What is it about best laid plans?
We are heading to Togo when there is another loud bang – another tyre has
blown. We cannot ignore 2 in a row. We have no choice but to turn around and
return to Accra. The other 2 could blow at any stage. This area in Ghana is
flat & a tad uninteresting. We take it slowly – looking out for the crash
that closed the road to find that it was actually a protest and tyres had been
lit at intervals, in protest (we assume) the speeds driven through the village.
They are installing heaps of nasty road bumps.
Anyway, we finally make it back
to our Next-Door Beach Resort to spend the next 2 nights. A much busier place
in the weekend. On Sunday we head to
Hope City Church Accra (tied up to our C3 Church at home) and have a lovely
morning. The singing is out of this world. Music drips from their pores! And it
is wonderful to meet so many friendly people. In the afternoon we enjoy chatting,
accompanied by the mellow sound of Ghanaian music.
So, on Monday morning we beard
the lion’s den. Our tyres are definitely faulty as they are 10 years old &
we find out they had been purchased at the black market. After a lot of
persuasion on Johns part and practically a day in the workshop we leave with 4
new tyres (albeit slightly smaller) and 4 spares. So, it really is time to hit the road. We
head back to the motorway/ring road only to drive through lashing torrents of
rain, then gridlock. Two lanes become 4 and mini buses keep changing lanes. The
motorway is flooded, not just with water but piles of debris! Hours later we
reach Christies Guesthouse – ready to tackle the border tomorrow. There John
meets a guy who suggest a more northern border at Dzodze/Noepe– so we follow
his suggestion, and boy is it easy. Ghana & Togo sit side by side in one
office. We are stamped out with our Aussie passports, and get a visa for Togo in
our Kiwi passports.
We head on to Lome on lovely
smooth roads with 100’s of motorbikes. First stop is the Gabon Embassy where we
get our visas – issued within a few hours. Then out to Coco Beach for the night.
Here we catch up with Verena & Wolfi (they are on our travellers WhatsApp)
– an Austrian couple travelling in their 4x4 truck. It is lovely spending the
evening & next morning chatting with them. They are waiting on their
Nigerian visas, We head off to our next border (I know, all we seem to be doing
is getting visas and crossing borders!) This time Benin. Another easy border.
It is supposed to be the end of the rainy season, but many of the towns are
flooded. We stop at one of the many waterways along this coast to watch the men
throwing nets. Then on to Cotonou and a crazy detour down a sand track, that
has to be aborted due to low power lines. We finally wind through the city and
find our beach side spot at Paradis du Soleil owned by Blackie. Magic sunset
after another long day.
Today it is time for us to try to
get our last 2 visas. Failure with both unfortunately. DRC a definite NO, and
Cameroon will take 5 days fast-tracked as they are closed for the next 3 days-
so we will not wait. But before we leave Benin, we decide to be tourists and
visit the stilt village on the huge lake north of Cotonou. Only way in is by
boat. With all the flooding the stilts are under water making the village look
as if it is floating. A fun morning before hitting the road. We decide to
tackle the “easy” border to Nigeria north of Porto Novo today. Back to Cotonou
and north to the once gracious city of Porto Novo (now more a slum). This is
when the day takes a turn for the worse. We turn to follow the truck route. All
looks great to start with, until the roadworks. We trail along beside the new
road, through countless potholes and mud. Eventually turn to head to our border
to find our road peters out completely. A friendly local takes us to the
correct road. Well not really a road – a mudy, potholed track that may have
been sealed many years ago. Lots of poor villages with so many children surging
out of the schools. These countries have so many children! As we near the
border we meet the road we left in Porto Novo – it looks good. Teeth gnashing
good!
Easy to get out of Benin, but
they tell us to hurry as the border closes at 6pm. But naturally Nigeria cannot
hurry. We see so many people: everything is fine but it is nearly dark.
Actually, we would be happy to stay at the border but sadly they shunt us out.
Now to find our hotel 40km away in the dark!
More in crazy Nigeria……
No comments:
Post a Comment