A surprise before back to Busua!

After a good topping up of the tan, and power reading of the book, we headed through Akwidda, back to Green Turtle Bay for dinner. The food was okay at Ezile, but nowhere near as good as we'd had before. As we walked up the beach into the resort who did we see but Mathilda, who had travelled with us through Mali! It was really unexpected to see her, but was great to catch up on the past month of travelling. We shared a few stories before getting some drinks and sitting on the beach.

Tilly's friend, Valeria possibly, joined us. She was Swiss and had the job that I want. She worked for a travel company, and part of her contract meant that she had to got to various countries. She even had allocated time off! I'm not too sure how old she was, but she'd been to some cool places - Iran, Uganda, Colombia, India; all over the place.


We all had some food, before us four racked up a handsome tab on the old cocktails, and played another game of Trivial Pursuit. A lot of fun when tipsy. We left late that night, think we were one of the last tables to turn in, and agreed to meet the next day at Green Turtle for a proper catch up. I really wanted to find out more about this magical job! We staggered home, mainly because of the sand though...., and hit the hay.

Unfortunately, we had to leave Ezile Bay that next morning because there were no more free spaces. It was a long hike back to Green Turtle to explain to Tilly and then come BACK to Akwidda to try and get a tro-tro (minibus) from the main road, so we headed straight through the village, sure that she would understand. Bit of a shame, but hey-ho.

The village was strangely built, and we couldn't find a main road. Asking some fishermen, they pointed up by the side of a building and off we went. Then another guys stopped us and asked why we were going a route that we didn't know....After some confusion, a boy led us to a small opening inbetween some huts, and then finally down to the main road. We caused quite a stir in the village, with both children and drunk men coming over for a chat.

Eventually got on a cramped minibus (with customary screaming baby goat under the seats) and took a bumpy route to Agona junction, the crossroads a few km from Busua. Once in Busua, we found out that Stone Village was full until the night we'd booked, so we checked into Blissjoy Lodge, in a maze of backstreet houses. Quite sure we cut through someone's backyard everytime we arrived and left.

The strange owner - Phil - had an infected, bandaged up foot and was overly helpful ("You'll have plenty of water and all the lights"). Should have rung a bell. That night, after checking places in Busua for Christmas dinner, including the 5 Star hotel at the end of the town, we came back to a hot, sweaty room, no electricity and no water. We asked what was going on and were told that it was getting sorted out. We don't mind roughing it with bucket showers (maybe Barnes does...) and no leccy, as we've done a lot of times on this trip, but he was insistent that we would have running water and a fan. He got some engineer over to 'fix' a generator. When me and B went to check what was going on, we found a man causing sparks by fiddling with the fuse board, and then wrapping a plastic bag around a bare wire, leading to a generator that was on! SAFE!

Got a bit fed up waiting after an hour, as we were promised water as soon as the electricity came on (still unsure how that would work...), and went for dinner at Nana's in town. The food is really good there - fresh as you can get seafood and great, spicy jollof rice. The downside is that you have to endure Nana. A friendly man at first he ended up getting right on my goat. I joked that Dree and Kez were brother and sister and he got angry, saying "Don't lie to me; I'm a Christian!".

Then we tried to get some change back from the meal that I'd paid for. He said he didn't have it, so we said we'd return tomorrow. No worries. We ended up going back about six times, most of which he was nowhere to be seen, and then one evening I see him sitting outside. He plays the fool and pretends that he is drunk ("I'm sick from the wine"). Two nights later, I stand there till I get the change. It sounds petty for only about a quid, but its the principle, especially from such a Christian!