Elmina Castle

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Good Lord, it's the masters of melodrama here again, shaking the foundations of reality one branch at a time. Having just finished reading Eric's gatorade inspired version of Kakum, we have a few errata to address:
The picture was one he found on the internet - we're trying to get the real pictures up now.
The 'alligators' were 'crocodiles'. For 8-9 ft read 5-6ft. The three foot bully croc chased a girl from Montreal. Mike fed the little beast, and doesn't have a suntan. This was the poodle of crocodiles not a T- Rex.
Eric was very brave on the ropebridge. Apparently, fifty percent of tourists turn back when they see the bridge.
The squirrels were not flying and barely visible.
The bridges were very secure, although the swaying was rather unnerving. Emmanuelle ran across one.

After our croc adventure (actually the calls of the hundreds of weaver birds building their upside down homes were more compelling thaaaan the reptiles) our friend Quamie took us into Elmina. This fishing village is the home of the oldest European fort in West Africa. We decided not to take a guide - The tour that Justice gave us is still reverberating, days later. In many ways, this fort was even more powerful than Cape Coast. The Castle is a World Heritage Site but is somewhat decayed . I'm glad that it is . There is something in the poisoness green molds and crumbling plaster and rust that brings home the horror of the experience for those who suffered it. Whitewash wouldn't work.
The courtyard leads to bleak awful tunnels tipping down, seeming to contract, to labyrinths of sunless barred cells, claustrophobic after minutes, through tiny doorways to ever more bleak terrible places.
The only light for us was in one cell that contained thousands of bats.
Eric got a great picture of a bat flying with curiosity to the camera.

Of course, the quarters of the Governor, while empty of furniture revealed the obvious opulence that had once held sway. What swines were these people.
After the castle, we went out to the tremendous scene thaat awaited us outside. The fishing fleet was at least 100 times bigger than the scene at Senya Beraku. All of human life was here. Hundreds of boats and thousands of fishermen. Every color in the rainbow. Every sound.
A massive confusing scene bouncing with life. Children everywhere working, playing, fishing. We saw a guy wading in the estuary catch a fish with his bare hands. We decided to come back to this beautiful place and stay. Which is what we have done.
Boy, have we been lazy today. We have a room overlooking the Castle and the Harbor. We've spent the whole day either lazing, planning, discovering the horrible truth of our budget extravagences, watching life in this place ebb and flow with the tides.
We're going beaching for a couple of days before the next stage of our masterplan hatches - and, let me tell you, it's pretty exciting stuff.
You'll have to tune in to find out more....

love eric and mike

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