We have a good friend from Gibralter, Nigel, who we met at the beginning of this trip. Nigel, a fellow biker, religiously signs his comments and mails with the guiding line ‘keep the rubber side down!’.

Jeremy, for his part, generally abides though it must be said that Ghana has been something of an exception. The following picture is of an event which took place in Accra, the capital of Ghana. It’s not often you get to see a bike from this angle so we thought we’d share this rare sight with the rest of you.

The question on all your minds now is ‘ What just happened?’. Was Jeremy trying his hand at some evil knievel trickery? or Was there some freak accident? or something completely different…

We’ll post the answer in the comments after some of you take a stab at a guess. The most correct answer gets a years supply of FanMilk! (but you have to come to Africa to get it)

We just had to write a wee bit about the amazing Fan Milk ice creams that we have come across here in Ghana!

Picture this in your mind. It’s blazing hot outside and you are a soggy mess after riding all day when you hear a honk honk of a clown’s horn and a guy cycles by on a bike with a big freezer box on the front full of ice creams that cost between 10 and 20 pence a hit!

Can you really blame us for the orgy that follows? I think at times we are hitting between 4 and 5 Fan Milks a day and we have tried the full range of Fan Milks with Fan Choco (frozen chocolate Milk), Fan Ice (Vanilla Ice Cream) and Fan Yogo (frozen strawberry yogurt) among our favorites!

We are now in Togo having our bikes serviced and it was quite a relief for us that they still have Fan Milk here, and we have discovered a new flavor – Fan Extra (frozen strawberry yogurt with extra vitamins!)

As you can see from the pictures we’ve become quite the Fans and have resorted to all sorts of product placement to extol the virtues of our addiction!

After the chilled moments spent relaxing at the GT lodge the team were lucky enough to be put up at an old colonial fort in Dixcove. 10km’s from the GT lodge. On one of my random missions I bumped into the owner. The order of the day was to locate ‘the secret beach’ and some dry accommodation in nearby Busua. On my way to the secret beach I was introduced to Rob, the owner of the fort. He’s building a restaurant and lodge on a super picturesque beach with the help of Florian, a German biker who also happens to be a roof carpenter.

He’s a dead ringer for Woody Harrelson but sounds more like Arnold Schwarzenegger. We’d met Florian at the GT lodge and he’d told me to drop by where he works and he’d point me in the direction of the elusive beach. While I was there talking to Rob he was kind enough to extend us an invitation to stay at the fort for a couple of nights.

In the Ghana Bradt guide Rob is described as an eccentric Englishman. Frankly they couldn’t be more wrong. Rob is a clever, kind and ambitious kinda guy who’s got both his feet very firmly on the ground. Rob is doing some brilliant work in this little corner of the world. He’s helped the locals of Dixcove and its environs to build several churches, a road linking Dixcove to nearby Busua, and some much needed accommodation. He’s a pragmatist who’s getting good things done and using his own private means to do them. This kind of behaviour is rare but it’s philanthropic; most definitely not eccentric.

Many thanks go out to Rob for his kind hospitality and also to the staff at the fort for their help and generosity.

We’ve uploaded some more pictures to the Ghana gallery. There’s more of the fort, Cape Coast castle, one of the largest forts, and our travels along the Ghanian coastline as we head towards Togo. We’ve also created a Togo gallery with pics of our adventures in Lomé thus far.

After we left Accra we made a beeline for the much reputed Green Turtle lodge. The GT lodge, located in the south west of Ghana, is a sedate environmentally friendly backpackers haven which is almost always full to the brim with young volunteers and intrepid travellers. The lodge is nestled in a paradise setting of palm and coconut trees and lies just inches from an untouched picturesque beach. It’s the kind of place where civilisation ceases to exist and days melt away into weeks as you breeze through your time on a diet of card games, body boarding, swimming and beach volley ball. All fueled by some very tasty food prepared by the lodge’s great staff. There’s no Internet there (you may have noticed), no phone reception (unless you go to the two magic bamboo sticks) and no mains electricity. All of this is very roughly connected to the rest of the world by a 10km rugged old dirt road.

When we arrived at the lodge we coincidentally arrived at the same time as three fellow travellers who we had briefly bumped into as we were leaving Ougadougou. Rich, Sach and Kru are back-packing through west Africa and have followed a route very similar to our own.

On one of our days in the lodge we decided that we were all pining for Internet, fan ice (the best ice-crean in Ghana), and some phone time too. Jeremy, Kru, Rich and myself went twos up on the bikes and rode out to Takoradi, the closest thing to civilization around these parts. We had a great day but on our way back a storm was brewing. The storm broke just as we passed Dixcove and hit the aforementioned dirt road. We were trying to go slowly but Jeremy and Kru came off as Jeremy tried to negotiate his way out of a slippery rut. Both the guys sustained minor skin injuries and both have received two bad knee injuries. Thankfully no bones are broken but both of the guys have been in a lot of pain ever since. Luckily Rich is a doctor and he promptly put the guys on a killer cocktail of antibiotics and pain killers.

For the last week the lads have been taking it easy waiting for the swelling to come down and their wounds to start healing. The latter has been tricky as a humid beach atmosphere isn’t very conducive to healing injuries. Yesterday we moved on from the lodge and Jeremy thinks he’ll be able to get back on the horse by tomorrow.We’ve finally created a Ghana gallery and added pictures from our adventures here thus far.