Long Road to Bolgatanga

As we endured the excruciatingly uncomfortable bus journey to Bolgatanga a week ago, I tried to imagine how to describe it to you. Here goes.......Envisage yourself sitting on half a plastic chair surrounded by far too many hot, sweaty and smelly people, predominantly men, in 40C+  temperatures. The chair, which you are being squeezed off by neighbours on both sides, is secured to a flat bed trailer that is being towed at about 50 mph over a cattle grid continuously for 3 hours! That was part of the journey. The other 7 hours were marginally more comfortable. Oh, and there was no sign of a toilet or anything close for all that time! I'm fast realising that ALL journeys over an hour are incredibly uncomfortable and stressful, starting at 4am fighting for a ticket in the dark!

If you imagine a clock face with Wa at 9 and Bolga at 1, it made sense to travel clockwise. Unfortunately, the bus was full by 4am so our only alternative was to travel anti-clockwise via Tamale. Both directions involve a number of hours on dirt roads on a bus with no suspension. The best part was seeing lots of very healthy looking donkeys. We don't have many of those in the Upper West.

Each time we stopped to cram another body into the packed aisles, helpful folk selling snacks passed goodies through the windows to keep us alive.

Never mind we got there, shattered but in one piece. My black rucksack came out from the luggage space underneath the bus, the same colour as the road, orange.

Bolgatanga is the largest town/city in Northern Ghana. It has far more facilities and shopping opportunities than I was aware of. However, we had little chance to take advantage of those this time. We were there for the moto training and that is what we did. Follow the adventures throughout the next few days.