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Published: January 9th 2005
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We departed Mole National Park on Tues 28 Dec, en route for Kumasi - I was desperate to find a cyber cafe to update the travel blog & we needed to stock up on basic supplies. We'd heard that Kumasi, once the capital of the Ashanti Kingdom, was a vibrant, fascinating place to visit, but to watch out for the permanent traffic jams! We couldn't really miss them...we crawled into town and spent ages queing at the central traffic-clogged roundabout, Kejetia Circle. Eventually we made headway...and made for the recommended cybercafe, but where to park the vehicle? We made enquiries and oddly enough were directed to the police station at the top of the hill, where we were welcomed and shown a parking spot in their carpark - free of charge! Alas, the cybercafe's server was down and when we eventually found another one it was painfully slow...yet again I spent an hour typing up a journal entry only to lose it all when the system crashed. The view from the cafe was great though - a bird's eye view across the whole of Kumasi and an excellent vantage point for me to film Neil driving through the busy city centre
traffic. We also had the best lunch in Ghana to date - beans and rice with fried Plantain - a mixture of sweet and sour - it was delicious and all for only 3,000 cedi's.
We finally crawled out of Kumasi and set off south - we had a vague notion to visit another national park, but Neil was also keen to find some jungle en route. We passed a number of forest fires - all controlled. It seems they burn the bushland to encourage new growth, although it's a dog eat dog game - birds of prey circle the fires, waiting for mice, chameleons, lizards, etc to emerge, then they swoop in for the kill. Neil managed to rescue a chameleon from being burnt to death - the poor thing, a bright, vivid green colour, was in deep shock and unsteady on it's feet, but soon scampered away into the bushes on the other side of the road after some tlc.
The humidity was getting quite unbearable so we were delighted to come across a roadsign for some Waterfalls (although I have to confess that I can't remember their name or their exact location). They looked like
being a popular day trip choice for the locals, who we watched for a while as they climbed up the rocks and then slid down into the river. It looked like great fun, so, when in Rome...except we both dived in fully clothed which seemed a good idea at the time - it was quite wonderful, like an ice-cold power shower - but a bit of a shock to the system, and I soon began to regret my hasty decision as the humid weather meant I spent the rest of the afternoon and that evening feeling very smelly and soggy.
We then made for Lake Bosumtwi, about 38km east of Kumasi, where we planned to camp for the night. A sacred crater lake, ringed by lush green hills, the water is said to be bilharzia free. Unhappily as soon as we stopped in the village of Abonu we were hassled non-stop by the locals - all offering help with camping and guided treks, etc, etc, etc...we found a campsite on the edge of the lake - which was quite stunning surrounded by all the lush green hills but we agreed a price with the owner, only to have him
try to up it moments later - some story about charging extra for the damage the vehicle would make to his grass. His mistake, because we upped sticks and drove off....and ended up camping at the Lake View Guest House overlooking the lake at Kokado Kuntanase. The manager was reluctant at first - he didn't seem to be able to grasp the whole camping concept and the roof tent just mystified him, but he eventually relented and let us park in his driveway. Then we found out that we were to be sharing the driveway with the nightwatchman - one of the lads from the hotel ran over and pointed out his little camp right behind us, and sniggering told us "don't worry, he's deaf and won't bother you". The nightwatchman duly arrived and we shouted greetings to him, but he was indeed as deaf as a post. We shared some our pineapple with him and made him a cup of coffee and then he just settled down for the night on his little mattress.
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