We got our swim in early the next morning…. it was worth waiting for :) The quiet stillness of the morning broken only by the soft swish of water as i passed through it … that, and the quite big swallows dive bombing me! Last night i had thought they were bats as they have that same swooping motion and distinctive wing… I think they were trying to tell me the pool was their territory and they were only tolerating me…
Breakfast was served in the dining room .. it has slowly dawned on me that the more enclosed and almost dark a room is the more the Ghanaians like it… Where the Canadian who has just escaped frosty winter searches out big, wide open windows with the warm, sultry air breezing in, the Ghanaian close big, heavy drapes over small windows and love the stuffy, coldness of air conditioning. One thing that doesn’t change from country to country now is the presence of a huge tv with some banal program droning on!! (sigh) Had my first pineapple – oh wow!!! So sweet yets thirst quenching….
We had to do the daily pilgrimage to the altar of money so we could pay for our digs… oh, Visa is such a good invention!
Then we were off on the first long car ride off to Kumasi … Like roads everywhere the constant jiggling put me into quite a sleepy soporific state. Even so a couple of sights roused me awake ….
We stopped to stretch our legs at the Bunso Aroboratum … there is a new Canopy Walk that we are thinking of checking out on our way back … for now the road beckons!
A peaceful scene of a shepherd in his large hat shading his face with a staff in hand with a herd of the somehow elegant white cattle with some of them with curving horns sauntering along the roadside ….
….. a bucolic scene made even more sere by its urban setting…
Three giant, dead trees piercing the skyline with thousands of …. are they?? ….yes bats flying all around. Something had startled them and as we stood photographing them they settled back into the trues .. making the the branches look bizarrely alive..
Thousands of bats swirling around dead trees … quite an awesome sight … my iphone doesn’t do the scene justice.
.. A cluster of frothy palm trees with what look like beautiful little balls made of dried leaves … and then you could see birds hovering around them fluttering in front of what you realize are the holes of nests!
…. i think they are weaver finches..
… Nature photographer i’m not so i am including a photo from the internet
Article from Mother Nature (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/7177680630166099/ )
We travelled every kind of road from packed, red earth swirling up red dust to real high ways with a huge meridien separating the two directions (that was quite short!) till finally the density of traffic told us we were arriving in Kumasi..
We had decided to try and find a hotel that i had visited last time for supper as it had a swimming pool as well … Dela managed to find it with my meager directions and a lot of help from his friends on the roadway!! Felt quite triumphant when i saw the familiar terrace with the inviting swimming pool….
Even though we were dirty, dusty and hot we dropped our bags and went off in search of the small co operative that makes beautiful brass beads.. Silly me, i thought we could ‘drop in’. let them know we were here, let Lisa have a quick squizz and then come back the next day … But the guys would have nothing to do with that!! They bustled us into the shop and inundated us with all their treasures … with the greetings of “Welcome .. Long time .. where have you been?” and we were caught … oh well, we were pretty willing flies caught in the web …
Finally we insisted we would come back tomorrow and escaped to a nice cool swim followed by an cold brew …. Feeling so hot and grubby makes this ending so welcome…