Happy New Year from the back of Nala! I know, I know—nearly a week since my last update. How tardyof me! But what a week it’s been. After Christmas at Kpatawee Falls and a surprisingly smooth border crossing into Côte d’Ivoire, we made such good time that we earned ourselves four whole nights at a lovely campground near Abidjan. Four nights! That’s practically a holiday within the holiday.
Abidjan turned out to be a modern, bustling city, and a few of us decided to head in for a “bus” adventure. Now, when I say bus, let’s be clear: it was more of a van bursting at the seams with people. But it got us there, and with the windows open (or missing), we even had “air conditioning” courtesy of the breeze.
Our first destination? Decathlon—a popular retailer of outdoor gear and clothes in Africa. But on the way, we stumbled across Orca, which is best described as Africa’s answer to Walmart. Naturally, shopping happened. I picked up a few things Nala was missing because even a truck needs a little TLC now and then.
Decathlon didn’t disappoint either, though the highlight of the day had to be the mall next door. Imagine stepping out of the dusty roads of West Africa and into a high-end Western mall complete with a Burger King, a Bose store, and everything else you’d expect back home. It was so shiny and polished I almost forgot where we were.
The cherry on top? Going to the movies. And since we’re in Africa, what better movie to watch than The Lion King—in French. It was oddly fitting, even if my French comprehension is limited to picking out dramatic moments based purely on the soundtrack.
The rest of our days in Abidjan were slower-paced—more shopping for Nala, reorganizing gear, and generally resting up before the New Year.
New Year’s Eve was a proper celebration. We went out to a restaurant, ate far too much, and some of us even made it to midnight to toast goodbye to 2024 and welcome in 2025. Others (raises hand) celebrated a bit too hard and woke up the next morning with a hangover the size of West Africa.
And now, here we are—New Year’s Day, back on the road, nursing headaches and sipping water as we aim for the Ghana border. The goal is to cross today and keep pushing forward to Accra, the one quarter marker of the entire trip.
New year, new country, new adventures—and hopefully, no new hangovers anytime soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment