JEFF McLEAN'S BLOG | MARTY POUWELSE'S BLOG
- 3/10/2002 - Bamako, MALI
- 7/10/2002 - Bamako, MALI (again)
- 10/10/2002 - Mopti, MALI
- 14/10/2002 - Tombouctou, MALI
- 22/10/2002 - Bobo-Dioulasso, BURKINA FASO
- 5/11/2002 - Tamale, GHANA
- 11/11/2002 - Cape Coast, GHANA
- 18/11/2002 - Kokrobite (no, it’s not pronounced like that you filthy bugger), GHANA
- 19/11/2002 - Kokrobite (the other side), GHANA
- 23/11/2002 - Kokrobite (the other side, literally), GHANA
- 23/11/2002 - Kokrobite (the original side), GHANA
- 27/11/2002 - SINGAPORE, and oh so close to home
- 9/12/2002 - Brisbane, AUSTRALIA, for better or worse
19/11/2002 - Kokrobite (the other side), GHANA
Ah, Africa. Did I mention the contrasts?
About being completely in my element lying on a moonlit beach observing a top class meteor storm at 4am this morning. The Leonids did not dissappoint: a spectacular show of bright orange and green fireballs with persistant trails and an hourly rate of between 800 and 1000 (by my estimate) which translates to one brilliant shooting star every four or five seconds. The moon was low on the horizon and did not cause the great hinderance I expected. It was wonderful. Jeff and I (and a couple of others we'd managed to convince the previous evening to join us for this rare event) lay on the sandy beach, eyes skyward, and were treated to a perfect light show.
Unfortunately, my utopia ended rather abruptly.
Just past the peak at around 4:15am, a guy of about twenty years of age quickly and quietly strolled up to Jeff and I while we were lying down, and picked up my bag which was right next to me and bolted. I chased as long as I could along the beach and up through the scrub in the darkness but he was too quick. The bag contained my passport, medical certificate, airline tickets and some cash (but luckily not my wallet with my licence and credit cards, which is at least a small consolation as I usually keep it in the bag).
That's the easy stuff to replace. I also lost my diary for the last month, nearly all of the souvenirs I'd collected since France, and some hand made necklaces which were crafted and purchased in Timbuktu.
One of our new traveller friends walked with us at 4:30am around the village, as we made plenty of enquiries and let the locals know, in case they'd seen anything. We then visited the Canadian embassy in the nearby capital of Accra, which apparently represents Australians in Ghana. We were told there is now a new Australian consulate office near the airport. As we approached the building I saw the Australian flag flying high, and much to my surprise, I nearly cried. After all the weird foriegn experiences of the past seven weeks, seeing an obvious symbol of my home country was emotionally almost too much.
Unfortunately, the Australian high commissioner in Ghana is overseas at the moment, but if you'd like to leave a message, please do so after the tone. Well, it wasn't quite that bad. A phone call was made to the only other Australian embassy in West Africa (Nigeria) and the wheels set in motion for a temporary passport.
Consequently, our plans of crossing two international borders in the next two days have been somewhat skewed. We're only 40kms away from cycling the big 1000, so hopefully we can still achieve this tentative goal.
We'd planned to fly out of Cotonou in six days from now (Tue), so I hope I can get my temp passport in time for us to make our flight. We may miss one part of Africa I was really looking forward to seeing: the voodoo culture.
However, the future is yet to unfold, so I shall pull up a comfy chair and see what happens.
Ah, Africa. I should have expected this.
Cheers!
Love,
Marty.