9th April 08

Date: 9th April 2008
Location: Big Milly’s Ghana
Weather: scattered clouds, thunder storms and strong blue skies, 35°c
Status: All – raring to go, finally!

Its been a long haul, its taken numerous visits in the thick rush hour traffic of Accra which seems to last all day, embassies, meetings, photocopying beyond belief….but we’re there, finally!

Tomorrow the wheels of the project start turning again in earnest, maybe not as the original plan was, or as the changed-to-shipping plan was but the new vastly improved final draft of how I get to South Africa in time for the Comrades Race on the weekend of June 13th.

Case has spent the afternoon having his truck serviced, I’ve been trying to compress the crap I have on board into less and less boxes to fit on the two new recruits and now even have some of the load on the roof to save on space inside the Colonel to create a decent living environment. The tanks are full, the filters changed, the axles and all nipples stuffed full of grease and the spirits of all involved are maxing out.

Its going to be really difficult to leave this place, somewhere I’ve called home for the last 6 weeks which has the friendliest staff, the most awesome locals, a beach and shore break to die for and cheap beer and good food. One day very soon I’ll walk back through the big blue gates of Big Milly’s and nothing will have changed….and so it should be. Places like this are few and far between and make me realise quite how perfect a life some parts of Africa offer, Port Edward in SA being one and this being just another. Not too long and I’ll be back.

Tonight is the farewell dinner for 7 of the 9 with 25 people heading to the local Italian for Caprinis and pizza then back to the bar for a few ‘quiet’ ones before heading off to the delights of the next country sometime around 10am.

Farewell’s are always hard but this will be three times as bad, Silvia has just arrived back in camp for her last weekend before heading back to Germany so tonight will certainly be interesting, its awesome to see her again but its also reminded me how I have to move on and complete the project I set myself so many years ago.

A rolling stone gathers no moss……

Onwards…..

End of day location: Final day at Big Millys, Kokrobite, Ghana
Distance covered: 35kms