After several hours at the Nigerian side of the border trying to exit that country, we ended up spending the night at the Cameroon border post as we were already hitting night fall by the time entry was being sorted out. This is the real disadvantage to group travel, because border crossings take 10 times longer when you're trying to get 20 people and a large truck across. Christmas day was one to remember. We drove a total of 36km in 8 hours, the roads were that bad. This, after several locals and police men had told us the roads were [View Full Entry]

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One of the real bright spots that we encountered in Nigeria was the Drill Ranch conservation project in the Afi Mountains. Drill Monkeys are one of the most endangered monkey species due to hunting and habitat destruction. The conservation project has a breeding and re-hab centre in Calabar and then the Monkeys are taken to the Drill Ranch in the rain forest of the Afi Mountains where they are prepared to be released back into the wild. The project employs local people and interacts with the nearby villages by using local produce to feed the animals. They truely are doing some [View Full Entry]

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This is taken directly from my journal to help give you an idea... "...Yestaurday I saw a dead body in the road. What shocked me so much about it; was that it was in the middle of the street in Ibadan and obviously the man had been run over, and nobody seems to care. Nobody!" To me, I think what will I will remember most about Nigeria is....the pictures we didn't/couldn't take such as: the numerous police check points, the old abandoned gas stations, the dead body, rolled over vehicles, rusted, burned vehicles along the roads, over turned sheep transport truck [View Full Entry]

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After some less than desirable experiences in Togo, we were glad to get to the beach at Grand Popo. We had a nice relaxing day on the beach and swiming in the pool. It was just what we needed. We had the opportunity to observe a turtle conservation project on the beach. At midnight a group of 16 of us started walking down the beach (or running) chasing after the conservationalists who were searching for a turtle that was laying its eggs. It was not well explained before hand (language barrier) that we would be running 10km searching for turtle eggs [View Full Entry]

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That is definately the question. The answer is a little bit of a mixed bag. When we first arrived in Togo we headed to Klouto where we went for a guided walk through the forest. There were three guides trying to get the business from our group and this is where our limited knowledge of french paid off. Two out of the three guides spoke english (though not very well) and the other spoke only french. We chose to go with the french guide along with another couple from our group and it was the best decision we could have made. [View Full Entry]

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After saying goodbye to some of the group members in Accra and welcoming the new travellers, our first stop was Kakum National Park while we killed time waiting for Togo and Benin visas. We spent about an hour and a half here doing a canopy walk in the rain forest. Beautiful scenery (if you dare look down), but not much for wildlife. We did see a tree viper near one of the platforms though. [View Full Entry]

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Prior to the leg from Dakar to Accra, Jordan made the commitment that he would only shave in hotels. Considering that the only hotels along the way were the joining hotels on either end he had roughly 4 weeks to look as rough as possible. A few comments have been made about the "new" look, but by the time we got to Accra, it had to go! So we decided to have a little fun with it. Feel free to vote for your favorite! It should be noted that while it's strange for everyone at home to see Jordan with a [View Full Entry]

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On our way to Accra, Ghana's capital, we had the opportunity to visit a couple of the slave forts at Elmina and Cape Coast. Originally these forts were centres for trading gold and ivory for spices and other goods. Later on, the trade of human beings took over as the primary focus of these forts until slavery was abolished. A dark time in our history, and something that was very sad to learn about. Definately a worthwhile experience to tour the forts and see the grotesque condtions the slaves were forced to endure before being loaded onto ships destined for the [View Full Entry]

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From the city of Kumasi, we ventured towards the coast of Ghana and stayed at the Brenu Beach Resort. A gorgeous setting, very quiet, and the ocean felt like a warm bath (although a bit of a rough bath). We had a really fun and relaxing time; how could we not? This was a fitting place to spend the last couple of nights with several of the group members who would be leaving the trip in Accra. [View Full Entry]

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Our first major stop in Ghana was the Mole National Park. Home to hundreds of species of wildlife and birds. The campsite is located at the top of a hill overlooking a large watering hole where wildlife comes to drink and bathe. Frequent visitors around our tents included warthogs and baboons. The baboons as we were warned are "terrorists" and will go out of thier way to cause trouble. We often saw them raiding garbage cans and anything else that was left out un-guarded. One particular morning Kathie and I looked out the window of our tent and noticed we were [View Full Entry]

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