After nearly 2 years and several thousands of miles of travel, We now find ourselves in Ghana, land of Gold, Bananas, and Cocoa...........and also several trillion mosquitoes.
West Africa is a very different proposition to the rest of the continent. Time stands still here with an alarming alacrity! Everyone is busy doing nothing and everyone appears to be doing something, despite the fact that at the end of the day there is nothing to show for it. Does any of this sound familiar?
This is the 63rd country on this global odyssey and I can promise all those sceptics out there, it isn't getting any easier or anymore glamorous.
Two and a half hours were spent clearing customs followed by half an hour trying to get past all the cab drivers outside the airport. You soon realise that everyone in Africa wants to be your friend (for a price) and that anything that has been nailed down is either for sale or up for negotiation.
Within five minutes of my first walk onto a beach in Accra, I was surrounded by the equivalent of the wholesalers at Leicester open market. I was offered everything from tobacco, pot, women, men, children, goats, camels and even a Reliant Robin!
As for the cricket, well that was a resounding success. The game was played at the Achimota School Grounds, an old Catholic school left over from the colonial days. The pitch was artificial, but a good one, and the club house could indeed claim to be one of the best in West Africa....(only one in West Africa).
Unfortunately I scored only 2 runs (run out) which works out at one run for every two thousand miles travelled to get to this game from Jordan!
The game was between a local ex-pat team and the Ghanaian National side, playing for the Ashes. The Ashes actually comprised of the old set of railings that used to go around the club house, but were burned in a touching ceremony in the inaugural game to help raise funds to supply and paint the new railings. Therefore 'The Railings Ashes' game was born!
My thanks go to Jez Simms for organising the drinks sponsors, T shirt sponsors, and all the other efforts that he went to that week. Also great thanks to Stuart Chase at The Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra for his generous hospitality (a hotel well worth a visit) and finally to Charles Forsyth of British Airways who heard of our charity record attempt and stumped up the tickets to get us to Africa.
All photographs of the events in the last few countries will be distributed to all the relevant sponsors (whom I'd like to thank yet again) and up-dates of our visits to Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Malta, Gozo, Slovenia, and Corfu will appearing by email and on the web shortly.
