Ghana – Must Go!!
The trip of a lifetime?
- or a trip that felt like it took a lifetime
A few months ago Rene came up with the idea of a group of us going to Ghana for a holiday after Christmas. This sounded like a great idea and so Rene did a lot of hard work organising and planning the trip. She did a great job and the itinerary looked great. Things seemed to be relatively straight forward and all eight of us (Me, Marc, Dana, Kari, Rene, Corrine, Lisa and Jayne) were looking forward to the trip. The first problem came when the bargain flight we had booked for our return from Ghana for some reason got cancelled. So we had to plan something else. We sorted that out and so things seemed set for us to have a great trip.
Friday 26th December (Boxing Day) 2008
Now the saga begins!!! The following account takes me quite a while – You have been warned!!
So, the plan was to travel down to Lagos in southern Nigeria on an ABC Coach, after staying the night in the bus station in Lagos we were planning to get taxis to Cotonou in Benin, stay there the night and then get another ABC coach to Ghana, stay the night in Accra and then move to the beach resort the next day. Sounds simple, as simple as ABC!!! But this is Africa, This is Nigeria – travel is never simple!!!
We arrived at the Bus station at 6:45am ready for the 7am departure. There was a coach there and we checked in and got our luggage all labelled. Then people started to board the coach and we found out that the coach that was there was not going to Lagos but to Abuja. Apparently our coach would be here soon. So we waited for a while – but no sign of the coach. Dana and Jayne got a bit impatient so decided to head back to one of the compounds to get the apples they had forgotten. They returned half an hour later and still no bus. Then Kari and Lisa felt in need of a cup of tea – so off they went to the compound as well – half an hour later – still no bus. An announcement was made over the loudspeaker ‘ABC Transport would like to thank those waiting for the coach to Lagos for their patience so far’ – ‘so far’ did not sound good to me as that implied the waiting was not over – and it wasn’t. Everyone had returned from their various trips to compounds and some of the group decided to use the time productively to play a game of Settlers of Catan. Another hour passed by – still no coach. ‘ABC Transport would like to thank those waiting for the coach to Lagos for their patience so far’ – there it was that ‘so far’ again. Another hour went by and another game of Settlers and then into the station drove the ABC bus. At last!!! So after the coach was unloaded we then loaded onto the bus and at about 11.30 we left Jos to start our journey.
The coach ride started off well. The seats were pretty comfortable and we even got an ‘in-drive’ meal – rice and chicken – and there was even a TV with Nigerian soap opera on it but without any sound – which was probably for the best to be honest. So we headed down south and the hours and miles ticked by as we tried to get some sleep. By about 6pm things start to get dark here but we still had not reached our destination so we carried on. We then made it to Ibadan and another ABC Transport office. The driver then said that we could not go any further that night as it was too dangerous. The roads of Nigeria and particularly those in the South around Lagos are notorious for night-time armed robberies and this was the reason for stopping. I was quite happy with this as we might as well stay here and sleep on the relatively comfortable bus rather than getting to Lagos and trying to sleep in the bus station, whatever that would be like. The time was now about 1-2am and we stayed there for about 1 hour. Then the driver jumped back on the bus and started to drive again. Apparently there was another ABC coach on its way from Abuja to Lagos and so they thought that it would be safer if we went in convoy. So off we set but before we had been going 5 minutes the driver started to speak urgently to the conductor and then we abruptly pulled into a truck stop. The driver was talking about some car that had pulled out quickly and then he was making gunfire sounds. Thanks to one of the Nigerians on the bus we were able to ascertain that the driver had seen a car of young men pull out after the buses and start following us. He did not like the look of them and thought they were armed robbers who were going to hold up the bus so he pulled into the truck stop where there is a police station for safety. So we then stayed there and again tried to get some sleep for another 2-3 hours. Then at around 5am the engine started up again and we were off on our final leg to Lagos. After negotiating the outrageous amount of traffic in Lagos, with 5 lanes of vehicles on a road only designed for 2, we eventually made it to the ABC Transport station at Lagos. We got off the bus, thanked the drivers for getting us there safely and then went to investigate our next leg of the journey.
Saturday 27th December 2008
Rene went to the office to find out about ticket from Cotonou to Accra. They weren’t able to sell us the tickets there but that was the least of our problems as they also told us that the Ghana border had been closed due to the presidential election and would not be open until Monday. We would have to stay in Cotonou for an extra night. So there was no option but to head for Cotonou and hope that we could sort it all out there. So we arranged some Taxi’s to take us to the ‘Mile 2′ Taxi rank where we would be able to get taxis to take us to into Benin and to the capital Cotonou. The five minute taxi ride cost us the equivalent of£20 per car!! and unbeknown to us this would only be the start of our exorbitant travel costs.
So at the ‘Mile 2′ taxi rank we were directed to the taxis that would take us to Cotonou. I think if we had looked hard enough we would have seen the cartoon dollar signs rolling across their eyes as we went up to them.
‘It will cost you 3000 Naira each to get there’ – (That’s £15 each or £60 per car)
‘Ok, if that’s the best we can barter you down to.’
‘Oh, you have a lot of luggage too. Well there will be a lot of road blocks on the way and we will need to pay the police to let us through. You need to pay an extra 2000 Naira per car’
‘What!! But you saw the luggage when you gave us the first price’ – (they weren’t having any of it) ‘Well ok let’s just go, here’s the money.’
So we all piled in the cars.
‘We actually usually take 5 people in each car so we are going to be losing money on this trip. You need to pay another 3000 Naira per car’
‘You must be joking!! You gave us the price knowing how many of us there were.’ – (once again they weren’t having any of it)
Being 8 Batures (white people) in a place we didn’t know and going to a place we didn’t know how to get to we weren’t in the best position for bargaining and as much as some of the group tried we eventually gave up and paid them the extra 3000 Naira per car.
So we were on our way to Benin.
We drove along the coastal road to Benin trying not to breath in too much of the haze of smoke and pollution. We were beginning to make good time but then we started to get near the border and the road checks began to start. You might think that an official road check would have an…err…official look about it – but this is Nigeria. So there were these people standing beside the road with a stick or flag or something like that and they would, no doubt because they saw a car full of Batures, flag us down. Sometime they had a uniform on, sometimes they had a little shed that they would sit in and sometimes, in fact the majority of time, they would just look like a bunch of men with nothing better to do than stop cars. But as we stopped at the first one it became clear why it might be worthwhile stopping cars. The first stop was more official looking than the rest and a man in a police uniform came up to the driver’s window, rested his open palm on the window sill and then proceded to interrogate the driver and us until the driver surrupticiously placed some Naira into his palm and then suddenly any problems he might have brought up were all ok again. So this went on probably for the last 10-20 miles up to the border with us being stopped about 3-4 times. Then, the border was almost in sight. There was a sign saying 500m to the border, we were nearly there. And then the fan belt broke on our taxi!!!! A number of locals huddled round the open bonnet to inspect the damage and attacked the engine with spanners and screwdrivers etc. Meanwhile, the driver of the other taxi had the idea for us all to go to the border so that we could get the immigration/visa process started. We didn’t seem to have much choice as our car didn’t seem to going anywhere soon. So, leaving our bags in this taxi and praying that they would also make it to the border, we set off in the other taxi to the border.
If we thought there were a lot of road stops so far then we were in for a shock in the last 500m to the border. As we approached the border there was a line of about 10 ‘Nail boys’ about 10m apart down the road. They are given this name as they have what looks like an upside down rake made of nails on the end of a stick which they push out into the road and under the tyres of the passing cars in order to make them stop. They then demand money before they will remove it. The driver of this taxi having already been through this with the other half of our group and apparently already having paid the ‘appropriate fee’ was having none of it so he swerved around the obstacles, shouted at the Nail boys and then sped off to the border. We were there at last. Now we can do the necessary immigration papers, get our visa and be on our way. That’s what we thought anyway!!!
Once again, these so-called officials didn’t really look very official sitting on plastic garden chairs outside a building and writing in a tatty old exercise book resting on a plastic garden table. But these were the Nigerian customs officials and they wanted to check us before we left the country. So with Marc taking the lead and the Taxi driver and a number of other ‘incessant self-appointed helpers’ guiding us we handed over our passports, filled out forms and paid the necessary fees – not that we knew what we were paying for though. Then they wanted our Yellow Fever Vaccination certificate. Whoops! Jayne didn’t have hers. No worries though, a thousand Naira note pushed in the right direction soon glossed over that little formality!! So we had completed that, we had made our way out of Nigeria. Now to get into Benin.
So we traipsed off across the road to another building and into an office that another ‘helper’ assured us was where we could get our visa, and he was right. So, now we had to deal with the Beninese (people from Benin are called that) authorities….in French!! So if Marc had taken the lead earlier he had now made a break and was well ahead of the rest of us not-so-fluent-French-speakers in the chasing pack. Off he went into the office to speak with the this-time reassuringly official-looking immigration person. After about 20 minutes of discussions and, rather randomly whilst we were waiting, Dana having her hair arranged by a talkative junior immigration official, Marc emerged from the office with the news that the visas would costs almost twice what we had been expecting. When Marc complained that this was too much, the immigration official had apparently closed his book and said ‘well you can go back to Lagos then!!! So we had a group discussion and after a while came to the conclusion that we needed to get through the border so we just had to pay the money. So then Marc went about collecting money together from people in the group and then going off to the local friendly black-market currency exchange man to get the necessary CFA (the Benin currency). He took it to the office and after about another hour with the immigration official slowly and carefully filling out the visas we emerged from the office with our passports, visas and a lighter load in our wallets ready to head into Benin. By this time our taxi had returned, with our luggage in situ and we were ready to go…except for another road check. This time we were not even in the car before they were demanding money and the driver had to hurriedly jump in before the money he had was ripped out of his hand. They lifted the barrier and then we were there – we had made it to Benin just 3 hours after leaving Nigeria!!!!
Once we were on the road you could definitely tell you were in a different country. The biggest clue was that all the signs were in French. But there was also a definite sense of increased order compared to the chaos of Nigeria but particularly Lagos. Thankfully having left Nigeria we saw the last of the impromptu road checks so we made it to Cotonou in about an hour. I can’t remember much about the trip from the border to Cotonou so I guess it was pretty uneventful. One thing I do remember though was going through a road toll which really surprised me. I know they are very popular in France but I did not expect to see them in Africa. Perhaps this is in fact the Benin version of those Nail boys. At least it seemed very official and we got through just by paying the regular fee and we were on our way. Once we arrived in Cotonou we were again struck by the increased level of organisation. There were traffic lights, they had power and people were obeying them!!! As we enjoyed this bit or order to the road we then had the small task of finding the SIM guesthouse that we were going to be staying at. One thing that was not as organised in Benin was the address system. It seems they don’t have names of roads so all we had to go on was the area name Quartier Jaques. Our two taxis rendezvoused in Cotonou and then we set about finding were we had to go. I think the driver of the other taxi had asked someone where we should go and they had driven in front of us on a bike and taken us to the place we needed. Apparently anyway, but we could not find the guesthouse. So the driver then asked another local where we had to go. They discussed and pointed and then gave us another bike rider to follow. Let’s hope this one was better than the first. So the taxis turned around headed off down the road and then almost simultaneously we all shouted ‘Stop!’ We had seen an SIM sign. Praise the Lord! We reversed a little, turned down the road and then saw a gate with another SIM sign, we went inside, knocked on the door and it was opened unto us!! We had made it to the Guest house. So we all clambered out of the Taxis, unloaded the luggage and made our way into the sanctuary that was the SIM Guesthouse.
You have to admire their effort and I suppose it was worth a try but they were never going to get anywhere. As Marc left the taxi one of the drivers said to him ‘It has taken us a long time, you need to pay us more’. If they were in the position of power at the ‘Mile 2′ taxi rank, we were definitely in the position of power here. We needed nothing from them, we were quite happy with where we were and we definitely didn’t feel we owed them anything. The answer was short and simple ‘You have had enough money, thank you and goodbye’. But like I say it was worth a try!!
So, we settled into our rooms, got a much needed shower after 30 hours of travelling and rested for a while. Then we needed to start thinking about the next leg of our journey. We needed money and a coach ticket to Accra, Ghana. Sounds like a simple request? But, you guessed it, it was nothing but simple. After his lengthy negotiation efforts throughout the day Marc was understandably in no mood to do anything more and he took to the sofa and read his book. I don’t quite know what we would have done without him and his linguistic skills. It no doubt would have taken even longer at the border though. So Rene, Dana and I agreed to go and investigate Cotonou and find a place to exchange money and get our tickets. Thankfully, staying at the guesthouse at the same time as us was Kristen an SIM missionary who lives in Benin, speaks fluent French and although not living in Cotonou knew her way around the place. So off the 4 of us went down the road to the corner where slightly worryingly we hailed a couple of motorbike taxis. All I could think of as I climbed on the back was the large number of people that I had seen at Evangel Hospital following accidents on the back of motorbikes. But I tried to focus on the fact that that was in the chaos of Jos and a least here they had traffic lights and some sort of order on the road. My worries were soon out of my head though as we sped along the side roads, round, over and through the bumps and potholes of the side roads and then made it to the main roads. It was great fun although I did hold on tight!!! We were only run in to once on journey and thankfully that was at slow speed so nothing untoward happened. So we got into the centre of the city and looked for a bank to change our money. We found plenty of banks, but none of them were open. The time was about 4pm on a Saturday afternoon so it was not really surprising. So we wandered around a bit more fending off the usual street sellers with the real excuse that we did not have any money!! It was strange when talking to local people as I really had a job finding my basic French language vocabulary. When people came up to us, I would straight away start thinking in Hausa and want to say the usual greetings that I would say in Jos. I was a little frustrated because when I was starting to speak Hausa when I arrived in Jos all that I could think of was French!! It is strange how the brain works – or doesn’t at times!!
Anyway, we soon realised that we were not going to get any money today so we decided to change tack and try to find the ABC coach station. So onto another couple of bikes we jumped and off we went. The drivers professed to know where they were going but soon it was clear they didn’t really. We stopped at a garage and the drivers tried to find out more information. Then they said to us that we needed to have one bike each as they were not actually allowed to carry two people on the back of one. Looking at all the other single occupancy bikes on the road this seemed like a bonifide law so we hailed 2 more bikes and the drivers discussed between them where we should head next. Once they had reached a consensus we were off. It actually made a nice change to have the whole back of the bike to myself as I could now relax my aching legs on the proper foot rest rather than pretty much continually holding them up in the air with my feet rather precariously balanced on the axle nut at either side of the rear wheel as I had had to do when there was two of us on the back. So we sped down the roads again and arrived at a bus station. It was not ABC but it was a bus station at least. The people there were not particularly helpful. They told us the border would not be open until Tuesday and then they refused to tell us the price of a ticket to Accra. So, the bike driver’s had another discussion and they came up with another plan. Onto the bikes and off again. Down the roads and round the roundabouts. The driver at the front led the way but when we came to some traffic lights they turned to red. Three bikes got through but Dana’s didn’t. So we stopped at the side of the road and she eventually caught us up. Off we went again, more traffic lights, they turned to red – but this time the driver at the front just waved us on so through the red lights we drove and eventually got to another bus station. No not ABC either. But at least these were more helpful. They told us the border was open on Monday but their bus was full for that day, but we could book for Tuesday. We thought about it for a minute then we realised that we only a 48hours Visa so we had to be out of the country by Monday lunchtime. This was no good. So what now? The drivers discussed a little more, and then a little more, they asked a few other people and then they had a plan. So off we sped down the roads, round the roundabouts, through traffic lights whether red or green and then past buildings and shops that looked very familiar. We had definitely been here before. As we went along, some of the bikes were going faster than others. Well, more like mine was going slower than all the others. I was sitting on the smallest of the 4 bikes with a little 50cc engine whirring away to the best of its ability, but it was not able to keep up with the others. We were apparently heading to the stadium, wherever that was, but I guess you can’t miss it. It seemed to take ages to get there and as the others disappeared into the distance I began to worry that my driver didn’t actually know where he was going. But after about 20 minutes we pulled into this big stadium. We went up and down the grounds around the edge looking at the businesses but nowhere could we see an ABC Transport sign. We went up and down again and then we saw a sign for Emperor Transport. Well, it was a Coach company at least. We looked at the sign, great they even go to Accra. As we looked a little closer Rene suddenly shouted ‘ABC Transport’ and sure enough written in faded ink and about the size of an A4 piece of paper were the words ABC Transport. After a small little celebration and much relief we then looked at the Opening Hours: 6am-6pm. Current Time: 6.10pm. They were closed. AAAAHHHHH!!!! Thankfully the sign also said they would be open tomorrow so, at least relieved to have found the place, we resigned ourselves to not getting the tickets today. So, after Kristen did some very hard bargaining with the bike drivers we then got back on the bikes and headed back to the Guesthouse. We eventually made it back 3 hours after having left and not really with anything to show for our efforts!!
We had a good meal in the evening and after a game of Settlers of Catan we headed off to bed.
Sunday 28th December 2008
We didn’t have to get up too early the next day which was welcome news to all. We had breakfast at around 9am and enjoyed the traditional freshly baked French bread and jam. Marc was back in action today. He was keen to test out his French by going with Kristen to the local church. He also had another reason. We obviously still needed money and the only place we would be able to get it would be on the black market. So, what better place to go to find someone with a contact in black market currency exchange than the local church!!!! The rest of the group rested in the house and a few hours later Marc arrived with some money. Unfortunately it was not enough to buy the tickets. As the exchange rate was not all that favourable Marc had decided to only get some of the money changed with the plan to change Lisa’s traveller’s cheques at the bank on the Monday morning. Sounds like good thinking? But this is Africa!!! – we’ll get to that later.
In the afternoon we all ventured out of the house. Rene and Corrine went to get the tickets and the rest of us made the most of the guesthouse’s location and took the 5 minute walk down to the beach. The beach was pretty empty to start with, but then as we set our towels and belongings on the sand the number people in our vicinity gradually increased. Locals wanted to join in our game of Frisbee and as we happily played we were warned by one of the local hotel owners of what we already had suspicions of – we should keep an eye on our belongings, especially with the people playing with us. As we sat on our towels and read books the people around us gradually edged their way nearer to us to the point where they were lying right on the sand next to our towels. So at all times one of us had the job of watching our stuff as the others played Frisbee or braved the waves and strong rip-tide. The sea wasn’t the type that you could gently swim out into and float around having a chat. It was more like a constant battle to stay afloat as the waves continuously crashed into you knocking you one way and then the rip swept your feet in the other direction. If you timed it right you could get under the wave and up again just in time for the next wave to hit. If you didn’t time in right you would be unceremoniously sent crashing down into the sand and then had to fight to regain your footing and some sense of dignity. It was nice to be able to swim though without risking the various different kinds of bacteria and parasites in the waters of Nigeria. Thankfully, after an hour or so another group of Batures came onto the beach a little further down and they drew the attention of the locals away from us, so although we had to still keep an eye on our things it didn’t feel as oppressive. After a few hours Rene and Corrine returned from their trip to the Coach station and to make a change, this time they had been successful in booking us places on the Emperor bus to Accra. We just had to pay the rest of the money tomorrow morning. Great, things were coming together. We headed back to the guesthouse and Kari, fresh from a shopping trip with Marc, cooked up a great bean stew which we ate with more fresh French bread. We then headed to bed ready to rise early in the morning to make it to the bus station on time.
Monday 29th December 2008
We got up at early in order to leave at 7.15am to make it to the bus station for 7.45am. Everyone was up and our taxis arrived on time and after another Petit de juener we left for the bus station and arrived in plenty of time. We went to the office and started the checking-in process. They took our passports and then began to issue the tickets. We still hadn’t paid the whole amount yet so once it got to 8am Lisa needed to go to the bank to exchange her traveller’s cheques. We had a bit of time so the coach people started to weigh our luggage. Apparently there was a weight limit of 15kg each bag. Most of them were just slightly over especially when the coach driver weighed them and seemed to have double vision or something as every piece became a couple of kilograms more than it read on the scales. We didn’t think anything of it until they, just like our previous transport, started to ask for more money for the luggage. We were not pleased about this and so Corrine set about negotiating the price. She did a good job and managed to get all the costs waived except for Dana’s bag. This wasn’t really surprising as at 22kg (even without the coach driver’s dodgy eyesight) there wasn’t much room for negotiation on that one. So we agreed to pay the extra. Whilst this was happening Lisa had eventually managed to regain her passport from the coach office and went off to the bank just three doors down. Unfortunately they did not exchange traveller’s cheques but the one further down in the Stadium complex apparently did. So Marc and Lisa went off on the short walk to the other bank. Half an hour went by and they had not returned. We guessed there may well have been a queue so didn’t think too much of it. Another half an hour went by and they still had not returned. The buses were nearly ready to leave so the coach company staff were getting a bit agitated that they were not back yet. One of them offered to go down to the bank to see what was going on. He wandered off and 20 minutes later he returned to say they were not in the bank. Where could they be? We waited a little longer and then started to try and phone them but the number didn’t go through. The staff were continuing to get more agitated and said they should have asked them for directions. Rene managed to calm them down a little when she voiced what we had all been secretly thinking – They could be in trouble. I had visions of two white people, walking out of the bank and getting onto a bike to get back quickly and the bike driver taking the advantage of this easy source of money and rather than going where he had been asked, taking them to a secluded area and robbing them. They still had not returned 20 minutes later so Corrine and Rene decided to go down to the bank again to ask if any white people had been in the bank at all. When they returned we found out they had been told that no white people had been there at all. Where were they? Meanwhile, the people in the other bus were getting frustrated at being held up by some ill prepared white people so the bus company decided to transfer all the people in our bus into the other one and put the luggage on the roof. This took about 20 minutes and so the other bus was ready to leave. There was still no sign of Lisa and Marc and so I wandered around once more to try and get a better view in the hope that I would see them coming. Then in the distance I saw two bikes heading our direction with what looked like two batures on the back. As they got nearer my suspicions were confirmed and it was Marc and Lisa. Praise the lord! They had returned. When Rene heard she asked ‘Are they injured or hurt? Because if they are not I am going to injure them!!’ They were uninjured, but as they climbed off the bikes you could tell by their faces that now was not the time to ask where they had been so we quickly sorted out things and piled in the bus to prevent any further delay. It turns out that changing traveller’s cheques in Africa is not all that straight forward. Apparently on arriving at the first bank just down the road they had been told they also did not exchange traveller’s cheques – they had to go to the one in town. So they went on a bike and proceded to do a tour of nearly all the banks in Cotonou. They eventually found a bank that would change – at last – ‘Do you have your receipt from when you bought them?’ What!?? Of course not, the whole point of traveller’s cheques is that all you need is the cheque and your passport. But this did not wash with them and after deciding that even resorting to tears wasn’t going to change their mind Lisa and Marc left. They then had to find somewhere to change the money on the black market again. After searching for the best rate they could get and changing all the money they had they then returned back to the bus just 2 hours after they had gone to the bank just down the road!!!
Anyway, we were now on the bus and we were heading towards Togo. The bus driver seemed to be very keen to catch up on the time we had lost as he sped along the road and over took vehicles as often as he could. We made it to the border by about 1pm. Not another border we thought, but with the coach driver who knew what he was doing to help us things were a little more smooth than the border to get into Benin. We managed to get out of Benin quite quickly and then we just had to get our Togo visa. We filed into another office and started to fill out the necessary forms. As we were doing this there was bit of commotion at the other desk. It seemed one of the passengers on the other bus had lied about something and the immigration official was not pleased and amid a lot of shouting the man was marched back across the border. We hoped that the processing of our application would go smoothly. We completed the forms and collected together the 10,000 CFA needed for the visa. Then the immigration official looked at our passports and yes, you’ve guessed it, told us we needed to pay more money. Apparently we needed 15,000 CFA each as we were not from Francophone countries. Corrine was not pleased with this as being from Switzerland she definitely felt that the she shouldn’t have to pay as they speak French there. He was not having any of it but the trouble was we did not have enough money. We were 20,000 short. We needed to try and change some more. Then, out of the blue, the bus driver said he would lend us the money and we could pay him back later. Wow, someone who was giving us money rather than taking it!!! So we handed the money over and left the office for the formalities to be completed. Half an hour later Marc was called into the office. ‘What now’ we thought. But, much to our surprise he returned with our passports, complete with Visas and even more surprisingly 20,000 CFA. Apparently only the Americans in the group had been charged the increased price. Well that was what they said anyway. It seemed a little odd and rather convenient that we had been given back the exact amount that we owed the bus driver. We don’t really know, but after our previous experiences we guessed that the bus driver had negotiated on our behalf and pointed out that we really didn’t have enough money and he was the one going to lose out so the price was conveniently dropped 20,000 CFA. May be I am being harsh and perhaps the bus driver was just being kind and the immigration official had made an honest mistake when he told us the increased price. But, like I say, after our previous experience I doubt it!!!
We had one final form to complete and then we were on our way again. Togo was not much different to Benin and we managed to see some nice views as we travelled along the coastal road. After having paid our visa fee I guess it would have been nice to see a little more of Togo but as it was after about 1 hour of travelling we arrived at the Ghana border. Hurray, another border crossing!!! (note the sarcasm!!) But at least this time it would be conducted in English and we already had our visa.
As we approached the border the people on the streets were celebrating. If was nice to be appreciated for once!!! But then we heard that they were celebrating the victory of the opposition party in the Ghana presidential election. So as we came to the border there was a carnival atmosphere. We completed the forms necessary to leave Togo after our very brief visit and then without a hitch or payment of any money moved onto the Ghana immigration. We got in the queue, handed our passports over, they scanned them and took our picture then directed us through to the head man’s office where he, without any fuss, completed the parts needed on the visa and stamped our passport and handed it back to us. We were through. We were in Ghana and only 30 minutes after starting the border crossing procedure. Hurray!!
We then hit the road again and fresh from a successful and easy border crossing and with more people on the streets celebrating we were all on a high as we started the drive through Ghana to our destination – Accra. We drove through the busy streets and the bus driver still seemed keen to catch up on the time we had lost at the beginning of the day. He wasn’t quite as keen as one of the other taxi bus drivers though, but unfortunately this bus driver didn’t have the spatial awareness that ours did and as he sped past our bus he smashed into the wing mirror. Our driver was not happy but didn’t really show it to start with. However, as we moved further along the road he caught sight of the taxi bus ahead and in a spurt of speed he screeched to a halt blocking the taxi bus in. Our driver jumped out of the bus and ran towards the other bus, but recognising who it was and knowing what he had done, the taxi bus driver made another erratic manoeuvre and evaded our blockade and escaped off down the road. Despite the disappointment we continued along the road and continued to pass groups of people celebrating the opposition victory. Some wore the NDC colours black, red and green, others waved NDC flags, some had the NDC official umbrella and others had even painted their faces and body totally white but, all the people whatever they were wearing did the sign of the party which was to circle their hands around each other in front of them and when we returned the sign they cheered. It was an amazing atmosphere. We continued to make good progress and then came to a junction where we had to turn. We stopped to check for traffic and then the bus stopped completely. The driver tried to start it again but nothing happened. We rolled back and parked at the side of the road and climbed out. There was fluid pouring out from under the bus and things didn’t look promising. The local people gathered around and as the driver began to look at the engine underneath his seat people started to give their advice. As the driver was doing this the political celebrations continued and one person who looked like he had perhaps had a drink or two carried a wooden elephant over to us. This is the symbol of the governing party and he set it down on the floor and then much to the locals’ amusement took a tree branch and proceded to whack the elephant until his branch had broken. This served to pass the time a little but then our attention turned to the bus again. The driver was still inspecting the engine and then for some unknown reason he decided to remove the radiator cap. What ensued was like something out of a cartoon as a fountain of fluid erupted from the radiator covering everything in the front seat including all the things the Aunty in the front had bought at the various stops on the journey so far. This farcical display didn’t give us much confidence in the driver’s mechanic credentials but after a while the fountain died down and the driver reported that the problem was solved. So we all climbed back into the bus. He started the engine -it worked. He put it into gear – that was ok. He tried to pull away – the engine died again. He tried again but as he repeated the procedure the gear box began to sound worse and worse. We rolled back to the side of the road again and the driver discussed some more with the locals. Then he had another attempt and somehow despite horrendous crunching sounds the bus started to move. He jiggled the gear stick again and we were in second gear. One more wiggle and we made it to third but that was as far as we could get. But at least we were moving. So we slowly progressed along the road at about half the speed we had been going. Ghana is very keen on its road bumps and there was no shortage of them on the roads we travelled. This made the gearbox even more of a lottery. We went over one bump and the gearbox rattled and then seemed to run better. We went over the next bump and the gear box rattled and crunched and then sounded worse. We had about 120 km to go until we reached Accra so we just prayed that the gearbox would last. The driver seemed to get the hang of the new architecture of the gearbox and although never progressing further than 3rd gear he managed to pick up some speed and even over take some of the admittedly slow moving vehicles. So about an hour and half later we made it to the junction where we were going to get off.
We unloaded the bus and were met by Lee Sonius the person we were going to be staying with in Accra. This was amazing really. The only person that knew Lee was Rene and that was only through the fact that her mum had been to school with Lee for 2 years in Liberia when they were growing up. They had not had much contact since but when Rene came to Nigeria Lee offered his house as a place to stay if ever she was travelling to Ghana. Well I don’t know if he expected the offer to be taken up and I doubt he expected to have 8 strangers staying with him and his family but you would never have known that our link to him was so tenuous. He welcomed us warmly and we loaded our stuff and ourselves into his minibus and then we went to the house. It was an amazing house. It was huge and like something out of MTV Cribs. Lee’s wife welcomed us as we arrived and had prepared a fantastic curry meal. It was great. We felt at home straight away and were really able to relax. Marc and I had been given the beds of their two children to sleep and the girls were in other rooms with mattresses. We had good food in our stomachs, air conditioning to keep us cool, comfortable beds to sleep in and in our minds the knowledge that we did not have any more borders to cross. Needless to say we slept well that night.
Tuesday 30th December 2008
After a good night’s sleep we were treated to a lovely breakfast of pancakes and cereal. Then we had to set about sorting our finances and travel arrangements. The original plan for the trip was to travel by road as we had done all the way to Ghana and then on the way back we were going to travel as far as Lagos by road and then fly from Lagos to Jos. After our experiences of road travel and more precisely road border crossings we all decided that we didn’t want to do that again so we wanted to fly from Accra to Lagos as well. We weren’t too keen on paying the extra money it would cost to fly but when we thought about it, it actually probably wouldn’t be much of a difference, what with the exorbitant and inflated visa costs we would have to pay again on the way back if we were to travel by road. So half the group headed off with Lee to the local and very posh shopping mall to the travel agents in the hope of buying tickets. The other half went off to the SIM Ghana office where we had arranged to be able to take money out and then charge it directly to our SIM accounts. So the group split up. I went to the SIM office and they were very helpful and with only as much as a signature they handed over a few big wads of Ghanaian currency. We then had a phone call from the others at the travel agents. They were able to book some tickets. The SIM office was even able to arrange for a cheque to be made out to the travel agent for the cost of the tickets. Suddenly everything seemed to be running more smoothly. Praise the Lord for the Sonius’ and SIM Ghana, they were such blessing to us. So after completing the transactions the two groups joined up at the Accra Mall for a little dose of western culture. The mall was like something straight out of the UK with wide airy walkways and shiny marble floors. The shops were clean, tidy and uncluttered and as for the choice of products, well, just the fact that there was a choice was amazing. So, we wandered around most the shops looking but not buying as the prices were Western as well. However, in the supermarket, which was a proper supermarket, we did buy some food items as the prices were good value. We then headed back to the Sonius’, prepared our lunch and then sorted our luggage out ready to head to the coast. The Sonius’ guard had very kindly agreed to help us get a ‘tro tro’ (what they call the minibus Taxis in Ghana) and in fact he managed to get one to drive right to the Sonius’ house. So we loaded everything into the bus, said our goodbyes and very grateful thanks to Lee and Michelle and then climbed aboard our transportation. Before we left Lee gave us a Ghanaian sim card for a mobile phone. He wanted to be able to contact us in case there was any trouble following the election. Apparently, despite the celebrations we had seen the day before, the results had not actually been announced and the rumours were that they were very close and so there was the chance that if things went the wrong way (whichever way that was) there might be trouble. The thought of post-election unrest made us feel quite at home!! so we didn’t worry too much, but it was really nice to have someone looking out for us just in case. The bus made good progress and within an hour despite a couple of u-turns we were on a coastal road that we hoped was heading to Kokrobite. Then, much to our relief we saw a sign: BIG MILLY’S BACKYARD this way. So we went a little further but the trail seemed to go dry but as we were waiting at a junction trying to decide which way to go, one of the locals said he knew where to go and offered to show us the way. So he jumped in the bus and directed us down this bumpy and rubbish strewn side road. We saw another couple of signs for Big Milly’s and then within five minutes we were there. We had made it. Four days after we had left Jos we had made it to our destination. We were at Big Milly’s Backyard, Kokrobite.
We checked in and were shown to the house where we were staying. We were in a house which Big Milly herself used to live in. The girls had 6 mattresses on the floor in the room upstairs and then Marc and I had a room downstairs and the couch in the lounge to share between us. The house had a bathroom with a shower and toilet downstairs and a little kitchenette with a sink as well. Upstairs next to the girls’ room there were two roof terraces. It was a nice little place, basic, but definitely sufficient for our needs. So after a while of getting ourselves settled in we made our way down to the beach.
The beach had white sand and was lined with palm trees and fishing boats. We found a place to sit and then spent the next few hours swimming in the sea, which was rough but not as bad as in Cotonou, or just resting taking in the scenery or reading a book. Not being one for reading much I spent the time trying my best to cover up as much of my skin as possible so that I did not have to worry about sun cream. The rest of the group couldn’t understand why I didn’t want to read anything but I just am not in the habit. If I had had something there to read I might had read it, but as it was I happy to just people watch. It was interesting to see the fishermen at work and the boats coming in and out to shore. There was also the job of keeping an eye on our stuff as well as, although not quite as in your face as in Cotonou, we had been warned that there was still the risk of things being stolen.
When leaving the house earlier in the day, Marc and I had checked the rooms and shouted to see if anyone was there and no-one made a noise so we locked up and went to the beach. Obviously we didn’t look hard enough. After a few hours the group gradually began to make their way back to the apartment. When Dana got there she was surprised to be met by a slightly annoyed Rene who whilst lying around the back of the roof terrace had obviously not heard mine or Marc shouts and had been locked in the house and unable to escape!! She was not very happy!!
Later in the evening after we had all had showers and washed the sand from all the places that we didn’t want it we headed down to dinner. We had ordered the food earlier in the day and were looking forward to some nice freshly caught fish. The meal was great. Afterwards we headed back to the house, played a game of Settlers of Catan and then went to bed. I was fortunate enough to be given the double bed to sleep in whilst Marc took the couch. So I had a room to myself, I felt very privileged.
Wednesday 31st December 2008
We had a lazy morning and eventually got up. Then some of us took a walk into the town to get some food for lunch. I was very pleased to see fruit available on the stalls so got some oranges and bananas. We then got a box of water as well, but we were unable to get as much as we wanted as the shop keeper said it was finished despite there obviously being a number of other boxes on the shelf. I still can’t work out why he wouldn’t sell the water to us, but at least we had enough for the rest of the day.
We spent the afternoon on the beach and as the tide was out we were able to play a bit of Frisbee as well. The sea was a little calmer today as well so we had a really good time chilling out and having fun.
In the evening it was the big Big Milly’s Backyard New Year’s Eve party. There was a buffet meal, music and fireworks planned. We had the meal and it was great. More fresh fish and other dishes and we could go back for seconds. As we were eating Rene got a phone call from Lee Sonius. He had some good news for us; the travel agent had managed to book the flights for us and not only that, but for a cheaper price as well. Hurray!! So we enjoyed the rest of our meal even more and once we had had our fill we were in need of a rest. Kari, Lisa and I went for a short stroll along the beach to try and walk off the excess food we had just eaten. When we returned the rest of the group were busy playing a card game so we sat and chatted for a bit. Then the other half of the group decided to go for a walk as well. So Kari, Lisa and I were left to play a card game on our own. We had just started a game of Rummy when Rene came sprinting up to our table looking distressed and out of breath and saying something about Marc and Corrine on the beach. My initial reaction was that she was joking about something but it was soon clear that something bad had really happened. I managed to work out that Marc and Corrine had been attacked on the beach and were in need of help. As I started to go out to the beach Rene said, ‘you will need some help, there are four of them’. So I started to look for some staff to help me but they were all busy elsewhere so I went out onto the beach to try and get some of the local people to help me. This was definitely easier said than done. A large number of the local population in Kokrobite are Rastafarians and one thing that Rastafarians like to do is smoke cannabis. So, unsurprisingly on New Year’s Eve most the local population that I was trying to recruit to help me assist Marc and Corrine were stoned out of their faces and not even a nuclear bomb would have roused them from their laid back worry-free state of existence. Eventually I managed to find three willing volunteers to come down the beach with me to help Marc and Corrine. As we walked down the beach in the dark I was saying a few prayers under my breath that God would protect me in whatever I found when I got there. Then the people I had recruited asked me ‘Where are we going’. ‘I don’t know’ I replied. ‘What are going to do?’ ‘I don’t know’ I replied. ‘All I know is my friends are being beaten and I need to help them.’ We walked on a little further and they asked the questions again. This made me think. ‘What are we doing?’ I thought ‘I am walking down a beach in the dark, not really knowing what has happened and not knowing where I should be going.’ So I decided I needed some more information so I ran back to the resort to find out from Rene where we should go exactly. When I arrived at the table where we had been I was very relieved to see Marc and Corrine and the rest of the group had returned. After quickly checking that everyone was as ok as could be expected I went back out onto the beach to thank the people who had been willing to come with me and to let them know that my friends were back. We then sat around for a while not really saying anything. It was quite difficult not really knowing what had happened to know what to do or say so I just prayed for comfort for those who had been involved and for me to know the right things to say or not to say. We then headed back to the house and sat some more before having a time of prayer together. After a while it was getting close to 12 o’clock and so we decided to go out to the celebrations outside so that the evening was not a complete anti-climax. When we got there the celebrations were in full swing with fireworks being set off literally left, right and centre. I was very glad to be at the back of the crowd with a few people between me and the maniacs at the front holding fireworks in their hands and firing them into all directions underneath the palm trees. There was a big bonfire in the middle but it was not burning too well so some of the locals decided to pour a load of kerosene onto it. It soon took light although once again I was glad to be well away from where they were doing it. After a while some of the group dispersed back to the house, some went to have a dance and others just hung around. I would have liked to have had a dance but I didn’t really feel in the mood and felt that I should be around in the house to talk to anyone who needed to talk. So the rest of the evening passed slowly and eventually everyone made it to bed.
Thursday 1st January 2009
I woke up on New Year’s day not feeling too well. In fact I had not felt too well all night. My stomach was a bit dodgy and I was feeling hot and cold. The rest of the group slowly made their way out of bed and down to the beach but I rested in bed for most of the morning and early afternoon. I then slowly made my way to the beach to see how everyone was and was half glad that I hadn’t been there. The beach was packed. Down to the left there was huge crowd of thousands filling the beach and spreading out into the sea. It looked mad. What were they doing? How could they enjoy themselves being that packed together? The part of the beach we were on was thankfully not that busy, but it was still much more busy than the day before. There was definitely no room to play Frisbee and the sea was pretty full too. I was glad to return to the house and then go to the town again to get water and some more fruit.
In the evening we had a meal again at the restaurant and although we had to wait quite a while for it to come it was worth the wait. We then headed back to the house for our last night at Big Milly’s.
Friday 2nd January 2009
The next day we had to leave Big Milly’s and make our way further along the coast to Cape Coast and then inland to Han’s Cottage Botel (whatever a Botel is!!). We paid our bills at Big Milly’s then left. We walked up to the town and waited for the taxi we had arranged but it did not arrive and we had lost the phone number he had given us. Thankfully a couple of other taxis arrived and we got them down the coastal road to the main road. There we hailed a ‘tro tro’ to take us to Han’s. The ‘tro tro’ headed off and neared Cape coast. We had some simple instructions as to how to get there, but they weren’t too helpful and after a number of turns the driver didn’t know where to go. We asked a number of people and then eventually after picking up a passenger to guide us we made it to Han’s Cottage Botel. We managed to avoid the crocodile on the main drive (that is the attraction of this place apparently – there is a lagoon of crocodiles you can watch as you eat your dinner) and left our luggage in the reception as our rooms were not ready yet. After ‘discussing’ the price of the taxi with the driver (we were back to the old routine of having money extracted from us) we then agreed a price for him to take us to Elmina where there is the biggest Slave castle in Africa. So we piled back into the bus and headed off. Elmina is a bustling fishing village with a disturbing history as having the largest castle that was used for the processing of slaves that were sent to Europe during the slave trade. We had a tour around here and heard about the disgusting double standards that the Europeans had and how the Ghanaian people had been subjected to such ill treatment at their hands. The stories were pretty horrific and made me embarrassed to be European. After a couple of hours and a good few pictures later we then headed across to the fort. We briefly looked around there and took some more photos. We then had to make our way back to Han’s. So we had to do some more negotiation to get a ‘tro tro’. Marc decided to make the negotiations easier for the rest of our time in Ghana by booking the ‘tro tro’ for today and tomorrow for a combined price. Eventually the driver, owner and Marc came to a price and we were on our way. We got back to Han’s and could then check into our rooms. We quickly dumped our stuff and then headed to the pool. We wanted to make the most of the clean and calm water so we all piled in and started playing games, jumping around and generally having a good time. It was great. After drying ourselves off we headed to the restaurant for a meal. We made our order and then waited for ages for the food to come. Eventually our meals came apart from Jayne’s. The waitress then said the grilled chicken was not available but they had fried, was that ok? Jayne didn’t really have much choice so she agreed and the meal was bought out just seconds later. The service was not the best and it seemed like the staff had forgotten how to smile. We finished our food and then played a couple of games of pool. As we headed back to the rooms we took with us a few of the mattresses from the pool side loungers as I did not fancy sharing a double bed with Marc and the girls wanted a little more space in their rooms as well.
Saturday 3rd January 2009
We got up and headed straight to make the most of the pool and after a few lengths we headed to the buffet breakfast. We arrived and there were 2 omelettes left, one slice of toast and about half a glass of orange juice. So much for a buffet breakfast. Some more supplies eventually arrived and we were able to have something which resembled a breakfast. The staff then started to query how many of us there were and they wanted us to pay for the extra breakfast we had had. They reckoned that we had an extra person in one of the rooms that we had not paid for. Rene was not pleased and got her receipt and went to the reception to point out that nowhere did it say the number of people in the room and we had booked for 8 people and that was how many of us there were. After some negotiations they eventually agreed and we didn’t have to pay. We then headed back to the pool for a bit more swimming before we had to leave to go on the Canopy walk.
The tro-tro that we had booked the day before arrived early so we were able to leave Han’s on time. We loaded the bus with all our luggage and we headed towards Kakuma Rainforest. We arrived and headed to the reception and bought our tickets and got a missionary discount -bargain!! After a short wait we met our guide and he began to tell us about the rainforest and then lead us through the start of the forest and told us about some of the trees and animals. We then got to the canopy walk part where we had to walk along rope walkways about 40 metres up in the canopy. You could get amazing views from that height so I was snapping away with my camera. We managed to see some monkeys and I got a number of pictures of them. We might have been able to see some more had the group of Ghanaian school children behind us not made so much noise. They sounded like a bunch of football hooligans doing ape impressions. It was bit frustrating really. There were some nice flowers that I was able to get pictures of and some insects. Thankfully they weren’t frightened away by the racket that was being made!! We got to the end of the walk disappointingly quickly but we needed to leave anyway as we needed to make it back to Accra.
We piled back into the tro-tro and then headed off to Accra. We were on our way home. Hopefully it wouldn’t take us as long to get back as it took to get here. As we neared Accra the traffic became really bad so we crawled along the last few miles into Accra and then had to try our best to remember how to get back to the Sonius’ house where we were going to stay again. On our way there we stopped off at a hotel to drop off Marc and Corrine who were going to meet with someone from the SIM mobile member care team to talk about the events of New Year’s Eve. After making only one erroneous detour we made to the Sonius’ house. We were given another warm welcome and another great meal. We felt at home again. Some of us then played a game of Settlers of Catan and then we headed to bed. Air conditioning and comfortable mattresses -it was great.
Sunday 4th January 2009
We had breakfast in the morning and then headed out to church. The Sonius’ took us to the church that they attend within the grounds of the Accra University. It was quite a big church and was very lively. We then had to do the usual welcoming of visitors and I was the one in the unlucky position to introduce the whole group. We then continued with the lively service singing in English and the local language as the words were projected onto the screen. It was great fun. After the service we went to a Chicken restaurant for lunch. We were pleased to be able to treat the Sonius family to this meal as it was the least we could do to say thank you for the hospitality they had shown us. Then we made another quick trip to the Accra Mall. We browsed all the shops again and people bought the important Ghanaian souvenirs of boxes of breakfast cereal from the supermarket. The cereals were so much cheaper there than in Jos that it would have almost been worth paying the extra baggage costs to take loads home!!!
We then headed back to the Sonius’ to collect our luggage and then we headed off to the airport. We were flying with Virgin Nigeria to Lagos and we checked in without any problems. We then wandered around the airport using up the last of our Ghanaian currency and then boarded the flight to Lagos. The flight took about 50 minutes and before we knew it we were in Lagos. We collected our luggage and then, more immigration procedures to go through – AAAHHHH!! Thankfully these were very well organised and we relatively breezed through them. We then headed outside. We were really blessed once again in that Jayne’s friend Fumike whose family lives in Lagos had arranged at short notice for us to stay at her brothers’ house. We were met at the airport, driven to their home and they even gave up their beds for us. What a contrast to the last time we were in Lagos when it felt like everyone was trying to get as much money out of us as possible. We were given food when we got there and we were amazed to see a big flat screen TV and surround sound audio system in the living room. We chatted and then as we all began to tire gradually drifted off to our beds or bed.
Monday 5th January 2009
After sharing a double bed with Marc for the night I was pleased when it was time to get up in the morning and head off to the airport again. When I got up and saw Fumike’s brothers sleeping on the living room floor I realised that my night perhaps wasn’t that bad. We were once again given a lift to the airport and after a minor misunderstanding about which terminal we needed to be at we made it to the domestic terminal. Fumike had come with us as she was flying to Abuja to return to work. When we got there she found out that she had missed her flight and also that the ticket her friend had got her did not allow her to have any checked luggage. This was not helpful as she hauled a huge bag of clothes and other items into the terminal. It was good we were with her as we were then able to distribute her items between the spare capacity in all of our luggage. We managed to fit it all in, which was good as once again this was the least we could do in return for the hospitality her and her family had shown us. Once that was sorted out we started to look for our Arik Air check in desk. We couldn’t see it anywhere. There was an Arik Air office so I went to investigate but it was totally empty. We asked a number of people and they all confirmed our suspicions – we were at the wrong terminal. We had heard stories about the prices of taxis between the two airports terminals being really expensive and after our previous experienced this did not surprise us. Thankfully however, after Fumike talked to her friend we found out that actually we did not need to go to the international terminal but the second domestic terminal which was within walking distance. He even offered to show us the way but was concerned we would need to get a taxi to take our luggage. None of hesitated in expressing that we really didn’t mind walking with our bags and so off we set on the 10 minute walk to the other domestic terminal. We got there and after waiting a while, as we were very early, we were able to check in. We passed through security and waited some more. It was strange really as we probably waited for as long in the airports at Accra and Lagos as we did at the borders on the road at the beginning of the trip, but because we knew what was going on and there was a timetable that was being adhered to, it somehow all felt much less stressful. Our plane to Jos left on time and after just over an hour we landed in our city of residence. We got our luggage and Peter Fretheim had arranged for one of his drivers to pick us up from the airport. Then, after about another 45 minutes the van arrived at Pharmacy compound. I unloaded my stuff, made the short walk across the road to the Challenge compound and I was home. What a trip, what experiences (maybe some not to be repeated) but what a holiday. Now I need a rest!!!
The trip was a real experience and all of us learnt a big lesson – It doesn’t matter how much planning you do in life, things can still go wrong and not work out how you expect. We felt we had everything sorted and things would go smoothly, but they didn’t. We were charged more money than we thought, the transport took longer than we thought and the events of New Year’s Eve were something that had never even entered our heads. But however, through all of this God was with us and protected us and helped us to learn to rely on Him more. We were blessed by great kindness – People who didn’t even know us welcomed us into their homes, fed us and helped us in many ways. In life there are difficulties and bad times, but throughout this God is present and is looking out for us. If we can rely on Him rather than ourselves then we will never be let down. God was with us throughout the trip and we thank and praise him for that.
