Keep On Praying

Dear all,

As this weekend was the Easter weekend the school was closed for Thursday, Friday and Monday and so Katter and I decided to do a little travelling! We had planned to take a few more days off and visit Mole National Park in Northern Ghana but as we heard that it was booked up due to the holiday period. Instead, we teamed up with Katja, a Finnish volunteer who works with Katter in the nursery at the children’s home, and travelled east to the Volta Region in persuit of the hiking to the Wli waterfall (pronounced vlee). And be warned – true to form I took a lot of photos and can not resist sharing many of them with you all!

So Friday morning we left, rucksacks heavy and huge with the addition of previously neglected trainers (flipflops, or “slippers” as the Ghanaians call them, are only 1 cedi at the market), and set off to Circle where we had hoped we could catch a tro tro to Hohoe from which we could then get to the village of Wli. The first hitch in this plan was that tros to Hohoe in fact left from Tudu station not circle which resulted in a bit of walking to and fro and a lot of asking people where to go (apparently I can get to the different stations from home but not from station to station!). However we eventually got to the right station and were led to the right tro tro… a very FULL tro tro… and then so begins the very typical, very frustrating time of Africa Time. In this situation this time was characterised by of a lot of people staying to us “oh another car is coming” without this statement being realised! By this point it was 8.30am…

…By 10am we were getting a little hot; a little frustrated and a little tired from standing up in the sun. I took a lot of photos of the stations, which I include here, so that you folks in England can fully try to understand what it’s like. I particularly enjoy the tro tro with “keep on praying” written on it, which seems fitting as I’m sure most vehicles are less than safe! One tro tro I saw drive away actually had a live baby goat tied to the roof, bleeting away. The man who had somehow befriended us (he was the chief of “another car will come”) told us oohh it will lie down eventually…

After 10am a few tro tros actually did start arriving that each led to a sort of mini frenzy as everyone wanting to get to Hohoe scrambled and pushed to get to the front. At one point we were extremely well positioned for getting on (that tro tro had to go and get “fixed” but would be “back” – a fact I had trouble believing) and at another point I found myself dragged along helplessly by the small crowd of determined Ghanaians. Eventually, one tro tro did in fact start to load but unfortunately at the other side of the road/track/station bit to where we were standing. The scrum to get in was crazy – one guy actually tried to get through the back window, legs dangling (sadly, I was not quick enough with my camera)! and we gave up- like the obrunis that we are - only to be called back by one bloke who said that the guy who had been chatting to us had saved us three seats! I have no idea how he did this but on we climbed and off we bumped!

By the tro tro on our stretching-legs-break!

The journey took around three and a half hours, passing over the Volta Lake, and we arrived at Hohoe at 2.30pm or something like that. Immediately we were bombarded by the usual taxi drivers asking us where we were going and were told that no tro tros would go to Wli due to it being Good Friday. Eventually, with some help, we got ourselves into a shared taxi (which basically means squishing two in the front, four in the back and therefore paying less) and headed to Wli – getting caught in a rain shower in the process which resulted in the taxi driver handing me a screwdriver to do up the window!

I really loved Wli village. I am, afterall, a country girl and Wli is surrounded by beautiful hills not to mention the waterfalls that can be seen in the distance! We stayed at one of the two hotel places geared up for tourists (running water! Flushing toilets! I am ashamed to say I took a photo of this…) actually staying in a huge tent for both nights. After we had dumped our stuff we took a walk around the village and met some of the local kiddies who all say one of two things: give me pen! Or, give me photograph! We visited the falls office and had a look around the shops that are there. In fact, we got so excited by the reasonable prices that Katter and I asked the lady of one shop to shorten some shorts we have wanted for ages that are made out of patchworks of fabric. Totally cool.

Wli village

Me and Katter - it wasn't that dark I have no idea why the picture is!

With some of the village children!

Me and Katja near the office

The next morning, after a breakfast hassle that ended up with us actually eating breakfast at the other hotel because we had assumed we’d be able to get something in the village, we got to the office at 8am and got our guide for the walk, whose name was Francis. The waterfalls are divided into two, the upper and lower falls. To the lower falls it is a nice, flat, 45 minute path through the forest. Francis showed us cacao and coffee trees and even a little pineapple growing too! We left the lower falls until after the upper and began the steep ascent. The total hike took around 1.5hours and was a very steep path through the forest over roots and giant rocks! We were sweating sooooooooooooo much and my tshirt and shorts were just drenched with sweat! It was hilarious and exausting all at once. Francis, our guide, walked in flip flops… (and, madly, carried a huge bunch of plantains on his head the whole way down!)

The little pineapple! For some reason we found it adorable!

Cute little boy carrying mangos!

Ready to start!

Sweaty girls...

A really beautiful view! You can just about see the village in the distance and Togo on the right!

I hate to show this picture, because I am clearly disgusting but the hills behind me are technically Togo and it shows really how hot/hard it was!!!

Another pretty view :)

After masses of up we were rewarded with some down and finally got to the falls! There weren’t many people there and we all swam in the pool and climbed onto the black rock underneath the falls. It was so cold and brilliant! After drying off and eating biscuits Francis took us across the stream and we were in Togo, so now I have been to two African countries!

Coming to the upper falls!

Yey!

The way down was the same as the way up so there was a lot of downhill walking to contend with which gave me a serious case of the jelly legs! We went to the lower falls which was just starting to get busy with foreign families and couples and locals splashing around and then walked back to the hotel which took foreveeerr in our tired states. Had it been that long in the morning? Surely not!

The next day we left for Hohoe around 1pm. We had wanted to leave earlier but Katter and I had to collect our shorts from the lady – who was late. Typical. After some arguing with taxi drivers we managed to negotiate a fare back that was inflated on account of our skin but not ridiculously so. We were lucky to get a tro tro back to Accra fairly quickly even though I had very little leg room and probably got half of Africa stuck in my hair after 3.5 hours with the window open next to me! We had planned to go to a monkey sanctuary on the way back but money was tight and I feel we couldn’t have done it justice in a flying visit. I hope to go to in at some point and visit some of the surrounding villages.

I include the pictures of Katter and I in our shorts. Aren’t they amazing!!?

This weekend we plan on going to Cape Coast on Friday after work with Katja and some other volunteers. We will visit Kakum National Park from there are hopefully sleep there (in the forest, or something like that ?!) on the Saturday night.

Hope all is well for everyone in England! Apologies again for the over long blog and insane quantities of photos…!

Sal xxxxxxxx