Ghana hits you in the face the minute you arrive. English speaking officials, a duty free shop at the border, school children in uniform, MTN colours on every available space. And the humidity. How a scant border post can contain all of this within the country is unbelievable. We have said goodbye to the dry dust of the Sahara desert and the Harmatan that was starting to pull in. We say hello to lush green scenery, soaring temperatures and insane humidity that I don’t know if I can ever get used to. It comes with reward though, and that is South African products! Our eyes were on stalks when we walked into Shoprite and didn’t know what to buy and what to leave!
After spending a night in the bush after the border we headed for Mole National Park in the Northern section of Ghana. Reputedly the best game park in West Africa, the road to get there was in a sorry state and our poor cars took a beating as we bumped and jostled for about two hours on 80 kilometres. We had the campsite to ourselves (and the baboon troops on their daily rounds of annoying tourists and stealing food) which overlooked the savannah plains. We spent two nights here and went on guide walks and drives, and whilst it was lovely, there was unfortunately not very much game and a lone elephant was our best sighting.
The group then split and Maude made a dash for the coast. The Capetonians were not coping with the dust and needed the sea. The Joburger and our Newcastle delegate were happy to oblige. So back on the terrible road and South we went. We unfortunately misjudged the state of the roads and after a day found ourselves in Techiman at 6pm at night. Techiman leaves a lot to be desired in terms of tourist comforts (let’s not forget we are also in Africa, and are really not asking for much). We battled to find any accommodation and eventually had to settle on Emmanuel Inn. We’re still not 100% if the Inn was aimed at the general public or at the pimps down the road, but we had our fried rice for dinner in the courtyard and headed for our scaffy rooms. Doors locked, each others numbers on speed dial. My favourite part was the suggestion box next to the very grotty ablution block. Doubt I’ll ever be back there, so will keep my constructive criticism to myself.
We then continued South and hit the coast, and what a site it was! We landed up at Anamobo Hotel – a lovely expat vibe resort where even the campers were allowed the buffet breakfast in the mornings. The restaurant was a lovely open air wooden, colonial style deck overlooking the ocean. Our intended one night stay quickly became two nights and we spent a day relaxing on the sunloungers on the beach.
Green Turtle Lodge, on Akwidaa beach, was calling and it was time to head West now along the coast of Ghana. Along the way we did the tree-top walk at Kakum National Park – a lovely suspended bridge system from seven trees and 40 metres above the ground. We also dropped in to Elmina in search of some fresh fish, but had missed the fishing day, but vowed to come back on our way to Accra to have a tour of the imposing Portuguese and Dutch built fort.
We arrived at Green Turtle Lodge late afternoon on the 30th March, where we were to be spending the next 6 nights. We were not disappointed. The beach in front of the lodge is truly spectacular and is now one of my top 5 beaches. The lodge and the owners are so relaxed and the overall vibe was just what we were after. Paradise found.
