Our main adventure since my last post has been getting our
on our bikes and getting very dusty and sweaty in the outskirts of Accra.
In fact, this bike ride encapsulated the many different
sides we are starting to see of Accra.
Accra is modern – we meet in a shopping mall car park, where
there is a fully kitted out gym with a swimming pool, and apparently one of the
best coffee shops in town.
Accra is crazy busy and noisy – even at 6 am on a Saturday
morning the church next door to us was in full swing with music blaring
out. As we started to make our way
towards the group meeting point the roads were already busy with trotros
(rickety old minibuses which ply certain routes through the city), hawkers and
people starting their weekend shopping.
Traffic here comes in all shaped and sizes – we are used to
navigating the roads of London in rush hour, but here is a different kettle of
fish. The rules of the road are totally
different, in fact I don’t think there are even any rules. One advantage to that is that cyclists are expected to be pushy like everyone else. When it's not your right of way, the general idea of our new cycling friends was to just shout at the on coming minibus, 4x4, hand cart or goat, wave your arms around and pedal as hard as you could. Slowing down at a roundabout was certainly not on the agenda!
Accra is full of contracts - Even when you are right next to a motorway you can feel in
the middle of nowhere. We rode parallel
to the Tema-Accra motorway, but far enough not to be able to hear or see
it. The dirt road tested our bikes (and
us – we used to complain about Surrey being pot-holed). The dirt road with a line of brightly
coloured cyclist fanned out ahead of us was a fantastic sight. We thought we’d caught an amazing tan, but
turns out it all came off in the shower…
And who can complain when the pit stop is a coconut stall?
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