Thinking about writing this post has made me realise how poor my life choices have been this weekend, but also confirmed my strong belief that bad decisions make good stories.
After having an early night (my digestive system doesn't like Michael's chips) we were up bright and early for breakfast. There was slightly odd selection of food (you could have cold toast, a fried egg and coconut on the same plate), but it was nice all the same. We dropped our bags off at the reception and walked to the main road to flag down a tro-tro. As far as I've seen, there is no public transport system in Ghana. Your options are walk, hail a taxi, or flag down a tro-tro. A tro-tro-tro is a 12 seater minibus, often complete with a nutter behind the wheel, which follows no fixed route - if it's empty it'll go wherever you ask it to, but it'll stop along the way to pick up more roadside passengers if their destination matches the driver's intended route. Basically, it's paid hitchhiking, but the price depends on how many people are on board.
A tro-tro-tro came crashing along pretty quickly, we agreed a price of 7 cedi each, and set off for Kakum National Park. As an undergrad I can remember laughing when a part of Queens Road in Leicester collapsed leaving a 1x2m pothole but in Ghana that's just par for the course. We were rattling around in this decrepit minibus being badly driven by two strangers down a road which was more pothole than surfaced mud. We arrived at Kakum and the driver asked us for 70 cedi, and subsequently started an argument. The co-driver admitted he had given as a price of 7 cedi each (35 cedi in total), but still the driver demanded 70. If that happened in the UK I would have paid the agreed price and walk away, but these two men were blocking the way off he minibus. These men's English was about as good as our Fante, so they called over a Kakum employee to do some translating. She was really helpful, and kept spelling out that we were willing to pay the agreed price. I think this pissed the driver off so he upped his price to 700 cedi. The Kakum employee said something to him in Fante, and he then lowered his price to 40 cedi. We paid an extra cedi each (about 25p) and escaped from his vehicle.
Kakum National Park is huge and covers hundreds of square miles, but the main attraction of he part we visited is the canopy walk. It's a bit of a trek up a hill to reach the top, but the views were worth it. The canopy walk itself had 7 tree-top platforms, linked together by 8 rope suspension bridges over the top of the rainforest, 40m in the air. Having skydived, micro-glided and climbed up the millennium dome I hadn't expected to find this pant shittingly terrifying, but I did! After you reached the first platform you had he choice of completing the full course of 8 bridges, or doing a 2nd which took you straight back to terra-firmer (in Rushden, otherwise known as 'doing a Megan'). As tempting as the shortcut was I finished the long route, with the words "Bon - BEHAVE!!!" echoing through the jungle. Along the way there had been a photographer snapping us all. Thinking it was going to be a rip-off comparable to buying photos at Alton Towers we reluctantly let him show them to us, but I'm really glad he did! Not only had he taken some great photos; he only wanted 3 cedi (under £1) for each print! We later found out there used to be 2 jungle rope suspension bridges in Ghana, but Kakum is the only one now because the other fell down.
The thing which amuses me most about Ghana (or enrages me, depending on how hungry I am) is their approach to restaurant service. It starts off fairly sensibly: you sit down, you're given a menu, you order your drinks, and when your drinks arrive you order your food. The problem seems to be they cook the meals one at a time, but bring each one out as soon as it's ready. We all ordered pizza for lunch: Ellyn's arrived first (an hour after we ordered) and it was another 20 minutes until Kristy's came out. It was another 20 minutes before Sam and Bon's came and then, finally, mine arrived 1hr 45min after ordering. In the UK I'd be seriously annoyed and demanding a discount, but in Ghana it's just how things are - the the extent that waiting staff aren't remotely apologetic.
After everyone watching me finish my lunch we ambled back to the main road to flag down another tro-tro. We saw a snake, and I tried to take a photo, but the locals seem to think we should pay them for photos which aren't of them, or taken by them, just near to them. A tro-tro skidded to a halt and we squished 5 of us into a tro-tro making the total passenger number 15 (plus a baby). Initially a Ghanaian turned around to us and said something along the lines of "you are white, I do not like the way you talk, you must be quiet on this bus", but then an 82yr old man got on and loved us because I let him try on my glasses, and the driver only made us pay the agreed 4 cedi each.
We arrived back at Hans Cottage to collect our bags from reception which was unmanned for the 20 minutes we sat waiting. Luckily our bags hadn't been stolen, we picked them up, and trundled back to the main road to wait for Frank (our lovable plonker of Work the World staff) to pick us up in his minibus at 2pm. I should know by now that if a Ghanaian, or Colin, says to me "see you at 2" then I've got until at least 3:20, and unsurprisingly this was no exception. We picked Donna and Claire up from their luxury hotel, made our way back to Takoradi, and hand washed our clothes.
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