I woke up very early to prepare for the journey ahead but behold just some minutes to the time I intended to step out, it started to rain very heavily that I was scared I would not be able to go out after all. However, the heavy rain subsided and turned to light shower. I went out amidst this and found my way to the park.
Getting to the park, I realized I was among the first set of people to get there probably due to the rain. After a very short time, we started the formalities of checking in and about 30 minutes later, we were all on-board the bus to Accra. I opted to go by road after I was told I will pass through other two African countries before getting to Ghana. I love to visit places and I felt this will be an opportunity to see those countries.
While welcoming us on board, the hostess had informed us we will pass through three different borders before getting to Accra and gave us what I termed the “rules of engagement”. The first border we got to was the Seme Border, which is the border between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. The hostess, who had collected all our traveling documents, went down for the normal immigration bureaucracies. Our passports were stamped for leaving Nigeria and entering Benin at this place. However, we spent more than an hour at this border. Later, we learnt the Benin Immigration authorities had told her to make the photocopies of the data pages of all our passports and submit this but there was no electricity supply at that moment so she had to find a way around this which took quite long. I don’t know whether to blame the authorities in charge of electricity supply in Benin Republic or Nigeria for this.
The ride through the Republic of Benin was very smooth and impressive. The roads were wider and cleaner than I could have imagined of the small West African country. After a long ride again, we came to the next border, the La Condji Border between the Repbulic of Benin and Togo. We had been told we will all come down from the bus and pass through the border on foot with our ticket while the hostess handle the stamping of our passports. We had also been told we will have the opportunity to change the Naira to Cedi at this border, all within fifteen minutes. The funny aspect of changing my currency was the amount it came to in Cedi. I was surprised when the little amount I had was converted to millions of Cedi. After this, I proceeded to buy some souvenirs but was also surprised at the amount. They were either forty or fifty thousand cedi. This sounded like naira to me but after converting it to get the equivalent in Naira, it became another surprise. It then occurred to me that I will have to have a calculator with me for all my transactions on this journey. I didn’t buy as much as I would have loved to because of the many things I envisaged ahead of me.
After La Condji, we finally got to the last border, the Aflao Border between Togo and Ghana. Here we were delayed for about two hours and it was not funny to me that the second bus that left Lagos after us met and left us here. It was a very big relief when we were allowed to leave the border. The road from here to Accra was the roughest since the journey started and I feel such a road linking Ghana to Togo should have been in a better shape.
We got to Accra around 7pm and the process of getting down of the bus and getting our luggage did not take more than ten minutes. I had known I had to buy a SIM Card so I can be in touch with home and my hosts in Ghana. I later found out I paid more than three times the amount I had thought and was supposed to pay for this. However, it was an inevitable investment.
I had contacted three people in Accra to help arrange an accommodation for me with the hope of taking the best out of the three. However, I got another contact just a day to my departure who promised to meet me at the park. I started calling her but she did not pick her phone. I then called the second person who confirmed he had booked a room for me at a hotel not too far from the park. I got a cab to take me there after my friend had described the place to the driver on phone. Two of the people I met in the bus that took me to Accra also joined me after their initial arrangement did not work out. We were on the way to the hotel when my former contact called that she had sent someone to pick me up from the park. I had to drop from the cab and started a long but interesting walk to the park.
There, I met Bright who would prove a very good host and help throughout my stay. We left the park together and went to the hotel his mum had booked for me. It was quite more expensive than I thought but I had to settle for it as my host promised a better arrangement the following day.
I settled down and made some calls to Nigeria to inform them of my safe trip to Ghana. Later I ordered for food and had the first taste of the Ghanaian food before retiring to bed after an eventful day.
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