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25 Feb, Our 'rig' at Big Milly's | ||||||
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21-23 february. kumasi Kumasi is Ghana's second city and the centre of the Ashanti kingdom - the powerhouse dynasty inland in Ghana until the British moved off the coastal area and overthrew the dynasty in 1874. With 1.2 million people, it's hot, humid and crowded. Traffic jams clog the centre of the city around the main market and the air is filled constantly with the sound of car horns. There are 5 meanings behind a car horn we are told. 1) Hello my friend. 2) After you... 3) Hey, I'm here. 4) Watch out. 5) Get out of the bloody way! Traffic lights and the rules of the road take a back seat here to driving by horn. He who honks longer and more insistently takes priority it seems sometimes. I loved it! Especially in a 3 tonne Land Rover. It gives you an instant advantage over the swarm of little Chinese or Asian imported taxis that fill every metre of tarmac not taken by the Tro-Tro minibuses. The bull bar becomes a taxi bar in the city. People tend to get out of the way. The central market is enormous, a good 1 km by 1.5 km, absolutely jammed packed full of stalls and people squatting in any spare space trying to sell their goods. We plunge into it one day and retire exhausted and soaking with sweat out of another narrow passageway 45 minutes later. Oof! Where's the air conditioned supermarket then? We're here not only to visit the city, but to catch up with Elvis, a friend of Hepworth (our village in Yorkshire) and an Anglican priest at the Anglican cathedral in Kumasi. We'd met Elvis in September 2005 just as we were leaving Hepworth to set off on the trip and he'd been able to make it to our leaving party. We were driving (and honking) our way around Kumasi in an increasingly agitated and lost state looking for a specific internet cafe when we stumbled by chance across an enormous Anglican cathedral looming over a whole neighbourhood on the side of a hill. It was St. Cyprian's, where Elvis works. Unannounced, we drop in and luckily he's there. He insists we come and stay with him, Adelaide his wife and their family while we are in town and he spends the next three days taking us to meet people for lunch and showing us the best places to find the things we need; including a good bookshop and, as usual, a good Landy mechanic! One evening, Adelaide invites Marie-Jo to come with her to attend her women's fellowship meeting. (MJ writes) Not knowing exactly what to expect, I ask Adelaide to tell me what the St-Cyprian's Women's Fellowship does. She tells me they meet every Thursday night to pray, read and study the Bible, help each other out, etc. On the way to the church, Adelaine asks me what 'our mission' is. Mmmm... very good question. Not convinced that the answer I will give her will be spiritual enough, I ponder and tell her that ours is a journey of discovery; of cultures, people, places and each other. We enter the chapel where the meeting is already underway : three women are sitting at a centre table in front of an assembly of about 35 women. All are wearing the same thing; black and white printed skirt, white top and mauve turban. I feel completely out of place in my bright orange shirt, which is definitely too hot in the stiffling heat of the chapel. Adelaide stands to address the assembly and while she is speaking Akan language, the only words I can make out are 'Land Rover'. She's definitely talking about me. When she's finished talking, she turns to me and asks if I would like to say a few words. By this point, sweat is dripping from me and I feel very self-conscious; when I sit down again, there will likely be a puddle by my feet. I thank the Fellowship for welcoming me, I tell them I'm from Hepworth, the village Elvis visits each year, and I talk about our trip. I hear 'ohs' and 'ahs' when I list the countries we've seen. When I'm finished speaking, Adelaide asks me if I'm Anglican. I tell the assembly that I'm Catholic and I distinctly hear a murmur of disappointment... Never mind. I take a few photos and sneak away. (Mark writes) Many thanks to Elvis and family for their hospitality. We will catch up with them again once we've visited t.he Gold Coast and found somewhere to rent for a few months while we take a break from travelling and stay in Ghana. Overlander info: The Landy garage is in the north of town in an area known as the "Magazine". It's been going since 1954 and is where everyone comes to get their Landys fixed. It's permanently full of 110s and Defenders. A second hand parts market surrounds the garage and pretty much everything is on hand to fulfill your every Landy repair need! Highly recommended. GPS: N 06°43.202 W001°37.872 24 february. kumasi to kokrobite After a morning spent spending money in the garage again (drag link and track rod balljoints replacement), we take the road south down towards Accra. There are plenty of road works to ensure we don't progress too quickly and at every major stop due to the road works is a throng of road side sellers. This being Africa, there is never a lost opportunity to try and sell. And longterm roadworks make for a great opportunity. At every stop on the way south, where the road becomes single file and there is a need to wait for traffic to pass from the other direction, a veritable road side market has been set up. 100's of people descend on the row of cars to try and sell. Of course, there's fruit and plantain chips and water. but there's also bush meat and giant snails. The bush meat is presented in a very fetching manner. Spreadeagled, with a skewer through it from head to tail to allow the vender to hold it aloft, it looks very much like a vertical version of a dissected rat on a biology class workbench. Cooked and dried, it looks more like week old roadkill than anything you'd want to eat. As for the giant snails, well they are giant. About the size of a small kitten, the body is about 20cm long by 10cm wide. As we are sitting in the Landy and sweating/roasting slowly, the seller thrusts his plate of snails in through the window. There are 7 or 8 snails, patiently but surely playing a game of snail twister on the plate. Antenna swinging from left to right as they slither, daring me to buy them. Are you kidding?! No thanks. (Giant snails are served sliced in a soup with okra. Very very nice... apparently.) The beach and big Millys at Kokrobite will have to wait for another day as night falls and we are still enjoying the joys of the Accra ring road system under (re)construction. Overlander info: Having to fix a little oil leak and not having the right size ratchet, we recommend Jim and his garage beside Melcolm's restaurant ('cause he's nice and didn't charge us). GPS: N 05°37.587 W000°14.140 25 february - 3 march. big milly's in kokrobite Big Millys is a well known overlander stopover and beachfront relaxing place in Kokrobite, just to the west of Accra. It has a relaxed beach with pounding waves in a warm sea. Fishermen fish from 15-20m long deep wooden canoe-like boats all along this stretch of beach. The restaurant in Big Millys overlooks the beach on one side, while another overlooks a palm tree canopied courtyard, where a thatched roofed bar and tables/chairs nestle on the far side. A small stage is to the side of the bar and saturday nights here reggae to the beats of mostly local bands. Bungalows stretch back away from the beach front around the sides of the compound and are mostly full of holidaying European volunteers at the end of their spell in the country while we are here. The middle of the compound has more chairs and tables as well as the odd hammock for people to collapse into during the day as they seek to escape the sun and relax in the shade. A number of stalls sell clothes, necklaces or wood work. Children, chickens and a whole gang of excited kittens run around everywhere. Sratchy and Sniffy the dogs scratch and sniff the days away and sit on the tables in the evening; when the chickens climb the trees to sleep in safety. We camp right in the middle of everything and put up all the awnings to try and get some privacy. There is little chance however as Tshukudu in all his splender attracts his fair share of visitors. Marie-Jo will surely get her official tour guide badge soon. The evening we arrive it pours with rain. Lightning flashes over Accra in the east during the hours before to warn us of the impending downpour. The air is heavy with humidity. Everything is damp... permanently (and it's not even the rainy season yet). Cotton t-shirts are the worst, they really struggle to dry and instead pick up a damp musty smell and stick to your back the minute you put them on. We live in our swimming costumes and go for a swim every few hours to cool down and get a good battering from the waves. As we sit having dinner that first evening with the rain splattering down heavily, we remember we don't have the rain cover on the tent. In fact, it doesn't matter really. Whether it is raining or not, the rain cover is on or not, the cotton sheets on the bed attract the humidity from the air and keep hold of it tightly. They are always damp. It's a relaxing place during the week (and vibrant and noisy at the weekends). The staff are friendly and the stallholders forever hopeful (and often successful). We end up staying a few days longer than planned as we hear Jamie and Claire are heading this way and it'll be good to celebrate Claire's 29th birthday again on the 3rd! We ponder over our next moves. How best to reach Cameroon? Through Nigeria in convoy (quickly) or round it (slowly)? We've got a bit of time to decide and there's a steady stream of overlanders to chat to in the meantime. A special mention in dispatches to Iris and Ing, a pair of Dutch volunteers recuperating here for a couple of weeks after a (mentally) hard 2 months working in an orphanage in Tamale in the north. They were wonderful company with a sharp sense of humour (in a small small way, sorry). Of course, it's also fun hanging out with beautiful 23 year old girls in bikinis! Overlander info: Big Millys - GPS N 05°29.732 W000°21.936
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Religion is omnipresent in Ghana. There's even a convention for holy ghosts! | ||||||
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Adelaide at her fellowship meeting | ||||||
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Adelaide (on right) and friends | ||||||
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Our 'pin up' friends, | ||||||
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Having a good time | ||||||
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Entertainment at Big Milly's | ||||||
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