Togo

An experience I'll never forget

We walked into the clinic in the morning and it was already hot, humid and stuffy as it always seems to be here. The reception room doubled as the initial diagnosis room so it had 2 beds in it, one of which was occupied by a local African woman moaning and looking very uncomfortable. I was attending with our tour leader Ishi who appeared to be getting better from her fever but was getting a check-up to keep the office happy who were insisting she gets ticked off before carrying on with the next leg of the trip. We had just been to another section of the clinic 500 metres away which was a room no bigger than a cupboard to get a blood test and had walked back with the results in hand to be translated by the clinic staff. The 3 nurses were spending most of their time attending to the other lady who was still groaning every few minutes and I overheard them mentioning Typhoid, not a good prognosis for the poor local. Soon after they walk over to Ishi and hook her up with a IV drip which we think is strange as she had 2 the day before. "Why another drip" we ask as they fumble around with Ishi's wrist and miss her vein a couple of times. "You have Typhoid" was the unexpected reply as they eventually find their mark and the treatment starts flowing down into her bloodstream. After the shock and a few questions we sit back and wait for the vaccine to do its work but the poor lady in the other corner seems to be getting a bit worse. A few family members of hers are sitting nearby, comforting her and a Christian reverend has just turned up, not a entirely strange event as the Ghanaian people are extremely religious. However what starts to happen is not what I would call a typical Christian ceremony. The reverend begins with a few words as more family and friends pile into the small reception room and they all say a few words themselves in-between the ranting of the priest. It gets louder and louder until they are all singing, clapping and chanting. The nurses begin to join in as well, making sure they keep one eye on the Ghana version of Days of our Lives which is blasting in the background. It then moves almost into an exorcism as the reverend starts pulling the woman up as she screams in pain. Every single person is then chanting their own prayer as he slams the woman up and down on her bed repeatedly and the fervour of the group increases and soon they are all now screaming their prayers, clapping their hands and slamming their feet into the ground. One of the doctors came and ushered Ishi and myself into the next room but all that divided the 2 was a flyscreen window. The whole process took about 20 minutes and every now and then they would wrench the lady up again as she wailed and screamed. The reverend finished with sweat dripping off him as most of the group filtered out the front door and peace returned. It was one of the most surreal events I've ever experienced. After speaking to the doctor it turned out she had been having convulsions, most likely from Typhoid or Malaria but they will still awaiting her blood test to return. Soon after Ishi's IV finished and they loaded her up with drugs and sent us on our way.

Big Millys Campsite



Big Millys



Akasombo Dam on Lake Volta

 

Mat Cummins

 

 



As for our trip we have moved about 100km east in the last 2 weeks. Having finished up with our 4 visas in Accra we have crossed the border and now found ourselves in Lome, the capital of Togo. Here we have spent the working week applying for our Gabon and Nigeria visas and we look to have been successful, we should be picking our passports up tomorrow and making our way into Benin. Lome is a fairly modern city for Africa with its wide avenues and developed infrastructure and its almost got a Asian feel to it with motorbikes outnumbering cars by about 5 to 1. Most taxis are motorbikes so whenever we want to get anywhere without the truck its a nice procession of white tourists hanging on for dear life nipping in-between trucks and cars. I got to visit the fetish market as well which was the first touristy thing I've done since Mole National Park and it was a good excuse to pull my camera back out which I must admit I've really slacked off on. West Africa is difficult when it comes to taking pictures as there are only so many photos you can take of marketplaces, dirt roads and sunsets. Taking pictures of people directly is considered extremely rude and even from a distance they will shy away or yell abuse at you. I'll just have to learn to be a bit more sneaky.

Goods at the fetish market









Cant wait to get back on the road, we have been stagnant getting visas for close to 3 weeks now but the end is near. 1 more visa to get for Cameroon when we are in Nigeria and we will be right all the way down to Cape Town.




more...

Ghana

Dark times in deep Africa

This last fortnight has been spent in Ghana, the first English speaking country we have travelled through in Africa. This has both advantages and disadvantages but the pros far outweigh the cons. Being able to speak to the locals is great fun; small things like ordering food and asking directions is easier and it also allows you to strike up a conversation that I have not been able to have throughout the first section of the trip. It does however make those pesky salesman even more persistent but I’ve yet to meet one that has caused me too many issues.

 

Mole National Park

 

A Hyena resting under a tree

 

Elephants bathing in the waterhole

 

 

Our first proper stop in Ghana was Mole National Park in the north of the country. It is considered Africa’s poor mans safari but there aint nothing wrong with that. For about $15 I got a 2 hour drive on the top of a 4wd where we managed to see a Hyena, Elephants, Monkeys, Warthogs and a range of different deer. The elephants were definitely the highlight and we got to see them bathing in one of the 2 waterholes in the park and also a lone elder male crossing the road right in front of our vehicle. We are going to get plenty more opportunities to see wildlife in game reserves on the east coast but it was good to get into some of the action here in the west.



Lone male elephant

 

Monkey tree

 

Hanging out



 



Our tour leaders have not had the best 2 weeks since leaving Cote D’Ivoire with tour leader Ishi being hit with a fever that she is still recovering from now and our driver Steve being hit with his 35th bout of malaria. That's right, no typo, his 35th time. Steve has travelled Africa for approximately 35 years now and after getting malaria years ago it manages to crop up randomly every now and then, whether he be in Africa, England or Australia. It hit him at Mole National Park, 1 minute he was fine, next minute he starts shaking and gets some cold sweats so he simply states to the group “I’ve got malaria, I’m going to lie down”. 24 hours later after a few shots of Coartem he was up and driving the truck towards Kumasi, not 100% but good enough to trooper on. His lowered immune system during recovery has now led him to have a cold but these troubles have not stopped both him and Ishi spending every day this week in Accra at different embassies getting visas for our next leg of the trip.

Why did the monkey cross the road?





Warthogs that came right up to our camp



Accra indeed marks the end of the 1st leg of our trip and we sadly say goodbye to 5 members of our group and welcome 5 new ones. Ashley, Becci, Jan, Jyoti and Sarah sadly all leave us here but we welcome Jack, Kristina, Luke, Sandra and Warren. 9 weeks living on top of each other in this truck is a long time and I will miss all you guys.

We had an even sadder goodbye in Kumasi where one of our passengers Chris received the worst possible news you could imagine whilst being one the road when he was informed of the unexpected passing of his father back in South Africa. Our deepest sympathies go out to Chris and his family and we hope he decides to re-join the group before we reach Cape Town where he was due to finish.

 

A waterfall we stopped at one afternoon

Cape Coast

The old fort at Cape Coast









Not a light hearted entry this fortnight unfortunately but things are on the improve. We have found ourselves at a really nice campsite called Big Millys (ran by a 4’10 British woman) in Accra while our tour leaders do the visa runs for Benin, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo & Angola so we are likely to be here for around 10-14 days. Nigeria will not even let us into their embassy so we are going to try apply for that in Togo or Benin. Swimming, reading, eating at the restaurant and drinking at their well stocked bar has recharged everyone's batteries and the next 2 weeks will hopefully be a lot more positive.

 

 

 

more...

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

A Xmas abroad

Christmas away from home can be tough but luckily I was able to spend it with my 2nd family on the Oasis truck at Tokeh Beach in Sierra Leone. Breakfast was right on the beach where we ate and exchanged presents before jumping in for a swim and relaxing. Preparations for the feast began early afternoon and it was the hottest day we have experienced on the trip yet, not helped by the hangover from the night before, making it a tough but fruitful day in the kitchen. The night before we had also arranged for a live pig to be bought to the campsite where we slaughtered, skinned and prepared him for the festivities the next day so Christmas day also included cooking poor old Nelson as we called him over the coals on the spit. I wont mention the fact that it took him about 6 minutes to die for all the animal activists that are reading. I was also able to speak to all my family at home which was great but did make me feel a bit homesick as the day went on. The whole 3 days we had at Tokeh beach in Sierra Leone was fantastic and it was a great chance for everyone to recharge their batteries (not literally unfortunately as they did not have any power points that they would let the low paying 2nd class citizen campers use).

The Catholic Missionary in Conakry

 

Skinning a Dik Dik we bought for dinner

Killing Nelson the pig for Christmas dinner

Carolin having way to much fun skinning the pig

Tasty Nelson

Another mundane campsite

Christmas brekky in style

 

A few bush camps later we found ourselves back in Guinea at a chimp research centre in Bossou. This site was definitely one of mixed emotions. Bossou was the site where we planned to do some trekking for wild chimps in the nearby forest and to spend New Years Eve at in reasonable comfort. The trekking started well, practically running through the village as our guide radioed ahead to find the location of the forward trackers. We headed straight into thick jungle with 5 guides hacking their way through old overgrown paths as we went. We were hot on the trail of 2 chimps and we followed them for about 30 minutes before they climbed a tree for a rest where we got 5 minutes viewing time while they ate a couple of leaves, scratched their bum and had a shit. Unfortunately this is all the time we got with them so back to camp we headed.

Trekking for chimps

5 minutes of peace with the real locals

The campsite at Bossou was possibly more fun then the trekking for chimps. Upon arrival to the site on the 1st day we were greeted by about 30 local kids who use the research area as their playground, most likely because it was the only area I've seen so far in Africa with soft green grass, perfect for playing soccer. And play soccer we did, as well as throwing the Frisbee around and teaching them the hokey pokey much to their delight. The kids were a constant for the whole 3 days and nights we stayed in Bossou and the number swelled as time went by. Just through a hedge was the town soccer pitch and we got to watch a local game between Bossou and a neighbouring town with the home team taking the cake 3-1. We got a celebration right in front of us at halftime as they were as interested in us and our cameras as we were of them.

Teaching the locals the hokey pokey

 

Playing cards with 30-40 kids just standing around watching

 

The local soccer match we got to watch

and the halftime show they put on for us

 

The people here we incredibly poor and yet nothing went missing from our campsite despite us being completely lazy and leaving half the truck spread out and open for most of the time. Upon leaving however I was put in charge of taking the rubbish around to the pit behind the compound and was surprised to see that 30 kids wanted to help me. Nonplussed I made my way around the back with 4 of the kids ripping the bag out of my hand and running ahead to the pit with it with the other 25 kids chasing them. When I walked around the corner they started ripping the bag to shreds to grab whatever they could of value before moving on to physically fight each other mostly for the empty bottles with the larger kids winning out. These kids were aged between 5-12 years old and it was a bittersweet end to such a nice few days with them.

The awesome little kids that befriended us 

 

From such poverty we left Bossou and made our way into Cote D’Ivoire visiting the capital Yamoussoukro before moving on to Abidjan where I currently am now. Whilst spending the afternoon in the capital we dropped into the recently constructed Basilica which was a monolith of giant proportions that did not fit it with its surrounds or the people at all. The tour there consisted of the guide telling us about the air conditioning in the building, the company that made the lifts, justifying the 1km marble avenue that led to the Basilica and the exact specifications of all the statues in the building. It was sad to see people so poor living next to such a building but this is just the world we live in and I do need to remind myself sometimes that I am a rich westerner travelling through their countries spending more money on this trip than they will probably earn in their lifetime.

Tower de Monolith

Inside the Basilica

more...