Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Firstly once again let me apologise for the slightly disjointed trend that my journal seems to be taking but this shall continue today as I only have time to write about half of my anti-clockwise 11 day trip of Ghana with Rosie, Jonas, Hamish,Will and Jenny....
So, we left Cape Coast on Monday morning at 9am and then got a tro to Accra (3hrs), from there we got a tro to Asikuma (3 hrs) and then a taxi to Xofa (30mins). Sorry about the name dropping but it's more for my benefit than yours as I am very like ly to forget if I don't write it down...! We were spending our first night at Xofa Eco Lodge and were not sure if we would be able to get in as we hadn't booked turns out we were the only one's there!! It was really pretty when we arrived as it's on the very edge of Lake Volta and it was sunset at the time, very pretty. Unfortunately the place was slightly fly infested, had no electricity = no fan, the toilet and shower were a good 5 minutes from the hut so good luck if you need the loo in the night and they only had vegetables and rice for dinner (which were actually quite nice but that's not the point) It was like the extreme of an eco lodge and even better than that it was really expensive compared to other places we've stayed, so not the best start to the trip!!
We got up early on Tuesday - I was up and showered at 5.30 as the room was like a sauna. We then left to go to Wli waterfalls (1hr away) which started to redeem my faith in our travelling plan - they were amazing! We had to walk for about 45 minutes to get to it but it was so beautiful (we did opt out of the two hour walk though) After this we went to Water Heights Lodge for lunch and the woman, Martha (not sure why you need to know her name!) was so nice. This was where my egg sandwich eating habit began... Its an omlette in some lovely white bread and goes down an absolute treat at anytime of the day! From here we contemplated staying over and going to Nkwanta the next day or whether to carry on and go to Nkwanta that night.. we took the latter option and got on the 5 hr tro to Nkwanta. This was when we saw a goat, yes a live goat, tied to the top of a massive tro which was basically a bus! It was just tied on with string we couldn't believe it, poor Billy!
We arrived and it was pitch black and we hadn't booked anywhere to stay... all the hotels were booked up but we managed to persuade one of them to let us sleep in their family living room on mattresses!� Here I had another egg sandwich yummy. The next morning we got up at 4am to try and catch the tro to Tamale - it didn't arrive! Instead we got a taxi to Kpassa (45 minutes) and then we met Ali, a lovely Ghanaian who helped us get from there to Tamale by tro instead of the taxi driver who was trying to rip us off! These tro's did happen to be basically estate cars which happened to be missing the inside panelling so you could see all the inner workings of the doors - v.interesting if you like that sort of thing. They were also accompanied by 4 Ghanaians who sat on the roof for each of the 1 hr journeys between Kpassa to Damango and Damongo to Bembilla. When we got out of the tro - rather hastily for Hamish who feel out of the car backwards because we were so squashed in that the minute the door opened we kind of exploded - we were absolutely covered in dust from the dirt track, very cheap and easy suntan!
From Bembilla we then went to Tamale which took about 4 hours, you'd like to think taht with all of this travelling we would have had plenty of time to sleep but unfortunately most of the tro rides are SO uncomfortable because you're rammed in with your bag and you can't really move for however long the tro decides to take! Luckily for me and for the first time in my life I did manage to pack lightly, just one 10 litre daysack which is amazing as most people took at least 30 litre ones if not more. I decided that I was going to be able to cope for 11 days with 2 pairs of trousers, 3 tops, pj's, underwear, some washing powder and my toiletries and I did actually manage it! How impressive eh?!�
We arrived in Tamale to be greated by Mohammed who is this random rather large boned kid we'd been warned about, he's perfectly harmless but just slightly annoying and wants to be your guide. We found our hotel after a little bit of wandering around... it was actually quite nice, it's funny what you get used to out here and what is nice as this hotel in England would not be classed as nice but out here it was actually quite respectable! We then spent two days and nights in Tamale and really enjoyed it, the town iteslf didn't really ahve much to offer but it was nice to wander aroudn the market and then just around the streets and for some reason in the north they just don't really hassle the white people anywhere near as much as in the south and there was a distinct, and welcome, lack of the obruni calls that we have become acustomed to.� This is where I shall leave you for now as I have to go and get food for the party we are having at our house tonight as it is Anna's (my roomie) and 4 other girls last night in Ghana so we thought we would have a party at our house with our host family and all the volunteers. Unfortunately it involves buying rice, yams, plantain, oil etc and then somehow carrying it home in the blisteing heat hmm.... I promise I will do second half of the trip soon and add the remaining pics as well. Much love xx
- comments