Day 69: Ghana

Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Wed 12 Jan 2011 20:11
Day 69. Wednesday 12 January 2011.  Bush camp 30 km east of Yendi, Ghana.  N09 07.821 E000 00.454
 
The navigators among you will see from the above that we crossed the Greenwich Meridian today. Starting at home practically on the Greenwich meridian, we went way out west to 17 degrees west at Dakar, and tonight we are just a little to the east again. Once we leave Ghana we should always be east of Greenwich to the end of the trip.  We have also made a lot of southing in the last week, from 16 degrees 47'N in Tombouctou we are now at 9 degrees 07'N and we'll be heading due south from now until we hit the coast at Accra.
 
We made another crossing today - we crossed into Ghana this morning.  It was an easy border crossing with no hassle, no touts, only very friendly officials on both sides.  Another bonus - it was such a delight to speak English again after struggling in French for the last two months!
 
We drove south on the main Accra road to Tamale where we had lunch and bumped into a Swiss Land Rover traveller, Louis, who had driven from Zurich.
 
After lunch we drove east on a good road to Yendi and then onto the dirt again towards Benbelli.  It was almost dark by the time we found somewhere suitable to camp, just off the track in a casava field!
 
Our biggest desire now is a washing machine or a laundromat, as all our clothes are filthy with dust.  In Wagga there were plenty of laundry services but all wanted 3 days which was more than we were prepared to stay.  Jenny hand-washed some clothes but they are still badly stained with red dust.