Category: West Africa Wander

This section of my blog is about buying an older Land Rover Defender in Accra Ghana and restoring and outfitting it to explore West Africa. It replaces the separate overlandrover-westafrica.net which is no longer in service. The idea is to have a single blog covering thoe whole time I owned the vehicle.
This section will be of interest to the Land Rover community in general, especially to anyone completing or contemplating preparation of Land Rover as an expedition vehicle, to those who have an interest in planning and executing 4×4 overland journeys, or just to those interested in discovery and travel. To some extent the project will offer an angle of vision into West African society and culture. It will start in Ghana, which provides the setting for the procurement, restoration and outfitting of the vehicle and the planning for the journey and in time will, if all goes according to plan, take us through many other West African countries, following a circuitous route perhaps as far as Morocco.

Along the way I hope there will be opportunity to provide insights into West African life, its history, geography, culture, society and economy. Much of the insights will be through the lens of procuring and restoring a Land Rover in Ghana. Eventually the focus will shift from vehicle restoration and outfitting to the story of a journey, which is of course the core of the whole project.

The author is a Canadian development worker on a first posting in Africa, who has been in Ghana since 2009. I have lived, worked and traveled extensively around the world, but until now without visiting Africa. To a great extent the blog will tell the story of my own discovery of Africa, viewed through the lens of preparing for and experiencing an overland journey. Among overland journey stories what may be unique about this one is the fact that the preparation is taking place in Ghana, not in Europe, or in South Africa, which each have a strong industrial and service base which provides relatively easy access to products and services related to expeditions. In Ghana the market for related goods and services is much smaller, which will add a level of challenge to everything. At the same time, the very informality of much of the Ghana economy offers some strong points for the restoration project.

Navigation of the site will be made easier with knowledge of how it is organized. The site is divided into categories reflecting the stages of the project: planning, procurement, restoration, outfitting, travel, and demobilization. These categories appear on the right-hand side of the page. While these are roughly chronological, there will be overlap. If you go to any of these categories you will see the most recent posts at the top. To get to the earlier posts just scroll down tot the bottom and when you get there go to “earlier posts”.

Alternatively you can peruse historically by selecting a month to go to, also displayed on the right hand side of the page Like the categories, the the last post appears first and you just need to scroll to the bottom for the earliest posts. Again, watch to see if there are “earlier posts” at the bottom of the page.

As a final note, in addition to being new to Africa, to Land Rovers and to overlanding, which together to greatly increase the risks associated with everything, I am also new to blogging. That will no doubt be evident from this site. Hopefully I will be able to gain a greater mastery of the art of blogging and improve the site over time. Enjoy.

Into Benin, Auberge de Grand Popo and Intro to Voodoo

We crossed the border into Benin on a Sunday afternoon after an uneventful hour long drive across narrow Togo from Lome. The border crossing was also uneventful, the officials at both sides of the border were polite and professional.

Timing was great for a late afternoon arrival at Auberge de Grand Popo, a very laid back beach spot along the western coast Benin near the Mono River. Its features include an almost idyllic campsite set just back from the beach among trees. There are basic sanitation facilities for campers, but the restaurant and small pool set in bushes are only a short walk down a path. We are here in the off season so it is very quiet, but we really liked this place and it was from here that we made our first foray into the culture and environment of Benin.

Many African countries have varying degrees of voodoo traditions but Benin is considered to be the source. Most of the slaves that were exported from here went to Haiti and Brazil, and took with them beliefs and practices that are known as voodoo. To understand this better we hired a guide to take us into a so-called “voodoo village”. It was a good place to go because we are off what tourist circuit as exists here, so there did not appear to be any thing being put on for tourists. The guide we went with takes people there so they are accustomed to visitors and were somewhat accommodating, we had schnapps at 11:00 AM with the voodoo priest, who had just buried his son, who died at age 50.
The principal physical manifestation of the culture consists of several simple, occasionally disturbing, shrines constructed throughout the village.

There are many different “gods” serving many purposes. There was an overal “Dieu protecteur du village”, another for good fishing, another to protect against smallpox, etc etc. Some are figurative, others appear to be collections of assorted materials, almost like found art.

DSCN0419 — Laura and our guide Mathias at one of the voodoo shrines

Our visit also gave us the opportunity to see some community development in action. The village was in the process of constructing a maternity wing on the health centre and needed to raise the level of the land to prevent flooding. The site was at one end of the village, at the other end end was a huge pile of sand that had been dredged from the Mono River. There were about 10 men shovelling sand into a big old dump truck (which did not seem to have brakes, someone had to thr0w down a block of wood in front of a tire to make it stop!) , at the other end there were as many women taking the sand dumped by the truck into pans and distributing it around the site.

Women building a maternity ward — Women buidling maternity ward – there is at least one baby seen here being carried in the traditional way

Lome

We arrived in Lome on Day 6 of our trip, which felt a bit strange as we know Lome is normally only 4-5 hours from Accra. So we took an indirect route.

To spoil ourselves after spending a week in a tent we checked into a hotel, not least to take advantage of the laundry service. We opted to return to the Hotel Bellevue, a simple place we stayed on a previous visit. Because we arrived without a reservation this time we were not in the main building but in an annex about a block away. The room was small but had A/C , and a TV. There was also WiFi, which enabled us to catch up on email and blog posts while we missed while we had been in the hills. I also took an hour on Saturday afternoon to finish the installation of the hidden security safe that I had not had time to do before we left.

The capital of Togo, Lome is a suprising place. Because Togo is relatively poor there are many fewer vehicles than in Accra, instead the streets are dominated by motorcycles, or “motos”. The infrastructure is quite poor, paved main streets are all flanked by secondary streets of sand. Because of this, Lome feels as much like a beachfront holiday destination as a al capital. Typical of many capitals of former French colonies, Togo does have lots of style, with great restaurants and grocery stores with lots of good food. There are also lots of good restaurants and this was the main focus of our time in Lome.

Benedictine Monastery

Some two hours north of Kpalime, at the summit of the mountain chain that provides the border between Ghana and Togo to the east, sits a stunning example of the many Benedictine Monasteries that can be found in remote locations throughout Africa and other parts of the world. The route underscores the remoteness of the location. After following a reasonably good two lane highway for an hour we turned west to follow a not-so-good two lane paved highway that climbed 300 metres in a half kilometre, offering wonderful views to the east en route. We then followed along the top of the range for an hour or so, ultimately arriving at the monastery. The monastery, like the convent down the road, is situated on a tract of lank large enough to serve as the primary food source for the monks that are resident there. To supplement their income the residents produce a range of products for market, including coffee and a line of jams, a selection of these were the first items we purchased on the trip, and the first contents in our rooftop waterproof (good thing too) storage container.

At the entrance there is a lovely grove of trees where visitors can camp with access to a shower and toilet, and we arrived mid-afternoon to set up. We were only there for one night, althouugh our departure on the second day was delayed by a combination of wanting to spend time at the beautiful cathedral and by the very wet weather, we did not want to close up the tent wet and the rain did not stop until nearly noon.

Benedictine Monastery in Togo — The Monastery was constructed of beautiful hardwoods

The high point of our visit was most certainly attending the service in the morning, which featured singing by the 25 monks, accompanied by traditional string and percussion instruments. Indeed the entire service was sung, there were no spoken words at all. It was beautiful.

A Wet One — Our night and morning at the Monastery featured more rain than any other 12 hour period during our whole trip

Agou-Petsi Falls

We left la Part du Chef right after breakfast bound for the capital city of Lome. Out of curiosity we turned at a unction with a sign referring to a “Cascade Themale ” (thermal waterfall) but had to stop in response to a whistle and waves from a road side shed where we were asked to part with 5500 CFA ($10.) to visit the mountain. We agreed to do so on assurance that the Casade Thermales was operational, although the assurance did not include guarantee of a refund it is was not. The payment was a rather bureaucratic process, we had to fill out several forms and the person manning the wicket was not literate. As we drove up yet another steep switchback road the sun broke and we were treated to a great view of the valley below.

Valley View at Agou — Vally View off Mont Agou

There was another sign to mark the turn into the falls so we were discocerted to find the road suddenly end at what appeared to be nothing at all. A number of people surrounded the Defender and gave assurances that we had indeed arrived at the cascade. No fewer than four “guides” then led us through a village to a well maintained trail to the falls, at which point we learned that, in Togo at least, thermal means healthy, not hot. It was very pretty tho’, and the guides articulate and pleasant.

Laura and two of our guides at the Cascades Thermales — Laura and Guides at the Cascades Agou Petsi

They told us how they had developed this as a community project and we got into a discussion of how they did nto get any share of the revenue collected at the junction. They welcomed our suggestions for how to make the pleasant site moreso (ie. a sign at the end of the road to say one ahd arrived, a place to change into bathing suits, and fewer “guides”) We took one of them back down with us to the guichet and reinforced our point that is was the “cascades thermales” that had inspired us to make the turn and pay the money and he seemed quite content with that, there was no pressure to pay more. Indeed he seemed quite appreciative that we had helped empower him to take up their cause with the “official” at the shed. No doubt the story continues, but we left feeling we had perhaps made a modest contribution to the project by helping them assert themselves.

Agou and La Part du Chef

We had heard about a restaurant that specialized in exotic meats in a village located about 25 km south of Kpalime in the small town of Agou at the foot of a mountain of the same name and decided it was a not-to-miss site. We had no information about places to park and camp in Agou but our timing got us there early enough in the afternoon so we went by just to confirm it would be open and place an order so we just asked them if they knew somewhere we might b e able to park and set up camp. After some discussion the lovely women that welcomed us went to speak to the Chef, who came out and said we would be welcome to set up in his garden.

To set up we had to move some rocks and stacked lumber and backing the Defender through a narrow gate into a lane that ran through the middle of an extended family living space. It worked, and the large extended family that called this ‘garden’ home were more than a little entertained by the rooftop tent which just fit under the mango tree. Everyone took turns climbing up the ladder and peeking into the tent.

We also enjoyed a tour of the property, which is a small livestock operation, with pens for pigs, goats, lambs, chickens and of course guinea fowl. The chickens are everywhere, fed in the morning by the youngest son. The agouti (bush rate) are caught in the wild and kept in cages awaiting slaughter when needed for a plate.

Laura Reading — Late’s son feeds chickens while Laura reads

We opted for the Agouti and the Pintade, which translate roughly as bush rat and guinea fowl. The agouti is the same creature as what is known in Ghana as grass cutter, which we never liked, but this was good. Guinee fowl is a dry meat, but this one was meatier than most. We also enjoyed corn meal dumpling cooked in the corn meal jus.

There was no running water, but there was a toilet that flushed. At night they put a big barrel of (very) hot water in the shower stall in the bathroom for washing. We were awoken early by all the animals and served a breakfast of guinea fowl eggs, bread and Nescafe.

We enjoyed learning about Le Chef, as in the name of the restaurant…”La Part du Chef”. We had of course assumed it was all about the person who did the cooking, but that was not the case at all. Rather, Mr. Late did not cook, but was a minor Ewe “Chief”, or Chef en francais. He had earned his living as a primary school teacher until he retired in 1995 and set up the restaurant to supplement his pension. It was a popular place among people from Lome who would come up from the capitol on the weekend. He was also planning to set up a campground (campement) among the trees bordering his property, but he had not yet set up the services and security arrangements, hence our spot in the garden.

It was a lovely evening, which we enjoyed very much.

Day 3 and 4 Hiking in Kpalime

We hired a guide out of the Geyser Motel where we camped last night. After breakfast Jean-Baptiste (gee-bay) took us down a couple of gorgeous hiking trails. The first was a 3 hour circle through crops including coffee, cocoa, yam and cassava, past some charming villages. We are so glad to be out of smoky Accra and breathe fresh air. The second trail was into a waterfall on Mount Klouto, the highest peak in the region, where we were able to get wet and cool off.

Tuesday is market day in Kpalime so we went back into town in the afternoon and had the mud washed off the Land Rover while we wandered about through the shops. As it turns out we were in the petit marche, the main market is at the other end of town entirely, but it was still fun. There seem to be a relatively high proportion of muslim merchants, we bought a CD of contemporary Togolese music (hip-life we think, but don’t really know) and an umbrella.

Late afternoon we headed back for Mt. Klouto where we had discovered the government-run Campement de Klouto at the very end of a steep and winding road where we had taken our hike to the waterfall. It is the site of an old German hospital. Togo was ceded to France as part of the terms of the 1919 Versailles Treaty following WWI. Prior to that the Germans had been here for about 50 years and have left many traces. It might have been a great hospital but as a hotel it does not have much to offer . The staff were very friendly and seemed quite accustomed to welcoming campers and overlanders. They showed us where to park and gave us a key to a very austere room as access to a washroom. Indeed austerity is the defining feature of this particular establishment. The reception, the restaurant and any room we saw were sparsely furnished with bare walls.

The Campement is also where the trail to the summit starts and after breakfast we took the 45 minutes hike up. It is as much a road as a trail and we could have driven up, but wanted to keep up our hiking habit. From there we drove into Kpalime, had an internet stop and carried on further north to the a Benedictine Monastery located north of Adete, far up in the Danyi Plateau, a mountain chain that runs along the Ghana-Togo border. We could have entered Togo near here, but that would have meant going through parts of Ghana that we were already very familiar with so we decided to come into Togo further south.

Day 2: Tranfer into Togo

Volta Transfer — Driving through the Volta Region of Ghana towards the Togo border

Yesterday we drove from Ada in eastern Ghana up through the Volta Region to cross into Togo at a place called Shia. Imagine the most isolated, backwater border crossing, down the roughest, most unused road, managed by a host of people who are so starved for human companionship they will not stamp your passport until you have engaged them in conversation for a good 10 minutes, and you will have gained some insight into our day today.

The first (of several) policeman at the Togolese crossing was the most interesting. He had been a participant in Canada World Youth twenty years ago and spent a couple of months in Trois Rivieres. He was convinced that Quebecois were not as nice as people from other Canadian provinces, an impression I tried very hard to disabuse him of. Despite the numerous stops required to traverse the border (two on the Ghanaian exit and four on the Togo entrance) the only unpleasant part was at Ghana Immigration. Certainly the most overstaffed border post I have ever seen. There were five people (women) behind the counter and two men, not in uniform but clearly in charge, standing in front of the counter that gave the impression they were travellers. After having the women go through our passport the two men subjected us to what can only be called interrogation, grilling us about the last time we entered Ghana, how long we had been in Ghana, where we were going, At the end the person in charge said it would not be possible for us to cross there, rather we would have to go to the next post, which was the main Aflao crossing now two hours drive away. This was clearly an effort for a bribe but he did not know that I don’t pay bribes. We just held our ground, we had made small talk with the other staff and I think they could see he was being unreasonable and after a time he after a time he instructed one of the women to stamp our passports. I am sure this will not be the last time we have to play this game but so far I can still say I have never paid a bribe.

As officious as this individual was, to his credit he at least cited a reason to prevent our crossing that was somewhat plausible – the condition of the road. He said the road was very bad and would need a “very strong car” to make it. Because we had a 4×4 it was a bit easier to dismantle the immigration official arguments. There was no road at all, only a mud track that wound through streams and tall grass, clearly they were not encouraging people to cross there.

Mud Track Into Togo — Muddy Track at the Ghana-Togo border Shia crossing

A very long and rainy 9 km after the border, most of which had to be done in 2^nd gear because of the abominable condition of the road, we arrive into the back entrance of Kpalime (the K is silent, the e is not) in the heart of Togo’s hilly coffee/cocoa country and a centre for those seeking to escape the heat along the coast. By the time we got there it was after five so we decided to find a place there for the night. We went to the Geyser (pronounced, we learn, geezer in French) a quiet place within the town boundary and equipped with a pool. It had stopped raining and for CFA 5,000 (CAD 10) they let us set up the rooftop tent in the garden and we had beer and salty but good Pork Dijonais for supper in their restaurant. The main evening event was the large flying termites that emerged while we were having dinner. Apparently this happens for a couple of days when there has been a lot of rain. There were thousands of them, so many the hotel staff went around and turned all the lights off. They carpeted the ground as we walked back to the Landy to climb up into our tent.

First Night in Ada Foah

Like many Ghanain place names, there are a few “Ada”s. all of which are in the vicintiy of the mouth of the Vota River. Kasseh Ada, Big Ada etc. Ada Foah is a town at the mouth of the Volta River where the river is widest. That is where the Accra Sailing Club is located on the river so the small dinghy and Hobie Cat boats jot about among the islands in the estuary and never have to deal with the actual oceon. We have been members for 3 years decided to make this the first night destination.

Good pic of sailing club — Sailing Club on a busy Sunday morning

It only takes about an hour and thirty minutes to drive here from Accra, down one of the best, straightest, fastest roads in the country. It took us longer this time because of the torrential downpour that we encountered and which caused flash flooding along much of the route. Did not have the presence of mind to take photos of the cars crawling through vast puddles at 20 km/hr. In our larger vehicle we did not feel too vulnerable although we did discover that despite all the new door seals all round our Defender does leak a bit. By the time we arrived at the Club about 4:00PM the sun had come out, indeed it does not appear to have rained here at all today.

First 250+ Nikon photos, up to departure 247 — Set up at the sailing club on a quiet Sunday evening

We had the place all to ourselves on a Sunday night, we barbecued a steak and eggplant in the petrol barrel barbecue where we have cooked so many Sunday lunches. Unfortunately we can’t take our boat out because we are waiting for a part from Hartley Chandlery in England which is distinguishing itselve for its slow delivery and lack of service. But our minds are not really on sailing anyway, we want to get moving on to Togo.

Taking it On the Road

The two weeks since we got our shipment from South Africa have been rather intense. I have been on vacation for the past week and we are now finally ready to head off on our West Africa Wander, having spent most waking hours doing something related to expedition prep. We in a much greater state of preparedness than we were a week ago.

Since we received the South Africa shipment two weeks ago we have installed the storage drawer system, fastened the Eezi-Awn Rooftop tent to the carrier, which involved some modifications to the carrier itself, purchased a propane tank and fastened it and the water carriers to the outside of the vehicle, had a second (deep cell) battery purchased in South Africa installed, together with an isolaor purchased in Egypt last October so the starter battery is protected, together with the fridge and charge accessories for toys (cameras, phones). We have put in an inverter (borrowed at short notice from Chris D. – thank you) to run a laptop from the Landy. and put in the rear drawers to stow the kitchen and cooking gear and various other stuff. We have designed a system on the roof to carry a 3`x 3.5 foot table which itself was adapted from a card table we had in the house. We have had the engine cleaned and replaced a gasket that was causing some loss of coolant, and we have had the oil and all filters changed. With help from Ruby at the High Commission we got the Landy re-registered with diplomatic plates, and made all the arrangements for multi-country insurance. Mercy helped us get visas for Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali. We even had a party to show off the `finished`product to work colleagues. We bought new tires. A major endeavour of the past week has been packing. We need to carry all the kitchen gear to cook and eat, we need to plan what to take, from tools to toiletries.

Last minute preparations: Emmanuel does the dual battery system install while Jonathon puts finishing touches on the under carrier table mount. Tires have been replaced

Tent and awning set up for the first time in our front yard in Accra. Fridge is inside the open back door, drinking water is in the blue plastic jerry can. .

Tomorrow we are heading east towards Togo. One of the things we have not spent much time doing is route planning. The broad outlines of the route are pretty set but there is nothing like an itinerary. After the first night, which we may spend in Ada Foah an hour and a half down the road on the Volta River at our sailing club, we have no idea where we are going to stay.

Dual Battery System

We had purchased a National Luna 52 litre “Weekender” fridge the first time we visited South Africa, which has now been gracing the storage room in our house for over a year. We had bought a Sony radio/CD/Ipod player from a duty-free importer a few months ago, and on our recent trip to South Africa obtained a couple more electrical toys, like an external light for remote campsite use at night. To run these things we decided to install an dual batter system and had bought deep cell battery in South Africa, all of these things arrived with our recent shipment. Time to get to work.

Through Francis I was able to make contact with a competent auto electrician at the local Tata/Land Rover dealership who was familiar with dual battery systems. No co-incidence that the foreman in the shop is Francis’ brother King. King and Emmanuel came by one Saturday to look at what I wanted done. There are lots of electrical projects, including the solar panel and the AC plug in, but the priority is getting the second battery running so I got them to focus on that. They established that the second battery was not going to fit into the main battery box located under the driver’s seat, and it was too high to fit into the box under the passenger seat. They left me with fundamental non-electrical challenge: Where was I going to put the second battery? They suggested that either box could be enlarged, but they were not in that business.

I did some web research and found a couple of Landy forums with discussions of second battery locations. These included getting both batteries into the main box under the driver’s seat, but batteries come in different sizes and it was clear the deep cell we bought in South Africa for our second battery was larger than most. There was also a good site with pictures of a battery box expansion and so I took my problem and these pictures to Paani my welder that has done just about every imaginable project for Defenders. In one afternoon he had expanded the box under the passenger seat to take the deep cell battery using galvanized aluminum and and made a hole in the side to run the cables.

First problem solved. Emmanuel came back last weekend with a list of the pieces he would need and a quote on the labour. After some negotiation with King, who was making him available, we agreed on a price. We also had to negotiate a day, and there was one false start because they were not ready to do it when they said they could, which meant I had to do some quick re-shuffling of projects with the welder (for the final awning work) and with Agoma the carpet person (to do the carpet for the new plywood floor in the cargo bay above the drawer system). They finally got around to it and the fridge is now plugged in and operational. There was problem with the “accessory plugs”, the two dash mounted cigarette lighter mounts that we need to power computers, phones, cameras etc. They only worked when the car was turned off, but they agreed to come by and fixed the problem quickly.