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Our next stop was to the Congo itself, yes up where
the big beasties were. But when we got there it was more like any dockyard
we had been to. It did look very much like the setting they would have used
for Harry Belafonte's song The Banana boat song. Because all we could see
everywhere was bananas being loaded on ships. Although we were there just
for the one-day, I had no problems with subs or anything this time. For
some reason there were more than enough engine room hands to handle everything.
When I got ashore I found a local witch doctor thinking maybe I could get
him to put a spell on the skipper, but in my broad Scots accent, he didn't
know what I was talking about.
Our next stop on the map would have to be the best run ashore we had
all the way up the coast. And that was to Nigeria at the port of Lagos.
The reason I say this is, because we had our final game of football here,
but what an experience it was for the team itself.
As far as we knew it was just another game against one
of the local teams. But what a surprise we were in for, they loaded us on
a bus, in our strips ready to play of course, but instead of going to some
local field somewhere in the bush, they dropped us off in the middle of
town, at some laneway, and here they told us just to go down the lane and
someone would be there to meet us. Yes there was someone there to meet us,
all thirty or forty thousand of them. It was indeed one of the league teams
we were there to play, and what looked like a capacity crowd to greet us
in this vast stadium. No guessing who got the runners up prize. There was
one incident just before halftime when a nail came through my boot. During
the break I tried to get someone to get it fixed. Nobody seemed to be interested,
except for some first aid man who gave me the scissors out of his case.
I was a bit late getting back on the ground, but when I did, the game had
already started without me. So when I arrived out of the dugout, there was
such a yell went up. It seems we were truly getting done for, but the locals
had taken a shine to our lads, and for the effort we put into the game.
Yes it was indeed our last game for the trip, but one I'm sure none of us
will ever forget. This only left our two final stops, one at Monrovia, in
Liberia, and the other was, Freetown, which is now in a country called Guinea.
Again there were runs ashore at both places for both watches. But I guess
the crew by this time was getting a little bit anxious to get going and
get home. There weren't too many invites ashore in most of our stops up
the coast, and as I said the difference to these countries compared to South
America, well I guess the lads were spoiled rotten over there.