Ghana

We crossed into Ghana and the signs were suddenly in English! Great to be able to speak English and be understood.  The guards at Ghana Immigration in Tumu were also very surprised to see us.  Apparently we were the first tourists since a Belgium man back in February! We filled out the entry papers and Hieke and Didi went to find out if they could get their vehicle in. After the initial surprise that they had no Carnet they were issued with a document for their vehicle.   No problem after all! We found out later that Ghana has also just issued a new law that no right hand drive vehicles are allowed to enter the country.  They obviously had not heard of this in Leo and we drove in oblivious! 

At the first town was we needed to get some money changed because we had no Cedis. There were two banks in town. We walked in and the surprised Cashier informed us that they could not change Travellers cheques, Dollars cash or Euros! However, if we went to the local garage there was a man there that could do it for us! We decided to wait and change in Wa. 

The North of Ghana is really green and it was really clear weather also, not too humid or hot.  There had been a lot of rain recently and it had cleared the air.  With all the formalities that day we would not make it to Wa so we bush camped again.  We had similar problems finding a camp but eventually managed to pull off and hide in the high grass. Discovered in the morning that we were very close to the path so no doubt people knew we were there! 

Drove into Wa on Friday morning and headed for the bank.  The place has many colonial buildings in it and lots of shops and market stalls.  The towns here look much more developed and organized than others we have passed in other countries.  We entered the Ghana Commercial bank at 10.00am. We were confronted with lines of people queuing at each of the cashier points and people sitting down lining the walls!  We eventually found where we had to be and that they would change our travelers cheques.  At 11.00 am we left as millionaires.  There is 14,000 cedis to one pound so we felt great but a bit conspicuous trying to divide the notes up between us. 

We had all gathered under a tree and were preparing to leave when suddenly a man decided he was going to accompany Heike and Didi. He was trying to force open the door and climb on Heikes lap. Peter noticed what was going on and grabbed the man and flung him away from the vehicle.  The next thing another local man began pushing the intruder and Slade came into help.  Thirty seconds later it was all over and the man, apparently a mad man, left the scene. We decided to leave also!

Close to Wa is the Mole Game Reserve. According to the book they had over 100 different animals there including elephant and Lion.  The Park is the largest in Ghana, as we were so far north we decided to enter from the top.  The official entrance is in the south at Larabanga but our map showed roads entering from the north so we decided to enter that way.  A  good dirt road leaves Wa and gradually gets narrower and more bumpy as you approach the park. We entered a village and pulled up to ask for directions outside a school.  About 60 school children were stood under a tree with their teacher.  They were all watching us.  We waved and everyone waved back at the same time. They took a few steps towards us and we thought ooops we are going to be swamped with children.  They ran like mad things and stopped inches from the window after one yell from the teacher to stop! We got directions from the teacher who informed us that he had over 60 kids in one class! 

The road got progressively worse. We wanted to stop for lunch and ended up stopping in the road and cooking eggs. There were no cars and only cyclists going our way so we should have figured that something was not quite right.  The rain suddenly came down and we had to huddle together under the awning whilst it past. The road turned into a shallow river.  Eventually we arrived at a village where the road divided into lots of paths.  The locals said the road into the park was very bad.  With all the rain it was muddy and rocky.  We asked if it was similar to the road we had just driven and they said it was the same.  We decided to continue. As we drove over the rubbish tip and entered long grass, with no visible path we figured no one had been down there for a while!  After an hour of driving in high grass and following a faint track, it suddenly got wet.  We saw the mud too late and got bogged straight away.  At the same moment the Mercedes slipped off the track and also got stuck.  It took over 4 hours to dig ourselves out and cost us one tyre.  We used spades, sand ladders, Peters fancy winch and towing to get us both free.  To add to this it was humid, loads of bugs and mozzies biting us.  It was threatening to rain by the time we had reversed onto hard ground and the light was going. We had no choice but to camp in the road for the night, no fear of any traffic though! The locals walking past found it very amusing though and one young man with a very high voice could not believe we would stop there for the night. Slade showered in the rain which scared the Germans behind us!

Back to Wa we went waving at the same people we had happily waved to the day before! Taking the main, tarred road to Larabanga proved much easier.  We joked as we drove along that we could sit that evening looking down at a waterhole drinking beer and watching elephants.  We arrived at sunset and were blown away by the setting. The Mole Motel is on top of a big hill and looks across thousands of hectares of forest. Immediately  below was a watering hole and we could camp looking over it! Wow, a dream come true especially as even the beer was cold and they also had a swimming pool!

6.30 am we were bush walking with a guide and saw baboons, monkeys, bush buck, impala and wart hogs.  We had seen the backside of an elephant that morning by the water hole but we did not see any until we were entering the hotel. Four elephant were grazing at the entrance.  It was great to see. It got better because the elephant went down to the watering hole and played for about an hour.  They were apparently young males that were not quite old enough to join in with the mating that was going on in the forest! They did not seem too bothered though! We spent the weekend there relaxing and trying to wash clothes when there was water. Tubbs did a walk with a guide in the afternoon and managed to get close to a mother elephant and two young ones (Not too close!) which was great and practically walked in on some male elephants grazing. Apparently they will chase people, so quickly walked back again! 

We met an overland truck that evening, the same one we had met in Casablanca. Babs, the very nice and enthusiastic driver had seen us and come straight over for a drink to escape from her group.  She had been on the road for 2 months and was fed up with the bickering and incompetence of her passengers who seemed to complain all the time. She`d had really bad luck. Her truck had been impounded on the Senegalese border as they are not allowing old vehicles in. You are meant to be ok if you have a Carnet but even that had not helped her. To make matters worse all her tents had been stolen.  She had to meet her new group in Dakar with no truck and no tents, not good when people are flying in expecting to drive out! Shed eventually got the truck back and brought new tents but people did not seem to share her enthusiasm that these things happen in Africa!

The close encounters with the elephant continued. At 4 am Tubbs got woken up by strange noises coming from outside the tent  (no, nothing like that!) peeking through the mosquito net there was an elephant 20 metres away! It was under a tree and she suddenly felt very small in her tent and had visions of the elephant coming over to have a look inside!  Trying to wake Slade quietly was a mission.  By the time he awoke and stood on the roof wrapped in his duvet the elephant had gone.  No one believed there had been an elephant there and lots of teasing was going on. Fortunately for Tubbs she was backed up by the game warden who confirmed there had indeed been an elephant in the camp that  morning! Maybe he had been drinking the same jungle juice Tubbs had????????

From Mole we went south to the Kintampo waterfalls.  There is a huge waterfall there which you can crawl underneath and sit behind the water. We met Peter, a Dutch guy who we kept bumping into.  He had come from Niger and told us that people had been crossing over from Sudan into Chad, which was good to hear. 

We moved onto the Boabeng Fiema Monkey Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is between the two villages of Boabeng and Fiema and is home to over 200 Colobus and 500 Mona Monkeys.  There is also over 90 species of trees and they have many varieties of butterflies.  We should also add that they have millions of Soldier ants which had a great time biting us and crawling everywhere at the camping site.  Funnily enough the ants were only around in the evening and the following morning not one was to be found. 

It was time to move to the big city of Kumasi, one of the oldest towns in Ghana.  As we drove in Slade thought he was in heaven.  Engines lined the streets, then came shops full of exhausts, tyres and basically any engine parts you needed.  Kumasi must be the busiest place we had driven so far and Slade then thought he was in hell.  The roads were not that wide and were full of traffic and people carrying or pushing things. We passed the largest market in West Africa and got lost! Luckily Peter had GPS coordinates for Rosies Guest house where we could park and after asking directions and some good luck we drove into the Guest house which also had an Irish Bar attached.  Suddenly from the madness of Kumasi we were in a western style bar, drinking beer, watching Sky womans wrestling and listening to Celine Dion.  Very odd indeed.  The manager of the Guesthouse said that they did not allow camping in the car park anymore but if we took one room at 280,000 cedis or £20 and paid 2 dollars each we could stay.  We could not face Kumasi so agreed.  There was a discussion about who should get the nice double room.  Tubbs said that a couple should get it but the couples were not fussed so the Singleton scored the room!  The room had a television so K and S got square eyed watching it whilst the rest searched for internet cafes and Tubbs got hardly any sleep from watching English movies into the early hours, what a treat. 

The aim was to drive to Dixcove on the coast and stay at Fort Metal Cross.  The Fort is leased by Rob and Linda Fidler, Tubbs landlords in the UK.  He spent over 6 years arranging with the Ghanian Museums and Monuments Board for the 25 year lease. At the same time he made agreements with the Chief of Upper Dixcove that he could look after the castle and work in the village to try and improve the living conditions there. With his digger and lorry he and his team from Dixcove have cleared and widen some of the roads, built a sea defense and cleared some of the drainage channels. The main project though is to encourage people to come and stay at the Fort where they can learn about the history of the place as well as relax and use the fort as a base for exploring the local area.  The money invested from tourists will go into using the fort for educational purposes and be reinvested into Dixcove. In order to build the holiday huts around the fort the people currently living there are being moved to a new site 1 km away. One hundred and thirty houses are being built and are almost complete. Every family get 1 or more houses depending on how many rooms they currently have. Everyone seems happy as their mud and bamboo houses are not in good condition and they are also built illegally around the fort. They will now get good quality homes instead.   

We took over the fort when we arrived on Wednesday evening. Tubbs was really excited about showing the place to everyone, having visited the year before.  It was really strange driving into a familiar place for the first time in three months.  We have now completed the first third of our journey!!! We all felt very chuffed to have made it this far and thoroughly enjoyed a beer (red wine for Krissy) on top of the fort, looking out to sea. 

The next morning Lydia arrived who was going to do our cooking.  Thanks Rob for organizing that! We had pancakes for breakfast and she will also prepare our dinner.  The first night was smoked tuna, it had a really strong taste. Fish is easy to get hold of here. Every day the fishermen go out in their motorized long boats, flags a-flying and come back the next day with Tuna, Swordfish, shark (often the fins are just cut off for shark fin soup) and loads of other fish.  We decided to try all the fish during our stay.

Carol arrived the following day to do our washing, take us shopping, paint our nails and give massages!! It just gets better and better.  In the next cove to Dixcove is Bushua beach where you can swim.  It is a beautiful beach and apart from being charged to swim in front of the Bushua Beach Hotel on the first day we have had no hassles from anyone and have great fun in the sea.

The Landy needed some servicing.  For the last few days before Dixcove we had no 4 wheel drive as the front prop shaft universal joint had gone.  Slade also needed to replace all the filters and change the oil, thanks Simon for organizing the replacement parts in the UK and the sweets in the box. The transfer box front output oil seal and front diff oil seal had also since gone and needed replacing so after sourcing new seals and universal joints Peter, Didi and Slade set about repairing all, after 3 months and 15000 km(9000miles) on some of the worst and toughest roads and pistes in Africa  the vehicles were all in need of a really good  service as did all their occupants. Thanks again Rob and Linda for letting us stay at the fort, it has been amazing.

We spent our last weekend at the fort entertaining our first guests.  Zoe Wildig our friend from home was working in Ghana and had persuaded her colleagues, Marlene, Marietta and Peter, to accompany her to the fort. It was great to see her but extremely strange to see someone from home.  We had a meal on top of the fort with tuna, shark and swordfish with some Kelliwelli (fried plantain and spices), lovely. Zoe, Tubbs, Marlene and Peter slept outside and had great views of the stars, until about 2 in the morning when the rain started!

We all left on Sunday and went to Elmina  to see St Georges Fort.  It is huge but in quite a bad condition compared to Dixcove. However, it but really brought home how many millions of Africans were caught as Slaves and the horrendous conditions they were held in. 

Saying goodbye to Zoe we headed off to the Kakum National Park. The guard let us sleep in the car park.  It was really odd, we set up camp but felt like we were in a Jurassic Park movie because we were alone with locked up park buildings and a wild park around us!  Awaking safely the next morning we went on the canopy walkway.  It is a 350 metre walkway high up in the trees.  It was very impressive although expensive for non Ghanians at 90,000 cedis (£6) for a Ghanian it is about 40,000 cedis!

We set off in good spirits to Accra only for things to go very pear shaped.  The road is not in that great a condition, pot holes are common and there is quite heavy, fast traffic. We were in the front and suddenly saw Peters lights come on. Looking in the mirrors we saw a car hurtling into the ditch,mud flying.  We immediately stopped and ran back to the accident.  Three men were getting out of car which was certainly a write off. Luckily they were ok but very angry.  Peter told us that the driver had overtaken first Didi then him at high speed.  He had started to overtake us but we had moved to avoid a pothole and they had driven on the gravel hold shoulder, braked and shot off at right angles in front of Peter.    We had not seen them.  It was all getting messy so Didi and Heike went to get the police.  The police man was praying so by the time he got there the driver of the car had moved his car out of the ditch and was trying to repair it. Also, the Attache to the Dutch Ambassador had come past and offered some advice.  He said that we were obviously just witnesses to very bad driving and we should not be charged. He also said that most people normally drive on after an accident to avoid all the paperwork and hassles. This part of the road was notorious for accidents and as we waited we saw so many more close calls. The driver started accusing Peter of overtaking him and forcing him off the road. There were so many stories being spun that the policeman told us to go the station for witness statements and for checking Peters car.  Fearing the worst we went to the station.  On arrival the police man apologized to everyone for all the inconvenience and also said that we had stopped to help and been wrongly accused. We were free to go, no problem, no paperwork.  Could not believe it and felt bad for stereotyping officials as mostly corrupt or biased!  We are not sure what happened to the car.  We hope they had insurance.

Eventually got to Cocoa Beach near Accra after going through horrendous traffic and arranged some camping.  Managed to get a visa in the Togo Embassy which covers Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina and Ivory cost for 25,000 CFAs or $50, which isn019t the same price! Slade spent a lot of time driving around Accra looking for a spare tyre which was not cheap.  On the same day he revisited the dentist to get a cap on his two troublesome teeth.  The Ghanian lady had one look and told him to go back to England to get it done!  She did however do the job but managed to cut his gum causing blood to go everywhere and then poured  bleach on it to clear it up. Slade eventually staggered out and carried on haggling for tyres and managed to get a much better price (£60 for second hand tyre, still expensive) due to being shall we say, more aggressive after the teeth trauma. We now know it is cheaper to buy them in Togo.

Peter and Nicoline made a decision in Accra to ship to South Africa from Ghana. Nicoline had been having problems with her back and compounding this the route to East Africa was still looking bleak. The Chad/Sudan border one of the gateways to East Africa was open but there are still lots of tensions in the area.  We were not sure what to do either and were also considering the shipping option. The cost to ship a 20ft container to SA was 1500  ?Euros.  Lots of decisions to make regarding what do but first we wanted to see Togo and Benin.  So after collecting Tubbs who had abandoned the camp and was staying in a luxury apartment with Zoe in Accra we set off to North East Ghana. 

Driving out of Cocoa Beach we saw some very amusing coffins. They are amusing because they are designed in the shapes of boats, mobile phones, pink fish, cockerills, a judge and even a gun.  We guess people must have booked in advance. If you want to book one contact Six Feet Under Enterprises.  The shop signs here are a constant form of amusement. Memorable ones include Only God Knows, Electrical Stores, Oh my God, Hairdressers, Funeral and Fashion House and Finger of God Communication Centre.....

We headed north of Accra to the Akosombo Hydroelectic Dam which provides electricity for Ghana, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso. We then went and found a great lunch spot next to the Volta River which was equipped with a rope swing. Slade leapt off the rope, tarzan style, into the river closely followed by Krissy, then everyone else. After lunch we set off in a massive rainstorm. We thought it would pass but it continued for hours. Eventually we dripped into Ho to make some more shipping calls.  Turns out it is not much cheaper to share a 40ft container than getting a 20ft for a single vehicle. 

We slept the night in the village of Amedzofe high up in the hills north of Ho.  We camped outside but had to take a guest house which in the morning gave us great views  of Mt Gemi and the surrounding hills and countryside. It was obvious that deforestation is a real problem here. Apparently 20 years earlier the countryside here resembled the well forested areas of Northern Ghana. Population increase and charcoal production has definitely left its mark.

We climbed Mt Gemi the next morning (actually only a 15 minute walk), proving how unfit we are. Grace, from tourist information, did the walk in her flip flops talking continuously and not losing her breathe once like the rest of us.  Again, great views from the top.  We then clambered down to a waterfall hanging onto ropes.  Having pulled our arms the day before somersaulting into the river, we all felt a bit sore.  It was well worth the pain though and the Venters stood in the cold water of the falls clearly having a great time.

Onto HoHoe where in the middle of another horrendous rain storm Nikoline met a German lady who owned the Waterfalls Lodge with her husband in Wli. What a place. Fantastic views of a huge waterfall from their garden.  We parked in the garden where to Krissys delight some very big chickens made an appearance. The german couple had been driving to South Africa several years ago and had reached this spot and could not bear to drive any further and leave it.  They had brought the land and built their dream house.   We could see why but we were not ready to buy some land and start a commune just yet.

It was time to leave Ghana after 3.5 weeks.  800metres from the Lodge was the Togolese border.  After signing out of Ghana and Tubbs had finished being shown the officers family photograph album we drove into Togo.

SUMMARY

Visa Entente for Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Niger and Burkina can be obtained for 25,000 CFA or $50 at the Togolese Embassy in Accra.

Camping in Accra:  Beachcomber Guest House, Cocoa Beach (near Cocoa Beach Hotel).

Shipping Costs:

Ghana to Mombassa, Kenya via Durban

SDV shipping: 022 20 2332

35 days

$1075 + $45 handling fee (20ft container)

$2060 (40ft container)

Ghana to South Africa

Shipping: 1500 including handling costs (ie someone to do the paper work - forwarding agent)

Flights $600