Bush Camp Spagbog

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

Bush camp cooking spagbog over open fire. All ok as we head to Mauri.

Kumasi market area - Kokrobite - Bamako

Driving through Kumasi Market

Buying papaya and oranges, roadside stall

Fishing boats on Kokrobite beach

Pulling in the nets

Another Ghanaan fishing port

Heavy rain on way to Kumasi

Palm fruit in back of truck

One of the mud & stick mosques on road to BK border

Sheep washing in Bamako

The Driving (by Chris)

The driving has been harder work than we had imagined. The large cities are like being injected into a very large 2 dimensional swarm. There appear to be no rules at all. We have seen many vehicles driving the ‘wrong way’ down dual carriageways, coming to red traffic lights and jumping them. There are multiple police at most city junctions who ignore local traffic violations but if we foreigners stop 2 inches over a white line they blow their whistles and wave their arms for us to stop. This is only to get hold of our driving licence to extort money from us. This fails because I refuse to speak or comprehend French and the licence we give them is a copy we made, one of a few, so if the worst comes to the worst we would drive off.

There are very few road signs and we only find our way by running 2 separate GPS systems with 2 different maps on them. About 90% of the distance and 70% of the driving time has been on tarmac roads which vary between very good and easy to cruise at 50mph to so bad that it is very, very hard work to average 10mph. It’s hard work because to achieve an average of 10mph you may drive 30 yards as slowly as possible in low range first gear over large craters and then have 80 yards when you get up to low 3^rd and 20mph, then back down 3 gears to crawl for another short distance, while weaving off the road altogether on one side, then to the other.  The dirt roads and pistes (tracks) are worse as there are corrugations or ‘wash boards’. The African drivers accelerate up to 40 or 50mph on the corrugations for two reasons: at that speed their vehicle wheels just skim the tops of the bumps so the ride is smoother for them, but means they have very little grip for braking or cornering. They also tend to be driving someone else’s vehicle so if they destroy the suspension they do not have to pay. All the roads are either built on mounds or have large ditches so there is very little room.

We have passed hundreds of large trucks that have driven off the road and several hundred that have broken down. It has not been unusual to see a lorry crankshaft lying in the middle of the carriageway with all the rest of the engine components strewn around like confetti.

In Ghana the ‘good’ roads had a lot of ‘sleeping policeman’ (donkey backs as they are called here) and rumble strips that would rip your wheels off at 10mph and low first at tick-over was too fast, which meant riding the clutch to creep over.

The other thing has been the dust. At 15mph we didn’t create or suck in much dust. At 25mph you could write your name on the inside in 5 minutes. In a day the inside of the vehicle at the back is more like the beach without the sea and takes another day to clean it, so we spend a lot of time driving slowly.  We have scraped the rear on the ground several times and had to use 4-wheel drive and diff locks about 10 times so far, mainly getting on and off the main carriageway and on the dirt pistes. We have more of that to come on the Mali – Mauretania route.

Heading home from Mali

We arrived back in Bamako Monday afternoon and returned to the Sleeping Camel. We had thought to try one of the other places as recommended to us by fellow travellers but Chris was feeling very unwell and we wanted somewhere easy to find. Last time we were here it was very crowded and noisy but we are the only overlanders here and the place is almost empty. The only noisy things are the bats but we are so used to living with their loud squeaks and shrill shrieks that it no longer bothers us. Bats seemed to get bigger the further we travelled: in Tamale, Ghana they looked like flying foxes and were out swooping around even during the day when they were not hanging upside down in the trees above us,

Since my last long post in Kumasi our first task was to escape the city without going directly through the centre and the chaos of the market. We managed to set off in the right direction to get on to the bypass only to find it was one big roadworks so it took just as long. After that, progress was good but on the main national road south - north every small settlement has multi big rumble strips and at least 2 huge roadhumps so we have to virtually stop to go over them. We had thought we would stop overnight in Techiman (the home of Ghana Nuts!) but with more than an hour of daylight left, we set off on the road to Wa. We were pleasantly surprised with the road quality and the picturesque scenery, and no more speed humps. Before dark we came to a larger town called Wenchi where they had 2 hotels advertised off the main road. They took a bit of finding down rough back streets, the worst tracks we have seen as in places the road was washed away. The first one we came to was very smart, with a beautiful garden to sit out in, air conditioned reception advertising free internet and expensive rooms. We asked if we could park in their carpark overnight and offered a good payment for doing so but were firmly refused. They had no other guests so we couldn't understand the logic. Anyway we eventually found our way to the older big hotel down an even worse track and it was hideous. By then it was dark so we had to retrace our tracks rather than trying an alternative as we could not see low hanging wires. There were frogs hopping about in the road in our headlights. Back on the main road we decided to use the new filling station forecourt as our night's stop and that worked out fine, if a little noisy with Friday night traffic and goats.

On Saturday I was not feeling particularly well (a virus I think) so was not up to doing any driving on the really good road. We had a short stop in a village called Banda Nkwanta where they had an old mud and stick mosque and we were offered a tour by the future tribal 'king' nick-named Japan Boy. To raise funds for the upkeep the village had opened the mosque to tourists, including women. It was all very low key and I really enjoyed seeing the inside, hearing a brief history and climbing on to the roof through a very small hole while balancing on steep steps. We passed the turnings to Bui National Park, the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary and a sacred crocodile lake but we did not feel like leaving the lovely paved road to trundle down dirt tracks. The hardsurface eventually gave out 80 kms before the border so we were back to slow going. Chris had driven over 400 kms in the heat (42C) by the time dusk was approachig. We only had another 16 kms to Hamile, or Hamale, on the border with Burkina Faso, so we stopped for the night at another filling station but this time it was still being built and there were workmen on site all night for security. We were woken next morning when they were trying to bump start their tractor. The only charge - Chris bought the men a beer as one of them had gone off on his bicycle to get some for us when we arrived.

It took an hour to drive the last stretch to the border on rough dirt road but after an early morning rush of heavy traffic it was very quiet. We were through both border formalities by 9am. We had successfully used our Visa de l'Entente to re-enter Burkina. There was a good new road all the way from the border direct to Bobo Dialassou, then back on to the Trans Sahelian Highway. By then Chis was really suffering from heat exhaustion and I was better so I did a lot of the driving. We were at the Mali border at Koloko at 3.40pm and no question about our expired visas from before. We decided to find a hotel in Sikasso so Chris could get a proper rest in cooler conditions as the vehicle heats up so much during the day when driving continously. There were a lot of mosquitos in the room and the net provided had holes so we were pleased to be able to use our own. I left Chris to sleep while I made myself something to eat.

We arrived at Hotel Tata, Sikasso almost at the same time as Maurizio, the Swiss cyclist we had met at the Zebra Bar at Christmas. I met up with him later to hear of his travels. He had continued south in Senegal, then to Gambia, the Cassamance, Guinea Bissau and Guinea, then on his way from Bamako to Ouaga via Sindou and Banfora to be in Cotonou, Benin by the end of March, then onwards to Nigeria.

Chris was still feeling pretty rough in the morning so once out of town I did all the driving to Bamako. There is always so much interest on the roads: people walking and cycling, often with strange loads, small buses packed to the roof, schoolchildren in their smart uniforms, villages with thatched houses and compounds, women pounding millet or mashing yams, roadside stalls with wood fires for cooking, pots being stirred or meat barbecued, pumping water and washing at wells, markets and people travelling to them (for family - yesterday I saw women with large loads on their heads walking along the main road to market, the distance from Castleton to Hathersage or Chagford to Moreton). I have seen a motorbike with a bundle of goats in a net, bicycles festooned with live hens and guineafowl, a cow sitting tied to the top of a full-sized bus and sheep stuffed in the back of cars. Then there are people holding up their hunting catch for sale: partridge, rabbits, lizards or more frequently ground sqirrels or rats spreadeagled on wooden 'skewers'. When driving, you always have to be alert for broken down lorries and buses, with leaves and branches placed in the road as a warning.

I am relieved to say that Chris is much better (still shaggy haired - I did exagerrate a bit about the ponytail, Paul!) This morning we left early to find the Mauretanian Embassy through the busy traffic of Bamako. I had fogotten how many mopeds there are. With our visa applications in for collection tomorrow, we then went to the Police Immigration Office to extend our Mali visas from our first visit at very little cost, so we were pleased we hadn't wasted time in Accra getting new ones. Our application had to be accompanied by a letter and fortunately there was another European who gave us his letter to copy the wording. We bought some provisions at the nearby supermarket and had cheese and pickle sandwiches for lunch. All being well we should leave here tomorrow afternoon ater collecting our passports and visas.

En Route...

En route from Sikasso to Bamako. Roads were very good to Wa. Left Ghana at Hamile, Sunday AM. Burkina Faso to Mail border Sunday PM. All well for two nights stay in Bamako for the Mauri visa.

On the road again

We are back in Kumasi for a brief stop, heading north again. We had an idyllic few days at Kokrobite(y). Big Milly's was a lovely place to park with a gate leading directly on to the beach. Chris needed the rest after long drives in high temperatures and humidity - the road to Accra rom Kumasi had very long stretches of roadwors, potholes, speed humps etc. When the new motorway is finished it will be wonderful. We decided to give it a miss on the way back and drove along the coastal road almost to Cape Coast, with its ancient castles and sandy beaches. We stopped for lunch and the last sight of the sea in a small fishing cove, then headed north from there through tropical rain forest and very good road conditions in spite of the thunderstorms and torrential rain. with light failing fast and another heavy downpour we stopped for the night on a filling station forecourt on the Fomena Mountain road. I made mushroom omelettes with some recently bought mushrooms along the road, while stopped at a roadworks section. They were very strange with long rubbery stalks but quite delicious. We set off at 7am this morning to dry conditions but a little foggy til the sun heated up.

It was very relaxing at Kokrobite during the week. It all happens at Big Milly's at weekends with day trippers, as we experienced on arrival last Sunday. There were fishing boats on the beach and out at anchor. At 9am on Monday, Chris helped 11 local fishermen and women haul in their nets from way out at sea. It was hard work on the rope and the resulting catch seemed small for the effort. There was a real mix of fish, big and small. We had locally caught lobsters (quite small but very tasty) with chips and salad on our first night at the restaurant. Another day, chris befriended the same fishing crew who had a boat called 'Travel and See'. Few of them spoke much English - they all use their own tribal dialect (Ewe I think on the coast). Their wooden boat had a big hole so Chris used his electric drill/screwdriver to put a patch on it for them as they had no tools. They promised us fish in exchange, but we didn't take them up on the offer.

While in Kokrobite we investigated our options - decided definitely not to travel via Cote d'Ivoire as the further possibilities through Sierra Leone and especially Guinea where roads are reported to be very very bad was not sensible. We met a German man who was returning to Hamburg by container/RoRo boat from Tema with Grimaldi Shipping. he didn't have a vehicle but we tried to get more info on availability and charges - we are still waiting for a reply from London via Grimaldi Ghana. Another option was to ship home from Takoradi, but again no information readily available. It's a possible plan for the future. We drove into Accra to visit the Mali Embassy, but a new visa would have taken until Monday to acquire so we are risking extending our existing dual entry visas at the border. We are planning to drive up the western side of Ghana to Wa and cross into Burkina Faso (which we can do on our Visa d'Etente) and avoid going back to Ouga. Don't know what to expect from the road conditions yet. If all dirt roads we may change our minds. Timing is now becoming critical as we would like to stop in Spain again before getting home. Senegal is still not 'in the bag' balloonwise but that may have to wait for another trip.

Accra had a large air-conditioned shopping mall with European standard shops an supermarkets, quite a culture shock for us. We stocked up on a few things but it was expensive compared to roadside stalls and small town shops. Pineapples, mangos, papaya and coconuts are good here. They also grow oranges but we find them tough and not very juicy. We found we craved Granny Smiths apples when we found them in the supermarket and satisfied our lust!

I drafted this blog on our rush hour entry into Kumasi, much easier to navigate this time round and we are back at the air-conditioned internet cafe. This may be the last chance for a while to communicate electronically. It was very good to talk to most of our family via Skype last Saturday. We don't intend to stay here very long.

We took advantage on our last visit here to go to Kejetia Market - what an experience! We saw no other white faces, but it was chaotic, vibrant and exciting. You enter the corrugated iron roofed market down steps (and in one place across a used railway line!) to the wider lanes but we had to watch our for people trundling wooden barrows through at speed and jump out of the way. There was fresh, salted, smoked and dried fish, fruit and veg, huge snails the size of a fist and great wooden butchers blocks piled high with fresh meat (which had to be moved from the aisles every time a barrow came through). All this was mixed up with stalls selling cheap Chinese goods and beautiful bright batik fabrics. Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti people who are famous for their brilliant patterned fabric, and everyone wears it, including smart young women with stylish dresses. I didn't buy any as it is quite expensive and I don't think I would have the opportunity at home to wear anything quite so dramatic, but we did buy a length of the white fabric with black geometrical designs, also traditional, and sewn together in narrow strips. We saw a wedding celebration where young and old, men and women were all wearing the black and white dresses and robes. Back to the market: I preferred exploring down the maze of narrow dark alleyways, barely wide enough to pass, selling spices, dried goods, bowls (vats) of spicy peanut sauce and other foods. There were also 'beauty salons', wig sellers, make-up, jewellery and hairdressers where ladies were having their hair braided and woven into fantastic styles. Everyone was so friendly, especially as Chris kept up a running conversation and joking with people as we passed through - he is the ideal companion on these sort of adventures as he converses with everyone, teases the children and young women and befriends policeman and officials in no matter what language.

After an hour at the market we had had enough so we took a taxi to the Suame Magazine district (the old artillery area) which is now a huge mechanics workshop with rusting engine and lorry parts piled high and everything covered in thick red dust. Chris eventually found a place where we could take the Enterprise to be checked over and greased, but it would not be until Monday, so that job is still to be done somewhere along the road. Also a haircut for chirs. Accra would have been a good place but we ran out of time before dark and our return to Big Milly's Backyard through the teeming, crazy traffic of buses, trucks, tro-tros and taxis, with no lane discipline, no understanding of how roundabouts work, stopping and starting at random and most without lights.

Everywhere else we have been, and especially in the French speaking countries, every other stall appears to be a hairdressers or barbers, displaying hand painted images of 'haircuts'. Chris has been reluctant to test their barbering abilities, so he is planning to start wearing his hair in a ponytail! Talking of painted images, I at last had the time and opportunity to get my water paints out and have completed a copy of a colourful African woman, bowl on her head, which was one of the many images painted on the walls of the little houses at Big Milly's.

A wet night

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

On way north at Dompoase petrol station for the night.

Big Milly's Backyard

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

We're staying at Big Milly's Backyard (http://www.bigmilly.com/) on the coast, 30k west of Accra. It's a very nice place, helped fish + long walks.

FLYING IN WEST AFRICA

The factors that have controlled our flying on this tour have been:

1. finding suitable locations
2. getting local permission where possible
3. surveying for possible landing places
4. getting gas.

The prevailing upper wind has been a north easterly and most of the flights we have made have been parallel to a “major” road. Some of these “major” roads have been dirt tracks that have occasionally stopped us if we have not locked up all the differentials as well as 4WD, not so bad yet to require the winch but close on a couple of occasions. We are now surprised if there are any tracks leading off the “main” roads that a vehicle can use, so normally we plan to land close to a road but not close to villages or any habitation. The reason is if you have to carry water half a mile to your home then the toilets tend to be a field 20 – 200 metres from where you live.

In the UK, if you see a house there is normally a way of getting a vehicle to it. It’s probably the reverse in Africa as some large villages only have footpaths or motorbike tracks to them. We have mainly used dirt airstrips as launch points as it’s easier to get ad hoc permission and if we were met by police on landing it would be easier to explain. We see a lot of police and gendarme check-points on the roads and occasionally are stopped at them but fortunately they appear not to have any transport so we, as yet, have not had any problems on landing.

For every flight we have spent at least several hours looking at and GPS waypointing suitable landing areas and if all else fails we now fly with a machete, or cutlass as they are called in Ghana, to make a clearing in the bush. We have not so far encountered dense vegetation or jungle.

Up to now we have purchased butane in 13kg cylinders with a variety of connectors. A few cylinders have built in hose failure valves which slows the rate of transfer. The butane at typical morning take-off temperatures gives 35PSI or just over 2Kg/cm2 which is low with a single burner even in a lightweight small balloon. I managed to keep one cylinder of propane up until the last flight where 2 kettles of boiling water poured over one cylinder just before take-off gave 50 PSI or 3 bar. I tend to fly on the low pressure tank as much as possible and use it as the “master” to save the high pressure until the end of flight. We are going to a lot of trouble to keep all the gas connectors clean by wrapping in plastic bags and sealing them with insulation tape. We are using Chinese paper balloons to check wind direction before flying.

The new “Klein” inflation fan works well but I am very glad that Sue suggested we bring a spare propeller as the original sucked in the cord on our keyring and wrecked it in Togo. The Ultramagic collapsible basket is excellent and we are getting quicker at assembling it from its flat pack.

Mole adventures continued

One thing I got wrong in my last blog was that Chris's first landing at Mole was not in a clearing, but between trees in the bush and there was nowhere to deflate without much hacking of vegetation with his cutlass. He had been the air for 35 mins. Chris is composing some details on technical matters to do with flying and gas for those who would be interested and this will follow later sometime.

Our second flight was from the National Park staff's 'sports ground' as it was perfectly places for a flight out over the Park. We were watched by many people and a lot of the Rangers came out to help. It was a lovely calm flight over the Motel and swimming pool and fairly close to the watering hole but too early for the elephants to be out to cool themselves. After a high, low, high the track was again perfect for Larabanga and over the ancient 14th Century stick and mud mosque which Chris had flown over the morning before. There was a big area for landing on however the very tall mast with satellite dishes was in the way, so we had to rise again to make sure we cleared this and came down gently in the middle of the road next to a small school. We could see the masses of children from Larabanga running towards us down the road. The same farmer from the day before appeared, shook Chris's hand warmly and took charge of the crowds and organising the balloon deflation and packing into the bag. We relaxed for the rest of the day at the campsite and beside the pool where I had a swim to cool off. Chris was able to copy the flight photos onto CDs for Ali and Osman.

Osman shared his meal with me while Chris was otherwise engaged. It was fufu (a large white dumpling made from cassava flour) and grasscutter soup which we ate with our fingers. The soup was hot and spicy and the meat tender and delicious. I had an inkling of what grasscutter was as Osman had told me the leopard he had seen 9 days previously was hunting grasscutters - large bush rats. On our night stop on Tuesday, we met 2 huntsman returning with their catch, carrying a cutlass and knobbed stick, which is all they use, together with their 4 dogs. Chris called me to inspect their catch at close quarters: a huge lizard wound round the younger man's arm, a ground squirrel and 3 huge fat grasscutters.

When I said we had the campsite to ourselves for most of the time, that is not entirely true. We had a family of Patas monkeys on the viewing platform, baboons wandering through - one very naughty one jumped up on the balloon box on the back of the vehicle and had to be chased away, and we frequently had the company of 2 female warthogs (or hogwarts as Chris likes to call them) and their hoglets. One was very interested in my breakfast and snorted at me. On the last evening we had a meal by the pool at the Motel, watching the dramatic red glow of fierce bush fires burning in the parkland. Chris returned to the Enterprise to get some red wine to find 3 warthogs asleep underneath! Only 2 visible in the picture.

On Tuesday, we had intended leaving fairly early (7 am) to take advantage of the slightly cooler air for travelling as we knew it would be hot and tiring for the 4-5 hours at the speed of a bicycle until we were back on tarmac. I had had a bad night (not caused by the grasscutter stew!) and the Enterprise had flat batteries, so it took Chris some time to charge them up from our 'hotel' batteries. It gave us a good chance to talk to Mike and Ant (whose 33rd birthday was on 14th) and they recommended an overnight stop at some waterfalls near Kintampo and also this Presbyterian Mission here. We never made it to the waterfalls as we had a dirty fuel filter and once on the tarmac we lost power, hence the overnight bush stop. We did get to see the Kintampo Waterfalls next day en route to here.

Water ladies do not see balloon

Nearly another Hat

Breakfast on our viewing platform

Better road landing

Bush landing

Mole Mother protecting baby

Before evening flight Sokode Togo

Gordon after flight Somba Benin

We did not run over these Warthogs

Larabanga Mosque from the balloon

Girl at the waterfall

Ready to Fly

Kumasi, Ghana

Found wifi after a long break, at the Vodaphone 'shop' near our camping spot at the Presbyterian Guesthouse. We arrived here last night just after sunset after driving on good roads all day from our previous overnight bush camp. Our satnav brought us into Kumasi the most direct way, but it was chaos passing through West Africa's largest market. All the other traffic was taxis and buses and an overturned cart which had spilled its boxes all over the road was an added hazard and made it very slow going. It was with relief we drove through the Guesthouse gates into the calm, relaxed tree filled grounds, where we intend to stay for the next 2 or 3 days before continuing to Accra for more visas, and then stay on the coast.

We reached Mole National Park at 5pm on Friday, 10th after a long, dusty, corrugated piste from the turn off the main Tamale - Kumasi road. Beside the Motel was a campsite which we had to ourselves for 2 nights, and the 2nd night was spent parked at the end of the airstrip for Sunday morning's balloon flight. On the 4th night we shared the campsite with our previous Dragoman group and it was good to meet up with Mike, Ant and friends from Pendjari.

On the first morning at Mole we went for a 7am walking safari around the watering hole (crocodiles but very tame compared to our previous experience) and then out on to a wet area where we were very lucky to get up close with a group of 7 male elephants of varying ages and sizes who were mud bathing. We spent a long time just watching them before heading out into the forest to see bush buck and cobb antelope and lots of birds, returning past a viewing platform where there were lots of baboons and a grey headed kingfisher. In the afternoon we followed a Park vehicle and armed Ranger on a driving safari just to see if there were any possibilities of flying from within the Park. Again we were lucky to come across a mother elephant and her child in the road. She was being very protective and was quite agitated and even the Ranger, Osman, told us later he had been quite scared as if she had decided to charge there was nowhere for our 2 vehicles to go to get out of her way. Osman became a real friend and helped us greatly. When we got back to the Information Centre, he came with us to the airstrip where we met his boss Ali to consider whether to give us permission to fly. After several phone calls, Ali said we were cleared, provided a 'Guide' accompanied the first flight and he was willing to offer his services! With that, Ali and his charming wife, Joanna, left on their motorbike leaving us to set up the basket and settle for the night. At 6am Sunday, Osman and a driver with his Nissan Patrol arrived to help us inflate. The wind direction had swung through 90 degrees so we ended up draping the balloon over tall grasses and small bushes instead of along the airstrip, but all went well when Ali arrived for his flight. The lower wind took them back towards the Park but higher up it was quite fast and directly towards the village of Larabanga and the road. That should have worked well as we followed in the Nissan and were close when Chris descended. However, he was enjoying the flight so much they went up high again and finally found a small clearing to land in with no road to it. A farmer borrowed Chris's machete to hack down enough trees and bushes to deflate the balloon in and the driver did the same to reach the balloon. The farmer turned out to be very useful in helping to organise the repacking of the balloon, loading it onto the top of the Nissan and keeping the hoards of children out of the way.

My first session on the computer is rapidly approaching (it took a long time to log in to the blog), so I will have to finish the story in a following post.  I will keep going for as long as I can.

The permission for a second flight was no problem, as Chris wanted me to fly too, and after meeting Ali's boss on Sunday and refuelling all 3 tanks with butane from the Motel cylinder, we were told we could fly from within the Park, even from beside the elephants' bathing area. We did another drive around a different part of the Park with another Ranger, where I was shown red-breasted bee-eaters flying in and out of their holes in a sandbank and viewed the area from a tree-top platform, and we found lots of savannah areas where it would be possible to land and be reached from a track. We went to bed that night with the arrangement to meet Osman and the driver at the Information Centre on Monday morning and decide on the best launch site having let off a little balloon for direction. To be continued .....

On the way to the coast...

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

After 4 wonderful mole days and 2 flights we are on our way to the coast.

5th Country Flown

5th country flown, many Elephants at Mole. We are staying at least one more day for Sue to try eating more rodents. Many adventures to report when we have net.

Mole Park

We have arrived at the Mole Park to be met by Hogwarts in the car park and the prospect of exciting animals tomorrow.

Tamale, Ghana

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

Our posts are getting a little out of sequence as we have been travelling. The photos from the air in Benin have only just been added, so we are getting a bit behind. When possible we will add the photos of the bigger mud castles in Togo. Today we arrived in Tamale from Yendi and we are staying here for the next couple of nights at least. We have found an ideal place to park in the grounds of the Tamale Institute for Cross Cultural Studies, which has a guesthouse as well and the Jungle Bar terrace close by. The receptionist Abigail and one of the tutors, Sylvester, have been very helpful and friendly and within 30 mins of arrival Abigail suggested their on site housekeeper should do our laundry, so we have given her everything we have for washing and it's already out on the line.

One of the really enjoyable parts of our travelling is that we are meeting such kind, friendly people wherever we go and they in turn introduce us to others.  Our host in Yendi last night was Don. We chose to stay at his guesthouse as we had both air conditioning and fan in the room and were able to have a shower without emptying all the things we store in our own shower in the Enterprise. We woke in the night feeling very cold and had to use our own bedcovers to warm up. If the temperature in the Enterprise drops under 26C at night we feel quite chilly! We have been keeping up with BBC News whenever we can and see that the UK and Europe are having a very cold spell.

The Harmattan wind has indeed arrived and blows quite strongly at times, but not every day is windy so we hope for a break to make a flight in Ghana. The downside is that the atmosphere is left full of dust from the Sahara and visibility is very poor. Tamale has an airport, but it is probably too large to allow us to fly there, we have yet to investigate. A longer flight than in Togo would be nice. Chris has a list (somewhere) of small air clubs in Ghana so it might be possible to find one of these. Between Yendi and Tamale there are vast 'cotton deserts' where the harvested cotton crop has been burnt off leaving large areas of waste ground, but they are not inviting places to take a balloon to.

A very happy birthday today to our grandson Alexander who is already 6 years old. How time flies by. I have another treasure for you Alexander - an intricately woven weaver bird's nest which I found on the ground amongst the rocks of the Sindou Peaks in Burkina Faso. I think it blew out of a tree before it was finished as it appears unused.

The TICCS where we are staying does not have wifi so we are using an Internet Cafe for the first time in our travels, which is just across the road and very convenient. We are using the fast server here to investigate fully onward travel from Ghana. We would like to go via Cote d'Ivoire to Liberia so long as the travel situation is relatively safe.

Sun up in Somba and Where's a road to land near?

From Benin to Ghana

I am writing this on Tues 7^th Feb in Yendi, Ghana from the Yahaya Iddi Memorial Lodge (decent accommodation, so says the sign!), virtually on the Greenwich Meridian. Into a country at last where they speak English. We had intended reaching the main northern town of Tamale today but the dirt roads have been so bad since the border at Tatale, where it took 2hrs 30mins for Chris to persuade the Customs to allow us to enter the country with the vehicle, so the journey was much longer than expected. The longest border crossing so far. Our intention is to travel the further 97km to Tamale tomorrow, stop the night and find somewhere with wifi and then visit the Mole National Park the following day, staying at the Mole Motel.

Since my last long entry we have had adventures. Chris’s presentation to the students at the Centre de Formation Liweitari in Nati went extremely well, with talks on gas pressures, the power of hot air, a typical balloon flight and practical demonstrations with liquid propane, burner power and a small paper balloon, it took over 3 hours. We had our last night at the Retreat and left Nati on Friday morning, visiting Amel who had our permission from the Mayor to make an aerial ‘ballade’ from the bus stop as soon as possible on Friday morning! We are sure he had his own agenda and was trying to manipulate our flying programme.

We travelled the 45km to Boukoumbe on a fairly good piste through Tata Somba country and steep wooded hills which was very interesting and picturesque. Entering Boukoumbe Chris purchased a wonderful Somba hat adorned with sheep’s horns and cowrie shells which rivals his Naga hat from Burma. There were no signs to the Togo border, so we found a small track going in the right direction for the final 5kms. All would have been well had we not had to drive down a step in the rock to cross a bridge, which knocked the tap off the waste water outlet. No problem, soon repaired. No official at the Customs Post, so we drove straight through and were 20 metres into Togo when the fresh water tank dropped off! Chris was about to crawl under the vehicle when the Customs man turned up on a motorbike, took in the problem and returned to Nadoba and came back with a mechanic. After a couple of hours in the dust and water under the Enterprise, the tank was back in place and we continued on our way, through the mud brick castles of Kouttamakou, a Unesco World Heritage Site and across the Keran River to Kante, where we spent the night in a room at the Auberge Campement with fan and shower as it was so hot in the vehicle (36C) and we were short on water.

We spent 4 nights in total in Togo. Saturday we were in Kara, the capital of northern Togo where there was a big launch of a new 3G mobile phone network in swing. We saw lots of people with musical instruments, and part of the town was shut off to traffic. We had a very nice lunch at the ‘best’ restaurant in town, Le Douceur, under the shade of a paillote surrounded by plants. I had a head cold (probably brought on by dust) and did not feel like staying in town, so we drove out on the ‘rocky road’ towards Ghana and found a very pleasant nameless restaurant/bar/hotel on the outskirts of Kabou where we parked for the night and had a meal of spaghetti couscous with giblets! Surprisingly delicious and caused no ill effects. In fact we liked it all so much we braved the bad road for a second time and repeated the experience last night, filling up with water there on both occasions and had the vehicle washed without asking this morning.

In the meantime, on Sunday morning we explored the immediate surroundings of Kabou for possible flying areas. A sheltered valley leading off the main road looked possible, but it would depend on the wind direction as it was surrounded by high tree covered hills. We decided to drive the triangle Bassar – Sokode – Kara through the mountains of central Togo. The road Kabou to Bassar was brand new tarmac with taxi ranks along the route. No sign of any taxis though! After Bassar we were back into asteroid belt territory and the going was slow, but very beautiful, skirting the Fazao Malfakasso National Park and mountains. We arrived in Sokode, a very Islamic city with a very tall mosque minaret, late morning and saw there was an aerodrome. It took a bit of finding but we drove to the airport buildings and parked right under a mango tree to eat lunch.

When the assistant met man returned, he was very excited at the prospect of us making a balloon flight from the airstrip and called his boss who in turn was very encouraging. We told him we could make a flight either that evening or at 6am the following morning. We all had a rest, and then the boss man returned to say the Harmattan wind would be starting in the morning and the wind would be calm enough that evening. We prepared the balloon, and sure enough the wind dropped by the time we had inflated. As it was close to sunset and the little air movement was across the airstrip rather than along it, we knew it would be a short flight, however we had at least 6 mins airborne landing close to the dusty perimeter road. It was very dark for packing away but we had lots of help and then returned to spend the night under the security lights of the airport buildings. There was loud drumming and singing from a nearby village until 1.30am and then at 5am the mosques started chanting and calling in chorus. When the airport manager met Chris at 6 yesterday morning to put our flight details into the log, he noted the last air traffic recorded at Sokode Aerodrome was in 1999! We could not understand how such a quiet airstrip warranted 2 met men and a manager. With only a short flight we had no need to get more gas. We still have some propane left as well as most cylinders filled with butane, from refuelling from Gordon’s tanks at the Centre.

Before leaving Sokode we stopped for an hour at a little garage to get some small adjustments done on the Enterprise and the water tank refitted correctly at little cost. Chris picked half a dozen lemons from a tree. It was an exciting drive back up the International highway to Kara, climbing through the mountains with slow lorries on the steep sections, overturned trucks on the corners, and through the Aledjo Fault, a natural split in the rock, 10kms from Bafilo. Before leaving Kara again we did some shopping to stock up on fruit: mangoes, bananas, oranges and pineapples. Benin was short on fruit. We only found papaya (which Chris isn’t fond of) and coconuts if they can be classed as fruit, so after a fresh fruit famine we are now well supplied.

We have TV in our room – a rare treat. The only TV we have seen up til now was in Banfora at McDonald restaurant which was an interview with the president, who we saw the following day leaving Banfora with police escort. We also watched the end of an African Cup football match (Ghana v Morocco) in a bar in Nati, joining in the excitement of a Ghana win with the local supporters. The football was followed by a religious programme ‘advertising’ upcoming funerals. We were amazed at the ages of the deceased, one lady was 105 and most were in their late 80s. Natitingou was overrun with Catholic churches and schools, Pentecostal chapels and 7^th Day Adventists as well as the Evangelical churches, alongside mosques. The Catholic Cathedral had the tallest spire in town.

Somba country, Benin from the air

Sleeping on the Meridian

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

We are at Yendi, Ghana N 9.43949 E 0.00000. Yes, we are sleeping on the Meridian tonight and looking forward to the Mole National Park.

Togo Togone

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

Made a short flight at Sokode air strip so Togo will be Togone as we will be going Ghana tomorrow.

Water tank

View More Pants than Socks in a larger map

Water tank fell on road in Togo. Custom man to the rescue!

Lunch at Hotel Bourgogne

This is definitely our last day in Nati and our last day in Benin. We have delayed here longer than intended but it was all worthwhile for the flight from a remote region with Gordon. He has church links with the Betamaribe people and was able to take us to a village to camp overnight for the flight next  morning. The singing, dancing and drums went on well into the night, long after Chris and I went to bed. Gordon took his tent to sleep out in. We have lots of photos which will have to wait til later when we can format them for posting.

We were kept waiting with promises from Amel and his brother Just for permission to fly from the airport, which was not really suitable anyway. We even had a meeting with the Mayor on Tuesday who was considering if we could fly from the Stadium in town! All a red herring from what we really wanted to do.

We have spent 3 evenings in total with Gordon and Roswitha (pronounced Roseveeta) and have enjoyed their company very much. Yesterday was Heini's 62nd birthday and we were invited to a meal at their place with Gordon, Rose and Doro. We had some really tasty lean mutton slow cooked in a solar box with vegetables from the garden, pasta and gravy, followed by Swiss homemade chocolate cake - yummy. We have found a much easier way to get to the retreat without passing under low wires.

The reason we have not left here today is because Heine has asked Chris to give a practical physics lesson to his engineering students this afternoon, using the balloon as a demonstration of the power of hot air.

we are undecided whether to cross into Togo on the slow but very picturesque piste route with no official border, or to head a little further south where the roads are slightly easier. We only intend to stay in the north of Togo as the route down to the south is reportedly very rough. Hopefully a flight in similar country to where we were yesterday, then off to Ghana while the weather remains good.

Mud Brick Castles

Wonderful 40 min flight this morning from Somba country over mud brick castles. Back at retreat for birthday party tonight.