A Feth's Perspective on Life: An African Thunderstorm in the Volta Region

Covered in gnat bites, tending sore muscles, and still kicking the mud off our shoes we have returned from the Volta Region.

Our travels took us about 3 hours outside of Accra to the small junction of Fume on the road to Hohoe where we headed down a dirt road about 4 km to Mountain Paradise Lodge. This was an inexpensive, middle of nowhere escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. More like a hostel than a lodge, Mountain Paradise allowed for magnificent views of the Avatime Hills near Mt. Gemi.

We arrived early afternoon on Saturday and as soon as we settled into our room, the rains came........

http://videos.komando.com/2009/06/18/african-thunderstorm/

(Courtesy of Aunt Kathy - thanks!)

It's the rainy season in Volta and boy did we know it! Coming from Kenya where we experienced rain only once while in Maassai Mara, this was a real gift. We took residence in the bar/lounge for the rest of the afternoon and enjoyed the sounds of the raindrops hitting the rooftop overhead.

A lazy afternoon was had that first day. Brian, not being a cat guy (according to him), immediately befriended the local cat, Joy. She nestled in with him as he enjoyed his Hemingway novel and took turns going from his chair to mine, purring all the way. I napped for a bit and she joined me. Soon after snuggling up with the cat, we noticed these red spots all over our arms. They didn't itch or sting but they did multiply. Of course we blamed the cat, thinking she had fleas and transferred some to us. We later learned that tiny gnats were having their way with us. By the end of the day I looked as though I had some kind of weird disease. In Kenya Brian was sweetmeat for the mosquitoes, in Ghana I am sweetmeat for the gnats......ugh....

Once the rain ceased we walked around the grounds a bit. There was an enclosed area featuring three tortoises (with a sign spelled, "tortise"). There were tons of spiders clinging to every building corner. Huge termite mounds were scattered about. We took a stroll down the dirt road and rested on a large boulder and enjoyed the serenity of the mountains.

That evening, after dinner, we took in some drumming lessons from one of the staff members named Believer. Believer is a young Rastafarian, Bob Marley music playing, lover of humanity, peaceful guy. He used to work at the Cultural Center in Accra as a drummer and was happy to give us a lesson. We played for about an hour and a half and during the last few sessions started to really get the hang of it and played some good beats.

The following morning we awoke to a view of mist covered mountains, kind of like Rwanda but not as cool in temperature. We would soon discover that Sunday would turn out to be a big day as we had ambitiously planned to hike Ghana's highest peak and West Africa's tallest waterfall all in the same day! We met our driver, Samuel, around 8am to head up towards Wli Falls and Mount Afadjato, just over an hour's drive. We stopped at the Wli Falls office and a guide, Alex, lead us to the trailhead of the mountain. He ended up joining us for the full day. Samuel, who had never hiked Mt. Afadjato before, decided to give it a try. That was his first time and probably his last as the hike turned out to be quite steep. We managed pretty well though and completed it round trip in just under 2 hours. The site at the top was supremely rewarding. We had a view of Tagbo Falls and the Togo border nearby.

After the sweaty but enjoyable hike we needed to refuel on some lunch and found a local hotel with some great food. Energized by pasta and local fare we embarked on our second journey of the day, to the upper part of Wli (pronounced 'vlee') Falls. The entrance was nearby and we were soon off, this time Samuel hung back by the car.

No more than 5 minutes had passed and we were in a torrential downpour. The sky had opened up and was dumping buckets of water on our heads. Some local kids ran past using large banana leafs as umbrellas. Our guide acted quickly and borrowed their machete to cut us some as well. We ventured on, the banana leafs helping a little, but proceeded to get drenched. We were truly in a rainforest ;) It was about 45 minutes to Wli's lower falls. As we approached, we could hear the booming sound of the water hitting the pool below accompanied by the shrill of hundreds of straw bats clinging to the side near the falls. It was incredible!

Taking photos near the falls proved to be a challenge. With both the spray and the rain it was tough to keep the lens dry long enough to get a good shot but Brian prevailed gallantly.

Next we started our climb to the upper falls. Woah - now I thought the hike to Mount Afadjato was steep, this was 10 times worse! It took over an hour to reach the falls, legs burning, sweat dripping, adrenaline pumping, it was exhilarating! We passed a couple of girls who were heading back down, unable to complete the hike. There was another group, some people who were also staying at Mountain Paradise Lodge, heading back down but able to make it to the falls and said it was worth it...and that we were close.

When we finally arrived, the waterfall was all our own. There was a steady rainbow bent over the right side of the falls. Brian and I again tried our best at taking some photos but more than anything reveled in our accomplishment. It was about 4pm by this time and we knew that light would be fading fast in the forest below so we didn't stay too long and soon started our descent. The way down took just less than an hour and then it was back to the entrance where it all began. The rain had let up during our trek to the upper falls and tried to return on our walk back to the car but only amounted to a drizzle.

We were exhausted, wet, tired and elated from our tough day of hiking. It was worth every muscle ache and pain!

Monday came and we had to leave our little mountain paradise home. We enjoyed breakfast, checked out and drove to a nearby monkey sanctuary where we enjoyed the beautiful sights and sounds of the mona monkey. We both had the opportunity to feed the little wide-eyed creatures as they approached the banana's in our hands and skillfully peeled and bit. There are about 300 monkeys at the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, consisting of a total of 4 troops. They are considered sacred and are protected under this community based eco-tourism project.

After the monkey sanctuary we were on the road back to Accra. Along the way we stopped and had lunch at the Volta Hotel that displayed a lovely view of the Lake Volta Akosombo Dam. Lake Volta is said to be the largest man-made lake in the world. It was a great lunch spot with good food for less than Accra prices which was nice.

We made it back to Airside around 5:30pm and said our goodbyes to Samuel. It was nice to be home to an air-conditioned, gnat free room with no large spiders hanging about. I did however, find a dead spider curled up at the bottom of our suitcase - eeek!

Driving through the Volta Region.