Blogs from Sekondi-Takoradi, Western, Ghana, Africa - page 2

I have not seen the Indian Ocean... I have seen the Atlantic Ocean... doesnt sound so exotic now... read more

About time for an update methinks! Last week we travelled to Prince's Town where we went to see Fort Gross Friedrichsberg and met Joseph, the caretaker. We had a new addition to our traveling party of four in the form of Marie, an Australian expat. working in a mining company here in Takoradi and also living on Beach Road in an old British Colonial house (which is gorgeous!). Our journey took us on some seriously sketchy roads and more than once we were thanking our lucky stars that we were in a 4 wheel drive and not my little Renault Clio-the poor thing wouldn't last a minute out here! Because it's the rainy season, the roads are worse than they normally would be. Obviously the tarred and paved roads are fine, it's when you get out ... read more

Bert and I have spent the last few days being driven around by our now full-time tour guide, Tess, in her Nissan Patrol! We've had some hairy experiences on dirt tracks where the 4x4 has come in mighty handy when an ordinary car would have been swallowed up by the craters of pot holes they have here! Because it's rainy season, the roads are much worse than they normally would be. Since Thursday, we've been to Fanta's Folly Beach Resort, Green Turtle Beach Resort, Dixcove, Fort Metal Cross and Ankobra Beach Resort, "Where Africa Meets the World". The beach resorts aren't quite like the beach resorts we'd be used to in France or Spain, they're a lot more unique and...African I guess! They're all obviously on the beach and have gorgeous views of the ocean and ... read more

Started out from Cratloe at 5.45am for our 7.30am flight to London Heathrow from Shannon Airport. Made it from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 in record time before boarding KLM1010 to Amsterdam. Delay in take-off meant we were in danger of missing our connecting flight to Accra but thankfully after sprinting through Schiphol Airport we made it! Potential crises number 1 averted. Another delay because of baggage transfer and we were on our way to Africa! Initially quite daunted by being the minority race on the plane but this was nothing in comparrison to our arrival at Accra. After waiting over an hour in the sweltering heat to get through Customs, we couldn't locate our baggage. Horrors. Turns out some wally had taken it off the carousel and abandoned it in the middle of the arrivals ... read more

We arrived about 8:00 this morning at another port on our visit to Africa, the twin city of Sekondi-Takoradi, capital of the Western Region of Ghana. It is Ghana’s fourth largest city and an industrial and commercial center. The chief industries are timber, cigarettes, shipbuilding and railroad repair. Takoradi is the largest city closest to the Equator and the Prime Meridian, making the city the most central location on the world map! The closest land to the Equator, Prime Meridian and Sea Level is Cape Three Points, about 60 miles west of Takoradi. Takoradi is the home to Ghana’s first and important deepwater seaport built in 1928. Both Takoradi and Sekondi stemmed from 17th Century Dutch, Swedish and English forts. The two cities combined in 1946. During World War II, the Takoradi Air Base was an ... read more