At the Palm Beach Hotel Internet cafe.

David, Il and I tried again at the Palm Beach hotel's Internet cafe and this time we were successful—I managed to get an email out to my beloved. David had an email from Annie sent at the Ghanaian border town, although her bicycle had been misdirected by Lufthansa. By the time David had replied, Lena had run over to tell us that all three (Annie and the two Germans, Andrea and Einz*) were at the hotel. Annie's bike, even it if did show up, would have to be picked up back in Accra so we discussed our alternate options.In the end, we decided to move on as scheduled—since all the markets were closed it was unlikely we'd be able to buy a bicycle in Lomé today, we we'd try the next morning in Sokodé.

The beach road near our hotel.

Around 7:00am our Norwegian travel companions—Jorgen and Lena—joined us at our table in the courtyard. Leena has spent the last four months travelling in both South America and South Africa; Jorgen the last four weeks, where he joined Lena in Cape Verde. For about 10 days previous they had been in Ghana, and Lomé for two nights already.

They also delivered some startling news: the Ghanaian border is closed today because of an election. This poses the issue of our three remaining companions who flew into Accra and were supposed to be joining us today.

Ain't gonna happen.

On the bright side, Jorgen has really loved Ghana and Lomé and is excited to get cycling.

I always get so anxious before these trips on the day of departure, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. Missed flights, for example—there are only two flights per week from Air France; excess baggage charges; lost luggage (i.e. my bicycle); muggers in the city; key items forgotten at home. And so on.

I had a little bit of a panic when I tried to get my allen keys and tiny wrench through in my carry-on baggage (I thought any tool under 7" was okay), but I was told that no tools are allowed whatsoever. Those vicious allen keys... I should have known. I hurriedly retraced my steps back through security to the counter to check the whole bag and made it to the gate—with two full hours to spare.

On the plane I found myself morose and suddenly unsure of myself: Why was I galavanting off to Africa? A common problem in my life. Fear of the unknown, partly... but more specifically, lack of confidence in myself. But there is not much to be gained by shrinking from challenges. So here I am.

At Charles de Gaulle airport, I had eight full hours to burn until my connecting flight to Lomé, in Togo. I found David, our guide (who had arrived at 9:00am from Seattle) reading in a quiet room of the dreadfully dull CDG Terminal 2E. We sat together and chatted and killed time walking around until Il found us around 11:00am. Together we almost made up the full Cameroon reunion tour, minus Gill. The three of us passed the time together until 2:00pm when we boarded the plane for our 5 1/2 hour flight to our final destination.