Holidayzzz

First mission today is to find a decent affordable hotel. We find one just 5 kilometers down the road to Cape Coast, just before Takoradi. Casablanca beach resort is everything we've been looking for: nice, clean, large bungalows, a beachside restaurant and bar, a strip of clean beach, welcoming personnel,… They even claim to have Wifi!
All right, sold! We make ourselves at home and only go out for snack supplies. At 15 Ghana Cedi's (7,5 euro) the bottle of Piper-Heidsieck champagne we buy at the bar is a bargain. Together with our free welcome bottle of bubbles from last night and the one that we bought in Ouagadougou, we're up for a New Year's Eve party. We meet at our bungalow for an aperitif and go to the restaurant by half past eight, already a bit tipsy, only to find the staff was just about to leave. Closed! Homemade instant noodles for dinner then. By midnight we go outside only to discover complete silence and a dark sky. Well, what the hell, the company is good and the night guard opens the bar for us, for some more drinks. It's a night to remember…

Our plan was to take a break from travelling and just do nothing for a couple of days. To our surprise Boni shows up at the resort. After we exchanged stories, Boni joins us when we start servicing the bikes. The noise I've been hearing on my bike since Bafoulabé (Mali, nearly 4000 km ago), which was dismissed by the others as being imaginary, turns out to be produced by the chain. It's completely worn and one link is in particularly bad condition. Nicolaas and Tony try to replace the chain set at first, but the nut of the front sprocket has tightened itself too much. Cutting out the worst link and replacing it with a clip will have to do till Accra.

Since we stopped the dolce far niente anyway, don't have proper running water and the wireless network sends out thin air only - no internet - there's no reason to linger here any longer. A day after Boni left direction Accra (where we might meet him again) we follow. We pay a visit to Elmina castle - a late Portuguese, then Dutch, then British slave trade stronghold – and stay the night in Cape Coast. Next day we explore town, have a few drinks and then some more.

For more pics see album "Holidayzzz"

Our time with Tony is drawing to an end, so we're making the most of it. Tomorrow will be our final excursion together: a trip to Kakum national park. There we walk among the tree tops of the rain forest where Africa's loudest tourist group has just scared away all animals. We supplement the experience of Kakum's scenery with a visit to Monkey Forest, owned by the Dutchman we met over a beer. We get to see some of Ghana's wildlife from close by, but behind bars.
Next morning we make Tony wait for us one last time and then we're on our own again, on our way to Accra for the final quest in Ghana: get the visa for onward travel!