It's Ghana Be Okay

When we boarded the bus for our second field trip in Ghana on Tuesday I looked around and grew worried.  There were a lot of familiar faces from our disastrous trip to the water village, including the tour guide.  I worried we were in some sort of LOST paradox situation and were about to experience an encore performance of our crappy previous trip.

Our itinerary was for a full day trip to a nature preserve and a visit to a hydroelectric dam outside of Accra.  The bus was filled to capacity with a mix of kids, students and adults.  Our chariot had no microphone so it was hard to hear the guide and it reeked of mothballs.  The ride to the preserve was another bumpy adventure.  The highways here are really only highways in name.  It’s more of a mix of concrete with a series of large mounds of dirt every so often.  Fortunately it only took about an hour to reach our destination and we were greeted by a troop of baboons sitting just outside our windows.

When we got off the bus we watched as they frolicked around and they seemed to be pretty oblivious to our presence.  We then made our way to check out the ostrich enclosure but all I could think about was how I ate ostrich twice in South Africa and how good they tasted.  It was weird.  Our bus then traversed over a dirt path that was more suited for a four-wheeler than a tour bus to see a few herds of antelope on our way to a bat cave.  There were points where I thought for sure we were going to tip and fall onto the side but it was still better than walking through the burning sun.

The caves were perched on top of a rock formation that the native Krobo people had previously used to live in and escape their enemies.  It was a nice hike up the rocks that reminded me of our trip up Lion’s Head in Cape Town.  There was a really beautiful view from the top of the African savannah plains and it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip.  From there it was off to lunch before our stop at the damn.  We actually got to eat around noon this time and had a tasty lunch of rice, pasta and chicken.  For me the star of the meal was the two homemade hot sauces, including a green chili sauce that was spicy and delicious.  The restaurant was located alongside one of the rivers that contributed near the damn and was a nice setting.  There were lizards all about the property and the kids in the group chased them around trying to catch a souvenir.

With our bellies full we embarked on another hour bus ride to the Akosombo Dam, a hydroelectric dam that supplies Ghana and a few of the neighboring counties with power.  It also is home to the 2^nd largest man-made lake in the world and the view from the top was pretty damn impressive.  The dam was constructed using only compacted rocks from the area and amazingly had no concrete in the walls.  It was an interesting site but didn’t really compare to the majesty of the Hoover Dam. 

We finished our tour just as a storm was rolling in and I realized that today had actually worked out pretty well compared to our last trip in Ghana.  I would have liked to spend less time riding on the bus but it did give us a chance to see a large portion of the surrounding communities and how people outside the city live.  I guess it ended up being an okay day.