Night Driving
There is a reason that I was told before I came up to Ghana not to drive at night. I do not talk about the 16km back home at 7pm, but more the journeys out of town. Tonight I learnt the reason why!!
Normal monthly visit to a client 4 hours away which due to the problems of getting a meeting time with them, I decided to arrive at 2.30pm and catch them just after lunch. Here everyone on the mines eat at a mine canteen, and therefore toddle off at 1pm for chop, generally returning between 2 and 2.30. So a meeting at the local mine at 7am, followed by stuff at the office and off I toddle at 11am.
The drive is uneventful, though boring and I managed to do some accounting stuff until my battery on the laptop was flat and read my book the rest of the way. (Sam and Nessers – the drivers name was Daniel). Duly arrive and get business done. The normal 20 minute meeting that I have had there over the last two visits suddenly became a 2 hour meeting, followed by a 30 minute meeting with my staff on site. Ergo as math’s would have it…. I left at 5:30pm.
Been close to the equator, the days and nights are pretty much equal, with the sun up at 5.30am and setting at 6.00pm. Thus we were forced to drive back in the dark.
The following facts are mine as the drive was interesting to say the least.
• At least 30% of Ghana vehicles have defective lights.
• 100% of Ghana Vehicles drive in the middle of the road and the late swerve to the right to miss oncoming vehicles gets later at night. Note: My driver is Ghanaian and my eyes closed tight on more then one occasion.
• 50% of all villages that we pass through do not have electricity. Ergo we have people wandering around in a village setting at night, in the middle of the road. The hooter gets used a whole lot.
• The two main towns we went through have an amazing amount of people on the (one) main road at night. Couple this with cars parked on the side of the road – on both sides – and poor lighting and you can imagine how interesting it is to drive the 2 odd kilometers thru the town.
• The road is warm at night and all sorts of animals lie in the road for warmth.
• The rain that hits Tarkwa at 4pm hits Bibiani at 6pm, which means all the tar roads are wet and steaming. Ergo, it is like driving through mist with reduced visibility.
• My Gelunderwagen does not have fog lights and falls under the 30% of cars in Ghana that has defective lights. (My high beam is aimed at aircraft landing).
• My driver wanted to get home ASAP.
That said, certain aspects of my life did flash before my eyes – some of them good enough that I wanted a re-run. We got home at 9pm and I was buggered – I can imagine how the driver felt. (We did however find time to stop and for Daniel to purchase 2 bunches of green bananas for GHC20,000 (R15.00) – apparently at 1/3rd of the price charged in Tarkwa.
Needless to say – my planning will be a little bit better in the future and I will accept the fact that I am only able to visit one client that day, rather then trying to squeeze two clients in.
Awake at 5am, leave for work at 6am and arrive home at 9pm. Kinda like an interesting work day I think.
On a personal note, I am going on a ration run this weekend for Salad stuff. My pants are getting really tight for me and it is obvious that the food that I am getting is vastly in excess of my normal requirements. I already have olive oil and vinegar, together with a huge bottle of crushed garlic, so all that is missing is course black pepper. (Note to Nessers for next care pack!)
Typed this blog to get the mind back from its adrenaline high and now I sleep.
Goodnight!
Normal monthly visit to a client 4 hours away which due to the problems of getting a meeting time with them, I decided to arrive at 2.30pm and catch them just after lunch. Here everyone on the mines eat at a mine canteen, and therefore toddle off at 1pm for chop, generally returning between 2 and 2.30. So a meeting at the local mine at 7am, followed by stuff at the office and off I toddle at 11am.
The drive is uneventful, though boring and I managed to do some accounting stuff until my battery on the laptop was flat and read my book the rest of the way. (Sam and Nessers – the drivers name was Daniel). Duly arrive and get business done. The normal 20 minute meeting that I have had there over the last two visits suddenly became a 2 hour meeting, followed by a 30 minute meeting with my staff on site. Ergo as math’s would have it…. I left at 5:30pm.
Been close to the equator, the days and nights are pretty much equal, with the sun up at 5.30am and setting at 6.00pm. Thus we were forced to drive back in the dark.
The following facts are mine as the drive was interesting to say the least.
• At least 30% of Ghana vehicles have defective lights.
• 100% of Ghana Vehicles drive in the middle of the road and the late swerve to the right to miss oncoming vehicles gets later at night. Note: My driver is Ghanaian and my eyes closed tight on more then one occasion.
• 50% of all villages that we pass through do not have electricity. Ergo we have people wandering around in a village setting at night, in the middle of the road. The hooter gets used a whole lot.
• The two main towns we went through have an amazing amount of people on the (one) main road at night. Couple this with cars parked on the side of the road – on both sides – and poor lighting and you can imagine how interesting it is to drive the 2 odd kilometers thru the town.
• The road is warm at night and all sorts of animals lie in the road for warmth.
• The rain that hits Tarkwa at 4pm hits Bibiani at 6pm, which means all the tar roads are wet and steaming. Ergo, it is like driving through mist with reduced visibility.
• My Gelunderwagen does not have fog lights and falls under the 30% of cars in Ghana that has defective lights. (My high beam is aimed at aircraft landing).
• My driver wanted to get home ASAP.
That said, certain aspects of my life did flash before my eyes – some of them good enough that I wanted a re-run. We got home at 9pm and I was buggered – I can imagine how the driver felt. (We did however find time to stop and for Daniel to purchase 2 bunches of green bananas for GHC20,000 (R15.00) – apparently at 1/3rd of the price charged in Tarkwa.
Needless to say – my planning will be a little bit better in the future and I will accept the fact that I am only able to visit one client that day, rather then trying to squeeze two clients in.
Awake at 5am, leave for work at 6am and arrive home at 9pm. Kinda like an interesting work day I think.
On a personal note, I am going on a ration run this weekend for Salad stuff. My pants are getting really tight for me and it is obvious that the food that I am getting is vastly in excess of my normal requirements. I already have olive oil and vinegar, together with a huge bottle of crushed garlic, so all that is missing is course black pepper. (Note to Nessers for next care pack!)
Typed this blog to get the mind back from its adrenaline high and now I sleep.
Goodnight!
1 Comments:
adrenalien is good for you :)
so now you know what to do when you're feeling bored ;)
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