As we were at the bus getting ready to head out to Accra and the airport, one of the delegates strolled up and said his flight left at 1745!\u00a0 So it was a mad drive to the airport and we just got there in time. Check in was chaotic and I was given a sheet of paper saying how important it was I was at the gate by 6pm. So off I scooted to make sure I was there and sure enough, arrived at 5 minutes past only to find security sitting around chatting and telling everyone that it was closed ‘come later’. Typical. Half an hour later I asked ‘when will it be opened, because we were told if we don’t go through by 7 we won’t make the flight!” then they let us through. Weird system.<\/p>\n
Turns out could have gone in later as they didn’t even start boarding until 8 – after 4 days in Ghana I should have been used to it. Full flight and not much time to sleep so arrived feeling like I’d pulled an all nighter, which was pretty accurate.<\/p>\n
First thing we did was stop at the cafe and get a decent coffee, then the train back to the hotel. Settled in (took a nap!) while Joe went off to his meetings. Then off to the boat trip. The couple had hired a boat to take us around the canals in the evening – nibbles and drinks and good company. Quite fun.<\/p>\n
I’ve noticed an odd thing though – there is more smoking here than there was in Ghana! I’d got quite used to not breathing in cigarette smoke so it’s quite odd to smell it all over the place again! Apparently you can’t smoke in public buildings in Ghana but there are no signs anywhere. People just don’t smoke.<\/p>\n
Travelling is catching up with me today, so it may be a quiet day reading and resting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we were at the bus getting ready to head out to Accra and the airport, one of the delegates strolled up and said his flight left at 1745!\u00a0 So it was a mad drive to the airport and we just got there in time. Check in was chaotic and I was given a sheet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-6T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/30\/first-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":427,"position":0},"title":"First day","date":"Wednesday, 30 November 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi all! We are here. Arrived yesterday afternoon - over an hour late but we arrived. The flight was long - very long. During most of the flight had no idea what time it was or even what day it was. Knew where we were, could see that on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3988,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/01\/oh-canada\/","url_meta":{"origin":427,"position":1},"title":"Oh Canada!","date":"Saturday, 1 July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"So stayed at Gatwick airport last night, up early to head into the terminal and to our WestJet flight to Vancouver. I booked the holiday ages ago, but only just realised that tomorrow Canada celebrates it's 150th birthday. So this should be interesting . . .\u00a0 Had breakfast at Jamie's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4151,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/14\/holidays-start-well-for-joe\/","url_meta":{"origin":427,"position":2},"title":"Holidays Start (well for Joe)","date":"Saturday, 14 December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Got up washed and out to the terminal. Arrived too early, as usual, but as we were already checked in we just got the bag checked onto the flight and walked around the airport, had breakfast and then on our way to Brisbane. The fight was short with a free\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/06\/taking-bollocks-to-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":427,"position":3},"title":"(Taking) Bollocks to America","date":"Friday, 6 October 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We are human again. Shower, brush teeth and coffee is all it takes. This message brought to you by Kathleen typing and Joe commenting! After about 5 hours of sleep we got up at 3am on Thursday to be ready for our taxi at 4am. They usually show up a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4292,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/14\/and-were-off-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":427,"position":4},"title":"And we’re off again","date":"Sunday, 14 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Stayed at Gatwick again as the flight was very very early morning (06:40). We did the twilight bag drop, you can drop your bag between 20:00 and 22:00 if you have a flight before 8:30 which is very helpful. We still had to get up early, but could just go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/19\/at-the-airport\/","url_meta":{"origin":427,"position":5},"title":"At the airport","date":"Saturday, 19 December 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Waiting for the flight. Probably delayed. 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