The Road from Tamale

Call us suicidal, but for the final leg of our vacation, the Fellows and I decided to return to Accra by way of overnight bus. After ping-ponging from bus station to bus station in Tamale, we settled on a 12 hour overnight bus provided by government-run STC, Departure, Tamale: 4pm. Arrival, Accra: 4am.

Well, needless to say, there were a couple hiccups along the way. When the bus pulled into the terminal over two hours after our departure time, I was beginning to get restless (appropriate, since I intended to get a lot of rest on the bus). But I was pleased to know that we would soon begin our road trip to Accra, where the quality of the roads, or lack thereof, meant that the on-roading experience would have an off-roading flavor.

Problem #1: Faulty shock absorbers. This is a critical component to any motorized vehicle when a significant portion of the road from Tamale back to Accra is an uneven, uncomfortable, dirt road, resulting in 50 bobble headed patrons ebbing and flowing with each change in the contour and gradient of the terrain. When you are lucky enough to be on a paved portion, it is like driving atop swiss cheese; I would classify both the road and swiss cheese as falling under the category things with gaping holes. The paved portion also staggers speed bumps, or rather speed humps as I’ve seen them referred to in my hometown, along the way. Which, if you are travelling in the dead of night, become very difficult to anticipate, and often turn into a mechanism used to catapult bus riders from their seats.

Problem #2: Just prior to boarding the bus, I ate a little something-something called red red that didn’t enjoy my company-company – it wanted out. I tried to concentrate on falling asleep, but every time I came remotely close to napping, Problem #1 interjected to remind me that the Road from Tamale had other plans for me. So I sat in tenebrous silence while the Hundred Years’ War occurred in my breadbasket.

It wasn’t long before my head was hanging out the window, the armed conflict in my belly took to the streets. There is precedence for falling ill on public transportation. The last time I boarded a 14 hour flight from Doha to Dulles I found my head buried within the barf bags. The way I see it, I’m two for two. All I need now is the train and I’ll have conquered the big three of public transportation.