-Peter Hoeg-
It was time to leave the coolness of Mt Kluto. We had a great few days here and the
highlight for me was the dancing last night.
The Togolaise certainly know how to bust a move and I would rate their
dancing right up there with the Ethiopian dancing which so far had been my favorite
African dancing. The beauty of skipping
the last bush camp after putting in a 12 hour day was to have the flexibility
of getting into Ghana-Accra with enough time and no pressure on Friday for Duck
and Patti to catch their flights. We had
to cross the same border we had coming over so that we could access the transit
visas that were required by Duckie and Patti as they both only had single entry
visas. In their defence they both had
their visas issues at the Ghana Consulate in Washington and it seems weird that
they both only got a single entry from the same place leading us to believe
that they only issue single entries.
Either way, Zoe had checked coming through that they could obtain a
transit visa and the answer was yes, but we had to cross back the way we had
come as they are the only place on the border to issue them. This advice was given 2 weeks ago, so we just
had to have faith that it was till the same information, which can and does
change at the drop of a hat in Africa.
We were on the road at 8.30am, a full half earlier than
anticipated and I think it had something to do with our lunch stop was planned
for Lome, and we were going to stop at the same place we stayed at on the way
through that served the best steak and pepper sauce we had ever eaten and with
the lure of free Wi-Fi, I think we were all super keen to get on the road and
just get there already. It was a
beautiful drive down the mountain and something we hadn’t seen coming up as it
was pitch black when we arrived a few days ago.
It looked like it was going to be a glorious day for our second last day
of the trip. We had only travelled an
hour and were back down the mountain when Madge cracked an exhaust pipe, and
after a quick look to access the damage, Zoe decided it would wait until we got
back to Accra to fix it, but we now sounded like a suped up racing machine and
when those gears were changed we sounded like a beast of a machine and we were
definitely not going to sneak through any towns now with that noise, not that
get to sneak through anyway with the size of us, but now it is a given.
We made some good time and it only took us 2.5 hours to
travel 120km and we made the city limits of Lome at 11.45am. There was a bit of traffic we had to contend
with but after orientating ourselves with the ocean, we knew exactly where we
were and back at the La Galion for an amazing steak and pepper sauce. We got a table set up outside as we all now
attempted to jump on to the free Wi-Fi and for me it was a shock to see so many
inbox messages asking if I was okay as the news started to feed through on
Facebook that the Westgate Mall siege took 4 days before it came to an end and
I had trouble wrapping my head around just how bad, heinous and horrific the whole
ordeal was. I am actually quite shocked
that something like that can happen firstly, secondly it was so close to home
(only 15minutes away) and it is a little surreal as I read news posts and
people experiences. I know that the city
I left 3 weeks ago will be a different city to the one I go back to just for a
week in November, but when I am back in January, and I am not sure what to make
of that to be honest. All I do know is
that it seems all my friends are safe, which was my first concern and I will
just have to ride the tide when I get home and just be there for my mates if
they need anything. It really is quite
traumatic and when you know and visit the Westgate Mall, you just have to thank
your lucky stars that you weren’t there that day.
The steak meal and pepper sauce was just as good as we
had remembered and all 8 of us got the very same meal and it was delicious and
I have never been so happy to see a piece of beef sitting on my plate. I have eaten a lot of chicken the last 3
weeks, which is fine as I LOVE chicken, but beef, a steak on your plate had my
taste buds dancing with joy. It is the
small things that can make a difference and after a lot of camp meals, tinned
meat and tinned veggies this was heaven.
Just after 1pm, it was now time to tackle the Togo border as we cross
back into Ghana for the last time. The
main concern was getting Duckie and Patti through on a transit visa and with
the short 10 minute ride to the craziness of the Togo border we were about to
find out if they were going to say something about them not having a current
entry visa. After parking the truck we
all piled out and made our way to the Togo immigration and there was a very
smiley and chatty officer. Duck and I
were the last ones to be stamped and as we were waiting the officer told me
that I was nice and very strong and he liked that! I have to say I get that a lot in Africa, it
seems African men like their women a little on the large size and West Africa
seems to be no different I see. He was a
pretty cool guy though because he asked Bean to come back and sing to him as he
had been humming a tune when he had been getting stamped. There were no issues from Togo and at 2pm,
after Madge had been cleared we piled back in the truck to now tackle
Ghana.
Ghana is a little more involved in their process of
stamping you in and out of their country.
There are ladies on a computer that check your exit form, tap
something’s into a computer, write a reference number on the top of your form
and take a photo of you with a web cam eye.
Once that is all done, you then have to enter a small office where there
is one very official looking guy sitting behind the desk, and he is the one
with the stamp and after finishing reading or making a phone call he checks all
the paperwork, may ask a question and then stamps you in or out. It was the same guy we had exiting 2 weeks
ago and he really was not a personable guy at all. While we were all getting processed, Duck and
Patti had a different form to fill in applying for a transit visa, which is a
48 hour document to get them back into Ghana and their flights tonight. It all looked very promising, so once we had
all been processed we headed back to the truck, dodging the money changers and
only had to wait 45 minutes and with Madge not having to undergo a search
(usually for our size of vehicle you do) we were back on the road and all
passed and stamped and the girls cleared at the cost of 20USD.
Welcome back to Ghana.
We were heading to Keta, a small town located on an inlet between West
Africa’s largest lagoon and the ocean.
It was a midway point for us to break the trip and then not having to
stress so much tomorrow that at least we were now back in Ghana. The roads we were on now were in great
condition and we could hoot along, stopping only for 2 police points before
getting to the Keta turn off at 3.45pm and then 15 minutes later, with the sea
and lagoon breezes blowing through the truck we arrived at the Keta Beach
Resort. It sounds lusher than what it
was, but it actually wasn’t that bad, it was a cute little place that had a
pool, an internet café and an excellent outdoor area with chairs and tables
under a massive rain tree. The rooms
were basic and we had share facilities, but we had flushing toilets and SHOWERS!!!! After 9 days of bucket showers I was going to
be able to wash my hair!! Oh bliss. It was also the last night that Duck and I
would sleep in a double bed together. Oh
how sad that everyone finishes the trip tomorrow. You know when you have a good group when
people aren’t ready to go home and if they had time/money/ family commitments
they would have been happy to continue on the trip to Freetown. Normally people are ready to go home after a
trip, especially a grueling one like the one that we have been on the last 3
weeks.
As I wanted to finally get some of my completed blogs
online, I asked if I could pay to use the Wi-Fi rather than the internet café
and the guys were more than happy to let me do it that way, but he typed in the
password and after an hour I logged off (doing the right thing) actually hoping
that the password would be saved and unfortunately when I checked later, it
wasn’t, but I was extremely happy that I got 6 blogs loaded and know I’ll get
the rest done back in Accra, which I will make my mission, as I start my new
trip I want to be up to date-yeah good in theory. Dinner tonight was out last meal as a whole
group with the girls flying tomorrow night.
Dinner was a hotel supplied one tonight and I ordered chicken and chips
and it was the best chicken I have had on the trip so far. It was that good that I liken it to Red
Rooster chicken and it took me straight back to Brisbane and my best friend as
we eat it at least once a week when I am home.
Hmmmm something I have been missing.
After dinner Sam ran through some housekeeping and the
kitty had balanced pretty much just about to the dollar, which was surprising
as we have been adding on a few extra things, like tipping for a few of the
excellent guides, extra meals etc….. and we also go the bill for all the
upgrades that we had done for the trip and for the nine upgrades we did the
total cost came to 18AUD. Who can argue
with 2 bucks an upgrade? Insane and
totally worth the cost of you ask me. So
that is nine more times we should have been in a tent that we weren’t. There were some virtual awards handed out for
the trip:
Duck for hating the 80’s music played on the truck.
Eve for her drinking effort at the Voodoo ceremony.
The Valium award went to Bean and Zoe.
The swimming award went to Harj.
The biggest sin of the trip went to Patrick for breaking
the whisky bottle, with whiskey still in it.
And Patti and I got zip.
I thought it a little strange that we were the only 2 who didn’t get an
award and that is all I am going to say on that.
We then finished the night with a quiz that Sam had put
together for us. He had 5 rounds of 10
questions, which were a mix of African and general knowledge. We were paired up and Patrick and I were
teamed up and we named our team the Overlanding Aussies. Duck and Bean were paired up and called
Harold and Maud (names after a movie where a young man falls for an older
woman) and Zoe, Harj and Patti were teamed up calling themselves The Blind leading
the Deaf. WE weren’t sure if that name
was PC but when they showed it to Patti, she was fine with it and the quiz
night began. At the end we swapped
papers and marked the other teams and then the forms were handed straight to
Sam for him to see who the winner was.
Well you wouldn’t read about it, we all got 33 out of 50, even though we
all got different questions wrong, all 3 of us ended up on the same score. Talk about random. But it doesn’t stop there. As we all drew, Sam had a tie breaker
question and the question was how many hours in a week and Patrick came
straight out with 168 and WON!! As we
got our papers back, one by one we all noticed a marking error and we all
jumped from 33 to 34, so we still didn’t have a clear winner and then I found
another question that BEAN had marked wrong and we finally had a clear winner
on 35!!!!
It was a nice way to end our last night as a group, even
though most of us were still around tomorrow night. As I closed my eyes in bed I couldn’t stop
thinking about the information I had seen on the news about the Westgate Siege
and there seems to be more to it than at first glance and now the process has
to begin on how, why and finding the who as the people who died in this tragedy
are being buried and mourned, and how the people who were in the mall as
hostages move forward with their lives.
I can’t think of anything scarier and as the stories of the survivors
now come out, some people were just literally caught in a cross fire and in the
wrong place at the wrong time. My
thoughts and prayers are with you all in my adopted country, Kenya.
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