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December 13th 2006

Published: December 13th 2006

Wednesday 6th December, diary written

Friday 17th November, actual day!!!!

We are now in Accra spending a few days as real sightsee’rs before we return to Heathrow and fly on to Dubai. Our last few weeks in Tamale were incredibly busy and fun but obviously we did not get a chance to catch you up with all the news. So much has happened but I will continue chronologically and catch you up as quickly as I can without missing anything out. I would like to say that we have been made to feel so welcome and it feels so right that we are finding it very hard to think of leaving even though we are already in Accra.
Anyway back to the hippos……

I think I left you at the end of a most idyllic day and we had a fantastic meal cooked over our campfire and went to sleep in our wonderful little huts. Well unfortunately we did not have the most idyllic night in our little huts. For starters R and my bed had more lumps and dips in it than the potholed road we had travelled on the day before. My side just dipped and cracked and sunk into nothingness. Marc had worried himself into a nightmare thinking of all the crocodiles in the river and couldn’t get back to sleep so he lay down on the floor in our room and suffice to say he is not a quiet sleeper. The cold got to Huw in the early hours of the morning and he came rummaging through the clothes in search of something warm. In my little cocoon I had not noticed the cold. The early African dawn was almost a relief. The caretaker had arrived overnight and had already lit a fire for us and water was on the boil. Marc and Huw took over the tending of the fire and rustled us up some beans and fruit for breakfast. Sitting outside at our table eating fresh fruit, bread, crackers, cheese and the brilliant chocolate spread we felt like nothing less than Kings. It was with a great deal of excitement and wonderfully full tummies that we set of with Aba and Fuseini to find some hippos.
Marc could not be persuaded to join us on the river and once we got a close up view of our boats the rest of us also started having a few second thoughts. The boats were about 12-15 feet long with wooden slats for seats and the bottom of the boat was filled with water. The boats were very roughly made and you could see daylight through the not so small cracks in the wood. We were all a little dubious until some local people came along and hitched a quick ride to the other side while we gathered our courage. The journey looked very smooth and no one showed any fear so we were emboldened to alight. Aba sat in the middle with the rest of us spread along the slats. It was important that Aba sat in the middle as he had a large calabash with which he commenced to scoop water out of the boat with, this was his main job during our journey and there was plenty of water to scoop out as well..
Marc stayed on shore with Fuseini and the rest of us gingerly boarded our vessel. Unfortunately we did not see any hippos but there really was no unfortunate at all in fact the opposite. The sheer beauty and magnificence of the Black Volta kept us in awe and although we spotted a hippo around every bend and in every stray twig and branch they remained elusive. We did though see an abundance of fantastic birdlife. Birds of all shapes and colours were flitting around everywhere and we were lucky enough to see and follow for a distance a malachite kingfisher. It always stayed one jump ahead of us and so I couldn’t get a decent picture but the memories we have are emblazoned in our minds forever. We saw and heard a colony of monkeys waking and playing and the calls of so many birds we were truly mesmerised. Rowing down the Black Volta has to have been one of the most tranquil and enjoyable experiences I have been fortunate enough to experience. The children were also enthralled and eagerly watching all the new sights. Our oarsman had the strength of about 12 normal Europeans and barely broke a sweat even when he rowed us upstream keeping a steady and smooth pace the entire trip. We went to the other side of the river and got out just so we could say we had been to Burkina Faso, no boarder control here. The number of insects was not surprising but the variety and colours were. So many different coloured dragonflies, blue, green and red, frogs and insects to keep us enthralled for the entire trip. Aba kept his eyes peeled while he was bailing the water and was brilliant at pointing out many new sights for us. He was very disappointed not to be able to show us a hippo but how could we possibly have been disappointed.
On the return to base we were horrified to see another boat and a large American shout to ask us if we had seen any hippos. It is amazing how you begin to feel that we are the only ones there and when we are faced with other white faces it is like being invaded.
Marc had had a very jolly time on shore and befriended some of the local fisherman and decided that he wanted fresh fish for dinner. We had all decided that we would return for an evening row to try our luck with the hippos so we would make a deal then for the fish.
We returned to our campsite and had a leisurely lunch of fresh bread and spreads and the last of the fresh fruit. We all had a little rest before Aba took us on a little tour of the nearby village. As we walked along the road he pointed out some posts that he been put into the ground. They were very high about 12feet and stood sentinel along the side. These were marriage posts and were put along the road to announce a forthcoming marriage. Offers would have been made and dowries accepted. Even after a dowry was accepted and a man and a woman were married, if a new man wanted to buy your wife, if the price was right the husband might agree to sell on his wife, very liberal for this area we thought!! We then visited the local village. It was a very small enclosure and the women were returning from harvesting the corn and were busy laying it on the rooftop to dry. The men of course were sitting under a wonderful tree discussing the latest bit of news no doubt. The village looked less well kept than others I had seen in Savelugu and the children less well dressed and cared for. It was a very odd feeling being shown into the heart of the village. We later learned that the children had been given some time from school so they could come and see us. Once again never sure who is watching who!!!!
Under another tree was a musical instrument very similar to a xylophone but made with large slabs of wood and set into the ground over a hole to improve the resonance. One of the men was playing as we came around the corner but became shy and retreated. Jet asked if she could have a go and played a very convincing, if slow, Frere Sharka (no idea of the spelling, sorry!!!) When she had finished everyone gave a round of applause and the villagers thought it very funny that she could play. Another man stepped forward and really belted out a magnificent tune and we all laughed and clapped him.
They also were growing a small plot of tobacco which they used for smoking and also for some trading. The evidence of their smoking and chewing of the tobacco was clearly seen in the poor state of their teeth, not helped of course by a diet lacking in fruit and vegetables. We made our donations and left the village. It was not a really comfortable experience but it added to the richness of our experience.
We had time for another little rest and then we all set off for our second trip on the Volta. As we had returned safely Marc was persuaded to come with us this time, as was Fuseini, the driver. We took two boats this time and set off in the opposite direction. This meant we were going downstream first which made it a little harder on the oarsmen on the way home, but again, they never broke sweat and rowed mercilessly the entire trip.
Our hopes were high and our eyes were keen as we set off on our second trip. Marc saw crocodiles hiding in every shady set of trees and every leaf was a set of eyes but we saw no crocodiles. Rowing in the afternoon was very different and the river was so calm and peaceful that it was hard to believe that anything sinister could be hidden in the depths. Though Marc did remind me that the hippo causes more deaths in Africa than any other animal. At the moment it seemed that was the last thing we had to worry about. The scenery remained as wonderful as the morning with the added benefit of the coolness of the afternoon and the softer light. Words can not describe what a wonderful feeling it was to be rowed along this magnificent river.
There were many fishermen along the river and watching them was fascinating and took our minds off the fact that we had not seen any hippos. They would find their fishing line and then the fisherman would stand up in his narrow boat and move along the line grabbing fish out of it with his hands. Many of them worked in pairs with one controlling the boat and the other clearing the lines, but there were some on their own and they seemed to be a part of their boat and moved so confidently and easily. We could see the size of some of the fish and they were really large. Marc remained adamant he wanted fresh fish for dinner and Aba called and asked them to meet us on shore later. We were giving up hope on the hippos and feeling the need to turn back, because of the light when a fisherman pointed that he had just seen a hippo. The excitement was palpable as we followed his directions and continued downstream.
We stopped the boats by some reeds and 11pairs of eyes were glued to the water on the other side looking for the elusive hippo. It was certainly our lucky day as after a few moments we saw the water break and the very unmistakeable head of a hippo appeared. We forgot to be quiet for a while as we all laughed at each other and pointed and stared. It disappeared quite quickly and we were told to be very still. After a few minutes the head appeared again a little further upstream, he was swimming back towards where we had come so we were able to follow him for a while. The sightings were very brief and the only image I have on camera is a ripple of water but we all know that we have seen a magnificent creature and the excitement will stay with us forever. In such fantastic surroundings to see a creature like this in his own habitat is breathtaking. As we moved on Aba became convinced that we were actually seeing two hippos, a mother and its baby. As we looked more closely we could see that one head was definitely smaller than the other, our luck was well and truly in. We followed as far as we could but we had to leave them as the light was drawing in and we did not want to be left on the river in the total African darkness that was about to descend. It was with very light hearts and joy in our song that we headed home. Our excitement was such that we did not realise how far away we were and the poor oarsmen had a huge job to get us back to shore before dark. I did not think they would make it but we had light to see when we got to shore but it disappeared quickly.
We returned to land on a natural high that new no bounds everyone was laughing and feeling like kings, what an experience especially when we had almost resigned ourselves to not seeing anything. We paid the oarsmen handsomely, picked out some fresh fish from the fisherman’s basket and headed back to camp. What we had done was hardly daring or original but you wouldn’t have been able to tell any of us in those pure moments after we landed. As far as we were concerned we had seen the unseeable and conquered the unconquerable. Who needs anything other than the very real highs of life?????
We returned to the camp overly excited and jubilant and were devastated to see that some new campers were moving around OUR campsite invading our precious little piece of Africa. The children in particular were put out by this invasion and we had to work quite hard not to let the annoyance show, after all it is a public space. Despite this ‘intrusion’ we set about making preparations for our supper. M and H worked on the fish with the help of R and the caretaker. I started on the rice and vegetables that were to be our main meal. Kathleen and Sian set the table and Jet and Huw made their own version of groundnut soup. It was yet another meal fit for the royal and sitting under the sky eating and laughing we could not imagine any other place in the world where we would rather be.
Jet and Kathleen had decided to sleep on the roof and so M H & S decided to join them. With the help of Aba and the caretaker, the mosquito nets were erected, mattresses carted upstairs and camp was set up.
After dinner M & H had set up another bonfire and we spent a glorious half hour chatting with Aba and enjoying the vastness of the African sky. I am sure you are sick of hearing how wonderful it is but sitting here in Accra I can hardly believe I was there doing such fantastic things with my family. Australia has a pretty fantastic sky but maybe this felt so much bigger and brighter because I was surrounded by my family enjoying a most special time together. The experience we felt couldn’t get any better…… BUT….
As we were on the roof saying goodnight to the children the silence of the night was broken by the sounds of African song. We discovered that a service was being held in the tribal tradition, under a local tree and surrounding villages had come to sing and pray together. We sat on the rooftop of our bungalows with the warm African sky surrounding us listening to very real music. What more could you possibly want it was all so natural and so right we couldn’t have planned it even if we had tried, and no, to you sceptics, it was not put on just for us, if it had we would have had to pay someone something and it was a concert for free. I certainly could not think of any place I would rather be at that moment in time and I am sure I have said that many times before but we really felt at one with our surroundings and so happy to be able to share the experiences we have had with the fantastic people we have met but of course as a family this has been the best trip ever.

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