Beauty and the Beastly Road

Today we went on a road trip to the north of Koforidua to check out potential villages in which to establish agents (salespeople for our batteries). On the map (four topographical sections shown spread out on Whit's bed), the circuit we took was all very good paved road.

But then, the topos are from 1975.

In any case, all was going along fine. We had driven for a couple of hours on very nice road - a few potholes, but all in all not bad. We had stopped at six or eight villages and small towns to speak with some shopkeepers and locals. Then the map called for us to turn onto the right fork of what looked like two roads of equal quality. At the point we made the turn, we could see the left fork, which was a continuation of the road we had been on - and it continued onward as a beautiful paved highway toward Kumasi.

The right turn we made however, led to a rutted, dirt and collapsing asphalt mogul run similar to those written of previously. We continued a little way until we came upon a village, and asked, hoping to be wrong, if it was, indeed, the next village on our itinerary. It was. So on we went - until we came to this:

These are two taxis (about the only way to get to these little villages on the backroads, unless you have a car (preferably a 4x4, like our truck). The taxis tried to traverse this muddy rutted road. One slid off the slippery stuff to the left and this one started up the middle of the road and very quickly the weight of the engine caused the right front tire to just slide down into the rut. Both Whit and Tim got out of the truck to "check it out". Mostly to see if we could make it, I think, because the women you see in the distance (all over 50, I'd say) ultimately pushed the taxi through the mud until it got both right tires into the rut and could get some traction. It bottomed out on the ridge all the way through and I think the driver was pretty worried about his oil pan, but in the end he seemed OK.

Once he made it through, Whit and Tim were emboldened and we drove through with no problem and were able, just down the road to see some beautiful wildflowers.

We saved the paved road for another day, but I don't know if we'll make it up that way again. Hmm... sounds like the start of a nice poem.