Accra, Ghana (again)

doh! back in the same yukky shopping mall exactly a week later.

We had a couple of nights at Milly's Backyard which apparently is a 'boutique hostel', but dont believe the hype. no showers, no running water in the morning, prostitutes being assertive (although there are rumours that 2 made a sale from guys on our truck) and more dodgy-looking guys looking displeased when you dont buy drugs from them. Still, i had a bucket bath with the water out of the well and that was very refeshing, and the 'bathroom' wall is quite low so you can watch the world go by while you wash your bits. The rival overland company 'Oasis' were there too and its good catching up with them. I did most of my washing but, paid the hostel to clean my filthy shorts and sleep sac, and they did a great job. Bought a pair of white pants which have a flour bag design on them. Many of us bought them so they are all the rage on our truck. And they are lightweight so ideal for when the mozzies are about. My self-inflating mattress has been pretty flat for a few weeks, but i finally got round to locating the 6 tiny holes, using water, and putting patches on. Surprisingly they seem to be fixed, which is good cos i ran out of glue.

From Milly's we headed to Cape Coast. There they have a slave castle. When the British, and others, colonised this part of Africa they built castles as a look-out, an administration place and to keep slaves locked in dungeons underneath for upto 3 months before shipping them out to other parts of the world. They showed us the dungeons and described the terrible conditions men and women were kept in. How could the white man have possibly thought that this was acceptable? Oh, and the dungeon was directly under the Anglican church....how disgusting.

It seems strange that the people would then take on the religion of their oppressors, but Ghana is a very religious country. Indeed just about every shop has a religious name e.g. 'God is good car mechanics' or 'Jesus is in you suipermarket' and 'God's own image barber shop'.

Next we went to a rainforest to walk through the canopy. Well, i have done that a few times before so was not too bothered and apprently the walkway was wobbly and scary. But i did it anyway. The first 'bridge' was a bit scary, a long drop down but pretty difficult to fall off the side of the bridge. Feeling ok i then realised there were another 5 wobbly rope bridges to cross. I decided the best action was to just stride confidently along and not be a woose. I had a bit of look down but not much to see apart from trees, obviously. And that was it. So it didnt seem like very good value.

We stayed at a hotel (camping out the back) which called itself a botel on all of the signs. Not sure what that was about, but that evening we got our first rainfall, and it bucketed it down. Somehow our cooks still managed to come up with tasty dinner, even in the storm. And we watched Ghana lose to Ivory Coast.

The last few nights we stayed at Elmina which was much better than Milly's. We had the beach resort pretty much to ourselves and they had proper showers, cheaper beer and friendlier staff. The sun shining right into my tent at 7am was enough to get me out of bed. The waves were pretty big and crashing. It was great to sit there at night watching the white surf crash onto the slope in front of us. Also, we had a truck cleaning day which took 24 of us 3.5 hours to complete. I did my fair share, though not as much work as others who were on a mission.

I had been buying the plastic bags of water from street sellers and it was much colder, cheaper and environmentally friendlier that bottled water. But the last few bags have tasted like muddy water so given up on that for now.

Craig the Kiwi left the trip yesterday as was always his plan. Shame, cos he is a nice guy and also in our cook group. We get 2 newbies today, (we are waiting for them here at the mall) so hopefully one will replace Craig, especially as it is our turn to cook tonight. Having simple spicy Spag Bol since we will be out in the bush and we dont know at what time. Last week it took us 3 hours to make bangers and mash and beans!

Yesterday was my birthday. Up early and a stroll along the beach while chatting to Mum and Dad. Slept on the truck then we had to go back to Milly's. We went to the building next door and with the locals watched Ghana beat Burkina Faso. The gang sang happy birthday and i had a couple of beers and a heavily- made-up lady of the night threw herself at Canadian Dan and I on the beach. Dan took a bit longer than i to shake her off but she got the message.

Once we get out of this mall we are heading to the Togo border tonite and then crossing tomorrow. This feels like the end of the the first third of the adventure, and about to start the second part down to Cape Town. Time to take a deep breath and plunge into whatever Central Africa has in store for us.

thats it.