Caboose

We took a shared taxi from Elmina up to the junction and then had to wait a while for a tro-tro while taxi drivers asked for ludicrous amounts for a charter to Takoradi.

On arrival at the railway station we discovered that the train to Kumasi now only runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. We debated some alternative plans and decided to hang around for Friday’s train. As in Nigeria the station seems to have lots of staff around doing nothing much, the sidings are full of abandoned rolling stock and the cafeteria obviously hasn’t been open recently. I was amused to see that they had copied the name “Traveller’s Fare” from the old British Rail catering.


Checked in to Amenla hotel again, the other cheap hotels look even grimmer, and rested for a while. Later on we went to MaxMart supermarket and then to Bocadillo’s for dinner. I had a beer on the balcony of the hotel, both Marebec and Dave weren’t feeling great. The plan for tomorrow is to buy our train tickets, visit the Nzulezu stilt village then catch the sleeper.

Got up early, showered and packed then wandered along to the taxi station to get egg and bread for breakfast. Once Dave and Marebec appeared we took a taxi to the station, nothing was open so we hung around. Just before 8am a train arrived from Kojokrom (about 1 hour away by train, 10 km), three carriages of commuters and not full. This was interesting because the station staff had told us that there are no trains other than the Kumasi one.

The carriages are old GDR ones and not very well maintained. The second class open carriages on the Kojokrom train had the floor rusted right through in parts. I was a bit worried about what our sleeper might be like.

Track maintenance staff were loading up a little maintenance train with various bits of equipment. They seem to live in some sleeper carriages parked at the station. They set off at 8.15, around the same time as the baggage office opened.

We hoped that this meant we could buy tickets but it seems that only the stationmistress can sell tickets and she was not yet around. I suggested that Marebec and Dave head off to the stilt village while I hang around to buy tickets but they weren’t enthusiastic.

More hanging around at the station, the stationmistress eventually turned up around 9am. She wouldn’t sell us tickets but took our names and told us we had to come back by 7.30pm to buy them.

It was now 9.30 and I didn’t think we’d make it to the village and back, this didn’t seem to go down well with the others. I suggested a short trip to Sekondi, the other half of the “Twin City”, Marebec agreed and Dave grunted so we took a tro-tro.

We dropped at the tro-tro station and walked up the hill to Fort Orange, now a lighthouse. I wasn’t too bothered about seeing inside but Marebec was keen, couldn’t see anyone around (although we could hear people), eventually a young guy called Ishmael appeared. He gave us a tour, his father is the lighthouse keeper and he lives in the fort.

Our next destination was the fishing harbour, Marebec stopping on the way to buy a new handbag in the market. Dave barged past the little desk at the entrance to the harbour, with the man sitting there shouting at him to stop. Everyone, locals and visitors, has to pay a ¢500 (£0.03) toll to enter the market, Dave stalked off.

We took a tro-tro back to Takoradi, Marebec and Dave were a bit worried about the options for lunch in Sekondi. We had lunch at Bocadillo’s again, checked email, did some shopping and hung around. An important stop was the MaxMart supermarket to buy food for the train journey, plenty of water and some food.

Back at the station we discovered the stationmistress was “in town”, so we had to hang around again. Our train had arrived, so I went to have a look, six goods wagons, one very decrepit brake/luggage van, one 1st class sleeper and three 2nd class open carriages.

Once the stationmistress returned we bought our tickets, I paid for two ¢44,200 (£2.40) berths to make sure I got my own cabin.

We went to the nearby Twin City Chinese restaurant. It looks closed from the outside but was fine inside. The food was really good, ¢30-50,000 for a main course but tax wasn’t included. The family that run the place are very friendly.