After reaching Akosombo, the gang was poised for a boat ride
up Lake Volta to the port city of Yeji, from where we would make our 500km
descent south-bound to Accra. On the way to the boat, we loaded up on food from
the market and packed it over the hill to the port. We were given two pounds of
gari (dried, ground cassava) and a bag of not so tasty fried fish from our
previous night’s hosts who were very welcoming and generous.
The boat was scheduled to leave at 4:00 pm, so we had most
of the day to kill before boarding. We spent this time riding around and
hanging out on a grassy knoll overlooking the Akosombo Dam, an impressive
structure which supplies power to most of West Africa.
We made it back to the port in plenty of time to board, gave
our fried fish to the security guards who, much to our relief, accepted the
gift. On board the ship, we snagged a booth to set up as a base camp and
unloaded our supplies which included mostly food. Actually, most of the boat ride
involved us eating ridiculous amounts of food in front of gazing Ghanaians
probably thinking to themselves, “Good lord, do these Oburonis ever stop
freakin eating?!” Our edible inventory once we boarded the boat included: 3
pineapples, 4 mangoes, two bushels of bananas, a jar of stew, 2 lbs. of gari, a
bag of groundnut paste, 3 loaves of bread, chocolate, a bottle of Akpateche,
and 2 bags of complicated rice (rice with a bunch of other stuff mixed in like
stew, eggs, cabbage, plantain, etc.) …and we also bought food on the boat as
well as got off at one of the ports and bought more. Like I said, we pretty
much ate the entire time.
The ride up the lake took about 36 hours, most of which
consisted of eating and sleeping, punctuated by other activities to pass the
time. There was a point where we wanted to play the card game Spoons, but had
no spoons, so we resorted to using bananas. Needless to say, we ended the game
with several sad looking bananas and a banana baby food type substance all over
the table…not one of our smartest ideas. We also played hearts quite a bit and
entertained ourselves by consistently passing Evelyn the queen of spades. Frazer
and I spent a bit of time reading and enjoying the fine scenery provided by the
lake as well.
Night time on the boat was an experience in itself. Once the
sun went down, most of the Ghanaians proceeded to pass out on benches, the
floor, the deck, or any other space large enough for a human body. Not us. The
first night we suspended a headlamp from the ceiling and proceeded to turn
Crazy 8’s into a drinking game – draw more than two cards and you must choke
down a shot of Akpateche! The first night, I slept on top of a pile of blocks
using my sandals and bandana as a pillow, Armando slept at our booth on one of
the benches, while Frazer and Evelyn slept in crates of hay that looked like
animal pens. The only person who seemed to get any sleep that night was Frazer
who had snagged the only mat from the boat and laid it out on a soft bed of
hay.
The second night was filled with stops at smaller ports on
the way to our final destination. Each time we stopped we would get woken up by
the loud wail of the boat horn and the crowd of people entering and exiting the
boat, so it was another restless night. This went on for a while until we
reached Yeji at about 4:00 am. Frazer had slept next to a motorcycle that
night, his head near the exhaust pipe, and was rudely awoken by a nice blast in
the face as the bike was started up. Not the most pleasant thing to wake up to.
Anyways, we exited the boat, ate a small breakfast and set out on our final
ride south. We were all anxious to get going at the point after being cooped up
in a boat for 36 hours, so the freedom of being back on the bikes felt great.
The boat ride was a nice break where we were able to regain our strength and
regain ambition to be back on the road.
By
Andrew Althauser
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