This past weekend Janis, Sean, and some of their IFMS exchange friends went traveling in the hills. Janis took a tro down from Kumasi with Janie, a third year medical student from Quebec, and Sylvain a friend of a mutual friend of ours. The tro picked me up across from the hospital, and we headed on the short tro ride to Aburi. When we arrived we checked in and took a tour of the Aburi Gardens. It was quite beautiful there. They have trees from around the world including cinnamon and all spice. I have to say that was the very first cinnamon tree I have ever seen. I also tried cocoa for the first time. It is white and slimy, but actually quite delicious. In the VIP Garden they have some trees there planted by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. The coolest tree there though would have to be the strangler fig. The strangler fig grew around another tree and slowly over a 50 year period, this tree died and decomposed, leaving only a shell of the strangler fig. It’s cool, because you can climb inside and see out all the way to the top.
After the tour of the gardens we headed out to the wood market. The wood market consists of a strip of many little shops along the main road from Aburi to Accra. It’s quite a it different than the markets I’ve been to in the Dominican. In the Dominican, you’d go from shop to shop, everyone selling the exact same thing, and none of the people selling it actually played any part in it’s production. Here, however, although each shop still sells similar wood carvings, every carving in the shop is made by the people selling it, and at prices that you can find no where else in Ghana. I didn’t buy anything that day, as I live so close to Aburi and didn’t want to bother with carrying what I bought around during my weekend of traveling. But it was nice to check out what everyone had (and by everyone I mean everyone) and chat with the locals while the rest were busy bartering. While walking around I also watched a Ghanain checkers match between two of the shop owners, it was quite entertaining. Many if the shop had hand made African drums in them, which I knew I wanted to buy at some point (what a shock… Lisa wants to buy a musical instrument), but none of the drums I saw was quite what I was looking for. I starting chatting with one of the drum makers, about how I live in Mampong, and want to buy a drum, but couldn’t find quite what I was looking for, and he offered to make me one, and have it ready for next week.
After the wood market, we headed back to the garden for supper. By the time we got our food it was dark and we were greeted by these interesting bugs that seem to be found all over the hills. They have bodies like giant ants and cream coloured removable wings. Once they lose their wings, these giant ant-like creatures can be found walking around on the ground everywhere. These bugs are especially attracted to light. While walking by reception we were greeted by thousands of these bugs flying around the lighted doorway, and about a million wing-less ones in a pile at the door at least half a foot deep. It was absolutely disgusting!!! Janis and I were quite grossed out by this site, and one of the local, seeing this, started laughing at us.
The next morning we headed off to Krobo Mountain. Krobo Mountian was home to the Krobo people who settled there for protection from the slave raids back in the 1700s. However, it had largely been abandoned since the end of the 19th century. Getting to Krobo Mountain involved a combination of various taxis and tros, eventually leaving us at the junction of a dirt road leading into the reserve. Because it had rained in the morning, the dirt road turned into one consisting entirely of water and mud. The Bradt Guide (better known as the Ghanaian Bible) said that the walk to the base of the mountain should take about 10 minutes. Well, anyone who has actually used the Bradt Guide in Ghana knows that it tends to lie… a lot. Between 30-45 minutes later, after getting a nice coating of mud on my sandal-clad feet, and somehow managing to slice my heal open, leaving it a bloody mess, we arrived at the base of the mountain. Although the Krobo Mountain Community Reserve was only established in 1999, the Bradt guide hinted that it may now be abandoned, as in 2002, one traveler was greeted by nothing but a murdered body. We, however, were a little more fortunate, and were greeted by a barking growling dog, and two men with machetes. After speaking with the men, we found out that we were actually suppose to pay for the tour back in Somanya, but that they would take us up anyways. It was easy to figure out that no one had been up the mountain in quite a while, as they had to cut us out a path using their machetes. The trek up the mountain was definitely not the easiest hike I have been on, basically an hour and a half straight up, and it didn’t help that the rain had made all the rocks and mud quite slick. On the way up we passed by some of the ruins left from the Krobo village, which was quite cool to see. You probably wouldn’t even notice they were there if someone didn’t point them out to you, as they have been taken almost entirely over by the local vegetation. Speaking of vegetation, I would have never thought that cacti was part of the local vegetation of a Ghanaian, rainforest, but it is…. and I have become well acquainted with them too. As I mentioned before, the morning rain had made the mountain quite slippery. On the trek up, we passed this clearing consisting of cactus plants and sloped rocks. Upon approaching the clearing, you could see that it was pretty slick. Well I, being the disaster that I am, managed to lose my balance whilst crossing this clearing, and so intelligently decided to break my fall with a cactus. Let me tell you, those things hurt as much as you’d think they hurt. Pulling 5 of the needles wedged >1cm in my hand… good times… good times. Once we finally reached the top it was all worth it. At the top there was a giant cross. It was cloudy day, and we were in the clouds, which gave everything a very eerie feeling. If you walked over to the edge and looked down, you couldn’t see the ground below because of the clouds, which made it seem as though we were much higher off the ground. Eventually the clouds cleared up a bit and you could see Lake Volta in the distance. After chilling at the top of the mountain for a bit we headed back down the mountain. When were almost at the bottom Janis slipped and fell into the mud. She was wearing relatively short shorts and ended up getting mud in places that you should never get mud in. When she told me this I couldn’t stop laughing (yes… I am such a good friend). When we reached the bottom she attempted to de-mud herself, which was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. The rest of us (there was 6 of us, plus the two guides) just stood around and laughed. Sean also took a video of it (feel free to ask him to show you). I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. I could barely stand up, which made the guides start laughing at me as well.
Once Janis finished cleaning herself we headed back down the mud road to try and catch a tro or a taxi. We had been waiting there for some time and were sitting on the ground at the side of the road when out of nowhere this little girl about 10 years old comes out of the bush carrying a bench on her head. She put down the bench beside us for us to sit on and headed back into the bush. That sort of kindness is what has struck me the most about the Ghanaian people. I have found that Ghanaians as a whole are the nicest people I have ever met. They seem to really try and take care of foreigners. I have had people walk with me for over 15 minutes (in the opposite direction to where they were going) to take me to the place that I am looking for when I have been lost, and wanted nothing from you at the end. Yes, of coarse there are some people who try to take advantage of you because you are white and know that you have money, but that seems to be a very small proportion of the population, most people here just genuinely want to help. After waiting at the side of the road for quite some time, when came across a guy on a bicycle and started chatting with him. Because we weren’t having any luck with a ride he said that he’d ride his bike down two the main junction and flag down a taxi to come pick us up. Shortly after our taxi arrived who too us to the tro station to head off to Koforidua where we spent the night.
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