I’ve been in Ghana, country 118, for about two weeks now. Sweating the heat, relaxing on the south coast beaches and exploring the history at Elmina, Cape Coast, Princes Town and Beyin. I’ve stayed with some interesting local people via couch surfing. My first host, Charles, from Nigeria, took me to visit the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial and told me a little of the history. He was Ghana’s first president and helped the country gain independence from the British in 1957. After Accra with its heavy traffic, smells and fumes of many taxis and trotros (minibuses), it was time to head inland to the Volta region. I stayed one night in a small town called Dzodze, pronounced Je je. This is where I met Albert, a really cool guy. We travelled up to Hohoe together and visited Wli waterfall, spectacular. Here we encountered a lovely Swedish girl, who is volunteering in some organisation. Then back to the coast and onto the forts. After exploring these slave castles with their deep dark past I headed once again inland, my destination being Kumasi. This should have been a fairly easy journey. However, it turned into an adventure. I first took a trotro from the small coastal town of Axim to Takoradi, this was no problem apart from nearly crashing at one point! Once in Takoradi, I changed to a big bus with air conditioning. This is where the fun began. First it took more than two hours for the bus to fill, then once on the road, we drove to Cape Coast, however, on reaching this destination, the coach promptly broke down and refused to start! Eventually, a second bus, smaller and lacking comforts was found, however, I was nearly left behind as the bus staff kept taking me from one bus to another and back again. A seat was finally found and some twelve hours after departing Axim, I arrived hot and tired in Kumasi. The next problem was contacting my couch surfer. He hadn’t contacted me all day to confirm my stay. My battery on my phone had died, so no news. I was able to charge my phone, but unable to get hold of my host. I eventually contacted a friend I had stayed with previously and he contacted his brother who was able to host me and collected me. Two days later, I headed to Sunyami. My next stop is the heat of Tamale before crossing into Burkina Faso and continuing the journey. Tony the Traveller!
