nobby
Guest
please correct me if im wrong regarding the VIII, my memory is not wot it once was..........
nuff said.
dear all
zipidy doo dah and a ying yang spillett!!!!
yup you guessed it its mee again. hello. currently residing in the rather sweaty city of accra, ghana.
first of all, DISASTER!!!!!!! oh dear, its finally hapened, my worst nightmare as come true! could it be ive lost my passport? - NO, far worse. could it be mavis' big ends have gon(eh? i hear a lot of you mumble, ask a mechanik)? - far far worse. could it be penry, the mild mannered janitor? - oops sorry, got sidetracked. could it be ive broken every limb in my body? oh no, far far far worse. brace yourselves, but iv gon and lost mi brolly!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the anoying thing is i carried it all the way from bloomin england (yes, it did get used, not a lot i admit, but enough), and i lost it (the umbrella) on one of the worst corrugated roads ive been on (imagine driving over a cattle grid [but with less grip] for up to 100km at a time with the odd [reletivly] smooth section every now and again, but, BUT, every other rung is missing. hmm nice. you dont do it with a delicate stomach anyway). the even more anoying thing is i actually needed it to keep the rain (of the heavy, tropical veriety) off a few days later. bugger.
oh well.
so a whole parragraph or two on my missfortunes, now on to the good, exciting stuff........
i belive i was in ouagadougoo last we spoke so ill continue from there, ish.....
ouaga was groovy, lots of people, little market type shops at the side of the road and they sold sweet cake/bun type things. ace. didnt realise how much id been missing the 'pudding' side of food, lots of nice savoury stuff, usually involving rice, fish, beens, spaghetti and spices, either seperately or all together. you tend to point to what someone else has got and say ill hav that please, or just point to the pans with stuff in and say how much you want to spend, 10, 20, 30 pence worth ( honest it can be that cheep. if i go to a restarant i feel im splashing out if i spend 2 quid). they also do meat on skewers which you can have like that or in bread. hmmmmmm. dont know whether i mentioned it before, but in mali, they had freshly fried chips at the side of the road, so you ask for some and they say 'how much', then count out the correct no of chips. ive never been somewhere where they charge per chip!
anyway, i digress.
so, got my ghana visa in ouaga, drove south to po, then west to nazinga game reserve for my first african wildlife thang. arrived bout 4.30pm sat n had a beer in the resterant that overlooks a man made waterhole while someone got a bed ready in the dormitory (you couldnt camp, elephant may squish you). as i sat ther 10 or so elephants trundled down to the waters edge, adults and young uns in tow. they wer ther for ages playing and bathing in the water. whathogs and crocs too. after a long hard days ride it was soooo coool + i was soooo happy. ahhhhhhh. so, decided to leave the next day (time and money wait for no biker trvelling through africa). up v. early to whach sun rise and try spot more wildlife. started working on the bike to get ready to leave when three rather large bull elephants ( am i spelling it right? probably not) come sidling past about 5m away. woah. so we whach elephant a bit longer and finally leave to go to bobo-dialaso, where i met the big red n white bus, oops sorry, truck, again.
been seing pigs, which seems strange at first.
a lot of the men have beards and ritual scarification on there faces
couple of days in bobo, buying odds n sods (got myself a nice big machette to replace my brolly [?] for when i bush camp). visited some of the lokal attractions, waterfalls etc and generally drove round the area b4 heading to the border with ghana at hamile.
crossing easy, v organized on ghana side, only 2 building to visit, and they were actually opposite ewch other.
initially ghana seemed generally the same as burkina, except they speek english, most of the houses were concrete and they tended to be spread out more. girls all have short hair.
south for a while then into mole game reserve allong more horrible piste. theyd had some rain recently, so there were puddles(?) and parts of the road had been erroded a tad. fun though. hope im not boring anyone by waffling on so much, but once i get going... anyway, into mole, saw 1 elephant on the wey in and set up tent. they obviously dont mind the odd visitor getting squished. mole similar to nazinga in that its a lodge overlooking a waterhole, but this time the lodge was on a hill with great views of the whole park and a swimming pool. more elephants that evening. went on a wlking safari type thang the next day, didnt see much but almost get charged by an elephant which was fun anyway. spent the rest of the day by the pool whaching th elephants by the water and the monkeys and baboons by the lodge.
headed south by tarmack the next day which waa bit dull till i neared the kumasi area, when all of a sudden the dryish landscape (bare earth with scattered deciduous trees, most of which were loosing ther ploomage) first of all sprouted grass at the side of the road, then tall thich intensly green grass, then ferns palmtrees and phfooom you were in rainforrest (not technikly rainforrest as it contains deciduous trees but close enough for me) i got wet. wel absolutely soaked actually as it tipped it down in a tropical storm stylee. the whole storm thang and the surrounding area reminded me of the bacardi ads on tv. arrived in kumasi which was different to what id been used to, lots of old rectangular colonial buildings with window shutters and pitched tin roofs set amongst hill covered in palmtrees. first time id set my tent up on grass for a long time. tent pole finally gave up the ghost, so i had to splint it wuth pegs till mornin. rained during the night. lots of christian presence, some v groovy 'deep south' style churches, some impressive large churches and loads of signs for the different ones. all the religios slogans on the taxis are now in english and realate to god, christ, emanuelle etc instead of allah.
driving standerd in ghana definately worse, lots of the use of the horn. seen more twisted wrecks at the side of the road in one day than the whole of africa so far - usuially artic lorries. roads pretty badly potholed too. second roadkill today, some kind of red featherd thing threw itself into my chest. ow. first near miss with a kid too. ran down the garden path, jumped the open gutter aand ran straight into the road. i think he actually pushed of the bike to turn round and go back! i drove verry carefully the rest of the day.
wandered round kumasi for a day, big market. got stuff to fix tent. lots of cool sheet metalworkers, making thing like bun tins, watering cans and the like. lots of 'american casket' (coffins to you and me) makers, usually bug shiney wooden thing with the old brass handles, but i did notice some with artx on the sides. tastey! tried the african guinness, dont think ill try it again. but they do have film adverts on the backs of the bottles.
weather arround 30-35oC, but verry humid. lying in tent and sweat just running off. will take a bit of getting used to mees thinks.
down to the coast now, through more forrest and allong some twisty roads (about time too) some with potholes some with gravell patches, some really nice. went to dixcove to see fort metal cross (built late 17th C)then on to cape coast and met mindert as he was staying at the hotel i was going to stay at (didnt coss hed got the only bike sized parking space-git). wandered round the three forts at cape coast, would be groovy places to live, very colonial. from cape coast (cool place for photographs or watercolour paintin, loads of old buildings with peeling paint and waterstains) north to kakum nat park wher i spent the night camped in the rainforrest. did the tree canopy walk which was amazing. several rope bridges made out of rope (no! really!!)and aluminium ladders strung from tree to tree 40m above the ground(apparently, you couldnt actually see the floor). saw sunrise and a few monkeys and generally great scenery. also did a ground walk, being shown the various trees and told about the medicinal properties.
from here along the coast road getting 'lost' on the way. found some good riding roads anyway, so that was ok. arrived accra march 2nd. been wandering round, seems ok, bit too high rise n developed but not bad. got togo + benin visas, leaving tomorrow. met mindert and graham again, kind of did some forward planning for meeting up for the big N. also met mancunion john, still cycling his way round, staying at the same place as me.
so i think thats about all. sorry, think i got a bit carried away. tough. see you soon bye bye.
K.
nuff said.
dear all
zipidy doo dah and a ying yang spillett!!!!
yup you guessed it its mee again. hello. currently residing in the rather sweaty city of accra, ghana.
first of all, DISASTER!!!!!!! oh dear, its finally hapened, my worst nightmare as come true! could it be ive lost my passport? - NO, far worse. could it be mavis' big ends have gon(eh? i hear a lot of you mumble, ask a mechanik)? - far far worse. could it be penry, the mild mannered janitor? - oops sorry, got sidetracked. could it be ive broken every limb in my body? oh no, far far far worse. brace yourselves, but iv gon and lost mi brolly!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the anoying thing is i carried it all the way from bloomin england (yes, it did get used, not a lot i admit, but enough), and i lost it (the umbrella) on one of the worst corrugated roads ive been on (imagine driving over a cattle grid [but with less grip] for up to 100km at a time with the odd [reletivly] smooth section every now and again, but, BUT, every other rung is missing. hmm nice. you dont do it with a delicate stomach anyway). the even more anoying thing is i actually needed it to keep the rain (of the heavy, tropical veriety) off a few days later. bugger.
oh well.
so a whole parragraph or two on my missfortunes, now on to the good, exciting stuff........
i belive i was in ouagadougoo last we spoke so ill continue from there, ish.....
ouaga was groovy, lots of people, little market type shops at the side of the road and they sold sweet cake/bun type things. ace. didnt realise how much id been missing the 'pudding' side of food, lots of nice savoury stuff, usually involving rice, fish, beens, spaghetti and spices, either seperately or all together. you tend to point to what someone else has got and say ill hav that please, or just point to the pans with stuff in and say how much you want to spend, 10, 20, 30 pence worth ( honest it can be that cheep. if i go to a restarant i feel im splashing out if i spend 2 quid). they also do meat on skewers which you can have like that or in bread. hmmmmmm. dont know whether i mentioned it before, but in mali, they had freshly fried chips at the side of the road, so you ask for some and they say 'how much', then count out the correct no of chips. ive never been somewhere where they charge per chip!
anyway, i digress.
so, got my ghana visa in ouaga, drove south to po, then west to nazinga game reserve for my first african wildlife thang. arrived bout 4.30pm sat n had a beer in the resterant that overlooks a man made waterhole while someone got a bed ready in the dormitory (you couldnt camp, elephant may squish you). as i sat ther 10 or so elephants trundled down to the waters edge, adults and young uns in tow. they wer ther for ages playing and bathing in the water. whathogs and crocs too. after a long hard days ride it was soooo coool + i was soooo happy. ahhhhhhh. so, decided to leave the next day (time and money wait for no biker trvelling through africa). up v. early to whach sun rise and try spot more wildlife. started working on the bike to get ready to leave when three rather large bull elephants ( am i spelling it right? probably not) come sidling past about 5m away. woah. so we whach elephant a bit longer and finally leave to go to bobo-dialaso, where i met the big red n white bus, oops sorry, truck, again.
been seing pigs, which seems strange at first.
a lot of the men have beards and ritual scarification on there faces
couple of days in bobo, buying odds n sods (got myself a nice big machette to replace my brolly [?] for when i bush camp). visited some of the lokal attractions, waterfalls etc and generally drove round the area b4 heading to the border with ghana at hamile.
crossing easy, v organized on ghana side, only 2 building to visit, and they were actually opposite ewch other.
initially ghana seemed generally the same as burkina, except they speek english, most of the houses were concrete and they tended to be spread out more. girls all have short hair.
south for a while then into mole game reserve allong more horrible piste. theyd had some rain recently, so there were puddles(?) and parts of the road had been erroded a tad. fun though. hope im not boring anyone by waffling on so much, but once i get going... anyway, into mole, saw 1 elephant on the wey in and set up tent. they obviously dont mind the odd visitor getting squished. mole similar to nazinga in that its a lodge overlooking a waterhole, but this time the lodge was on a hill with great views of the whole park and a swimming pool. more elephants that evening. went on a wlking safari type thang the next day, didnt see much but almost get charged by an elephant which was fun anyway. spent the rest of the day by the pool whaching th elephants by the water and the monkeys and baboons by the lodge.
headed south by tarmack the next day which waa bit dull till i neared the kumasi area, when all of a sudden the dryish landscape (bare earth with scattered deciduous trees, most of which were loosing ther ploomage) first of all sprouted grass at the side of the road, then tall thich intensly green grass, then ferns palmtrees and phfooom you were in rainforrest (not technikly rainforrest as it contains deciduous trees but close enough for me) i got wet. wel absolutely soaked actually as it tipped it down in a tropical storm stylee. the whole storm thang and the surrounding area reminded me of the bacardi ads on tv. arrived in kumasi which was different to what id been used to, lots of old rectangular colonial buildings with window shutters and pitched tin roofs set amongst hill covered in palmtrees. first time id set my tent up on grass for a long time. tent pole finally gave up the ghost, so i had to splint it wuth pegs till mornin. rained during the night. lots of christian presence, some v groovy 'deep south' style churches, some impressive large churches and loads of signs for the different ones. all the religios slogans on the taxis are now in english and realate to god, christ, emanuelle etc instead of allah.
driving standerd in ghana definately worse, lots of the use of the horn. seen more twisted wrecks at the side of the road in one day than the whole of africa so far - usuially artic lorries. roads pretty badly potholed too. second roadkill today, some kind of red featherd thing threw itself into my chest. ow. first near miss with a kid too. ran down the garden path, jumped the open gutter aand ran straight into the road. i think he actually pushed of the bike to turn round and go back! i drove verry carefully the rest of the day.
wandered round kumasi for a day, big market. got stuff to fix tent. lots of cool sheet metalworkers, making thing like bun tins, watering cans and the like. lots of 'american casket' (coffins to you and me) makers, usually bug shiney wooden thing with the old brass handles, but i did notice some with artx on the sides. tastey! tried the african guinness, dont think ill try it again. but they do have film adverts on the backs of the bottles.
weather arround 30-35oC, but verry humid. lying in tent and sweat just running off. will take a bit of getting used to mees thinks.
down to the coast now, through more forrest and allong some twisty roads (about time too) some with potholes some with gravell patches, some really nice. went to dixcove to see fort metal cross (built late 17th C)then on to cape coast and met mindert as he was staying at the hotel i was going to stay at (didnt coss hed got the only bike sized parking space-git). wandered round the three forts at cape coast, would be groovy places to live, very colonial. from cape coast (cool place for photographs or watercolour paintin, loads of old buildings with peeling paint and waterstains) north to kakum nat park wher i spent the night camped in the rainforrest. did the tree canopy walk which was amazing. several rope bridges made out of rope (no! really!!)and aluminium ladders strung from tree to tree 40m above the ground(apparently, you couldnt actually see the floor). saw sunrise and a few monkeys and generally great scenery. also did a ground walk, being shown the various trees and told about the medicinal properties.
from here along the coast road getting 'lost' on the way. found some good riding roads anyway, so that was ok. arrived accra march 2nd. been wandering round, seems ok, bit too high rise n developed but not bad. got togo + benin visas, leaving tomorrow. met mindert and graham again, kind of did some forward planning for meeting up for the big N. also met mancunion john, still cycling his way round, staying at the same place as me.
so i think thats about all. sorry, think i got a bit carried away. tough. see you soon bye bye.
K.
