Day 6, Saturday 24
Once again we were all awoken by the cockerel in the early hours of the morning, (Yay), luckily however, there were no commercial medicine announcements to wake everyone up in a bad mood. Then it was vegetable omeletes for breakfast to add to the long list of delicious meals we’ve had over the last week. Next we gathered our buddies and headed off on what turned out to be a long, humid journey to Kakum National Park. Upon arrival we were greeted by multiple women trying to sell us various Ghanaian foods, in which I (Alex) managed to haggle for some chocolate biscuits, also we discovered the best loos we had seen all week, and we unfortunately saw our faces in the mirror for the first time on this trip. Next was a long, tiring walk up to the canopy in the rainforest, at which we were to take a hesitated risk at attempting the seven long bridges above the canopies. After a lot of nervous excitement and discovering a few people’s fears of heights we all safely crossed 7 out of 7 bridges. The buddies found this a great excitement and loved teasing us by rocking the bridges as we crossed them, which was not so funny at the time. After this thrilling experience we headed back down, happy to be alive, and have the promise of chips and fizzy drinks in the café at the alongside our yummy lunch of sandwiches with our buddies (even though they bought their own), and where I (Lotte) spent a good ten minutes talking my buddy (Eric) into giving me my camera back. After this we departed from our buddies and headed to the cocoa plantation, at which Musah (our leader) gave us a very good guided tour around it, along with the farmer himself, who gave us a great explanation on how they’re harvested, as well as the taste of a ripe bean (which tasted quite like mango). However, being mid-day the weather was at its “best” and we were struggling to cope with the heat whilst trekking around the fields, and therefore we headed back towards our village stopping off at Elmina market on our way. This was where we were to choose our materials which are to be tailored into tops, trousers and dresses (which we will be picking up on Wednesday), although some patterns chosen were interesting to say the least (i.e. Lotte’s) and Musah had a very stressful job dealing with 16 hot tired teenagers trying to get what they wanted, which he dealt with brilliantly. After another long journey home we finally made it back to the guest house and preceded to play our usual game of cards where even Katie missed her daily afternoon nap to join in. To top the day of we had a great feast of rice with Palava sauce (a mixture of cooked vegetables including onions) with the classic hint of Ghanaian spice we’re now used to. After a quick debrief, I (Lotte) went onto Book Club (founded by Jack and a few others) whilst Alex talked with the others outside (all covered in mosquito spray), and with everyone being tired out from the adventurous day we all hit the hay and retired early ready to be “surprised” at being woken up by our “useful” animal alarm and the t-annoy!
Bye for now, Lottie and Alex ☺ xoxo