Back on the road

Well we have finally managed to prise ourselves away from the relative comfort of southern Ghana and are now residing in the hotter, dustier, less developed north of the country with our route on Sunday taking us east across the border into Togo.
We made it here on the Yapei Queen, a ferry which for the last 40 years has been the only boat to undertake the journey from the south to the north of Lake Volta - the largest man-made lake in the world (Fact). Before we left we went on an educational trip to the hydroelectric dam responsible for providing power to Ghana, Togo and Benin but from our point of view more responsible for the very frequent 6 'till 6 power cuts which see us sweating at night as a result of the water level in the lake being a measly 6 inches low.
Still it's an impressive construction and is better to see than a power station belching fumes out into the air which Africa surely does not need.
The boat wasn't the most relaxing pleasure cruise, forget a cabaret featuring Jane McDonald. The boat was functional with three classes of which we were in 2nd. It meant sitting at wooden benches in the day and lying awake at night on the deliciously hard metal floor which soothingly vibrated to the rumble of the diesel engines. The toilets were boggin' and as the novelty wore of and tiredness kicked in on the 32 hour trip tempers were frayed somewhat. Still we eventually arrive in the glorious town of Yeji and at 1am arrived at a nameless hotel with all of the features you could want after being awake for the best part of 48 hours on a crowded sweaty ship - no water, no electricity, what could only be described as decidedly dodgy smell and stains on the walls. We were brought a bucket of brown river water but refrained from showering as it had Guinea Worm/Dysentry written all over it. We grabbed a four hours sleep and left a 6am for another boat to where we picked up a rough tro-tro bound for Tamale. It bounced it's way to Tamale along the rough road and eventually at around 2pm we arrived at the TICCS resthouse where we had the best shower of our lives and crumpled into a heap for a few hours sleep. Last night we had a few cold beers an a pizza the size of a biscuit then slept for 10 hours and awoke this morning feeling a hell of a lot better.
At least I don't feel like I want to punch everyone I meet anymore.
So the journey contines back to Francophone Africa - Togo, Benin and Niger are on the list so we will see what they have to offer.
Love to all at home, hope you are enjoying the start of the British winter. C+A. xxx

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