From Zurich to Accra

Bye Bye

2008-03-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

Good bye

2008-03-25T11:22:00.001-07:00

After 5 hours the car was finally loaded into the container, fixed, doors closed and sealed. By that time we were already sweating in the heat like a swiss mountain river. We will now drive to the airport and fly back to Europe. Well, there will be a lot of stories to tell, we had a great time, and I know one thing for sure: a part of myself still belongs to Africa. But right now we are tired, dirty, smelly, unshaved and looking forward to meet our family tomorrow in Zurich. Good bye.

Tema harbour

2008-03-25T11:12:00.001-07:00

Today we drove to the final stage of our trip: Tema harbour. To ship the car back to Switzerland we had a prearranged deal, including all preparations Of course, nothing was prepared. Hey, it's Africa. After some waiting, some talking and some laughing we were allowed to drive to the container section of the harbour. It was a whole new navigation challenge to find the way between valleys of containers and lorries.

Cape Coast Beach

2008-03-23T13:14:00.002-07:00

Today we drove westwards. Thomas wanted to visit the place he used to go to the beach as kid. Well the place was no longer worth seeing... But further west we found a nice little lodge under palm trees...

Cabin

2008-03-23T13:14:00.001-07:00

When you spend so may hours in the car, you start to arrange it like a little home. We mounted the computer on a white kitchen plate, so that it held to the dashboard of the passenger seat. We used the computer for navigation and to keep detailed account of spending and gasoil consumption (remember, Thomas was a consultant. Keeping track of expenses lays in his nature). On top of the computer we fixed the ipod (surrounding it with duct tape and attaching it with removable velcro bands). On the back of the computer we fixed some reflective foil, so that it doesn't overheat. The maps and guides lay on the dashboard behind the computer. The devices are loaded by two 12V plugs in the front dashboard. That the plugs don't fall away with vibration we fixed them with an ELVIA business cards (yep, it's multifunctional).
In the middle you see the two water bottles to keep us alive (the soft drinks, the wine and the whiskey are in the fridge behind).
The red fabric in the middle is a Mondial Assistance neckscarf. I did wear it for some time, but later used it to wrap it around my cellphone.... and indeed, the cell phone is still working, while most other electronic devices hat failures at one time or another (overheating for the computer, shut down of the ipod for hours and the autofocus of the camera stopped working a week ago).

Cape Coast

2008-03-23T13:13:00.002-07:00

Cape Coast was the capital city of the british colonies in West Africa, and it was the main passing point for the slave trade. About 10 million africans were deported to Europe and the Americas, most of them from West Africa. Many of them where held prisoners in the dungeons of this castle, until the ships took them away. A very sad place.

Heavy duty cars

2008-03-23T13:13:00.001-07:00

Two heavy duty cars next to each other. For those fluent with car mechanics, you may recognize the reinforced suspension. By the way, the car doesn't stand straigth any more. There will be some work to do in Switzerland....

Local food

2008-03-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Thomas is always kind of courageous regarding local food. Yesterday he ate Frufru (a meal with peanuts, chicken, yams, plantains to be eaten with the fingers). Today it was another local dish with palm oil sauce and at least one entire chicken in the sauce (well, we hope it was chicken.... on the street to the west people held up dead rats for sale....)

Trip into the past

2008-03-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Thomas's trip into the past goes on. Unfortunately this friend close to Accra was not at home, so Thomas left him a note....

Nice city

2008-03-22T14:43:00.002-07:00

Accra has some nice restaurants....

Blast from the past

2008-03-22T14:43:00.001-07:00

Today we visited some old friends of Thomas. The guy on the right is a swiss guy, who travelled in 1956 to Ghana, married and still lives here. His son (to the right) used to play with Thomas when they were kids.

Landscape

2008-03-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

Objective reached

2008-03-22T14:41:00.002-07:00

We have reached our objective. We are on the beach in Accra. So far we used 1500 liters of gasoil, for 9000km.

Accra

2008-03-22T14:41:00.001-07:00

By african standards Accra is a big and rich city. The roads are large, but still to small for the numerous cars (pro memoriam: Ouaga and Bamako were the cities of bicycles and bikes...not enough money for cars). The basic layout of the city hasn't changed in 30 years, so Thomas can still orient himself fairly well.

Accra

2008-03-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

Catholic Mission Akwatia

2008-03-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

We spend the night at the catholic mission in Akwatia. Thomas visited the Mission and its german nuns several times as kid.

Landscape

2008-03-22T14:13:00.004-07:00

Landscape

2008-03-22T14:13:00.003-07:00

2nd shock absorber

2008-03-22T14:13:00.001-07:00

We destroyed our second shock absorber. It happened on the very bad road to Akwatia. Fortunately we bought two pieces in Bamako. A mechanic at the hotel in Accra replaced it within 20 minutes.

Landscape

2008-03-22T14:12:00.002-07:00

There are some nice hills when approaching the coast.

Nun

2008-03-22T14:12:00.001-07:00

Thomsd with a german nun. They met the last time 31 years ago.

Another african dish

2008-03-20T15:23:00.001-07:00

Fried bananas, fried maniok and boiled maniok....

On the road to Kumasi

2008-03-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Banana Trees

2008-03-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

Kumasi city

2008-03-20T09:32:00.000-07:00