Before we left, I said goodbye to some of them for the last time. I received a great gift in the form of a fruit bowl, plate, mug and an elephant from the Samartex ECO-craft collection. These are really nice things and the elephant gets a place of honour in the study.
Finally we are going home.
The first stop is Secondi-Takoradi where I stay in a hotel on the beach. It’s only 220 km, but it takes over 5 ½ hours to get there. It wasn’t boring though, as I had a nice chat with Godwin the driver. Apart from that, there was a lot to see. Even after 8 weeks I still find it exciting, there are always interesting and surprising things.
We are still on the unpaved road when a Rolls-Royce Phantom in sky blue comes towards us. I thought I was dreaming and turned around again. Yes, that really was a Rolly. Turning to Godwin “that was a Rolls-Royce after all.” Yes, that’s the rich from Accra, they can afford such a thing, but he thinks it’s quite bad. Honestly, the car doesn’t fit this place. So you don’t have to provoke the inhabitants in the small town and make them understand that you can simply afford it, but unfortunately all the inhabitants are poor and will remain poor.
Godwin then told us about the relationship and especially the social gap between the rich capital and the poor provinces.
The closer we got to the sea, the better the roads became, and mud huts increasingly became houses made of stone and concrete.
We arrived at the Arfrica Beach Resort in time for lunch.
Secondi-Takoradi used to be the centre of the oil industry in Ghana, and therefore richer than other areas, equipped with a good infrastructure and there were some good hotels on the beach. But that is now many years gone, but the hotels are still there.
They are a bit outdated on the outside, but the service was really good. The “fish grill platter” meal was great. Something like the return journey in stages. First from a really poor area to a city like you probably know from many holiday areas. The accommodation was a bit more upmarket for Ghana. Everything clean and delicious food. After dinner, a short rest and then finally a swim in the sea. It’s wonderful here, and there’s hardly anyone else around. On 150 m of beach I saw a mother with her two children and another small group of teenagers. Ok, it’s Wednesday and normal people have to work in the early afternoon, but even towards evening there wasn’t much more going on. It’s just beautiful.
The next morning, first another round of swimming, then breakfast on the shore – almost like paradise.
After breakfast, Godwin took me on to Accra – only 200 km to the airport. Oh, time without end, I thought to myself.
But it doesn’t go that fast here. About a third of the way through, we stopped for a rest in Cap-Town. Cap-Town is the tourist region in Ghana with the most and best resorts by the sea. It’s just nice to lie on a sun lounger with the sound of the waves and daydream. At some point, however, hunger wins. When we left again at 2, Godwin said we were going straight to the airport. I thought to myself, we still have 120 km to go and tell me it will take us 6 hours. He was right.
The road was getting more and more crowded. Many of the Ghanaians use the long Easter weekend to visit family or friends. In addition to fully loaded lorries that struggled to climb a slope at 20 km/h, more and more cars joined them. I am used to a lot from China, but this was nothing compared to Ghana. As the traffic became heavier and the speed slower, I thought everyone was going crazy. We got into the traffic jam, but some overtook on the right, using the hard shoulder or the pavement or whatever. The others drove cheekily into the oncoming lane. And when a car or another convoy came along, they continued to drive on the far left of the hard shoulder of the oncoming lane. Hello? one lane quickly becomes three lanes. If a vehicle does end up on the hard shoulder – as you can see from the name STAND – then they squeeze in somewhere and continue on their way. Strangely enough, there was no swearing or honking or other aggressiveness. Everyone drives with a calmness, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to use the right and left hard shoulder equally. There is a lot of movement, but it doesn’t make things go any faster. Every now and then there are signs like “Speeding kills- 70 people died here” Driving too fast is not our problem at the moment, but it’s really crass that so many people have died at this point.
I’m starting to get nervous because we’re just not making any progress. But Godwin says to stay cool, we’ll manage easily. Arriving in the main town, it becomes even more chaotic. The roads are now 3 or 4 lanes wide, but it still doesn’t go any faster. Next to us is a police car with flashing lights, but somehow no one except the police seems to care. Rescue lanes are a foreign word, so they don’t move a metre faster than we do. On the other hand, where should the cars go when everything is at a standstill?
Godwin was right, I reached the plane safely. So check in and off home. I had put my photo bag, laptop and a few presents in hand luggage, which had become a bit heavier than normal. Now I had to put it on the scales, which showed 16kg. Oops, it did get a bit heavy. At first the lady didn’t want to let me fly with it and asked if I had a second bag with me – no, I didn’t. But at some point she gave up. But at some point she gave up and told me with her hand to pack my hand luggage and just leave. Oh, that was nice, I’ve experienced that differently, in Germany no one would have let me through. Somehow I learned to love Ghana because of things like that.
I soon fell asleep on the plane, as the long journey had made me tired.
Stopover in Brussels.
Something very strange happened to me – what 8 weeks in Ghana can do to you.
As I look around, I think: “This feels strange, so many white people around me – something is wrong here, I feel totally uncomfortable.”
In Munich, Titian picked me up at the airport and I am very happy to be back home.
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