ghana economy has grown steadily, and more shopping mails have arisen around the capital of accra ghana.
Finlandic country by country. center of the world. Africana. The center of the world. The center of the world. Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Ocean 38. The picture you see is the rock on which the center of the world lands on. It’s called the Meridian Rock. Now, this rock was in Tema. Tema could have been the most important city in the world. Tema is the only town that is closer to the center of the world. Imagine something like this was in America or maybe Europe. By this time, people would have been paying thousands of dollars to go and see this thing. This is why Dr. Kwam never joked with Tema because he knew that one day this place would have been the most visited place in the world. The construction of the harbor and the houses around this place was not just by accident. Especially this particular hotel, the Meridian Hotel. In the 1960s, important dignitaries and tourists from all around the world will come to this place. They slept at this particular hotel. And today, look at the building, the Meridian Rock. If you go online and you are doing research, it has only one picture. the center of the world. Experience challenges. Hi, I’m Daniel and follow me as I walk from London to Ghana. I just wanted to say a quick thank you really. Um, posted my first video on Tik Tok 2 days ago and I’ve already got 700 followers and some of the comments that you guys have left me have been absolutely amazing. does wonders for my my morale, believe me. Um, yeah. So, 700 followers already. That’s lovely. It’s taken me like 10 months to get 1,400 on Facebook. So, yeah, I don’t know why I was bothering with that, but my my friend said to me, “You got to get on TikTok. You get got to get on TikTok.” So, more people will follow you that way. And I like I’m a dinosaur. I didn’t really know how it works. So, I thought, nah, I left it. And I left it. And it’s a shame really because I’ve done so much training in 10 months. I’ve done many many walks um long walks as well. Initially when I first started doing these walks um it started like two days after Caroline’s funeral I was in a dark place and I’d ordered a book online about long-distance walker and it long story short I was in a dark place I was on my sofa I weren’t getting off the sofa that day um and the post came it was this book started reading it 10 pages in I’m like I’m getting out there. I’m walking today. So, I walked to my mom’s. She lives about 6 milesi away and I was proper proud of myself. I got to my mom’s house. I was like, “Yeah, that was cool. I’m I’ve always been proper lazy really. I would like drive to the shops about 2 minutes around the corner.” But anyway, so that day started couple of days after Caroline’s funeral. Feeling very low, curtains closed on the sofa, crying me eyes out, book came and that was it. 6 milesi that day. I think the next walk I did, I did about 10 miles and then upped it to 15, 20, 25. And then in May, I I had an injury at work. I was supposed to be leaving September the 20th, which was originally going to be our um wedding day. Um so I thought it’d be a poignant day to leave on our wedding day, but unfortunately I got injured in May at work. I damaged the ligaments in my foot. So that put me back 7 weeks. So anyway, now I’m leaving on the the 6th of November, which was the day that Caroline was admitted to the hospice. So yeah, so I’ve unfortunately I’m winding down on the um the long walks now. Probably do a few, but I’m not going to be doing too many. Actually going to turn around now. It’s getting dark down there. The video can’t see the video. Um, yeah. So, but I’ve been doing 30 miles, 35 miles walks back to back couple of weeks ago was done on the South Downs in Hampshire. Did 60 mi in the weekend. So, the training’s been going really good. I’m really fit. I’m really strong. Um, I’m just winding down now cuz I don’t want to get injured before I go away. But, I will do a few more long walks. So you can see that I have got the stamina to put 30 mile walks in cuz on average I want to do 20 or 25 a day on my way to Ghana. Um yeah, so that was all it was I wanted to say and I just wanted to say um yeah, thanks. Thanks for everything so far. It’s been beautiful. So yeah, I appreciate you all. God bless. Take care. Bye-bye. My name is Annabelle and I’m riding my bike across Africa and I have a special little announcement that only pertains to some of you, but I know I’ve attracted a lot of Ganaan followers and I’m doing an event with Alex at a really lovely spot called One Corner Garden. It’s on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. and we’re going to host a little talk and Q&A and share stories and photos and reflections from what it has meant to ride our bikes across the continent and what that actually means and what it looks like beyond just sharing my vlogs here. So, I’m really excited for it. It’s going to be like the first thing we’ve done of that kind. And so, I think it’s going to be a really special night and I would love to see some of you there. So, yeah, if you are in and around ACRA and you’re free Tuesday night, come on down to One Corner Garden at around 7:00 p.m. and we’ll be there doing some fun stuff. So, cool. Hope to see you there. Across Africa and today we are finally riding out of Acra. So, we’ve been there for quite a while and we are really excited to get moving again. We were waiting on a package and we eventually decided that it just was not going to come in a timely manner. So, we got to do something else and figure something else out. But yeah, today was our first day cycling in over a month, which is pretty crazy. I’m super excited to be cycling again, but I am not excited to be sharing the roads with some of the craziest drivers I’ve ever experienced. The Tro, which are like these collective van taxi situations, the drivers are just insane. They’re constantly pulling over to pick up and let people off. And so they just like really own the road and kind of do whatever they want. And yeah, it can be pretty pretty uncomfortable if you are just a little cyclist on the side of the road. The trucks were also pretty brutal today. It wasn’t just the chos, but the combination of trucks and cho is just awful to deal with. Uh we stopped at a little shop to put some more air in our tires. We were feeling a little flat and so that helped us roll a little bit faster for the second half of the day. And oh my god, the sun is setting so early now. The sun sets at like 5:30. It’s completely dark by 6:00 p.m. and that just does not work for us. Like, we tried to be really early risers this morning. We tried to get out of the house fast. We did take a midday break, which we don’t normally do to wait out some of the worst parts of the sun, but we still ended up cycling in the dark. Uh, I guess we did like 70 mi though, which is like 115 km. So, still a pretty big day. Uh, but actually, my hot take is that cycling at night is really pleasant. It’s way cooler, way less crowded, and yeah, you can kind of just like coast by. All right, that’s all from me for our first big day back and I’ll see you guys tomorrow in Lome in Togo. My name’s Annabelle and I’m riding my bike across Africa. I’m currently in Acra in Ghana and I have been for a little while now. We’re going to start moving again soon. But before I do, I figured I’d give you guys some like updates, highle big picture stuff so you know what’s coming for the next few months of my life and this journey that I’m on. So, Acra has been like the final point of admin tasks for us to be able to complete the rest of the journey. So, we’ve gotten some parts sent over from the US and from Europe to fix a few things on our bike to make sure they can easily and reliably get us all the way to South Africa. We’ve also gotten both of our Congo visas sorted. So, for the Republic of the Congo and the DRC and we applied for and received our Togo and Benin visas. That’s four visas done. For Congo and the DRC, we had to go to embassies to get them. And Togo and Benin were e visas, so a lot simpler and also a lot cheaper. Once we leave Ghana, we’ll quickly cycle through Togo and Benin before crossing into Nigeria. We still need to get our visa for Nigeria. It’s become like one of the more challenging and expensive visas to get while traveling overland and on this route that we’re on. You can’t just get it at any embassy. So like we can’t get it here at the embassy in Acra. And the last place that we’re able to get it is from the embassy in Kotau in Benin. They also started rolling out an e visa. It’s like very up in the air. I’m unsure of how that’s going to go and the price can really vary depending on the mood of the officer giving them out. And so the process has become like even more convoluted. And the most recent info that we’ve gotten from other people is that it’s costing around $440. So, we’re hoping we can find some other way to make that happen because that’s a pretty steep price. A few people have asked why we’re going a bit more inland after Nigeria and Cameroon and not going through Gabon. Um, I’ll put a picture of the map up, but the short answer is we’ve heard lots of accounts of people who have had trouble crossing the land border between Cameroon and Gabon. And since we’ve already paid for the pretty expensive Congo visa, it makes sense to like utilize it and cross through the Congo instead. And one more thing to just like chat about is that Nigeria has developed a bit of a negative reputation and perception among travelers. There’s a lot of fear and a lot of uncertainty for those who are traveling in Nigeria overland. There’s a lot of corruption, bribery, there’s a lot of conflict in certain regions and there’s also a very like real risk of kidnapping. And so those are all things that we’ve taken into account when planning our route and deciding to continue to travel through the country. But they’re definitely things that have given me a little bit of nerves and especially when I get comments like these like of course you’re going to second guess your decision-m and get even more scared. But I’m confident that we’ll be able to do it and that we’ll be completely safe. And yeah, that’s where I’m at, what’s coming up and what’s been on my mind for the past month while I’ve been in Ara. Uh if you have any questions, as always, leave them below and I’d be happy to answer them, talk on any of this more. And yeah, all right. I’ll talk to you guys soon. Bye. My name is Annabelle and I’m riding my bike across Africa. And today we are making the final couple of miles to get into Acra proper. We covered most of the distance from Cape Coast to Acra on our first day of riding because we pushed really far to make it to the nice hotel. And so today we only had like 18 miles to go which was pretty nice. Sometimes the days of getting into the capital cities can be really hectic because the traffic starts really far outside of the city and it’s just like not a super peaceful day of riding. And so it was nice to only have a little distance to cover. We were in some intense gridlock. We followed a road cyclist as he was weaving through the cars and took some notes from him. Cycling into the cities is definitely the most I ever feel like I’m like living in a video game and I’m just a character watching myself from above. Um, but we soon made it and got to our Airbnb that we’re going to stay at for the next like 2 weeks. There are a few visas that we have to get while we’re here and we always like to, you know, spend some time and explore the cities a bit too. So, looking forward to our time off here and I’ll be sure to share some offday vlogs, too. It’s been so fun for me that you guys like seeing the off days also. Um, but after we got settled in our Airbnb, we were starving. So, we went out for some Indian food which was fun. We haven’t had Indian food since we’re back in Dar. Actually, our favorite restaurant was an Indian restaurant and so we went there like multiple times a week. Um, the food was delicious. And then we went to the grocery store to stock up on some supplies. It’s always nice like the first day you get there to just stock up your fridge and make sure you have everything you need for a longer stay. So, we did that. At the grocery store, I saw they had Indomi and they had like belly fulls size, hungry man size and the normal size. I had never seen that before and I thought that was so funny. And then we went home and decided to go out. So, we went to a brewery and had a really delicious habiscus beer. And then we went to another bar that was a little bit more like party vibe and I got an espresso martini made with coffee from the coffee shop next door and that was amazing. And yeah, happy to be here and excited to explore more. My name is Annabelle and I’m riding my bike across Africa and I have a special little announcement that only pertains to some of you, but I know I’ve attracted a lot of Gana followers and I’m doing an event with Alex at a really lovely spot called One Corner Garden. It’s on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. and we’re going to host a little talk and Q&A and share stories and photos and reflections from what it has meant to ride our bikes across the continent and what that actually means and what it looks like beyond just sharing my vlogs here. So, I’m really excited for it. It’s going to be like the first thing we’ve done of that kind. And so, I think it’s going to be a really special night and I would love to see some of you there. So, yeah, if you are in and around ACRA and your free Tuesday night, come on down to One Corner Garden at around 7:00 p.m. and we’ll be there doing some fun stuff. So, cool. Hope to see you there. Hello, my name’s Annabelle and I’m riding my bike across Africa and it’s been a minute since I gave you guys an update. So, let’s check in and catch up and see what’s been going on. So, first up, a few housekeeping things. We were able to pick up one of our packages of bike parts that we’re waiting on at the FedEx Center in Acra. I actually met a really sweet girl who recognized me from my shirt that I was wearing. So, if you’re seeing this, hey. But now we’re just waiting on one more part to be sent over. And yeah, who knows when that’s going to come, but hopefully soon. And we also picked up our visas for the DRC. So, we only have one more visa that we need to apply for in person here. Uh, I’ll make a whole another vlog about that. But aside from that, we’ve just been taking things super easy and hanging out, going out and drinking and just exploring the city a bit. We’ve been hanging out with our cycling friend Ralph who’s also making his way to Cape Town. There’s a little streetside bar on our street that we like to go to and I tried one of the like local bidters shops and it wasn’t for me, but I still ended up getting a full cup of it. And yeah, I don’t know how it happened, but I think Acra might be the city I’ve drank the most in in my like adult life, which is pretty funny. But it’s all in good fun. I’ve been having a really good time with it. I just think it’s funny that’s like mostly our night activities and I’m not usually the biggest drinker so it’s just been a kind of change of pace. Um there’s this shop that I’ve passed a bunch of times going to and from the coffee shop that has the most colorful beautiful fabric and finally on a walk home we happen to pass it and so I decided to go in and I actually bought a pair of shorts which again if you know me is pretty crazy. I do not pick up clothing lightly and yeah the lady was super sweet. She would hold up the mirror for me every time I wanted to try on a new pair. And if you’re in a crop I definitely recommend checking them out. And yeah, that night led to more drinking and some more street food. We had some of the skewers, which I learned are called chachinga. And when I said that to one of my Uber drivers, he laughed and he said that it sounded like I’ve been here forever because of how I pronounced it. These ones were super good. It’s like chicken and onion and some spice blend. And yeah, I’ll try to keep you guys more updated and more in the loop. And thank you so much for being here and for watching and supporting. It really means a lot. And I’m really happy to be sharing the adventure with you. All right, cheers guys. I’ll talk to you soon.
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Akwaaba 🎉❤ Dutch Lady