I was thrilled to be on the road. It reminded me of Gianni's remonishons the previous year 'we're not doing the 'Tour d'Afrique' ... but I was so happy to be travelling again and able to move on despite JB's place being so idyllic!
We got to Assinie Mafia for 4,000CFA in a dodgy old car. We had been suprised by the relatively new cars on the road in Abidjan but out of town the cars weren't so polished, but nothing as bad as I'd seen in Guinea!.
Sadly as soon as we got out we got hassle, the first we'd received so far. Brushing it off, we got a table for the three of us to sit at with our packs beside us whilst waiting for the pinasse to be ready. The 'captain' (never to be seen again) told us it would be a while, so after a few drinks and an omelette each and endless hassle from a couple of 'Bob's' (our nickname /codename for anyone who's a constant pain in the posterior) we were called down to the pontoon to board the pinasse.
A short but stunning crossing for 250CFA to Quartier France where we wound our way through the village huts to find a fleet of pick-ups waiting for us all. Most of the Ivoirians had a lot of luggage with them and were having to argue the toss about the 'excess' to pay to the driver. We successfully got our 3 packs on for a total of 500CFA after a bit of negotiation.
On board our pick-up we managed to get 3 seats together along one bench. Dani between Maddy & I, luckily Maddy was nearest the front of the pick-up but I had two more beside me, which made it a bit of a squash with 5 of us on one side, 5 opposite us including a gorgeous little girl and her father and a ton of luggage between us all. We drove off through the village and down a very bumpy sandy track along the coast, it has to be one of the most gorgeous drives I've done, reminded me of Zanzibar's coast but better in some respects.
We got to a police barrage and trouble started, we met the nastiest, drunkiest, vilest gendarme I've ever encountered in W.Africa. He was completely drunk on palm wine and in his drunken state was disgusting to say the least. He told us all that he was a customs officier, he wanted Dani to stay behind with him and that she was a strong looking girl who would be perfect as his wife in 2 years time (after looking at her passport). I had Gianni's little Franco-Italian phrase going around in my head 'n'est pas un bon comportomento' ..
The 6 guys in the back did their best to protect us and told him to back off, I told Maddy & Dani to stay in the pick up as he wanted me out with the bags .. and the stupid, stupid idiot that I am, I spoke in French to him. However, the guys in the back with refused to let me out and dealt with the gendarme - by this time his French was just a lot of nonsense coming out of his mouth at bullet rate. He let us go and I almost sighed with relief as we thought we were on our way. No, the damn engine wouldn't start ... we were again told by the gendarme to get out and push, the guys told us to sit tight and jumped out and really put their backs into it and managed to get us 200m down the track when the motor finally coughed into life.
Another kilometer away was the border, we all climbed out of the back and into a hut on the beach. I refused to speak French, these guys were 'friendlier', sober but obviously after something. I was asked for 1,000CFA each for our exit stamps, I tried to battle it out in pigeon French, I refuse on principle to pay any bribes but Danika had been rattled by the gendarme and Maddy pointed out it might be 'easier' to pay up this time, so I backed down and paid the damn guys - who were very polite to give them their due!! The customs guy another 1km on was a sweetie and wished us luck (we didn't realise we would still need it!!)
Ghana - Akwaaba or so they say - we didn't get much of a welcome to Ghana, country of smiles??? Got to the immigration post, told to sit and they wrote out our entry cards, for almost 1hr we became the subject of a training exercise. First of all they said Danika couldn't enter as Maddy had a multiple entry visa and we didn't. I soon sorted that out ... they must have written the entry cards out backwards it took forever, I was getting more and more annoyed when a soldier came in and told me to leave and sort out customs who were chuckling about their incapable colleagues with me.
Finally we got away, I was still annoyed with immigration and Maddy was annoyed with me for being so annoyed ... but my concern was that we would have missed all the transport away from there as our 'previous' travelling companions from the pick-up would have headed off by now. We walked part of the 1.5km down to the tro-tro station to get a tro-tro (minibus) out of there, but someone stopped and offered us a lift, we then found payment was expected at the end well over the going rate!!!
Sure enough when we got to the tro-tro (minibus) station at Newtown there wasn't a seat in sight for the three of us, one was full and about to leave and two others were standing empty with not another passenger in sight! An hour in the tro tro station with tickets for Jewi-Wharf, I asked the guy to give us our Takoradi bus ticket money, we were all tired & hot, I was going to catch the next taxi that was on a return from the border. He refused. Eventually a tro-tro arrived and it was agreed to take us up to Half Assinie and got the change back. The road this side of the border was initially sand, but a lot wider and better graded than the narrow track on the CI side!
At Half Assinie, we were the victims of a scam. We bought 5 seats for the 3 of us to get the tro-tro moving immediately, then a woman turned up so a ticket was bought back. We got in and had 3 seats and not 4, the 4th was in the front but lo & behold a guy jumped in 200m from the tro-tro station. I asked the driver where our 4th seat was, he wasn't responsible and we drove back to the station. Massive argument between Maddy & ticket selling scam lady with Dani & I ready to go back to the border and Cote D'Ivoire. After 15mins of some serious agression scam lady gave us back our money for the 4th seat ... drama, drama!
Finally in the hot & squashed conditions in the back of the tro-tro with a driver who'd obviously missed his vocation as a Formula 1 driver, we reached Agona Junction. It was already 8pm or so and we got out at the roundabout, on the side of which there was an open air cinema with most of the village it seemed watching a film in earnest!
After more frustrating negotiations we got a taxi to Busua for 4 cedis ... we subsequently found it was well over the going rate, as each seat is 0.5oc ... Maddy took the front seat and half way there found herself hanging on for dear life as her door swung open on a bend ... we did crack a joke despite our tiredness - would we get a discount if we'd lost her???!!
Arriving at
www.busuainn.com was like coming home; greeted by Danielle & Olivier, a French couple who'd been living & working in Ghana for the past two years. We were exhausted, it was 9pm and we'd been travelling for 10hrs .. Danielle put a lovely meal on the table in front of us, we had a chat and fell into our beds!
