Around The World In 72 Days - From Accra To Western Region - A Magical Unicorn Pony God Of Travel Adventure

It has been a LONG TIME since de-I linked horns in battle with the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel (for new followers, MUPGT is one of those demi-deities in charge of various things in daily life that if you don't placate, will do you in. You know like the micro gods that hid your belonging when you most need them, the nano deity that causes you to stain your shirt or blouse just before a big meeting. Those ones). Long-time readers know that as I transitioned out of full-time work into whatever we call my life now, the intense business oriented travel withered. Leisure travel (in general) does not create the same demands for having to be places at specific times. You have more time to go with the flow. That doesn't mean that there are not times when the deity decides it is time to shake you out of your complacency. 

Wednesday we were scheduled to leave Accra and go to the Western Region. There are a number of places we wanted visit. This would be my first extended time outside of the capital city area. We were packed up and ready to go at Noon time. Our flight is at 2:10. It should take 15 minutes to get to the airport. The terminal for local flights in Ghana is much less crowded than the international terminal. Our driver texts us that she has arrived. Then I looked out our apartment window and saw this totally black sky to east of us.  

By the time we get down to the lobby, there is a torrential downpour!

 

Our driver is texting that she hopes she and her car don't get blown away. It is 30 minutes before it finally slows enough for us to get our bags down, in the trunk, and we moving out. But that 15 minute trip? It now takes an hour due to accidents on the road due to the storm. This little airline closes its ticket counter 40 minutes before departure. We arrive 39 minutes before departure. Cut us some slack because of the storm? No way. We are sent to separate counter to purchase a ticket for the next available flight which is 2 and a half hours later. But no. At that counter they call the other counter. They tell us to go back. We can check in. We do that. But no. They tell usthey are closed. Go back and rebook. We finally do this. They extract more money from us. We are now on the 4:30 flight. 

We are first in line to check in. Thank goodness because checking in is incredibly inefficient. There is actually food on the other side of security. Now we wait. After about an hour we hear an announcement that the flight we were originally on is delayed because of the bad weather. "What! They didn't let us on the flight and it has been sitting around for hours!" We were not happy. Our original flight leaves about the time the new flight is supposed to leave. Then we're told our new flight will be even later because it is the same plane that goes back and forth from Accra to the western town of Takoradi. 

At about 6:15pm there is an announcement that our flight will now be leaving at 8pm (we will have a two hour drive after that!). At 6:30pm they start boarding our flight. Crazy. We finally make it to Takoradi a bit before 8pm. We haven't eaten for a long time and in Ghana it is hard to get food fast so we head out to our beach resort near the Cote d'Ivoire border. The roads are horrible. It is as bad as any road we've been on in our travels. 

We get to our destination at around 11pm. We called ahead and the owner (who is in the U.S.) got his people to make us some dinner. We get into our room. In our exhausted state, we are noticing this is nothing like we imagined. We're paying a lot for this. It seems yucky to even get in the bed. The sheets feel weird. The mattress is bigger than the box spring so you can't sit on the end of the bed. The bathroom door doesn't close. The sink faucet is loose and barely has any water pressure. The walls are stained. But we're so tired we just collapse. 

Getting up in the morning, there is no hot water. We're looking at this place and realize we're the only ones here. We decide we need to bail. We are looking at all kinds of options but our driver has requested we look at a place up the road which he says is the best in the area. We pack our things, put in our request for refund, and drive to this next option. It is definitely a nicer place. It's huge! They show us a room way out from the center that is fairly small. We are not interested. They show us a room right by the center that is way bigger and nicer. 

Going to the front desk they want way more than we're willing to pay. So we decide to drive back to Takoradi and see what we can find. But then our driver goes in and starts negotiating. He comes back and asks us what our budget is. We tell him. The deal is done!

We get some lunch at the bar. The bar is on a corner with sea breeze coming from three directions, It feels lovely and the ocean sound is relaxing. We are noticing this place looks deserted too. It takes a long time to get the food (it comes from the restaurant kitchen in another part of the complex) but it is good. We next do the touring that we had scheduled for the day. It too was good. Another whole post on that one. 

A nice hot shower, some after dinner drinks, and we are way, way better frames of mind than we were this morning.