We were indeed the only visitors to the Lake Bosomtwe Paradise resort. It was lovely to walk around this beautiful place and have it all to ourselves except for the very laid back staff. I say laid back because they had time to play table tennis and drafts off the dining room area. They chatted and laughed , watched the TV which was behind their service counter and in a rather languid manner brought us breakfast and supper. They were wonderfully friendly and we exchanged email addresses before we left. I asked Abigail, the young woman serving meals to us 'Would you like to travel?' and she responded 'It is my dream!' It was also William's dream and the Legon university student's who showed us around the Akosombo Dam. He was more specific: because many of the expatriots who are working on the dam site are Canadian, Fred's dream is to come to Canada and study engineering.
We spent our first morning relaxing. It was great to take our time and have no deadlines....not until 1 pm anyway when we were to meet William at the car. We would go to lunch at noon and have plenty of time. We read our books on the balcony, looking out at heavy dark skies which threatened to drown our afternoon in Kumasi, and our visit to the bead market.
We turned up a little late for lunch so ordered a Ghanaian dish of Red-red (spicy beans and onion), fried plantains and chips...easy and quick we thought. It came after about 40 minutes. William shook his head in disgust and wandered outside to wait for us. He was fortunately very forgiving and always blamed the Ghanaian side of the equation. We set off for Kumasi...the big city.
Brenda had some requests: beads for her daughter and a Ghanaian football jersey for her son. So we first searched for the soccer jersey and eventually found one the right colour and size. It started to rain! Brenda kindly offered to share her umbrella but I decided to soak up and enjoy the moisture. We continued our searches whilst drops of water and sweat drenched my hair and face...what a sight (I should say 'fright') I was!
After also finding a bottle of wine we headed off to the bead market which only operates on a Thursday so we were in luck. What a colourful sight it was: tables loaded with all shapes, sizes and colours of beads. A feast for the eyes. We wandered slowly round and made our individual choices. There were Brits there and it was good to hear their accents! It struck me that, unusually, we had not met one person or group from Semester at Sea...and we never did until the shuttle bus back to the ship in Tema.
Our next stop was the Coti waterfalls. This was about an hour's drive away and William casually informed us that there were 125 steps down to the Falls and of course....back up again. I inwardly groaned...it was hot and humid and I felt that my asthma was not far off. In the event I managed the steps easily down and slowly up. William and Brenda were kind and patient so all was well.
The twin falls were absolutely stunning falling sharply down about 400 ft with a smokey mist rising over the swirling pool below. There was a small beach with whispy trees and a welcome coolness in the shade. We stood riveted, it was such a soothing therapeutic sight and we were reluctant to leave.... I was naturally postponing the inevitable climb back to the car!
Climb back we did and returned to Bosomtwe, stopping only to take photos of some incredible views over 'our' lake! We had a supper of boiled yams and Palava sauce....delicious! The sauce contained spinach, tomatoes, beans, onions and spices: the boiled yams were like white round slices of a very crumbly bread....strange but a perfect accompaniment for the sauce.
We went to bed at about 9 pm that night tired and relaxed....after a glass or two of wine! We left instructions for our 6.30 am breakfast as we were to make the 250km journey to Akosombo for our last night.
I really will finish this tomorrow! George is sound asleep and my lids are heavy. The computer lab is going to take a look at my connection to my pictures tomorrow and see why I cannot get them to the blogsite. I truly hope to be able to add some soon.
For now Kwaheri, sleep well!
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