day one

The trip actually begins the day before leaving Accra. I finished packing and left the hostel and got a cab to drop my things off at Octavio's home (where I am currently house sitting). I arrived around 8pm, we had dinner and some wine and did not even notice that it was close to midnight. My original plan was to stay with my friend Heather for the night and meet up with Drew the next morning and head north. I knw that Heather had been working long hours and she was probably asleep by then, but I called her anyway. She did not answer. I went to her house hoping I could wake her; I couldn't. I ended up sleeping on her porch for the night in a hard wooden chair. The next morning Drew called and said he left his "traveling pants" (whatever those are?) at work and would be late in meeting me. When we finally leave to catch a bus we find that they had all left earlier that day and they were booked for the next few days. We looked for anything that would take us north and finally found a bus at another station that sold us the last 2 tickets. It was 3pm by then. Eventhough we got the last tickets more people kept getting on the bus. In Ghana, bus companies want to make money, in order to do so they haev eliminated the aisle and put in jumpseats. Even after these filled more people got on the bus. I sat for 12 hours without moving my legs more than 5 inches and had a sweaty armpit resting on my knee.
We finally arrived in Tamale at 3am, found the Catholic Guest House and got a place to sleep for a few hours. Tiring ride, but it was meant to be the longest single haul during our trip, but as with many thigns in Ghana, things don't always go as planned.