Hohoe, Ghana

We enjoyed our relaxing stay by the Volta River and then caught a 'tro -tro' or minivan to Ho. A short way along the road the back door of the van flew open and my backpack and a few sacks bounced across the road. Someone hadn't tied the back doors properly and being overloaded there would have been a lot of pressure on the partly closed door.

We passed through a lot of tropical vegetation with coconut palms, red palm nuts, bananas, mangoes, cassava and teak trees.

Stayed at a simple hotel with a noisy airconditioner. We walked around the streets looking for somewhere to change Ghana cedi currency into Togo CFAs. None of the banks we went to changed anything other than US dollars and Euros. We were told to go to the market and find moneychangers there who would change our cedis. We were reluctant to do that as we had heard that they fold notes, give you counterfeit notes, or give you bits of paper in the middle of real notes. We hoped we would find someone at the border rather than risk being ripped off.

We had four novels that we had finished reading and had not been able to find a secondhand bookshop to trade or buy some replacements. At a street stall we met a man from Liberia selling a few books. He had a lot of religious books, old school or university text books, and a few very old and yellowing novels. We managed to convince him to take our books and we gave him some money for his books. As we do not like to go out late in the evenings because of the street crime, we like to be able to do some reading if the lights in our room allow it. More often than not the 14 watt eco-light bulbs are useless to read by and we have to resort to reading in bed with our headlights.

We managed to find a restaurant not far up the street to eat and in no time the place filled up with volunteer workers meeting their colleagues and friends for a few drinks and dinner. We had not seen any white faces when we walked about the town at all.

After only one night in Ho, as there is not much to see or do there, we found a tro -tro in the market to take us to Hohoe. All tro -tros have to fill up before they leave so while we were waiting for passengers we managed to find a moneychanger. He was very honest and we were able to get CFAs at a reasonable price.

It was a short ride to Hohoe and we found a taxi to take us to a hotel. The hotel had four rooms with little balconies. There were two girls in the room beside us who were working in the town for Peace Corp and a young German couple doing volunteering work. Other than giving us a hello they didn't engage with us.

The restaurant, according to our guide, had the best food in town but we found it not so good. It was a family run place that employed young girls from a vocational training course. When we ate in the restaurant, the television was on a Nigerian channel showing a religious leader called Prophet Moses. He was shown making paralised men walk and blind women see etc. The owner's wife spent hours watching the miracles. There were only two channels on the TV and Prophet Moses seemed to be on all the time.

This sign was outside a shop in Hohoe.

Another shop sign. We are constantly amused by some of the signs on shops, minivans, and businesses. This one was on the front of a minivan, "Surely goodness and mercy should follow me". This was on a tyre changing stall " God's Finger Fitting Workshop". The herbal clinic was called "I'm Saved" and for the farmers' there was "The Miracle Chemical Store". A lottery kiosk was named "Hope in God".

We caught a van to a small village called Vli where we walked through the tropical forest to a water fall. On the cliffs beside the falls were millions of fruit bats and in the evening they would fly off but we only saw a few flying about.

There were quite a few butterflies around some of the drying puddles.

There was not much else to do in Hohoe and we had a set entry date on our visa for Togo so we had to wait until we could cross the land border into Togo.

Atimpoku, Ghana

We had planned on going further into the northern parts of Ghana but heard from others how difficult the roads are and how slow the travel is, so we headed to Atimpoku and the Volta River.

We checked into a hotel in the town and went to find a TV in the village to watch the football. The only place with a DSTV reception was at the posh hotel a short walk up a hill and beside the river. The hotel was quite full but it sounded and looked like a construction site. The new Indian owners were busy making more rooms. We met Tim from London who was also watching the game and he was staying at a cheaper place next door to the hotel.

Tim is the CEO for a football academy set up by Craig Bellamy. Craig is a professional footballer and his foundation set up the academy in a village nearby and there is also one in Sierra Leone where Tim is based full time. I could have got a job teaching at the academy as he was short a teacher for his 50 young men between 14 and 18.

As we headed back to our hotel after the game there was a lot of thunder and lightning. As soon as we reached the hotel we had torrential rain. In no time our room was flooded and the power went off. I had found a millipede in our room when we first arrived and it must have sheltered there from the last downpour. Once the power came back on we realised the TV didn't work and some of the lights didn't go and when we discussed this with the receptionist/owner it turned into a major screaming match on her part. Eventually the 'real' owner arrived and John was able to talk to him about it although we were already in bed by the time he arrived. We haven't had as much trouble with accommodation as we have had in Ghana!

We later saw trees down about the town and the suspension bridge that was built by the British in 1957 was closed to traffic.

The next day we moved out and stayed at the lodge Tim was at and ended up staying two days more than we had planned because it was so lovely. The garden had lots of seating areas and little dining areas over the Volta River.

In the afternoons small groups of locals called into to have drink or eat beside the river.

Every morning the local fishermen would bring buckets of fresh water prawns to the restaurant. Behind the lodge restaurant were sheep, chickens, and ducks in small pens. The pond was full of small tilapia fish for the restaurant fish fingers.

There were several cocoa bean trees in the garden.

We took a taxi to see the dam at Akosombe but it became to complicated to fit in the taxi and his 'waiting fee' with the dam tour that wasn't happening for 90 minutes after we arrived. The Volta River dam is used to supply electricity and according to our guide book, it has created the largest man-made lake in the world.

Most of the guests at the lodge were young volunteers having a weekend away from their villages and aid projects. The week days were very quiet with only a couple of guests. Unfortunately we couldn't get an internet connection in the town, so we were not able to check emails and do some research.

Accra, Ghana

From Mole National Park we caught a minivan back to Tamale where we joined Marcel and Anita from Netherlands at their hotel. They recommended a clean quiet tidy place that had a generator and we all checked in and then went to Sparkles restaurant for dinner and a few drinks. Marcel and Anita travel twice a year for 3 weeks, which is all they can get off from their small guest house. They were keen collectors of hats, fans, candles and pottery, something we can't do when travelling for such a long time.

The next morning we headed to Accra on a big bus and checked into a hotel we had stayed at before. The owner of the hotel has a daughter in New Zealand so she called her and we had a quick chat. The daughter and her husband used to work in London but got transferred to Auckland where they work as pharmacists. Maybe we can catch up with them when we return home.

At our favourite restaurant, The White Bell, we met a couple of Swedish guys that had also been at Mole NP so we chatted to them.


We had left our tent at the Methodist guest house that we had stayed at previously and when John picked it up they told us they had a vacancy for two nights so we checked in there. The place is so bright and clean and was preferable to where we were.

We had to get back to Accra to get visas for Togo, Benin, and Burkino Faso. This took us three days, as each embassy is open from 8am to 10am to fill in forms, pay and deposit the passports and then we had to return at 2pm to pick them up so it was impossible to do more than one visa per day. The visas were pretty expensive as well, even though we would not spend more than a week in each country.

We had to catch taxis about the city each time we went out and even if the driver set the rate he would always push for a little extra. We have got used to the city and its ways now as we have been in and out a few times. We have enjoyed eating breakfast on the street where we have 'egg bread'. The egg is mixed with onion, grated carrot and tomato then fried like an omelet. A huge chunk of bread is cut up and the egg sandwiched in it and then it is pressed with a wooden press and browned in oil in a pan.

I was able to get back online and to catch up on the blog that I was not able to do when we left Accra. We also discovered that the ATM transaction that didn't dispense money HAD taken money from our account so we had to fill in forms at the Barclays Bank and start the process to get the money returned! This will likely take a few months.

Had a lot of time to do some reading up on the countries ahead and to finish the books we have started.

Mole National Park, Ghana

The minivan that took us to Mole National Park was quite comfortable and the air con was very pleasant. There was one local lady in the van and we dropped her off 25 kms before the park. In the van were two young Swedish guys, one was doing an internship in an Accra hospital and the other was visiting him. Two English girls were also working in a hospital, one was waiting to join Doctors without Borders and work in Southern Sudan, while the other was headed for Madagascar to work with a voluntary group, then was headed for NZ where she had applied for jobs and the hopefully to join the British Antarctic group. A German and an Austrian lady were travelling for a few weeks in Ghana. A retired American lady was doing some volunteer teaching and as the teachers were on strike in Ghana she had taken the opportunity to visit the park and planned to head for Burkino Faso later.

Most of the road was in pretty good condition with only a few swerves to miss huge potholes. The last part of the trip was on a dusty, sandy, corrugated road and the van's two sliding door bounced in their frames letting in the red dust and clogging the air vents.

The lodge at the park was basic and clean. We had made a telephone booking so were put in a family room with 3 single beds. There was no generator during the day so the fan only went at night. All the rooms had screens on the windows and no mosquito nets. We are surprised with all the cases of malaria and signs telling locals to invest in mosquito nets that the accommodation sites for tourists don't have any.

The whole complex sat on an escarpment overlooking a large waterhole that was about half a kilometre away. The restaurant and bar overlooked the pool and John was able to swim but I couldn't with my scabby wounds. The food was very good and there was also a souvenir shop and a small shop for snacks.

On the first day we saw baboons and several warthogs around the camp. One day John went to the shop to buy some biscuits and as he was walking back with them in his hand a large baboon snuck up behind him and snatched a packet out of his hand, scratching him in the process. Another day the baboons chased me as I shooed them away. They bared their teeth at me and screamed and a whole lot of others came running to join in. After peeing on our verandah they eventually went away. I was lucky to get inside without being bitten or attacked. The baboons know that if they see a black person they will have stones thrown at them and so they run away. When they see the white tourists they know they will be able to steal food from them and then they will take photos of them and be nice to them!

The baboons drinking water from the air con on the deck.

The next day we joined a morning safari drive around the park. John and three others sat on the roof rack of the 4x4 and we headed off to look for elephants. Ghana recently had their highest rainfall for 20 years so there are many water holes in the park and the animals do not have to come to the one below the lodge. We only ever saw a few birds and antelopes at the waterhole near the park.

The guide didn't speak much English and when he saw some elephants we got out of the vehicle and followed their tracks. This one had a broken right tusk and it was difficult to photograph them in the trees as we had to keep a fair distance from them.

.

We saw lots of carmine beeaters.

We also saw some boks and water bucks but not much else.

One day we joined a group and made a tour of Larabanga, a small Muslim village nearby the park. There are 4,000 people in the village and as the water table gets lower and the population increases there is a problem with getting water in the village. The locals take water from dams and streams and as a consequence get infected with guinea worm. This worm can be a couple of metres long. When a blister appears the skin must be cut and the worm has to be twisted onto a match stick. The stick is gently pulled and twisted to get the long worm out of the muscles. Our guide showed us about ten places where he had had guinea worm taken from his arms and legs and he now walks with a limp as a result of the infections.

Some of the local kids whose only English word is 'photo'.

Ground maize flour being dried after being mechanically milled.

Guinea fowl is a popular meal.

The women are toasting cassava.

These women have collected these kapok pods to sell for filling pillows.

Two women with wooden pestle and mortar pound cooked yams to a pulp.

The locals believe this mosque was built in 1421. The founder came across a mystic stone and threw a spear from the stone to this site and then erected the Sudanese-style mosque from mud and wood. We couldn't go inside as we were not Muslims but we had to pay to see it from the outside. The guide also had a whole list of facilities that the village was fundraising for and wanted us to make donations for them. As the men can have up to four wives and many children between them the list will be never ending.

It is possible to stay in a tree house beside the waterhole below the park and we heard that a group that had stayed heard leopard in the night and others saw their footprints. It is also possible to do an early morning walk.

Tamale, Ghana

The bus to Tamale was about two hours late leaving Kumasi and there were about 12 foreigners on board. The temperature outside the bus was 35 C and luckily the air con inside the bus worked.

Most of the countrysidein the north is dry with small scrubby bushes as the large trees have been felled for charcoal. The villages are not as permanent as those outside Accra and near Kumasi. There are several mosques in the small villages as this is the Muslim part of the country.



We arrived in the dark and had to try about four guest houses before we found one with rooms available. It was pretty cheap and we had to share a bathroom and toilet that was pretty grotty. The shower had no light and the water poured out of a pipe. The toilet had no lock and the men peed all over the floor so it stunk. The room had a fan but the foam mattress on the beds caused us to sweat a lot so it was not a comfortable stay but we were tired from the heat and long journey and didn't want to continue paying the taxi driver to take us from place to place in the dark.

We were able to walk to a nice restaurant nearby the hotel and one of the local boys showed us a dark, dusty short cut through the local school and police family housing area. We are impressed with how friendly and helpful the Ghanaians are and the boy never expected anything for his 'service'! That is not the usual way in Africa.

We read that the town was getting new electricity transmission lines so the power was off most of the day. As it was so hot, 42 C with a low of 27 C at night, we decided to move into a mid range hotel with a generator. The hotel was once the flashest in Tamale but the room was small and a strange curved shape. We were able to spend some time reading postings from the Lonely Planet forum site so we could plan the next step of our trip. John also found the football channel and caught up his favourites teams matches.

We read that last year there were 250,000+ cases of malaria in the country and in Accra cases of cholera are on the rise. There are mainy open drains in the city, as there are all through Ghana.

On the way back from a restaurant one night, in the dark, John pointed out something across the road. When I looked up, I didn't see the drain in front of me and promptly stepped into it. As I felt my elbow crunching across the little pieces of shingle all I could think of was all the bugs from the chicken, goat, and sheep poo infecting me. The men use the drains as a urinal and the stalls with cooking facilities empty their waste water and scraps into them. All the stall holders nearby came rushing saying 'sorry, sorry'. I grazed my left shin, skinned my right elbow and bruised half way around my right thigh just above my knee. I was lucky the drain was dry at the time and not the common black-festering rubbish-filled drains that are everywhere. Back at the hotel I was able to get cleaned up, get some ice for the bruising, and treat my wounds with iodine. On our last trip, I slipped on ice in Regensburg, Germany and cracked my ribs!

Tamale is a popular stop for travellers as they head to Mole National Park or make their way to Burkino Faso. With only a 30 day visa for Ghana, we will go to Mole Park and enter Burkino Faso at a later date from Benin.

We had to get some money from the ATM in Tamale as there was nowhere to get cash in Mole National Park. The first machine we used didn't dispense any money and when we told the security guard at the bank he reassured us we would not be debited money from our account and advised us to try a different machine. The most common bank we use is Barclays.

We managed to contact a tour company with an air conditioned van to pick us up from our hotel and take us to Mole NP to see 'elephants as big as buses' according to our guide book.

Kumasi, Ghana

As Independence Day fell on a Sunday, the following Monday was also a public holiday. When we tried to get a bus from Cape Coast to Kumasi we found they were full of locals returning home after their long weekend. We ended up getting a small minivan that filled with passengers in no time. After three and a half hours we arrived in Kumasi, the Ashanti heartland.

We checked into the Presbyterian Guest House not far from the main Kejetia market. There were lots of young volunteer workers in the guest house from all parts of Europe. The rooms were clean and basic and we were able to upgrade to one with our own en suite and air con after the first night.

Kumasi is Ghana's second city, with 1.5 million people, and once the rich and powerful capital of the Ashanti kingdom. We were able to visit the Manhyia Palace Museum, which was built in 1952 to receive Prempeh 1 when he returned from 25 years in exile in the Seychelles to reside in Kumasi. We were not able to photograph anything in the museum and were shown around by a guide who explained all the exhibits. The king had the first television in Ghana. There was a school group in front of us and they were fascinated with the old radiogram and its vinyl record. The present king's symbol is a porcupine.

There were dozens of chairs and stools in the palace as it was the custom to give a chair when visiting the king. Now, I think, a bottle or two of schnapps is the preferred gift for the royals, a tradition started by the Dutch, and I am not sure if a chair or stool still accompanies it. Ashanti stools are elaborately carved with a curved top and a solid base. Depending on the status of the person there maybe an image of an elephant or leopard carved into the supporting base. A stool is the first gift a father gives his son. It is also the first gift a man bestows his bride-to-be. At official ceremonies, the stool acts as a symbol of authority. When the owner dies he or she is ritually washed on a stool, and these consecrated stools are worshipped as homes to ancestral spirits. Womens' stools are lower than mens' ones. In most households stools are for everyday use.

The shirts that I brought with me from NZ are beginning to fade and tear so we went to the huge Kejetia Market to look for some new ones. On a street corner a man had shirts from Europe all in a heap. I managed to find one man's shirt and a lady's one. Most of the women's fashion shops have tight-fitting synthetic shirts that are too hot and clammy for comfortable travel.

We had to cross the market several times for various things and it was like being in a human tumble drier. It was hot and sweaty and the people pushed you round and round as you navigated the busy crowded lanes. The market has spread to every available street leading to the huge roundabout that houses the main part of the market under rusting corrugated stalls.

Our guide book says it is the largest market in West Africa.

The stall holders spread out through the tro tro (minivan) park.

These guys sell mobile phones from their parked cars along the main street.

Mother and baby spend all day on the street peddling food from these aluminium cabinets.

The evenings have been getting grey with thunder and lightning and the rain has come a couple of times in short but heavy bursts. At the end of the day the stall holders and traders on the streets sweep their rubbish into the open drains and the rains wash it away until the drains block up. Some unfortunate person then shovels the rubbish into piles on the side of the road and when it gets too big some one burns it after the poor, the goats,the chickens, and the sheep have picked it over. We have seen some rubbish trucks but a lot of rubbish just doesn't make it to the trucks.

We were able to book a seat on a coach from Kumasi to Tamale our next destination.

Cape Coast, Ghana

We had a comfortable trip in a small air conditioned bus to Cape Coast. As we headed out of the minibus park a well dressed man with his bible got into the bus. At the top of his voice, with lots of finger pointing, he spoke in English and Twi telling everyone that God was watching them whenever they did good or bad. He read various extracts from the bible and jumped from subject to subject and it was difficult to make sense of what he was trying to say. Several, mostly women, replied with 'amen' whenever they agreed with his comments. He ended with a song and then solicited donations from the passengers, before getting off on the outskirts of the city.

Ghana is a deeply-religious country. Vehicles, stalls, and small businesses are named with biblical references. We have seen the "Sweet Jesus Hair Salon", "God is Able Snack Bar", "Psalm 21 Bar", and others like "Sister Mary's Blessed Children and Who Jah Blessed We don't Care Shop" that seem to be referring to the Rastafarians.

We took a taxi to a hotel that was run by an American-Ghanaian family. There were not many people in the place and it was clean and quiet and a short stroll from the city centre. We had a TV, fridge and air conditioning. We were able to eat Western and local food in the restaurant and sit in the garden in the shade in the hot muggy afternoons.

We visited the Cape Coast Castle, a UNESCO site. It was originally a trading post, converted to a castle by the Dutch in 1637. The Swedes expanded it in 1652 after which it changed hands five times before the British held it from 1664 for the next 200 years. There were about 37 forts/castles built along the Gold Coast by the end of the 16th century. The British, Danes, Dutch, French, Germans, Portuguese, and Swedes were all vying for commercial dominance here. The forts were originally built to trade gold, ivory, and spices until slaves became the main trade. The Arabs traded slaves from this area in the 15th century taking them to the Mediterranean.



During our tour we saw where the women slaves were kept and where they were paraded before the governor who would choose one for sexual favours. As they were often kept for three months in the cells waiting for transport many women became pregnant and were no longer able to fetch a good price. They were returned to the village and later many of their children were educated in religious schools and went on to become religious teachers.

The conditions of the male dungeons were depressing as well. Some of the rooms had been excavated by archaeologists while others still had the remains of the dead and their waste compacted onto the stone floors. We walked down the dark underground tunnel, where the slaves were loaded on to the ships. The exit door now has a sign "Gate of No Return".



Today the sight from where the slaves left is a busy jumble of nets, people, and wooden boats.




The castle museum was an interesting place looking at the past and the present. This oratory staff of a grey parrot is used to depict a chief who is an eloquent speaker. The parrot is a great imitator and apparently many speak English, which is Ghana's official language!



While at the Cape it was the Independence Day parade. Dozens of schools carried their school banners and marched in front of the VIPs.



Some groups danced for the VIPs and this bamboo stick dance looked similar to ones we have seen in Asia.



It was so hot that the soldiers, band members, and lots of school children fainted from standing in the heat for too long. Red Cross volunteers were kept busy taking them away.



The local traders were able to watch the parade and sell their goods as well.



There are a few small signal forts on hills around the coast and they were used to signal to other forts and castles along the coast with flags by day and oil lights by night.



We hired a driver to take us to the nearby Kakum National Park. We invited a young lad called Sam, from Australia, to join us. He was feeling unwell and taking medication for malaria and resting in our hotel.

There was a canopy walk built by some Canadian engineers and it was very busy. There were lots of large groups of teens and they made a lot of noise. The boys jumped up and down shaking the board walk and the girls screamed at their antics. It was not worth the money and effort to see it. There were no animals and no birds.

We left the canopy walk and did a short nature walk. The guide pointed out 300 year old trees in the park. This tree buttress was used by the locals as a drum to send messages across the forest to other groups of people.

One day we took a shared taxi further along the coast to Elmina to visit St George Castle. There were loads of foreign tourists here. We haven't seen such large numbers of foreigners since South Africa. This castle was built by the Portuguese in 1482, captured by the Dutch in 1637, then taken by the British in 1872. It is the largest slave fort on this coast and the oldest European built structure still standing in sub-Saharan Africa.

Elmina has restored many of the original houses and streets from the time of the Dutch. Many locals have Dutch surnames.

We were not able to watch any of the football games that John wanted to see on our room TV so we found a place near the market. There are blackboards outside places that have TVs where the locals meet to watch the games. We were the only foreigners amongst about 50 or 60 men. I was the only women. The room was down a dusty path and there were plastic seats set out and about four TVs in the two rooms. Luckily there were fans as well as it was pretty hot. The Ghanaians talked to their friends, and argued with opposition fans across the room all through the games and it was impossible to hear the commentary. They are passionate about football and all have favourite English teams.