Friends reunited & Plenty of Medication – Ghana (Pt 1) 5th Feb 2010
Date: Saturday 27th February, 2010 | Country: Ghana | No Comments »After getting through the Ivory coast border in a relatively short time (in fact if we didn’t stop and ask we could have simply just driven through as no one looked at all bothered to stop us!) we entered the Ghana border. My first impressions were not great due to the amount of patrolmen that were intent on making sure that Maggie was parked perfectly in the spaces that they created even though there wasn’t the need for preciseness in a somewhat empty parking bay! It was Reka’s turn to do the admin and take our documents to the various teams that process people’s entry and while sitting in the car I started to hear the exchange of some voices which gradually started getting louder, one of those voices was Reka. When I approached them I could see the gentleman processing our passports was not in the mood for any reasoning and the ‘discussion’ with Reka was do with the fact that Reka was not prepared to leave this station as requested while our passports were still with him. When I asked the passport guys name, he was quick to respond ‘what does that matter?’ and was basically offended that we did not trust him to leave our passports with him while other documents were reviewed elsewhere. After 30 minutes of the this and the car being checked for its contents we were able to leave the border and enter country no.8 in West Africa.
Ghanaian Border
Axim
We read that there were a few spots on the Ghana coast that might be worth checking out, one of them being Axim where a few camping places existed as well as several hotels. We read about one place called the Green Turtle lodge that by the sounds of it had cheap camping on the beach, however the road for the last 30km to get there was a rocky dirt road that was not good for the tyres. By the time we found the lodge it was dark, we were both tired and as soon as we entered I noticed that one of our tyres was punctured, luckily for us it happened here and not on the road in the dark as that would have been a pain to change.
Photos of the Green Turtle Lodge – Highly recommended for a stopover.
To stay here on the beach cost 4 Ghana Cedi or £2 per person and there was a lovely sea breeze as the over Landers here camp 30 metres away from the shoreline. Everything about this place was eco friendly, they have drop loos which is used for composting, everything is made out of local wood and with an extensive bar and amazing menu of what was very well made local food this place is a winner in my books.
It was here that we met Hilary and Miles who both left their jobs to travel on what money they had after selling their car. They are from Colorado and have a list of farms that they will try and do some work on while travelling to earn a little money for food and accommodation, unfortunately the first farmer they contacted asked them if they could work on his farm and pay the farmer 20 (£10) ghana cedi for the privilege of a long days work, it was cheaper for them to stay in the lodge rather than take this crazy farmers offer up but I hope they managed to find a more reasonable farmer elsewhere! It was with these guys that the pack of Uno cards came out that we bought in Liberia and during the many hours of beer and Uno that we were playing I heard a deep saffer accent approaching me and it was Kirk and Dale that we had spent time with in Mauritania and Senegal.
They had chosen to go to the Gambia and then through Mali & Burkina Faso to get into Ghana and by the sounds of it their journey was a lot of fun getting to the same place as we had. They were with another couple Joe and Christine who were leaving the UK to drive to South Africa basically on a whim before they settled in Joe’s country of Canada. We spent a few days at the green turtle lodge
Top right: A pineapple plant (it really is!), Bottom :Miles, Hilary, Reka, Me, Joe, Christine, Kirk & Dale
Joe and Christine were desperate for a fridge and so after much deliberation I decided to swap the Engel fridge I had for a cooler box that they had with the promise that they would leave it in Namibia for us to collect it along the way, we hadn’t used the fridge all that much and in the spirit of travellers I decided to give it to them, Christine was kind enough to give me one night in a large hotel in Ghana as a way of a thanks (via her old company air miles or something). It was nice to catch-up with Kirk and Dale and in true fashion on our last night we all had a braai or bbq and put some tasty langoustines on the fire, it was very tasty!
Winneba
After a relaxing few days it was good to hit the road, we drove a few hundred km along the coast to a place called Winneba. Here we found a nice place to camp close to the beach for a few cedi’s (couple of quid) and met a nice family that ran a small bar in the middle of this lovely colonial style town. The owners daughters were 2 lovely ladies that spent time talking to Reka and I during that night, I was even told by Claudia that she would have liked to join me if she was recently married (thankfully her Husband wasn’t there!).
Left: Winneba Beach Right: The ladies of Winneba
More Mechanical work!
We had noticed that Maggie was swerving and difficult to control on speeds around 50 mph and so it was time to visit another garage. On our way into Accra I met a guy who also had a defender and he kindly drove us to a place where there were 20 or so groups of people specialising in a number of different vehicles, we were put into contact with a couple of guys that were meant to be land rover specialists although the facilities that everyone was using was not great I decided to use this one mechanic who seemed like he knew what he was doing.
Centre: More tinkering! Right: Travelling salesman
We were told that bearings were broken in the left hand side of Maggie and for a reasonable price in the same day they managed to replace the broken bearings with some new ones. At the same time another guy helped fix the back door which was coming off its hinges and was becoming difficult to close. All throughout the journey we have had brakes that had been very spongy to use and were never instantly what you needed and as long as you are aware of this you could use the brakes effectively, on speaking to the Mechanic he suggested that we replace the brake servo vacuum pump to which I agreed in principle with but as with anything proof is in the pudding. When the mechanic left to find this spare part he called me and told me that he could only find a new one and it would cost 150 ghana cedi’s or £75. After replacing this, he realised that the pump was in fact defect although it was packaged as new (Chinese) and so I told him to get his money back. He looked at me as if I had sworn at his mother, he said there was no way he was going to get his money back to which I got animated telling him what sort of business is that if you buy a part that is faulty and you cannot get your money back from them. Sadly we left this mechanic with him taking a hit on that part but I was not prepared to pay anything for something that didn’t work. Maggie drove perfectly again after their work. We would also like to thank Robert and his brothers for letting us stay with his family for a couple of nights, we met them at the garage as his defender was also being serviced at the same time.
While we are on the subject of Maggie, tyres are widely available in Ghana and most brands and sizes are for sale. What was noticeable when searching for a couple of replacements were that some companies looked at Reka and I and thought ‘money bags’ and decided to charge us 300-400 Cedi or £150-200 per new tyre which was ridiculous as there was no way locals would be paying that amount. What I found when driving away from the the obvious places for tyres was that you could find very decent second hand tyres (Tread in good condition) and for the 2 spares that we bought we paid on average each for them 30 cedis or £15 each.
Typhoid Tastic
If you can imagine yourself being shackled at the knees, wrapped in a thick woolly blanket while being turned slowly over a volcanic lake, that is kind of what I went through recently when I was diagnosed with having Typhoid. The Dr I met told me that Typhoid fever is an acute illness associated with fever caused by the Salmonella bacteria. The bacteria are deposited in water or food. The probability of getting this was high due to the amount of street food we have both been eating since starting this journey but you are never entirely prepared for the suffering that follows! Luckily for me I was in a place where the medical facilities are of a very high standard and it was Frank (will talk about this lovely gentleman in another post) that took me to a new private hospital that was open 24hrs. Initially I was tested for Malaria which was negative and my next blood test for typhoid was the result I wasn’t really looking for but good to know what it was.
Happy days
Initially I was given several different pills and told to see how I get on, after a few days my fever felt like it was getting worse and it was becoming difficult to be energetic enough to walk for more that a few minutes before wanting to sleep again. The next time I took my Typhoid test the results showed that my levels of the bacteria had in fact increased and so my confidence in the Dr began to decrease, but he then changed my medication and within a few days my horrendous fever started to disappear and I could now sleep without waking up in a pool of sweat…phew!!
It has now been a few weeks since I went through that experience and apart from the odd headache here and there, I feel my body has recovered well enough and confident of continuing this adventure. I know that I got this at some point eating from some street vendor and I can only try and make sure that I clean properly before eating and that I am more fortunate along the way.
Accra
After visiting Abidjan I wasn’t expecting to see an even bigger city but in Ghana the capital here is absolutely humungous. Accra served as a centre for trade with the Portuguese, who built a fort in the town, followed by the Swedish, Dutch, French, British and Danish by the end of the seventeenth century. The Accra Riots in 1948 launched the Ghanaian campaign for independence, which in part led to Ghana’s independence from the United Kingdom and nationhood in 1957.
Accra is well laid out as a city and fairly easy to find places (if you have a map) and there are 5 or 6 major roads that crisscross the city. As with most large cities however there comes a large amount of traffic and this can delay your journeys considerably depending on where you are going but where there is a problem others see this as an opportunity, more than anywhere else in Accra you will find thousands upon thousands of street traders that walk through the traffic trying to sell their items. You will never go hungry or thirsty while being stuck in traffic as you can buy all sorts of fruit, ice cream, bread, biscuits etc Sometimes you see a trader selling 2 completely different things like super glue and razors but they still walk the streets and so must be making some money with their strange combinations. Accra caters for the rich and the poor alike, there are many malls with fancy boutiques and large restaurants and there are many large expensive hotels dotted around the city.
Above: Photos of Accra
I will try and post the second part of the Ghana visit very shortly, in the meantime hope all friends, family and readers are well and look forward to hearing from you soon.