A belated Happy New Year !

I saw in 2014 in a Muslim town without electricity in Northern Ghana, with a cup of hot oats and some cheap Chinese fireworks for entertainment.

I should point at that it was a temporary power cut, but it did mean there were only a dozen of us who were committed enough to be awake at midnight in the pitch black. Well, us and a few hundred goats.

Three weeks ago me and my fellow volunteers left the dirt and familiarity of Takoradi behind and headed East for the school holidays. 

So, at the risk of this whole blog turning into a travel guide, let me tell you about our tour of Ghana.

Leg 1: Volta Region

The Volta region lies to the East of the gigantic Lake Volta, which sprawls across the bottom right-hand corner of Ghana, which was created by the Akosombo Dam 38 years ago, and at 8502 sq m is the largest man-made lake in the world (yawn).

We used a Rastafarian lodge in the small town of Peki as a base for our travels – the half-British owner made us feel right at home with a dart board and beans on toast for breakfast! Over the course of three days we visited the waterfalls at Wli (pronounced V-lee), climbed the Afadzato mountain, took a canoe trip on Lake Volta, and saw more species of butterfly than you could count. Supposedly the tallest waterfalls in Western Africa, it’s pretty surprising than no-one has taken the time to measure the height properly – estimates vary from 20m to 400m! Check out its helpfully detailed wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wli_waterfalls

Dusty winds from the Sahara blow across Ghana every January, meaning the views from the not-quite-a-mountain 885m Afadzato Mountain weren’t as spectacular as I hoped; I’m planning on visiting again before my flight home.

When passing through the region we narrowly missed out on the industrial town of Ho – such a shame for terrible joke fiend such as myself. Especially considering further North we stopped in Hohoe. Ho Hohoe… Merry Christmas!

Leg 2: Tamale

Next we headed for the Northern region in a ‘Rat Race’-style competition, which eventually ended in all of us desperately hoping we were all heading for the same place and not separate nowhere. Travelling in Ghana is pretty dicey at times, but as often happens the locals helped us out a hell of a lot. Hats off to ‘em.

Tamale (pronounced Ta-ma-lay) is proclaimed the ‘Capital in the North’, and it was so different to anywhere we’d been. All the women were wearing headscarves, the men were smoking 3p cigarettes, and there were countless motorbikes - many with three riders and/or children. The change in heat was what hit us, though. Gone was the humid, sweaty heat of the South, what replaced it was a dry, dusty heat which left you constantly looking for shade and water.  It felt like we were entering a new country!

Leg 3: Mole National Park

So Christmas morning was a bit different this year. Instead of a far too excited sister waking me up at 6am by bring in a stocking overflowing with highlighter pens, socks, tangerines, and other goodies, I was awoken at 6am by the chilling cold swishing around my elbows – and the bleary realisation that the camp fire was out again. Apparently 5 T-shirts isn’t enough to keep warm in Africa!

After saying good morning to the baboons we discovered we had been paid a visit in the night… Santa? Not quite. We saw some fresh elephant footprints no more than 20m away from where we were sleeping, and marks where the elephant had been digging the soil for salt, too.

We caught up with said elephant later in the day, rampaging through the dry forest in search of fresh vegetation. While we saw several elephants and plenty of monkeys, antelope, and amazing birds during the course of our stay, many of the animals were confined to the centre of the park during the dry season as the water holes within driving distance of the hotel all had all but dried up. Overall the safari experience was amazing (and cheap), but it’s a shame we didn’t get to see any lions, wildebeest, or the large herds of elephants.

Xmas morning

The highlight for me was Adam’s encyclopaedian knowledge of the latin names of all the animals in the park (hyena hyena: striped hyena), all pronounced with a perfect thick Ghanaian accent. David Attenborough eat your heart out.

Leg 4: Larabanga

Other than having an incredible name and an ancient mosque, there isn’t much to mark out Larabanga as anything special to travellers. In fact, the village has a terrible write-up in guide books. 

Looks can be deceiving, however, and it quickly became one of the highlights of my journey. A one nights’ stay turned into two, which turned into a week, due to the warm welcome we were given by the whole community. We ended up helping at an extremely poor orphanage run by an extended family network, and we were able to play with the kids and teach them some basic English and maths, as well as helping with medical supplies (this wasn’t me you understand; I’m too squeamish).

I played with the local football team, which contained a few Ghanaian Premier League players, and got one goal and two assists - 10 points, thank you very much! We kipped under the stars every night we were there, and it was genuinely so nice just hanging out with people there.

A couple of days after New Year I made the 17-hour journey back to the school in Takoradi relatively stress-free, thankfully. I enjoyed a long lie in the day after, followed by a well-deserved burger and chips, and other such luxuries.

It’s feels great coming ‘home’, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into teaching again for my final month here.