Stormy

Actually my keyboard seems to be working 10 letters behind me... ah, Ghana. There is entirely too much to catch up so I will focus on just one day - yesterday - which was hellish. Most people would recommend avoiding night travel in Ghana and there are various (good) reasons for this; potholes the size of moon craters, the tendency of tro-tro drivers to drive down the middle of the road (even on blind corners) and most of all the quaint and widely held belief that having only your parking lights on 'saves' electricity or globe life, something like that. It may, for all I know, be true. Which is small comfort when you are hurtling down a goat track hitting bumps that threaten to launch you into orbit. Although we allowed ourselves plenty of time ... read more

Righto, down to business. We got here, bussed to Cape Coast, did Kakum, then Elmina, Busua, Akidda, walking onto to Princess Town and Axim before making a quick detour to Nzuelzo and following up with a few days with the boyo in Tarkwa. (Home sweet, dirty home.) We are now going forth to Accra, hoping to beg, borrow or scalp a ticket to tomorrows Ghana vs Nambibia CAN 2008 match. If you watch very carefully on the news you may just see us masquerading as Ghananas, with braided hair and special football supporting dresses. We will be the white ones. After this we head to Ho - mainly so I can take a photo of the Kak next to the town sign - but also to check out the delights of the Volta. For those of ... read more

The magic of first days is that backpacks feel light and travellers are still patient, talking to each other and not beset by meat and cheese cravings. Ours began at STC Headquarters in Kaneshie. Ahead lay an uncomplicated bus trip to Cape Coast via the Rolls Royce of Ghanaian transport, the air conditioned express service. After buying 4C tickets we got our luggage weighed and checked; a process that involved standing in three different places, looking bewildered and waiting on mysterious slips of paper to be handed between staff members. I’ve caught more STC buses since and being bewildered is absolutely essential. The staff had the demeanour of people who wished they’d stayed in school longer and got better jobs, casting (I swear), coveting glances at the executive parking area, a huddle of beat up tin ... read more

So, if you see me in the next couple of weeks (and chances are that you will because we're coming home for Christmas....) and I look a bit rabid, throw a piece of fillet steak at me before approahing. It is the one thing that I have missed. Even without meat I've managed to set a new precedent by being the only person in the world to come to Africa and get fat. Poverty makes me hungry apparently. One of the dining room attendants (who, being a female should know better) saw my little Star belly poking out a few nights ago and made the assumption that I was 'expecting'. "Oh yes", I jokingly replied, "twins". The next night she had two maternity dresses for me. Dear oh dear. I can't decide whether to miscarry or ... read more

It was deep, smelt like 3-day old festival and ran both sides of the street. In it, stuck fast, random bits of rubbish; waiting for biodegradation, the destruction of the planet or whatever comes first - probably not the Ghanaian garbage service. Is it, I wondered, a drain or very elaborate obruni trap? For beyond the ankle snapping gap, encroaching in fact, to its very edge, was a chaos of road side stalls, leaving me with no option but to walk on the road, drain one side, traffic pulsing past on the other. One lil lurch to the left and I’d be in the sludge, one falter to the right and I’d be one more dent; every car, bus, and truck having a good collection - even the taxi’s and tro-tro’s with their rear window messages ... read more

As much as I adore the curly headed one no amount of love could prevent me from spreading his passport shame. I consider it well deserved payback for all the movies, TV shows and radio announcements my travel seasoned boyfriend has interrupted with a nudge and the words ‘I’ve been there’. To which my usual response is, ‘alright Johnny Cash, settle down.’ It needles me because I have a long list of destinations under the heading ‘I wanna go to’ with very few ticked off. England. Scotland. Corfu. Zimbabwe. South Africa. The last three were really short trips and the earnest backpacker in me still debates whether they should be counted at all. The boyo has no such scruples. I caught him trying to include airport stopovers on his facebook travel map. Blush, baby, blush! Still, ... read more

My sleeping self, by switching off my alarm and then hitting the snooze button three times, inferred pretty damn clearly this morning that it's done with work. Which is nice, because its my last week. Of course, as much as I fantasise about missing the plane to work, my inner honesty stops me every time. Furthermore, I knew missing it on my last swing would leave me W I D E open to the level of sniggering my erstwhile colleagues usually reserve for the times ‘Storm the skimpy’ is in town. (An explanation for the non-Aussies: a ‘skimpy’ is a topless barmaid. Slather them in vegemite and you’d have something dinky di enough to open the next Sydney Olympics. Unfortunately for me, one of the regulars at the local pub goes by the stage name of ... read more

The boyo and I spent last week adding ticks to my ‘list to end all lists’ - the definitive guide to everything we had to do, buy, pay, reschedule and redirect before skipping the country. At first I embraced and loved the list, knowing that once in-country planning would collide with African time and be utterly useless - I’ve never forgotten the Zimbabwean distinction between ‘just now’ and ‘just now now’, which was, give or take a few months, two weeks. After a few days of dashing between appointments, shops and dentists (I escaped with all my teeth!) the enthusiasm was dwindling. Yet a few more days and both the boyo and I were done with the list, even if it weren’t. Our thoughts turned to the forthcoming departure partay. While the boyo was looking forward ... read more