We enjoyed James’s company so much that we hired him for our last day in Ghana to explore the south coast east of Accra, toward the border with Togo. We left early and drove east toward the border with Togo.  After a couple of hours we turned off toward Ada, a small fishing village on the coast nestling under tall palm trees, under a clear blue sky, on a perfect beach. It looked idyllic, just like the bounty advert. The simple life of a hut on a pristine beach, a little fishing and some swimming in the sea held a momentary appeal. Walking along the beach we saw thirty or forty people, men, women and children hauling in a huge fishing net. Stopping to help we chatted to the village headman, wearing a bowler hat.  He explained that everyone in the village was expected to help. If you didn’t help to pull in the nets then you couldn’t expect to have a share of the catch. Despite their effort and concentration people smiled and chatted.  The catch wasn’t enormous, maybe a dozen big fish, a hundred smaller silvery ones, about three inches long, and a small collection of shrimps, crabs and starfish. Everyone was friendly and happy to chat, even when we did decline to buy one of the bigger fish. 

We had a nice lunch, with James at a small beach hotel. The circular trip east to Denu and then back along the coast road through Keta was well worthwhile.  A long causeway gave lovely views across the ocean on one side and the Keta Lagoon on the other.  New housing had been built to replace the huts lost to the sea.  It was refreshing to see the Ghanaian government being so proactive. 

Next day James collected us from our hotel and delivered us to the airport.  The Slok Air flight left more or less on time.  We stopped twice to pick up passengers, once at  Monrovia in Liberia and once at Freetown in Sierra Leone.  So we arrived back in Banjul after dark and were immediately asked for money from the porters, and hangers on at the airport. Home again to the Dependency Culture of Gambia.

Our welcome back to our compound though was ecstatic.  After six weeks of travelling through Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana and meeting so many interesting and friendly people it was nice to be back to the familiar comforts of home. For those of you reading this who are thinking of travelling in Africa it is worth reflecting that we met nothing but warmth, friendliness, humour and assistance. We were not robbed, cheated or harassed. In fact there was no unpleasantness at all.   

We sent notes of our trip to the Rough Guide and they sent us a Rough Guide to South East Asia to thank us for the extra details we provided.

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James turned up early to drive us to Hohoe in the east of the country, near the border with Togo. It was a very interesting journey taking us through some very picturesque scenery with mountains and forests. As we drove past the Shai Hills Nature Reserve we saw a very orderly troop of baboons walking in single file up the side of the road, led by the dominant male.  We also passed carpenters shops where they were making incredible coffins shaped like large fish.  Seven foot long beautifully carved wooden fish complete with pectoral fins, big tails and gills. We asked James, who confirmed that these were coffins for fishermen.  The large fish coffins split in two with the top half and dorsal fin forming the lid. Amazing!

We were heading east, over the Volta River, to the mountains. At Hohoe we checked into the Evergreen Lodge hotel and chatted to the extraordinarily friendly manager and staff. After an excellent lunch we set off with James on the 20 km drive from Ho Hoe to Wli Falls.

The Wli Falls cascade spectacularly 100ft over a sheer cliff in the range of mountains which separate Ghana from Togo. During the walk through the forest to the falls James showed us coffee beans, cocoa pods and pineapples growing and chatted about the cultivation and processing methods.

Many Ghanaians visit the falls to picnic and swim in the pool at the base. So whoops, splashing and laughter resounded around cliff faces.  Some of the enterprising locals offered to shoot the roosting bats from the cliff face around the falls and cook the catch on an open fire for our nourishment and delectation.  However we persuaded them, with support from James, that such hospitality, though pleasing was quite un-necessary.   

We returned to the hotel to be invited to join a wedding party. Deciding not to impose on the family’s joy we graciously declined.  Never the less were encouraged to partake of the wedding fare of bush rat and fried rice. It had a strong flavour and tasted very much like hare. A lovely end to a perfect day.

James suggested that on the way back to Accra, the next day, we should stop at the Volta Hotel to see the Akosombo Dam. Over soft drinks he explained that the hydroelectric dam was one of the first of Nkrumah’s projects and it supplied all of Ghana’s electricity needs for twenty years.
 
On the outskirts of Accra we stopped at airport and tried to buy tickets. However we found that the only suitable airline with direct flights to Banjul was Slok Air.  They wouldn’t take credit cards so we had to go to a bank to draw out $1000 in Cidis.  It took several hours to find the right branch of the bank and we were a bit concerned about walking out of a bank with this much money in cash. Just like a bank robbery James waited outside the bank with the engine running. We soon rushed back to the Slok Air offices with two carrier bags stuffed with blocks of Cidis to buy the tickets before they closed.

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Accra the capital of Ghana, a modern bustling city of over one million people.  Travelling on public transport in Ghana was certainly no hardship.  From the modern air conditioned public service coach on our  way to Accra we saw more of the old British trading castles dotted along the coast.  They were built between 1660 and 1690 to protect the trade in gold and slaves from the Portuguese, Dutch and Danish traders.

Ghana achieved its independence from Britain in 1957 when it was one of the most prosperous countries in West Africa.  Its first president, the forward looking Kwame Nkrumah advocated a pan African union on a socialist model. He is still looked up to as the father of the African Union. While he invested heavily in major infrastructure projects, like the Akosombo hydroelectric dam the world price of cocoa beans fell and he generally miss-managed the economy. As his term in office lengthened he became more and more autocratic and despotic until he announced he would be president for life. Despite this Kwame Nkrumah is remembered with affection and we visited the monument and museum dedicated to his life in a well maintained park in the centre of Accra.

On New Years day, 1 January 2006, we took a quiet stroll around Accra.  We saw the Freedom Arch, the opera house and then we walked to James Town, a small enclave near the beach.  This was supposed to be a picturesque part of the town, harking back to colonial days but it was decayed and dusty and too much like Banjul to have much appeal for us.   In general though Accra looked to be much more prosperous than the other West African cities we had travelled through.  The streets were clean and the offices and shops seemed modern and well maintained.

It is always nice to be able to speak to the locals and get their take on things. So we were delighted to meet James, a quiet Ghanaian who drove a taxi.  We asked our hotel for a car and a driver to explore the surrounding area and James turned up.  After establishing that we were living in West Africa, and were not tourists the daily hire rate plummeted to more realistic levels.  James had a wife and two boys.  He came from the Akosmbo area where his brothers and sisters still lived.  According to James the relative prosperity of Ghana was down to the sheer hard work and determination of the people. A more recent president, Jerry Rawlings, had brought the economy so close to ruin that the people had to take matters into their own hands or starve. So modern Ghanaians were now more inclined to work hard to safeguard their own future.

 So Accra looked good, the people were friendly and we found an excellent Indian restaurant where we toasted the new year.

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