West Africa Road Trip 2010

Day 1 (16 July 2010)
We arrive in Accra, Ghana on Friday 16 July 2010 around 9pm on British Airways flight 81 from London Heathrow. The flight was scheduled to arrive in Ghana at 8:20pm (local time). However, there was a delay of about 40 minutes. Two passengers were unable to board the flight on time so their luggage had to be brought off the aircraft in accordance with flight security procedures. From my experience, this is a common problem on this route. Some people come to check in then they probably go off to see friends and relatives or they simply go somewhere to get something to eat or drink. They are unable to come to the security or boarding gate on time so by the time they arrive, it is not possible for them to get on the flight and their luggage has to be taken off. There are strict procedures for international flights at an airport like Heathrow. Normally you have to get past security at least 50 or so minutes prior to your flight departure time. So long as you are not able to get past security 50 minutes prior to the time of your flight, it would be hard to get on the flight. Almost every time I have been on the BA flight to Ghana from London Heathrow, we have been delayed because someone who has checked in could not arrive at the boarding gate in time. Once they are unable to get on the flight on time, all of us have to be delayed because their luggage has to be brought off. That takes time. Then when you miss your take-off slot on the runway of a busy airport like Heathrow, it is difficult to get air-traffic control to find you another one immediately. If passengers to Accra keep turning up too late at the boarding gate, my recommendation to BA is to ask passengers travelling to Accra to board one hour to flight take off time. This will ensure that there is enough time to take off the luggage of those who fail to turn up on time which would ensure that the flight takes off on time. In Accra, we were met on arrival by my brothers Eben, Julian and Amartey and his wife Maame Esi. We proceeded straight to our hotel at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons located around the Ridge Roundabout in Accra. Soon as we checked in and deposited our luggage in our rooms we went out to Honeysuckle bar in Osu which is a suburb of Accra. It was a nice evening out and I particularly enjoyed the Kebab. We came back home to our hotel around 1am and go to sleep.

Day 2 (17 July 2010)
Next day we have our breakfast at 8am in preparation for our road trip to Burkina Faso and Mali. I had never been to either country so I was excited and looking forward to the trip. Sena, my colleague from KNUST, Kumasi who has been in charge of local organising arrangements for WABER 2009 and 2010 came over to say hello to us. It was good to see her again as she looked very beautiful. Our Land Cruiser vehicle that we had rented for the trip arrived around 9:00am and off we went from Accra. Our plan for today was to go as close as possible to the Ghana Border with Burkina Faso; our plan was to get to Bolgatanga and spend the night there. After taking off, our first major stop was at Lindador Rest Stop at Bunso in Eastern Region. The time now was around 12:30pm and we spent about 30 minutes there eating fried yams with fresh paper sauce which I enjoyed very much. Whiles we were here, I called Professor George Intsiful of the Department of Architecture at KNUST, Kumasi to find out if he was available in Kumasi. He gave us a most enthusiastic response and helped us to arrange lunch at the Engineering Guest House on KNUST campus. We arrived in KNUST, Kumasi around 2:30pm and after a brief tour of the campus we had our lunch with Prof Intsiful and my friend Abraham Brew-Sam who is the IT Man at KNUST, Kumasi. This lunch was longer than we had planned and we eventually left Tech campus around 4:15. I could see that our driver was not very happy because leaving Kumasi at 4:15 gave us a very slim realistic chance of making it all the way to Bolgatanga. Our next stop was at Kintampo where we stretched and had some oranges by the roadside. By now, the time was around 7:25pm so we started to think that it might be better for us to spend the night in Tamale. I got in touch with the brother of my sweetheart Patience and he very kindly helped us to arrange a nice accommodation at Klassone Lodge where we spent the night after arriving in Tamale around 11pm.

Day 3 (18 July 2010)
Next morning we have our breakfast around 8:30am. We leave Tamale at 9:30am and arrive at the Border at Paga at 12:30 in the afternoon. After a brief tour of the Paga Crocodile pond and Achilla village, we proceed and arrive at the Ghana side of the Border at 1:20pm. After going through immigration and customs control procedures, we proceed to the Burkina Faso side of the Border to undergo another round of immigration control and to obtain a laissez-passer for our vehicle. This is when I started to appreciate the importance of working on my ability to speak French language because although it was just across the border from Ghana, almost no one spoke any English and they expected us to be able to understand French. It took about one-and-a-half hours to go through both sides of the Border so we eventually started making our way from the Border (Frontier in French) to Ouagadougou at 2:45pm. The journey from Paga to Ouagadougou took about 3 hours so we arrive in Ouaga around 5:20pm and we start looking for a nice hotel to lodge at. This took about one hour and based on a recommendation during our lunch with Prof Intsiful we asked and were directed to Libya hotel which is a five star hotel. Our stay here was really excellent. In the night, we went out into the town and spent the evening at a bar located in Kwame Nkrumah Avenue. Yes, this is in Ouagadougou. They have named the central place after Kwame Nkrumah the leading Pan-Africanist. We enjoyed live band music there and came home to our hotel around midnight. I had a really excellent sleep in this five star hotel and promised myself that I would be back here in this posh hotel at Ouagadougou for my honeymoon.

Day 4 (19 July 2010)
We have our breakfast and leave Ouagadougou at 8am headed for Bobo Dioulasso which is the second largest city of Burkina Faso. Bobo is an important town because it is a connecting point for travellers to Ghana, Burkina, Mali and Ivory Coast. We arrived in Bobo around 2:00pm. Our plan for today was to travel as far as Sikasso in Mali and spend the night there. I would have loved for us to continue into Mali on this but our plans changed as my two colleagues Will and Roine thought we have been stuck in the truck for a long time. We have lunch and then find a hotel in Bobo to spend the night. Right after depositing our luggage at the hotel, we go out to see the Bobo market and the Grand Mosque which is believed to be one of the oldest mosques in West Africa. Then we come back to our hotel. We rest a bit and then go our again in the evening where we sit at a bar that offered us a very good view of night life in Bobo. I came back home earlier, around 11pm I think, leaving my two colleagues to explore Bobo further. I had a very good sleep because I was very tired by now.

Day 5 (20 July 2010)
We have our breakfast and leave Bobo at 8:30am for Sikasso in Mali. We arrive at Koloko at 10:00am which is where the Burkina side of the Border between Burkina Faso and Mali. First point is for car check. Here we have a little difficulty because officials insist our driver should have been issued with a letter of authorisation to drive the vehicle by the car rental company. I agree with the point made by the Border officials. In the end, we were able to sort out the matter and proceed to the next point of the Border (Customs) where we obtain a laissez-passer to enable our vehicle to cross over into Mali. Here too, we had difficulty with the authorisation letter issue. The point made by the Customs officers was that because the car does not bear the name of our driver, but that of the rental company, the rental company should have issued the driver with a letter authorising him to drive the vehicle to Mali and back. I thought it was a fair point and I agreed with the officials. Nonetheless we needed to continue on our journey into Mali and so we speak with the officials and they understand and issue us with the necessary documents to proceed. We arrive at the next point of the Border which is for immigration and passport control. We did not stay here for long as it is not a very busy border. We leave the Mali side of the Border finally at 11:41 and arrive in Sikasso, Mali at 12:15. We had originally planned to go all the way to Bamako. Having come this far, I would have loved to continue in order see Bamako at least. Bamako was 356 km away from Sikasso and for me that was not a problem. However, my two colleagues thought that it was not the best to be stuck in the truck for a greater part of the trip. So we decided to end our epic trip at Sikasso instead of going all the way to Bamako as I would have wished for us to do. we wanted to spend the night in Sikasso and then return to Burkina Faso the next day. We went round to find a suitable hotel but we had no luck. There was not a hotel that we considered good enough so we decided to head back to Bobo to spend the night there. We left Sikasso at 2:40pm and arrived at the Heremakono which is the Mali side of the Border into Burkina Faso at 3:15pm. After about 20 minutes at this post, we completed immigration formalities (at 3:38pm) and arrived on the Burkina side of the Border at 3:42pm which has three stops. Basically, we needed to do a new laissez-passer for our vehicle and then go through immigration and passport control. Everything took about 20 minutes and so we took off from the Border at 4:03pm and headed to Bobo Dioulasso where we planned to spend the night. We arrive in Bobo at 5:30pm and checked into our hotel. In the evening we have our dinner at a really decent restaurant in the centre of town which is run by Nuns. From there, I came straight home to sleep because I was very tired by now.

Day 6 (21 July 2010)
We have our breakfast and leave Bobo at 8:40am for the trip back to Ghana. We relied on a map in the West Africa travel guide that Roine had brought along. We did not want to go all the way to Ouagadougou in order to get to Ghana. From the map, we saw that we could enter into Ghana through the Border at Hamile instead of Paga. Therefore from Bobo Dioulasso, we branched off the main road to Ouagadougou and headed to Hamile through Diebougou and Ouessa. The road was really good and by 11:50 we had arrived at Hamile where the Border between Ghana and Burkina Faso is located. By this time I was very happy to be back home in Ghanaian territory. The language barrier in Burkina Faso and Mali was a really big experience for me. I have to work hard on my French. Then there was also the food barrier. The main meal that I ate in Burkina was To and Gombo which is similar to the Tuo Zaafi we have in Ghana. Last but not least, there is always a certain freedom that I feel whenever I am in Ghana that I cannot feel anywhere else. With all of this, it felt great to be back in Ghana. it took us about 30 minutes to go through customs and immigration at both ends of the Hamile border. We left Hamile at 12:20 and after experiencing a long stretch of bad roads, much unlike the good roads we experienced in Burkina, we arrived in Wa around 3:10pm travelling through major towns like Nandom, Jirapa and Nadowli. At Wa, we had our lunch at Upland hotel. We left Wa at 5:00pm and continued to the Mole National Park where we spent the night. We arrived in Mole around 8:00pm.


Day 7 (22 July 2010)
We wake up at 6am and do a tour of the Mole National Park. It was a nice tour and it was great to see the huge elephants at the Park. We have our breakfast later and leave Mole around mid-day for Sunyani. We arrive in Sunyani around 5:30pm and check into Eusbett Hotel which is a really nice 3-star hotel. We travelled through major towns such as Sawla, Bole, Bamboi, Wenchi and Chira. Any visit to Sunyani is always special for me because that is where I was born in the late 70s. At Sunyani I went to visit my auntie who lives there. I had called her ahead of my coming and as expected, she prepared some Fufu with light soup for me and I enjoyed eating this very much. I came back to the hotel to meet up with Roine and Will and we go out in the night to a spot where we were bitten by a lot of mosquitoes before coming back to sleep. In the middle of this night I try to take a shower and the water heater is not working. I call reception and they change my room for me. Good hotel.

Day 8 (23 July 2010)
We have our breakfast at 9am and it was really nice. I call Kwaku Owusu who is a Lecturer at the Sunyani Polytechnic. He studied at University of Reading and Will supervised his MSc Dissertation. He has now become Vice Rector of Sunyani Polytechnic so it was really good to see him. He picked us up from our hotel to visit his office where we had a good discussion. Finally we leave Sunyani at 12:15pm and arrive in Kumasi at 3:30. We lodged at the Engineering Guest House on campus. We had our dinner at Jofel restaurant (Airport roundabout) and proceeded to the Manhyia Palace. The Museum was closed so we walked through Ashtown all the way down into Kejetia market and on to Prempeh II Street at Adum. We got on a taxi at Asafo interchange and returned to campus where we sat at the Engineering Guest House to have drinks in the evening. I spent the night in the house of my friend Abraham Brew-Sam who lives right opposite the Engineering Guest House.

Day 9 (24 July 2010)
We visited Manhyia Palace museum and it was really nice to visit. From here we proceeded to Accra where we arrived around 6:30pm just in time to pick up Chris our colleague from the airport.

After the epic trip Burkina Faso and Mali , I did another road trip to Ivory Coast on 31 July - 2 August 2010. It was a nice trip and write up on the trip to be posted soon...