For pictures - see this link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151258121876961.436031.562066960&type=1&l=b1ce201ff8
We set off on Saturday morning on our first adventure. Otabil arrived in his Mitsubishi SUV around 8:30 a.m. I had arranged this from Canada but the owner, whom we met on our first night, said the driver would bring us to see him before setting off to sort out the journey. Regardless, we headed out of Accra on the road to Aburi Botanical Gardens. In the early '60s I spent a number of trips there with my parents and the avenue of palm trees was vivid in my mind.
Much of the road on this first part of our journey was paved, but as with all the paved roads we have been on, round pot holes from the size of well tiles to the size of man holes appear at regular intervals. These alternate with rumble strips, broken segments of the paving, when there is paving, and rocks, bumps, and more holes when there is not, as well as obstrucions such as people, bikes, kids, animals, and other cars. I do recall seeing some speed signs, but whether or not they were kilometers or miles, I am not sure yet as from my back seat in the car where I sat with fingers clenched tightly on the seat and eyes glued like radar beams on the road ahead, I didn't have the time to glance at the speedometer.The desperate part of this, is that all of the holes, bumps, and instructions have to be avoided.
On Saturday mornings the roads are quieter because not as many people are travelling to work. Could have fooled me!! The streets were crammed with people selling, buying, talking, walking, waiting for a bus or a trotro or just simply watching other people. The women's dresses are bright yellows, green, orange, red bold patterns. There is an abundance of red pepper, mangoe, banana, coconuts, plantain, and other nuts, and vegetables that I don't know the names of. There are goods of every description for sale in the roadside markets, and in the wooden booths that fill in spaces between the aluminium, block or cement shops. Black women in their swinging skirts or dresses balance trays of drinks, sweets, food, cloth and merchandise on their heads and swarm the cars when they have to stop at traffic lights, much like the squeegy men in the Toronto streets, but more numerous and more energetically. Trotros, which are like minibusses that should hold maybe 15 people and actually hold about 25+, line the road side at the various collecting points along the route.
So, through all of this excitement and energy we zoomed our way through the streets of Accra out into the country. Here the scene calmed down. The little villages we passed through had lots of activity but not the freneticness of the city. Tiny one or two room houses built from block, sometimes covered with cement and painted, or wood, or mud bricks lined the roads.
About an hour later we arrived in Aburi (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=82972. We took a guided tour (Sandy - we looked for Alfred, but noone seemed to know him so we ended up with another younger guide). The trees in Aburi are amazing, mostly planted by visiting dignitaries from all over the world. The picture of the palm tree lined avenue is it's signature and known all over Ghana.
Then it was back in the car and off on our chase once again. After about another hour we arrived at Akosombo. This is advertized as one of the cleanest towns in Ghana. It is where the famous Akosombo dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akosombo_Dam) is built. I was interested in going here because our friend Sandy lived there in the mid 1960s when her father worked with the Volta River Company to build the dam. We had lunch in the Afrikka Resort sitting on their outdoor deck by the side of the river Volta, then took a boat trip up the river to the dam. Although significant, the dam is much smaller than the Itaipo Dam in Brazil for example which produces about 14,000 kilowats of power or Churchill Falls which produces about 5,428 kw; in fact it is more comparable to the Manic 5 in Quecbec. The Volta Lake which resulted from the dam is the largest man made lake in the world. Pretty impressive.
After our little boat ride, we drove across the Adome Bridge and set off on some wild journey through the West African countryside to find Amedzofe. Our driver had never heard of the town and no idea of the route but fortunately, I had thrown a map into my knap sack, which we had bought in Vancouver, and that is what we relied on. Well, we went on some pretty rough roads, or maybe no roads, or tracks, and I don't quite know how we found the place or how we got there.....alive.....but we did. Imagine the space shuttle hurling through the sky and that will give you some idea of the speed we were driving - over ashphalted roads, dirt roads, and whatever, avoiding all of the conditions and obstructions in doing so. Then imagine the dodgems, only instead of avoiding other cars, imagine avoiding all the pot holes, people, animals, etc. mentioned before. The people walking along the side of the road must be used to it because they didn't flinch but elegantly swayed the hip and moved their arm across their bodies out of the way. How we didn't hit anything is a miracle. Oh, and I forgot to mention that at one stage we were flying along a sort of half ashphalted road with a large dirt area to one side when all of a sudden, we were in the middle of cars going the opposite direction on both our left and right. I guess they figured the ashpalt was too bumpy and the dirt was a better bet.
Then we hit the mountains with their switch back bends and narrow 1 1/2 lane roads. The climbs were amazing and we had beautiful forest views looking out over the tops of the beautiful African trees. And finally, around 6:30 p.m. we found the hill village of Amedzofe. As we entered the Village we found a sign advertising the Abraerica Guest House which we went to investigate and discovered it was on the old EP mission grounds. The Guest House had been renovated recently and was immaculate with 24 x 24" white tiles on the floors, and tiles on all the walls, with a quite acceptable double room with a beautiful bathroom. The building was perched on the hill side about 700 meters high with a view of all of the village stretching down into the valley below. But.....of course we are in Africa. So, no running water, not a drop....well I think Ray may have had some drops, but when it came my turn to shower, not a drop. Oh well. After dinner we crawled into our mosquito nets perched precariously on the double bed and went to sleep safe in the knowledge that we didn't have to bother about snakes, or mosquitos, or other bugs joining us.
Sunday morning and we were up early, climbed the tiled steps up the mountain side to the main building and breakfast. Then we set off to investigate the town. What an amazing spot. I would have loved to spend more time there - so anyone coming to Africa - plan on spending a couple of days at least here. It is the sort of place you could stay for a while and just become one of the locals. There are no cars anywhere in the village and therefore the roads are composed of dried mud gullies and mountains. Goats, sheep and chickens roam the town. The people greeted us with big smiles, hand-shakes, and waves as we roamed around the village. Most people speak English . There are many tribes here all speaking their own language and of course they don't understand each other. English is therefore the common language, and Twi the most common African language. Amedzofe has a German link as in ---- the Germans established a mission, and as well there is a large EP college. We drove up the hill into the compound of the school and were confronted by a polite gentleman who pointedly enquired what we were doing there. When we explained we were travelling, he welcomed us to the school with a big smile. You can look out from Amedzofe to see Mount Gemli and Tingro Gemli, one of the highest mountains in Ghana which is just over 700 meters. On the top of Mnt Gemli you can see a metal cross which was planted there by the Germans. Unfortunately we didn't have time to climb the mountain but the view would be stunning. The only thing marring the view is the haze. Harmattan has started and we have been warned that this will be a problem everywhere. It is the same sort of conditions we experienced in India and China. The other photographic problem I have discovered is that the black faces are washed out. Apparently, I should have an HD Multi Coated Variable Range Neutral Density Camera Fileter (Polaroid). The alternative is to make sure I have the sun shining in their faces, but of course with the haze that is difficult!
We dragged ourselves away from Amedzofe with the promise of seeing the Mona Monkeys at Tafi Atome about a 45 minute drive through the hills. This is a community project which was started back in 1993. There was a lot of hunting of the monkeys for food and the population of Mona Monkeys was depleting. The area was granted a huge tract of forest and it was all organized by a Canadian chap called John Mason. Back in 1993 there were about 100 monkeys, now they reckon there are between 300 and 400. The monkeys play freely in the forest. They live in families and are very territorial. They are soooo sweet; they play constantly swinging from branch to branch and sometimes you are sure they are going to fall, but they manage somehow to grab the branch and hang on. The forest has been planted with fruits and berries to sustain them through different seasons, and water is provided during the dry season. We offered them bananas. They were very coy and took a little bit of cajoing, but eventually they would jump on your arm, hold onto your fingers and strip the skin of the banana and elegantly eat it. The "clutch" was gentle, and you had to keep very still and quiet so as not to frighten them; then as soon as they had come, they disappeared. It was an exciting morning. The village of Tafi Atome is set up with a simple guest house so it would be possible to stay there. Once again, wandering through the town people were friendly, and welcoming.
After Tafi Atome, we had a 2 hour drive, again through the mountains towards Toga, to the Wli Falls - the highest in West Africa - around 255 feet. We hiked for 45 minutes through the forest, over 9 bridges of various log, concrete and timber depending what hadn't been washed away by the rains. The lower falls were stunning and then we took a 20 minute hike straight up the mountain side to a view point for the Upper Falls. We badly wanted to do the whole hike up to the falls but once again time was short. It would have been quite a hike. Not sure how it would compare to the Grouse Grind but I suspect probably it would equal or exceed it. It is about an hour and a half's climb straight up, then around the bowl to the top of the falls. Stunning.
We left Wli around 4 p.m in our Mitsubishi race car and made it over the challenging roads to arrive back in Accra around 7:15.
We ate dinner at the hotel, met some of the people from our trip, and headed to bed around 1:00 p.m.
So.......the bad news is I can't figure out how to upload pictures - so I have uploaded them to FaceBook. Here is a URL you can access them at without a FB page.
We set off on Saturday morning on our first adventure. Otabil arrived in his Mitsubishi SUV around 8:30 a.m. I had arranged this from Canada but the owner, whom we met on our first night, said the driver would bring us to see him before setting off to sort out the journey. Regardless, we headed out of Accra on the road to Aburi Botanical Gardens. In the early '60s I spent a number of trips there with my parents and the avenue of palm trees was vivid in my mind.
Much of the road on this first part of our journey was paved, but as with all the paved roads we have been on, round pot holes from the size of well tiles to the size of man holes appear at regular intervals. These alternate with rumble strips, broken segments of the paving, when there is paving, and rocks, bumps, and more holes when there is not, as well as obstrucions such as people, bikes, kids, animals, and other cars. I do recall seeing some speed signs, but whether or not they were kilometers or miles, I am not sure yet as from my back seat in the car where I sat with fingers clenched tightly on the seat and eyes glued like radar beams on the road ahead, I didn't have the time to glance at the speedometer.The desperate part of this, is that all of the holes, bumps, and instructions have to be avoided.
On Saturday mornings the roads are quieter because not as many people are travelling to work. Could have fooled me!! The streets were crammed with people selling, buying, talking, walking, waiting for a bus or a trotro or just simply watching other people. The women's dresses are bright yellows, green, orange, red bold patterns. There is an abundance of red pepper, mangoe, banana, coconuts, plantain, and other nuts, and vegetables that I don't know the names of. There are goods of every description for sale in the roadside markets, and in the wooden booths that fill in spaces between the aluminium, block or cement shops. Black women in their swinging skirts or dresses balance trays of drinks, sweets, food, cloth and merchandise on their heads and swarm the cars when they have to stop at traffic lights, much like the squeegy men in the Toronto streets, but more numerous and more energetically. Trotros, which are like minibusses that should hold maybe 15 people and actually hold about 25+, line the road side at the various collecting points along the route.
So, through all of this excitement and energy we zoomed our way through the streets of Accra out into the country. Here the scene calmed down. The little villages we passed through had lots of activity but not the freneticness of the city. Tiny one or two room houses built from block, sometimes covered with cement and painted, or wood, or mud bricks lined the roads.
About an hour later we arrived in Aburi (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=82972. We took a guided tour (Sandy - we looked for Alfred, but noone seemed to know him so we ended up with another younger guide). The trees in Aburi are amazing, mostly planted by visiting dignitaries from all over the world. The picture of the palm tree lined avenue is it's signature and known all over Ghana.
Then it was back in the car and off on our chase once again. After about another hour we arrived at Akosombo. This is advertized as one of the cleanest towns in Ghana. It is where the famous Akosombo dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akosombo_Dam) is built. I was interested in going here because our friend Sandy lived there in the mid 1960s when her father worked with the Volta River Company to build the dam. We had lunch in the Afrikka Resort sitting on their outdoor deck by the side of the river Volta, then took a boat trip up the river to the dam. Although significant, the dam is much smaller than the Itaipo Dam in Brazil for example which produces about 14,000 kilowats of power or Churchill Falls which produces about 5,428 kw; in fact it is more comparable to the Manic 5 in Quecbec. The Volta Lake which resulted from the dam is the largest man made lake in the world. Pretty impressive.
After our little boat ride, we drove across the Adome Bridge and set off on some wild journey through the West African countryside to find Amedzofe. Our driver had never heard of the town and no idea of the route but fortunately, I had thrown a map into my knap sack, which we had bought in Vancouver, and that is what we relied on. Well, we went on some pretty rough roads, or maybe no roads, or tracks, and I don't quite know how we found the place or how we got there.....alive.....but we did. Imagine the space shuttle hurling through the sky and that will give you some idea of the speed we were driving - over ashphalted roads, dirt roads, and whatever, avoiding all of the conditions and obstructions in doing so. Then imagine the dodgems, only instead of avoiding other cars, imagine avoiding all the pot holes, people, animals, etc. mentioned before. The people walking along the side of the road must be used to it because they didn't flinch but elegantly swayed the hip and moved their arm across their bodies out of the way. How we didn't hit anything is a miracle. Oh, and I forgot to mention that at one stage we were flying along a sort of half ashphalted road with a large dirt area to one side when all of a sudden, we were in the middle of cars going the opposite direction on both our left and right. I guess they figured the ashpalt was too bumpy and the dirt was a better bet.
Then we hit the mountains with their switch back bends and narrow 1 1/2 lane roads. The climbs were amazing and we had beautiful forest views looking out over the tops of the beautiful African trees. And finally, around 6:30 p.m. we found the hill village of Amedzofe. As we entered the Village we found a sign advertising the Abraerica Guest House which we went to investigate and discovered it was on the old EP mission grounds. The Guest House had been renovated recently and was immaculate with 24 x 24" white tiles on the floors, and tiles on all the walls, with a quite acceptable double room with a beautiful bathroom. The building was perched on the hill side about 700 meters high with a view of all of the village stretching down into the valley below. But.....of course we are in Africa. So, no running water, not a drop....well I think Ray may have had some drops, but when it came my turn to shower, not a drop. Oh well. After dinner we crawled into our mosquito nets perched precariously on the double bed and went to sleep safe in the knowledge that we didn't have to bother about snakes, or mosquitos, or other bugs joining us.
Sunday morning and we were up early, climbed the tiled steps up the mountain side to the main building and breakfast. Then we set off to investigate the town. What an amazing spot. I would have loved to spend more time there - so anyone coming to Africa - plan on spending a couple of days at least here. It is the sort of place you could stay for a while and just become one of the locals. There are no cars anywhere in the village and therefore the roads are composed of dried mud gullies and mountains. Goats, sheep and chickens roam the town. The people greeted us with big smiles, hand-shakes, and waves as we roamed around the village. Most people speak English . There are many tribes here all speaking their own language and of course they don't understand each other. English is therefore the common language, and Twi the most common African language. Amedzofe has a German link as in ---- the Germans established a mission, and as well there is a large EP college. We drove up the hill into the compound of the school and were confronted by a polite gentleman who pointedly enquired what we were doing there. When we explained we were travelling, he welcomed us to the school with a big smile. You can look out from Amedzofe to see Mount Gemli and Tingro Gemli, one of the highest mountains in Ghana which is just over 700 meters. On the top of Mnt Gemli you can see a metal cross which was planted there by the Germans. Unfortunately we didn't have time to climb the mountain but the view would be stunning. The only thing marring the view is the haze. Harmattan has started and we have been warned that this will be a problem everywhere. It is the same sort of conditions we experienced in India and China. The other photographic problem I have discovered is that the black faces are washed out. Apparently, I should have an HD Multi Coated Variable Range Neutral Density Camera Fileter (Polaroid). The alternative is to make sure I have the sun shining in their faces, but of course with the haze that is difficult!
We dragged ourselves away from Amedzofe with the promise of seeing the Mona Monkeys at Tafi Atome about a 45 minute drive through the hills. This is a community project which was started back in 1993. There was a lot of hunting of the monkeys for food and the population of Mona Monkeys was depleting. The area was granted a huge tract of forest and it was all organized by a Canadian chap called John Mason. Back in 1993 there were about 100 monkeys, now they reckon there are between 300 and 400. The monkeys play freely in the forest. They live in families and are very territorial. They are soooo sweet; they play constantly swinging from branch to branch and sometimes you are sure they are going to fall, but they manage somehow to grab the branch and hang on. The forest has been planted with fruits and berries to sustain them through different seasons, and water is provided during the dry season. We offered them bananas. They were very coy and took a little bit of cajoing, but eventually they would jump on your arm, hold onto your fingers and strip the skin of the banana and elegantly eat it. The "clutch" was gentle, and you had to keep very still and quiet so as not to frighten them; then as soon as they had come, they disappeared. It was an exciting morning. The village of Tafi Atome is set up with a simple guest house so it would be possible to stay there. Once again, wandering through the town people were friendly, and welcoming.
After Tafi Atome, we had a 2 hour drive, again through the mountains towards Toga, to the Wli Falls - the highest in West Africa - around 255 feet. We hiked for 45 minutes through the forest, over 9 bridges of various log, concrete and timber depending what hadn't been washed away by the rains. The lower falls were stunning and then we took a 20 minute hike straight up the mountain side to a view point for the Upper Falls. We badly wanted to do the whole hike up to the falls but once again time was short. It would have been quite a hike. Not sure how it would compare to the Grouse Grind but I suspect probably it would equal or exceed it. It is about an hour and a half's climb straight up, then around the bowl to the top of the falls. Stunning.
We left Wli around 4 p.m in our Mitsubishi race car and made it over the challenging roads to arrive back in Accra around 7:15.
We ate dinner at the hotel, met some of the people from our trip, and headed to bed around 1:00 p.m.
So.......the bad news is I can't figure out how to upload pictures - so I have uploaded them to FaceBook. Here is a URL you can access them at without a FB page.
No comments:
Post a Comment