13th March 08

Date: 13th March 2008
Location: Big Milly’s, Ghana
Weather: Blue skies and sunshine, little wind 34°c
Status: Mental rollercoaster, every minute of the day

Wow, what a week and what a mad, mad time for me! There’s so much going on in my head its going to be a bit of a strange diary entry today so try and bear with me……

4 days since the last diary entry and been in the same location now for a while as I wait for Owen and also for the car to come back from being serviced courtesy of fantastic man called Fraser.

Fraser used to be an overland driver and has spent many years travelling the world and has a vast knowledge of Africa, the roads, the people and how to do it, so we’ve sat and had many a chat about what lies ahead and how best to take it all on. Before the driving he joined the French foreign legion and served for 3 years, then on a piss up in London decided to quit, went A.W.O.L. and started the overlanding.

Since then his life has changed hugely; he worked for the Red Cross as a Logistics Manager in many difficult and dangerous situations including the devastating tsunami which effected my world in the biggest way with the loss of dear Char. He’s now a multi-millionaire who installs power stations in Africa, owns a goldmine, oilfield and also manages several hotel chains……truly incredible stories!

Fraser has been kind enough to pay for the Colonel to be fully serviced, cleaned and prepared for the next step….huge thanks obviously go out to him.

So the next step and where I go from here, obviously south in time for the Comrades but I’ve yet to decide how exactly I do it. Owen’s no-show has upped the anti and put the pressure on for a number of reasons, I can’t drive south alone for safety reasons so am looking for a temporary passenger to join me but most are too afraid of Nigeria and the Congo to jump on board so the options come down to shipping the Colonel to South Africa which defeats me and the mission but may be the only choice I have.

Owen has given me a final date of Monday for an answer and a decision so if he decides to come out we’ll probably take on the drive south trying as hard as we can to beat the rains which will arrive in the next fortnight and get there overland as we’ve always planned to do……but this is Owen and I will wait, patiently!

Stayed in a room here last night so was amazing to have a full nights sleep with a fan blowing away and caught up on some essential zzzz’s, then as I left in the morning almost had a heart attack as stood in the doorway was Silvia…..back here for only 20mins to find her friends glasses but incredible to see her again if only for such a short time. This is truly mentally challenging and hard work.

Luke leaving has been difficult too, he’s made the first part of the journey amazing and has been the best person I could ever have spent my time with and I miss his company, words and thoughts. Be strong Luke and set out to achieve what we’ve talked about and use this experience to better things, I know you will! Oh and give Roo a big hug from me J

End of day location: Big Milly’s, Ghana
Distance covered: 0kms