Accra to Kumasi

The drive through Accra seemed o last forever as the City of approximately 4 million people is built out and not up! One gets a glimpse at what Nanaimo could look like if (when) the urban sprawl joins all the eastern communities (Duncan – Qualicum). The landscape and cityscapes are very diverse as you go through neighbourhoods that would be considered to be ghettos or slums whereas others had houses that would easily fit into our nicest sections of town.

The remnants of British occupation (Ghana has been independent for 51 years) are still here as we passed the Accra golf course and driving range. The course was filled with what appeared to be Ghanaian businesses men and their caddies. The course also had a driving range…complete with people catching the balls! I’m not sure that I would want that job.

Dad you’ll be happy to know that the roads are constantly under construction. More specifically there are individuals who work on filling all the potholes in the road and then they ask passing motorists for food, water, or money for their troubles. It is my understanding that they are not formally paid to do the activity, which makes sense as there are a LOT of holes in the road. Our amazing driver Michael (a professional driver from Sunyani Polytechnic) is amazing and I think that roadway pothole slalom and on-coming traffic dodging will be in the Olympics if Ghana ever plays host. We did see evidence of major highway construction but as the wet season is about to start so I imagine that much of their work could be washed away.

The notion of drive through food services is taken to a new level. Every time we slowed down (note: I didn’t say STOP) both sides of the bus were approached by numerous individuals (mostly females and mostly children/teens) who were selling everything from snails and pineapple to buckets and clothes, I think that the weirdest thing that was sold was the snails – it was quite amusing to watch the woman selling them trying to keep them on tray…they kept trying to escape! We occasionally made roadside purchases of things like avocado, star apples (texture of slim...yuck), mini-bananas (yum yum), and plantain chips!!! Overall the trip was a grand adventure and we were happy to move out of Accra and into the country side.

Once in the country it felt a lot like Central America – a lot of huge green trees, large ferns, and lizards everywhere. Of course I have lots of pictures to share of our trip. One of my favorites was of the red-headed lizard that does push-ups to scare off other lizards. I got some great pics when we were stopped at an amazing road-stop. It was my first taste of Ghanaian pineapple…it was amazing. They are the size of Hawaiian pineapples but have the sweetness of those grown in Fiji…I could live on pineapple alone!

As we drove into Kumasi I discovered what professional hawking is all about! There were no less than 3 people by meter selling just about anything and everything that you could imagine. It was difficult to watch as many of those selling were young children. They were all quite excited to see Obronies (white people) on the bus – I think that thought that we were easy marks…some were right!

After arriving in Kumasi we headed to the Cultural Centre to have lunch and to learn some more about Ghana. On the way we saw a tree covered in fruit bats…it was an incredible site. There were hundreds of bats and they were all active throughout the day! The rest of the drive to the cultural centre was like taking a bus (28 passenger) through a congested maze of narrow streets, taxis, and people (mostly those trying to sell us things. I’m still trying to learn the various meaning to the “beep” of the horn but the Ghanaians drivers seem to have an odd method of “talking” to each other with their horns!

At the cultural centre we learned that our lunch spot was previously booked with nearly a hundred media – both local and foreign – who there to cover the 10th anniversary of the Ashanti King. That day at the cultural centre one of the local chiefs who was a subject of the king was holding court for the reporters. It all worked out in the end as we were able to have a quick tour of the museum, play with some children who were hanging out at the centre and were then able to watch the session with the Chief! It was very cool. The protocols were really interesting to watch as people had to greet the Chief and then the sub-Chiefs. There were two teen boys who were responsible for carrying the Chief’s umbrella and another two young boys who sat at the feet of the Chief. Of course I have tons of pics to show!

After that event we headed to our hostel for the night – it was wonderful to stop travelling and as our room had AC and the bar had Savannah Dry (tastes similar to Strong Bow…yeah!!!) my world was complete!