Kokrobite Beach, Ghana

Decided to take a taxi to the tro tro (minivan) station across town. The driver wanted to take us all the way to the beach so we agreed on a price and headed off. He assured us he knew where it was and where the guest house was. We knew he didn't know where we were going as he spent the whole time calling someone for directions and when we finally got to the beach he complained about how far it was and that we had not paid enough even though he had agreed to the price. We did give him some extra nevertheless. When we arrived the guest house owner told us he will charge lots more next time to the next passengers.

The place was right by the beach and is a popular haunt for NGO workers taking a break from Accra and young volunteers ready to party on the weekends. We had a nice clean room with a fan and bathroom but it was very hot. The foam bed made sleeping even hotter. There was an outdoor bar where a lot of locals gathered at different times of the day. There was a separate cocktail bar where the juices and alcoholic cocktails were made. The restaurant overlooked the beach and we had to choose one of the five dishes on the menu and eat at 6.30 pm. A lady had a small kiosk where she sold sweets and snacks while dotted around the car park were several souvenir stalls run by locals.

View from the beach

The place was started 17 years ago by a British lady and she has stopped extending the place and is now working on beautifying it. Outside the fence that separated the yard from the beach, were lots of small higgledy piggledy built shops where the locals sold jewellery and clothes. In the evening the Rasta men would gather and smoke cannabis and the young men would come and kick their football in front of the yard gate while showing off to the female volunteers they could see relaxing above the cocktail bar. I found it a strange set up.



We were warned not to walk along the beach to the left as there were some "bad boys" there. When we walked to the right we saw several other guest houses but none with souvenir stalls like outside ours.

The cocktail bar with the deck where we could watch the sea and the locals watching us.



Most of the locals are involved in fishing and everyday could be seen repairing nets, fixing boats, heading off to fish, or bringing in fish. The beach was littered with plastic bags and rubbish and the sea was rough with an under-tow so it was not good for swimming while we were there.

On the weekends there are drumming, singing and dancing activities and the place is busy. We were happy to use the guest house library to swap our books and relax after the frenetic pace in Accra. We arrived after the weekend so it would be quieter.

From here we were told to catch a shared taxi (minivan) to the junction with the main road but the tro tro driver decided to return us to the main tro tro station in Accra. He did however help us find a comfortable air conditioned bus to go to Cape Coast.