Ada Foah

This weekend I decided on a short trip to Ada Foah. I was accompanied by my roommate, Joanna. Ada is the point at which the Volta River drains into the Atlantic Ocean. Its really only about an hour or two from Accra, but of course, everything in Ghana takes about ten times longer than it should. We left the house around 8:30 and ended up in Ada four hours later after going to the wrong trotro station in Accra and taking a trotro to Tema the township instead of Tema station in Accra. Fortunately Tema is in the same direction as Ada, and we were able to get transportation directly from there. Whew! We met a nice guy, Emmanuel, on the trotro who schooled in Ada and is now teaching somewhere else. He was going to Ada and offered to show us his school and then take us to the estuary (our final destination). We saw signs for his school at the trotro yard and figured it was right around the corner. Uuuh, no. We ended up walking 30 minutes in the noonday sun in the opposite direction. And guess what? The school looked like every other school in Ghana. We got there and there was some sort of lecture going on. Emmanuel talked us into staying to listen for a few minutes. We had to walk in the front door and cross in front of 500 ghanaian students in uniform and the lecturer on stage speaking. As usual, we were dirty, sweaty, white peo0ple carrying backpacks. Talk about hella akward. After about 10 minutes we got up and demanded to leave. We had to walk all the way back to the station and then another 40 minutes across the dunes to get to estuary. So much for getting there in the morning and spending the day on the beach reading!!!!
Well finally, around 2, we made it to the camp. We got a nice little thatched hut to stay the night in. The walls were made of palm fronds woven together and the roof, thatched, like I said. Inside there was just a double bed on a sand floor. Real nice and quaint and dark. Joanna and I spent the rest of our afternoon swimming in the river, which is more like a lake at this point because its soo huge and slow moving, reading, writing, sitting at the beach, playing with the local kids. Nice and relaxing, just as planned. In the early evening some of the locals got to drumming and a group of boys and girls had what seemed to be a traditional dancing lesson. It was cute to watch. After dinner, we laid up in the hammocks under the palm trees and star gazed. They were, no exaggeration, the most amazing stars I've ever seen in my life. I think we may have been under the milky way because the stars up ahead were more intense and dense than I have ever seen.
The next day was more of the same...reading, writing, swimming, beaching. I tried to walk down to the point where the river actually meets the sea... overrated. I walked along the ocean in the surf so it wouldnt be too hot. Seemed like a good plan until I came across a dead fish. Well, dead fish, we are at the ocean, no big deal really. Then a bit farther, dead goat. EEEWWW. Okay, that was too much for me. I cut up and decided to go the rest of the way across the dunes. However, the dunes had become a plastic graveyard at this point. I walked for a while and debated seriously if walking across the hot, garbagy sand in my barefeet was worth it. I made it to where I could see the estuary, had sudden visions of the soles of my feet covered in blisters, and ran the rest of the way back past the dead goat and plunged in the water. Thankfully, no blisters, but I did get a pretty decent sunburn.
Sunday afternoon, Joanna and I decided to take a boat back to the Ada Foah trotro station instead of hiking across the dunes. Good call. It was about an hour canoe trip up the lake/river and it was BEAUTIFUL. Right next to we were staying were several fishing villages huddled under the palm trees. Villagers live in the same kind of huts we were staying at and fish in the typically colorful pirate boat/canoe. Farther upstream, western expats have built weekend vacation homes. We saw a few oboruni out on their speed boads, some kids wakeboarding, other swimming, etc. Also, several islands dot the middle of the river including one where rum is made. All and all, it was a nice weekend trip that made me wish I spend more time near the water!
PS. i think you can leave comments so leave me something fun to read :)