No chance of that tjmouse.........

Danane to Daloa

The previous day was still fresh in our minds but there were some things to do. First was to find an ATM. Not easy in Danane. While in the back streets a guy stepped out and stopped us. He was just friendly and soon his friends had come over to see us. They wanted photos standing with the bikes. We found the ATM after riding around town and asking various locals. Never would have found the bank as it was down some back roads in amongst shacks but the bank itself was all modern and fresh. Money in hand we could buy sim cards, fuel, food and water. We then set off for Daloa. The ride was fine but I was just waiting for the inevitable roadblocks. There were a few but the police weren't really interested in us and a few of them just waved us through. Others were friendly and checked passport or licence, all stuff I had. The further from the border we got, the less likely we were to get stopped by customs. We made it to Daloa and found a quaint hotel for the night.

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Daloa to Abidjan

The ride to Abidjan was uneventful. generally good roads but I was still worried about the loss of documents. We found a hotel and headed straight for it. It didn't have much curb appeal but was a real little Oasis inside. Major bonus was that it had big steel gates we could hide the bikes behind. I parked my bike inside the grounds and decided that it would stay there until I had sorted the document problems out. I would need a Carnet to get it into Ghana and I didn't have one any more. It was in Cote d'ivoire in what I'd say was a state of limbo.
First thing to do was to replace the lost documents. I spoke to the Carnet office but they said that unfortunately there is a lot of procedural stuff to do so it would take a week plus shipping time to replace the Carnet. At best that would be 9 days.
I requested a replacement V5 from the DVLA. Back in the UK, Belinda rushed off to get my yellow fever card re issued, passport photos reprinted and some UK stickers. They are a requirement in some countries and mine was on a lost pannier. With all that together Belinda DHL'ed it to Abidjan.
While waiting we used the down time to get our Cameroon visas. What an effort that was. Although we requested expedited service on the form, they took our passports and said come back in 8 days at 4pm.
We used taxis to get around Abidjan as I wasn't going to risk riding my bike. We went all over trying to find chain lube. Seems it is an alien concept in Abidjan. Even Yamaha said they didn't sell it but we could ask the maintenance dept. if they had any.
The DHL folders arrived and we collected the new documents and Carnet. The hold up now was due to the Cameroon visa. We went back at 1pm on the 8th day and they said come back at 4pm, it's not ready yet. Went back at 4pm and still no action. About eight people all hanging around waiting for their passports. After 6pm we finally got the passports with visas. That was all we needed, next morning we were keen to get going. On our way to Ghana.

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Sounds like situation rescued / resolved. Enjoying the report

I read your report while thinking to myself "How could they not notice the change in handling once their panniers fell off?" Then I remembered the time I was bicycling back from the grocery store, both panniers stuffed full of Trader Joe's goodies, and one fell off a mile from home. It wasn't until I got off the bike and got ready to carry my groceries indoors that I noticed. Fortunately Bellingham is a sleepy little town, and I found it right where it landed.

So if that could escape my notice on a bicycle, where a pair of loaded panniers probably outweighs the bike itself, I can see where you might not immediately notice on a motorbike. But another issue concerns how we attach stuff which might inadvertently become detached in normal operation. On motorcycles, I habitually go with two means of attachment for each bit of luggage, just because sometimes one will fail (or I'll forget, or buckle/lock/hook/tie it wrong). My panniers are through-bolted twice apiece; same with my top box, and that dry bag on the back seat is both strapped and bungied into place. When I take shortcuts sometimes I lose stuff, although this is limited to water bottles, sunglasses, and the occasional flipflop.

Hope you're enjoying Ghana, a relatively low-stress place featuring history, culture, nightlife, and excellent beaches!

Mark

Markharf: Thanks. Yes, the panniers were big and bulky but full of lightweight stuff, particularly the big left side one, so not overloaded. It was a paved road so no real handling to highlight the loss.

Abidjan to Takoradi via Elubo

We set off at daybreak to try and avoid as much city traffic as possible. The ride went better than expected, probably because most of the traffic was coming into town and we were leaving. It was still busy but could have been worse. It was raining but it's so hot and humid whether you're wet from sweat or rain is somewhat academic. There was still the apprehension as although I now had a full set of documents, we hadn't had our carnets stamped in. There are many stories on the travel forums about needing all sorts of customs clearance documents to get out of Cote d'Ivoire. What would happen at the border we wondered. As it turned out, absolutely nothing! Approaching the border there was a building with Dounes written on it. A few uniformed guys sitting outside but no physical barrier to stop traffic. I slowed down, and as always, opened my visor to make eye contact. None of them motioned for me to stop so I gave a thumbs up, still no one directed me to stop so I rolled slowly past checking my mirrors, expecting to see an officer run out into the road. I wondered if that was in fact customs but decided to carry on. Next we came to some officials and the bridge. This was immigration. Really helpful, they stamped our passports, then wished us well on our journey and directed us towards the bridge. We rode across the bridge to Ghana. There you turn into a sort of compound and park up. Walk back to the first kiosk and an officer checks the carnet but doesn't stamp it. Instead he gives a slip of paper which you must keep with the carnet. Then it's immigration, quite confusing as there are multiple doors and desks, some inside, some outside but we found out what to do in the end. Then customs stamped the carnets. No problem. The money changer had helped as usual and we changed some money to Cedis. He also did sim cards so we bought one each. He didn't do top up credit but took us to a hut where a woman did lots of number tapping and eventually concluded that data credit had been added. Indeed it had so we were good to go. We rode out the way we came in, evidently not correct as the whole place and all the parking areas are a one way. Easily corrected (after we heard the shouting) we went onto the main road and promptly found out what that first slip of paper we'd been given was for. You need to hand it over with your carnet to a guy in the exit hut. He keeps the paper and returns your carnet. Then you're good to go. In amongst all that we also got money guy to take us to the insurance office as our ECOWAS brown card insurance was about to expire. That's another story and I'll start that as a separate thread as we've had conflicting information about this. We were in Ghana, all paperwork legally stamped. Everything up to date and reset.

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Takoradi to Accra

A very slow ride due to bad roads, traffic congestion, towns, speed bumps and general Africaness. We had found a hotel on one of the Booking sites and unfortunately it didn't exist in the advertised location so we had to choose something else. While riding around looking for the hotel though we passed a bike shop. A dual purpose shop, it was divided in two. Left part was body building supplements, right side was a small bike shop. On display was a Ducati Panigale. Not a bike I was expecting to see in Ghana. They also had a Motul stand and we restocked on chain lube. I'd lost mine with the panniers in Guinea and the chain was needing some TLC. We stumbled upon a guest house while looking for a second hotel which also didn't exist in the advertised google location. The guest house was fine and a short walk from a shopping centre. We walked up to get dinner. There was also a very good supermarket, first we'd seen in Africa.

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Accra to Lome via Dzodze border

Usual thing, we left early and headed for the border having decided to use Dzodze border rather than the main one at the coast. Reason was to try and avoid going into Lome and we also hoped a small border would be easier. Not sure that's true and I wouldn't recommend the Dzodze border. First we came to a whole lot of buildings which was clearly the border but nobody was around. We pondered what to do. Should we just continue.......but what if it was the border, no it couldn't be, there was no one there. We decided to proceed and came upon a building with three people in it. The window was awkwardly positioned to make it difficult to speak through but on enquiring the fat one demanded Covid and Yellow Fever certificates. We produced them and he said he wasn't accepting mine. Long story short he is corrupt and regardless of the paperwork he won't let you pass unless you pay him. In this case he claimed a Pharmacist can't issue a Yellow Fever certificate. Richard's is signed by an RGN. I asked him what an RGN is and he didn't know, but he was happy to accept Richard's certificate. We had to pay him to move on, annoying but what can you do at that point? The Togo entry and Ghana exit are done at the same building. On getting up there the first to accost us were some white coats. They demanded we go with them to an office, which I did. After some discussion and going round in circles I asked what they wanted from me. They said Yellow Fever and Covid certificates. I told them I had already done that and paid and wasn't doing it again. Moving on we were told to follow an official who would stamp our passports. We walked round various offices with him. He eventually chose one and directed us to sit down. Optimistically we assumed this would be a quick stamp but no, he needed to open every draw, look at every rubber stamp, test every rubber stamp, check alignment of rubber on every stamp, retest ones he had already tested, check the colour of the stamp pad........... you get the picture. A long time later carnets were stamped and then the whole process started again for the Togo entry. Hours later and we were in Togo. We followed the Lome bypass, it's on Google maps but not on the Garmin maps. Richard and I both have updated Garmin maps on different Garmin models and neither had the bypass. We've found Google to be far more reliable than Garmin for navigation. We found a hotel and checked in, satisfied that another border crossing was complete.

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