually forgotten what I had bought. I
will have to buy a bag tomorrow to throw them all in and I will just add to it
as I travel the next 7 weeks. For the
next 4 weeks it won’t be an issue as there are only 5 of us, but I am pretty
certain that Sam and Zoe may not be too impressed that I have an additional bag
on board just for ‘crap’. Well we will
see, as space will definitely be a premium with 14 bags to fit into what is a
tight back locker. The Guinea visa was
also decided by the late arrival of us into Accra, that I would not be able to
get it here. Sam did ring the consulate
on the off chance that they may have been open on Saturdays, but it was a
negatory on that front and it will now have to be done in Aberjan in the Ivory
Coast. I am just hoping that there are
others without this visa and then we can change things around for us all, but
if I am the only one, I’m going to look a little bad!!!!
So I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my
fellow travelers for this section of the trip.
I have always said that a group can make or break a trip and (touchwood)
I have generally been very lucky on that front and I am ESTATIC to report that
I lucked out on this group. Even though
there was a varying gap of ages, we all got along FAMOUSLY, we all chipped in,
I didn’t stop laughing the whole trip and even though there were some very
intellectual people on the trip, I didn’t feel like a total goose around
them. I couldn’t have asked for better
people to experience this part of the world with. West Africa is NOT for the faint hearted and
to share it with you guys has been amazing.
So thanks to each of you and in no particular order:
Pat aka DUCK-USA/Australian
Patrick aka BOOFHEAD-Australian
Andy aka BEAN-English
Harj aka MAP BOY/Eccentric (in a nice way of
course)-English
Patti-USA
Eve-Australian/Polish
And of course Sam and Zoe-who were all over the trip from
day 1. Not having done this section of
the world AT ALL, you really would not have known except for the 2 hours we got
lost on Mt Klouto (anyone could have made the same mistake). You both work awesome as a team and I am glad
I still get you guys for another 7 weeks and know I am in super capable
hands.
I’m going to miss you guys and please please stay in
touch EH.
I’ll finish off with a final #hashtag you guys rocked
West Africa hashtag# and with a few choice words of EH, giiiiiiiive me money,
valium and ‘EH watch chew doooooo EH’, they will keep me smiling for the next 7
weeks!!
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