My Stage is the World

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive

An Affair to Remember

on September 6, 2014

After such a long day we all slept well and were up fairly early. I was on coffee duty, but the milk was (surprisingly after so many power cuts) not drinkable, so black coffee and hobnobs (betraying the digestives) it was.

Miss P and Miss W were doing the salt water bucket challenge (like I said we had some power cuts, so ice was not possible), so they came back cold and wet. God knows what David and Ayee thought we were doing!

Our flight wasn’t until the afternoon, but the girls were off to the market, so we said our final goodbyes and had a few last balcony photos. Let’s just say it was ‘totes emosh’.

In the taxi we couldn’t believe how much space we had! Sadly there were no seatbelts and I was actually fearing for my life, especially as I had nothing to hold onto! Then of course we, umm, broke down. Of course. JK had to get out of the taxi and help push – unbelievable!

The next setback was my card, which wouldn’t let me take out any money. Not really ideal. After three attempts I panicked and called the bank (such an effort). It seems that NatWest had a very high exchange rate so I couldn’t take out 1500 cedis – apparently it was more than my limit. Luckily I managed to get out 1200 so I could pay for my (more expensive than we thought) flights to Tamale.

Flying without Wings

After check in we went through to Gate 7 and sat in the deserted waiting area. It seemed odd that there were only 7 of us but we figured it was a quiet flight. Suddenly one of the businessmen jumped up and shouted “They’re taking our plane!” And so they were.

We were at the wrong gate. So we had to run across the airport to Gate 6 – the last few people on the packed, but tiny aeroplane. Little bit stressful, but after about ten minutes the air hostess brought us all a goodie bag. Juice, water and biscuits. Amazing.
Africa World Airlines
Of course our excitement was short lived as JK suddenly realised that our return flights were booked for Wednesday, not Thursday. Typical. While JK waited for his bag, Frenchie and I went to sort it out.

The airport was utter chaos. People everywhere and eight cleaners all cleaning the same small piece of floor! Changing the flights was free and easy, but the flights on the Thursday were slightly more expensive.

We found a taxi driver and I bargained with him to take us all the way to Mole National Park for 200 cedis. Not bad for more than two hours in the car, especially as he’d wanted 250!

Tamale was green. Trees and fields everywhere with small picturesque mud hats built together in families. The taxi driver slowed down and stopped each time we wanted to take photos and gave us little snippets of information.
African Mud Huts
We finally arrived at the park – hurrah! We ordered food and went to find our room, which was pretty big with three single beds and a fairly decent bathroom. Lizards everywhere, so we sat by the pool and ate dinner (omelettes and Smirnoff Ice), before playing cards and chatting.

An American came over to make friends but when our reply to "What are you playing?" was "shithead" he gave us a weird look and walked off. We figured it was bedtime as we had to be up early for safari!


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