Day 79: Camping by the sea
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Sun 23 Jan 2011 10:09
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Day 79: Saturday 22 January 2011. Green Turtle Lodge N04
45.504 W002 01.357 Distance driven 278 km
It was good to be on the road again after a week in the
city but the way out was slow. 25 km in the first hour and only 40 in the
second. After that it speeded up but the first few hours west of Accra were very
dreary scenery, very drab and scruffy with thousands of unfinished buildings
just lying unfinished with no visible signs of work in progress. Why is
this? Does everyone run out of cash or is there some subtle tax or planning
reason? Do contractors run away from fixed-price contracts they can't make money
on? I'm curious to know the reason.
As we got further west the vegetation became much more
prolific, denser and lusher with a predominance of coconut palms,
plantains and bananas.
We went into Cape Coast to visit the castle and see
where the British had run a slave shipment centre from 1645 until
emancipation. It was pretty depressing to see the foul conditions in which
the slaves had been kept for an average 3 months awaiting shipment to the New
World. It was also extremely hot and humid and I found I couldn't understand the
tour guide's particular brand of English, so I opted out halfway
through.
We then drove on to Cape Three Points, the southern most
tip of Ghana, through Takoradi to Dix Cove and then an 11 km very rough track
along the sea shore to Green Turtle Lodge. GTL is an amazing eco-lodge on the beach - real camping in paradise
stuff. Fortunately, there was a stiff breeze off the sea but the evening was
very hot and humid. We opted for a meal in the restaurant and were amused
by the sign over the bar "Jesus loves cocktails - happy hour 5pm to 7pm"! We had
a lovely fish supper at a table on the beach under the palms, lit by an oil
lamp. Paradise!
Here we met up with two other Land Rovers doing the same
trip as us. Chris and Bridge (both South African) and Tom
(Zimbabwean) and Fran (SA) set off from the UK in August and have had
a very relaxed schedule so far. However, Tom and Fran have now revised their
schedule to much the same as ours so we shall undoubtedly be seeing more of them
as we both head for South Africa.
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