Christmas in Ghana - Part 3

We spent a couple of nights in Ezile Bay, a private bay owned by a French couple who also own an inn at Busua. We fell in love with this bay. It was just stunning. Clean beaches, big palm trees, private bungalows. We didn't do much here at all - read books, swam, napped, and walked to the neighbouring villages. This holiday was the tropical holiday I have been dreaming about for years!

After hearing so many amazing things about the 'lobster' (small crayfish) we decided to splash out and treat ourselves. What came back was a dish that contained so much garlic it would have killed the entire Twilight crew. Glad we bought that dish. 

We took Neriah for so many swims. She seems to really enjoy the water, and the few times she took a wave to the face, she didn't seem too phased!  She got to experience and enjoy the texture of sand for the first time as well.

Here is our little $25 a night bungalow.

Hanging out at the beach

Exploring the texture and flavour of sand for the first time.

A lot of our trip consisted of this.

I love love love this photo! She looks like a 'Survivor Ghana' contestant

More swims - she took a few waves to the face and it didn't even phase her!

Ezile Bay is situated between two villages, don't ask me the name of either of them because I can't tell you that. We walked 10 minutes to one of the villages, where we met loads of kids who wandered with us as we walked through. They loved Neriah and enjoyed holding her hand and singing and dancing for her. Definitely the first white baby they had ever seen! This village was unusual for us as I was hoping to find some food (generally there is an least one lady selling rice and beans and plantain somewhere) but there was absolutely nothing. 

So, tired and hungry, we wandered over to the other village, which was a busy, bustling fishing village. This was a super cool place, with absolutely no order to it. We weaved and wormed our way through mud huts, random sellers, hair dressers, babies sleeping in the walking path and food sellers. YAY! Food in Ghana is so much cheaper than Nigeria and so delicious.

Some of the boats parked up by the bridge.

Caleb did a massive run as well, visiting Cape Three Points. I'm not too sure what Cape Three Points is about, but from the photos it looks pretty cool. An old lighthouse, one of those signs that points 'this was to Auckland', with the distance on the back (I'd find that annoying). Everything was very bright and colourful though. I'm sure Caleb had a great time.

9752km to Auckland!!

Christmas in Ghana - Part 2

From Elmina we took public transport again to Busua Beach, to check out a local surf school for a friend. 

We fell in love with Busua. We loved the friendliness of the people, the laidback vibe, the lovely children, the delicious food and the beautiful clean beach.

The main street of Busua. The little food place on the right is owned by a lady named Florence, who cooks the best pancakes and a mean egg sandwich. This is the local meeting place for breakfast, and lunch, and sometimes dinner...

We were so lucky to get a fabulous huge room with a private balcony, which became Neriah's play area. She spent many a nap here, in the breeze, and we loved watching the world go by from up here.

Neriah's awesome tent (thanks Aunty Kelly and Uncle Vlad!)

The view from our balcony

What a good wife, doing the laundry

While in Busua we rented a surfboard and while the surf was only little and quite dumpy, it was still a load of fun. I was stoked that I could still stand up after not surfing for 2 years. SUCCESS! We met some really cool Aussies and Americans as well. Busua has a few projects happening there, mainly tourism development and a few community programmes as well. 

Super cool Aussies - Claire and Alex

Sunset walk on the beach

Some of the local kids who fell in love with Neriah

My friends

Busua Beach - this is actually not the best photo. I promise the water was blue, and clean.

One of many swims for little Neriah. I wish I could have captured the one where Caleb had to hold her up to the sky and jump as a massive wave come. Oh my nervous heart.

We spent three nights here and then headed off to a private beach called Ezile Bay for a couple of nights. We actually loved Busua so much that we chose to go back there to spend Christmas. This time we stayed with an Italian guy who is currently building a new hotel. He had two finished rooms so we took one and kept him company.
We spent Christmas Eve singing Christmas carols and reflecting on the birth of Jesus, and woke up for pancakes and presents!  Our Christmas lunch consisted of plantain and yam chips with Ghanian stew, and our wonderful host Robbie cooked us a delicious Italian risotto for dinner. Mmm mmm.

Present time!

Num num

At Robbie's Place

We also wandered about a kilometre to the neighbouring village, Dixcove, another fishing village and home to Dixcove Castle, which also had dungeons for holding slaves before they were moved onto various places around the globe. A very sobering experience, particularly as we were the only ones visiting this place.

Looking down over the fishing boats

Christmas in Ghana - Part 1

Yahoo! Finally, after a failed attempt trying to get into Benin Republic, we made it to our second West African country. 

Sitting in the Lagos airport for five hours before scheduled departure time, and then another two hours waiting for a delayed plane, I was pondering why anyone would wait seven hours in an airport for an hour long flight.

Do I look tired much?

Once in Ghana we spent the night in Accra, after a fellow passenger decided that it was too much for Caleb to take his wife and baby to Cape Coast (a two hour bus ride) that night and booked us into a hotel, which he drove us to as well (thank you God for angels in disguise - there is no WAY I would have made that journey and it was too late at night to be bothered looking for accommodation!)
Then we headed off by trotro (public transport buses) to Elmina Beach (thank you God for angels keeping us safe).

This is a tro-tro.

 

People thought we were hilarious having Neriah in a baby capsule and kept telling me I needed to have her strapped on my back. But you know, public transport doesn't have the best safety record, so if we can make it more safe for our little girl then we will do it!

Elmina fishing port

Elmina is a small coastal fishing village. There wasn't a whole lot there, but it definitely gave us a good taste of a bustling village. One of the things I loved about Ghana was how much emptier it seems than Nigeria. It is a busy little place but no way near as hectic! The streets and beaches are cleaner, and the pace of life is slower. 

The road to main Elmina town

We did a good bit of rockhopping and discovered a beach that was not actually a beach, it was a public toilet. Could not get out of there fast enough.

We were stoked to be rockhopping around the coast, until we stumbled upon (smelt) poo beach

Introducing Neriah to the green coconut. I truly wish I could love these as much as the Archer and Calvert families, but after a few mouthfuls, I'm done!

Unfinished boats? Art? Who knows?

Neriah was also lucky enough to have her first, of many, bucket baths. She was extra lucky because this was also the only place for the rest of our holiday that had hot water. Lucky baby.

Upon arriving at our hotel we tried to order some lunch, to which we were informed that the cook had gone to the market and would not be back for some time. A few hours later we tried to order dinner, to which we were told that the cook was not coming back. Righto. Thanks for the heads up. My poor husband had to go wandering the streets in the dark to find us whatever he could. My awesome husband came back with a strange combination from various food sellers, including the best and most awesome dish of the whole holiday - some BBQed fish, covered in onion, peppers and deliciousness. Mmmm.
Thanks hubby. I am glad that you are our family's provider :)

More adventures in Nigeria

In November during mid-term break, Caleb and I decided to get out of Lagos again and do a bit more exploration. We decided to find some hot springs that we had heard about, and on speaking to a couple of Caleb's work colleagues, found out they were heading in that direction as well. We tagged along and found ourselves in a city called Ile-Efe, about 2 or 3 hours north-east of Lagos.

We were lucky enough to be hosted by a friend there who is the Head Teacher of a high school. He gave us the use of his driver to explore the local area. 

First we checked out the 7-tier waterfall.

If this was in New Zealand people would be screaming! Trash everywhere unfortunately spoils the natural beauty.

At the bottom waterfall... the best level actually.

At the top of the 3rd tier after a feed.

We got totally mauled by a hundred uni students who were on a field trip. I don't think they had ever seen oyibos before!

The waterfall itself was stunning, it was quite a scramble up to the different levels, and unfortunately Neriah didn't enjoy herself as much as we thought she would. She protested the whole way up and back down again, and promptly fell asleep on the drive to our next destination.

We then visited the meeting place of the hot and cold springs. This is a big tourist destination in a country where there is no tourism infrastructure at all. 

One foot hot, one foot cold.

Perfect opportunity for a bath in the warm water.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Neriah is the best traveller! She is such a cruisey baby and such a delight to everyone we meet along the way.  Neriah also got to visit her first 'food-is-ready' stand. We ate beans, rice and plantain, and also got offered some bush-meat... translate... giant rats that scavenge round the bush. Not my type of food thats for sure....

There's the bush meat on the plate on the left. You can kind of see the claws at the end of each leg. Thanks, but no thanks.

Women pounding yam.

Here are some more random pictures of our journey. You know, most expats that we have met have not even been out of Lagos. I would like to be known that once you get out of the city, Nigeria has a lot to offer... its a legit West African experience... I can guarantee you won't see another white face.