Jan 24- Bolgatanga

Photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151258121876961.436031.562066960&type=1&l=b1ce201ff8

We had fun on the way up to Bolatanga on Thursday. Drove the road back from Mole to the main road without stopping - road is prone to hold ups!! However, we made it safely!! We did make one stop in Larabanga to see the Moslem Mosque which was built about 600 years ago by the Arabs. You will see from the pictures that it is quite a unique shape. We were grabbed by a young kid who acted as our tour guide and then of course asked for money at the end. That seems to be the story up here in Northern Ghana. Everyone is asking for money. Or, if you have something they like, they just ask for it!! It is a little annoying, because you can't give to everyone who asks you, and then to give them anything is only encouraging them  to do that and thus being an irresponsible tourist.

The little villages along the road are the round baked mud brick homes with thatched rooves. The country is sun baked straw grass with small straggly trees about 10 feet high. Savannah woodland  - stretches for miles and miles. Yesterday we saw a whole strip that was burning. They say it is controlled burning, but if that is controlled, I am surprised. You could see the red flames in the distance with long plumes of black smoke on the horizon.

Stopped to shop in Tamale for cook group we went into the market area. Neat lanes winding through stalls of fresh meat, cow faces with horns; all the women are so much fun and although English is not quite as good, they still manage to banter with you!

Arrived in Bolgatanga -  a town of about 70,000 in Northern Ghana - around 5 and found a great spot to camp in the grounds of the Comme Ci Comme Ca Hotel. Set up camp and sat down for a beer. We were quickly joined by the Ghana Police and had a really nice conversation with them. They were amazed at our efficiency in setting up the tents, the cook table, and all the chairs. They said their people would never be able to work together like that! They were an IT group doing some work at the station up here. Nice guys and of course they asked for our emails. Couldn't refuse the police could we?

On Friday 25th we had a more relaxed morning then grabbed a cab to go off and do some "sightseeing". After about half an hour we finally had a quote to go to the Tongo Hills and the Tengzuk Shrines. I vaguely remembered reading about it in one of the travel books, but didn't really have any preconceived ideas. The lady at the hotel who had helped us get the cab took the phone number of the taxi driver.....just for safety reasons!!! We set off in the cab which smelled like a petrol spill at the gas station, and sounded like every screw in the chassis was loose resulting in loud bangs whenever we went over a bump. We went back south on the road to Tamale then turned off on to a dirt road.....in the making....I think it was so rutted from the rainy season that it was difficult to distinguish what was road and what was road-side. Fortunately our driver drove quite carefully; we weren't under any illusion that that was for our benefit, more likely to try and preserve his car for the next ride! We arrived at a strange collection of the hugest boulders of different shapes and colours; some pinkish, others more yellow, and yet others more black. Probably the result of some volcano in the pre-ages. In amongst all of the boulers we made out a round building and this turned out to be the Chief's Palace and it was one of the Chief's 115 kids who was showing us around. The group of people who lived in and around the palace seemed to still be practising their animist religion. Sacrifices of guinea fowl are made daily to the high priest and so fresh piles of feathers appear around all of the shrines. It was quite different, and we couldn't really understand it all, but I guess maybe something like the reed islands on Lake Titicaca. The Chief's little horse was very sweet and took to the gentle cooing in his ear as if he was starved of affection by nuzzling into me and hobbling around me while we were stopped under the sea. Then there was the shrine where you visited the priest - but, women had to go topless. I may be brave enough to bare my feet to rats in the Rat Temple in India, but there was no way I was going to bare my breast to the priest in Tongo no matter how good a life he might promise me for doing so.

Chatting with some of the girls on the truck we agree that there is a strong sexual element in the Ghanaian culture. There doesn't seem to be too much birth control going on - there are kids everywhere! Not sure what the AIDS rate is here....looking around everyone seems strong and healthy; there are lots of medical clinics around, and there is also a lot of "aid". But the men and women look strong and Africans move their bodies with an almost sensual fluidity. I am reading the book "Ama: |A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade:" by Manu Herbstein, which is all about a young girl who is captured for slavery and taken to Elmina Castle. The rapes and sexual abuse by the white man and the black alike are cruel and ferocious. Somehow, it is hard to get that concept out of one's mind. I suspect treatment of women is not that good.
 

One of our group had an unfortunate encounter with a motorbike today. She was standing talking to the local policeman when she was hit by a motor bike. She is OK, shaken though, and quite bruised. She will be sore tomorrow. Bad luck for the guy who hit her though. The police immediately impounded his bike, and despite the two girls trying hard to get the police to release the bike, it was a no go!

Tomorrow we move into Burkina Faso. We were good though! Didnt tell the police our route despite their cross interrogation!! I will be sad to leave Ghana, but many more adventures to look forward to.

I think we have Internet in BF, so should be in touch soon.