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Published: July 22nd 2010
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Lighthouse
At James Town, Accra Wednesday 21st July
We decided to take today out as a sightseeing day so off after a lazy morning towards the harbour area of Accra in a district called Jonestown. We first needed to take a trotro to one of the main central bus stations called Tema Station. Although ostensibly a bus station, Tema Station could easily be mistaken for a market. On all the bus stands there are market traders, more around the edges, and then there are the ones simply walking around carrying what they are selling in their arms, or, more commonly on top of their heads. the head carrying is done mainly by the women but a number of men do it as well. whata do they carry on their heads? almost anything. common items include the 500ml "pure water" sachets which we buy all the time.
We decided to walk from Tema Station towards the prominent lighthouse at the fishing harbour. the "guide' for the lighthouse was asking too much so we gave it a miss and walked down towards where all the fishing boats were. Some were being repaired, others were simply pulled up on the beach and others were out fishing. we
Fishing boats
At James Town harbour walked out along the pier. Here a really helpful and knowledgeable guy attached himself to us and started giving us a potted history of the pier, about the British and Dutch slavery opewrations etc. and also the festivals that are still carried out today to create good fishing prospects.
Leaving the fishing harbour, Dorothy went off to meet an old friend from last year and I decided to stay in the city centre and look for the railway station because very little about Ghana railways is mentioned in the guide book. Like Tema TroTro station, the railway station is largely now a market. This is partly because, as I discovered, the line is no longer open to Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi due to falling into disrepair. Now there is just a twice daily train to a small town not too far away.
After leaving the railway station I gradually wound my way back towards the coast road. This route involved walking through and past a number of other markets and I was continually amazed by the actual number of people milling around everywhere and the number trying to sell stuff.
Back on the coast road, I next made
Mending nets
Fishermen repairing their nets, James Town my way to the Kwame Nkrumah memorial park. Nkrumah was the first leader of an independant Ghana when it achieved independance from Britain in 1957. He is widely revered in Ghana and this park in his main memorial. There was some kind of celebration going on whilst I was there but it was nice just to sit somewhere shady, read and eat the baked plantain that I had bought for lunch. Plantain is very similar to banana and roadside vendors slice it and grill it over a charcoal fire.
Next stop was the Arts Centre, or Cultural Centre. This is basically a collection of dozens of stalls selling tourist-type stuff like wood carvings, jewelery, drums, clothes etc. but also a workshop area for the people producing this type of stuff. I was looking for one particular guy who we had met the previous evening when we were invited to a "drumming & dancing" performance at the organisation that arranges placements in the Childrens Home. I had liked the drumming music and wanted to see if I could get hold of a CD of their drumming music but to no avail.
Thursday 22nd July
Dorothy went into
the Chidlrens' Home this morning so I had a free morning to wander around the Osu district. For breakfast I had another Ghanaian speciality, egg sandwich! At about noon I set off to Tema Station again where I was going to meet Dorothy. I had a good browse around the market again then we caught a tro-tro to Abori, about an hour and a quarter's drive from Accra. We got there a bit before 3pm but it appeared that the last tro-tro back to Accra would leave about 4pm so we had a very quick whistle-stop tour of the Botanical Gardens for which Abori is famed.
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