Wow the sites and sounds today! Grass huts, smoked fish, castles, and the Atlantic sea. Where to begin!
Well aside from finally making contact with my wife (someone please show her how a mobile phone works, and how to answer it), it was great to talk to both her and my daughter who by the way is very busy and can't talk right now. It gave me a boost to kickoff this great weekend with.
We took about 3 hours to reach the Cape Coast, but I wasn't in a rush, there is something about being able to look out the window and let you mind unwind which is rejuvenating and peaceful. Coming this far from the capital, we we're fascinated watching homes transform and introduce a mix of grass huts and mud and grass huts, as well as the wood and tin roofed homes found on the outskirts of Accra, and some new concrete homes going up right in the middle of all this. We can see the transformation Accra is going through, happening right before our eyes.
The castles are the old slave forts, and the tours were fascinating, but a little depressing at the same time. The conditions the slaves were kept in we're worse than animals. I was surprised to learn that slaves were often sold to the Europeans by tribes that had just conquered another, and were looking for an easy way to get rid of left over enemies, and in the exchange, gain guns and alcohol. The whole world had gone mad at the time. I was once again conned at the drawbridge to the first castle, where a local boy asked me my name and where I was from, I didn't think much of it, but when we had finished at the castle, there he was waiting for me with a shell which he had written "To my dearest friend Dwight Bonney from John" and was asking for a donation for his school. I gave him $10 Cedi which is fair bit for them and certainly for a shell that Customs will probably confiscate on my return. So at the next stop, I kept my mouth shut. My mother always told me every time I open my mouth I get into trouble....
Then it was back to the hotel we are staying at for the night, and it is beautiful! This is where tourists come! Pool, right beside the Atlantic Ocean, dinner overlooking the ocean, listening the waves crash. Sipping coconut milk from a real coconut. We launched ourselves into the Atlantic, the water was warm, but oh so refreshing after a hot day. Rough seas threw a giant wave at us every so often that knocked everyone for six, it's exhausting work playing in sea like that, so we retired to the hotel pool which overlooks the ocean for a swim before dinner which would take 1.5 hours to be ready.
Dinner at the hotel is an alfresco affair, undercover and overlooking the ocean. With very little lighting around you couldn't see much of the sea at night of course, but you certainly hear the crashing of waves, unfortunately no sea breeze, it was a still night. So exhausted, I'm hitting the hay again as tomorrow we are off to do the tree top canopy walk and then back to Accra and risk management!
- Keep on Rockin'. Dwight.
That sounds like a lovely weekend...and the sea I love water :)), hope that the tree canopy walk was great too :)
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