Tamale, not – Day 4

Remember that haze I mentioned in a previous post?  Here’s the scoop:  This time of year a high pressure system sets in up north and pushes down sand from the desert.  But aside from the general haze factor around town, this morning it would severly impact our plans for the day.

 Our plan was to fly 90 minutes north to Tamale to advance the sites we would be taking the GHET next week.  Alarm went off at 4:50am (just as the Oscar broadcast credits were rolling on the TV), and we met in the lobby at 5:20am, with hopes of making it to the airport at 5:45am and being on the plane ready to go at 6:00am (private plane = less waiting time, usually).  Arriving at the aiprort, our expeditor Genene was late and then we found out the plane had been parked in the wrong spot (ie, on the international side of the airport, not the domestic.)  So we sat around in a very hot waiting room, switching out turns in front of the fan, while we waited for the crew to move the plane.  Awhile later we were able to board, but that’s when the haze factor entered.  We needed 2000 meters to be able to land, and visibility in Tamale was currently only at 1000.  We settled into our seats and decided to wait it out a bit, hoping the sun would burn some haze off.  3 hours later, things had instead detiorated (down to 800 meters), so we scrubbed our plans of flying for the day and headed back to the hotel.

Back in our “office” we hurriedly made calls to reschedule meetings, find alternate transportation, create back-up plans in case this were to happen again next week.  Let’s all cross our fingers that the sand stops blowing in.

Around 12:45pm we ventured out for lunch to Tante Marie’s, a place we had spotted when grocery shopping the other day.  What I didn’t realize that day was that the grocery store was part of the new Accra Mall.  As we walked in looking for the restaurant, the mall was quite a site – brand new with a Swatch store, Puma, etc.  Very bright and fancy.

With our afternoon sadly free, I crashed for a couple hours.  Waking up at 4:50am is not good for KMJ.  A refreshingly cool shower next and then off to dinner at Monsoon, which had been recommended by the embassy as the only place in Ghana they would eat sushi.  It was big and modern, filled with the younger foreign travelers.  I had miso soup and tempura which was pretty good.  CS had warthog fillet that actually looked pretty good too – just like pork. Now we’re back at the hotel catching up on emails before a busy day tomorrow after two quiet ones.