Trip to Wli Falls

In the couchsurfing app are sometimes events hosted. These events are initiated by normal people who like to do some stuff. I never participated in those things but I saw a very cool one for a trip to a african nature. The host, Aly (he doesn't want me to upload fotos of him, so you have to imagine a mysterious man), said he had a 4x4 car and seemed to know what he was doing - so I joined and left Ajits place earlier then expected.

Yes, it rained that morning heavily. Its raining season right now but usually it rains  at night or early in the morning, which is super cool (nights cold to sleep, days dry for action)

On Wednesday morning I met Naa, who also participated in the trip and we drove together to the meeting point, where we soon met Aly and the driver Joseph. We already almost gave up on the 5th member of our crew but after 25 minute delay he finally made it. If it weren't for Jo we probably would have missed Shola.

We started our ride through Accra in a time of much traffic and actually a herd of cows was faster then us in the car..

Cows on the express lane..

After we left Accra the road became REALLY bad. There was no asphalt anymore and the road had huge holes. To express our joy about it we shot some fotos.

Terrible road!

Yaaayy more terrible road pictures.

Later we discovered that there are first and second class roads and this actually was a first class road. Yet no one of our crew has seen such a shitty road.

Our first stop was the monkey reservoir in Tafi. Like everywhere else there are prices for Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians, I figured that this is just the usual way here. Anyway the monkey reservoir was really cool, we brought bananas to feed them and they ate out of our hands, jumped on the arms and stole the bananas if we didn't pay attention. Their hands are really soft but they got claws that can hurt.

Jo with a surprised monkey

Me posing weirdly

More weird poses

They really DO love bananas 🤣

Naa in monkey-bliss

They jump really good but its hard to catch that in a foto

Monkey jumping on Sholas hand. It was hard to tell when they actually jump up since they look at you for quite a while until they do it. Or not sometimes they straight up run to you and jump 😂

🍌 Empty? 🐒 Leave

After the short experience with the monkeys and the long car ride we needed some exercise and went to Afadjato. There is Mount Afadja where you can hike to. We had to book a guide for that tho. There was a house really close where we paid and Benjamin, a 17 year old boy (our guide) followed us. I couldn't figure out what the job of the guide was and Ben was pretty silent but it is in most spots obligatory to have a guide.

The route itself is just 1km long but goes 320m up so it was really steep, sometimes more then 45°. Sadly this was super polluted, there was basically plastic everywhere. Aly didn't make it to the top and went to the waterfall nearby, the rest of us continued to the top. The view was good, due to the high humidity limited tho.

Steep way up

View from the top

Shola beeing philosophical

We made it!

Yeeeah we made it!

After we came down again and got some cold drinks we decided to join Aly at the waterfall but it was already 16:30 and sundown is around 18:15, after 18:30 it gets really dark. We hurried up and met Aly on the way, he was leaving from the waterfall and told us to hurry up. I already expected to loose half my blood to mosquitoes since they come out when it gets dark and we were in the jungle with lots of water and rivers. But actually I only got 5-6 bites 👍

This waterfall was the first proper waterfall I saw in my life and have to say thats crazy awesome 🤩 We had the place for ourselves, it was incredible beautiful, a bit magical, just the time was short. It was totally worth it tho to walk there 40 minutes (one way).

The gang at the waterfall (Aly taking the pic)

This picture ahows well how big this small waterfall actually is.. Small in comparison to the waterfall the next day.

Then, super tired we drove to the hostel which is nearby, showered and had some drinks. It was a really small place and one couple was outside, she was german he was swiss. We had a good chat and eventually went to sleep.

The next day we went to our destination the Wli waterfalls. The tour guide said we would need 4 hours, the owner of our hostel told us its more like 5 hours and in the end we needed more then 7 🤣

It was totally worth it. Not exaggerating when I say this has been the best hiking trip of my life (so far, there are more to come 😋). At first we went up the hills that are close by and the view was just mind blowing. We have been on the same level then the clouds (it was more a fog then hung really far up) and eventually went through the fog which gave this super mysterious feeling, the view was between 50m and 100m up there.

On one level with the clouds

Enjoying the view

Super limited view

Really dont want to be left alone up here

This trip was so cool because from time to time we saw the waterfall and it just got bigger and louder and our expectation kept rising.

The waterfall itself is actually devided in the upper and lower falls. In the middle part is a lake and in the bottom aswell (ofc 🙄). The route we took is the long one which brings us first to the middle part and then to the lower part. I could tell you how super awesome this was but Im afraid I'd repeat myself, so here are just some pictures.

This website doesnt allow embedding videos but I uploaded some to my GDrive, you can find them in this Link:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1BttJ-GOgwzfwGSa3iu71qYbVypJoY2F-

Yeah. Waterfalls. Crazy awesome.

On my way back I found this. Its ment to protect the fuses from water, but rain can perfectly run along the cables directly into the fuses..

And this was on our way. Someone doesn't hide what he likes, I guess?

I wanted to try more local food and Fufu is one of it. I didn't really know what to expect but I dont mind surprises so much so I just ordered. I answered the question if I liked goat meat with yes. Then I found this for the Fufu:

Yes thats actually one half of a head of a goat. Bon appétit!

Many locals love it and so did my friend:

I ate a bit of the rest to have something in the stomach and ordered then spaghetti carbonara. 

Me, trying without the goat head. (Eating with the fingers is usually the way to go)

The carbonara wasn't made with cheese or meat but I didn't care at that point. Probably not going to order pasta again tho.

The german-swiss couple was there again and they introduced me to a card game called "Jassen". There are two or four players needed for it but there was actually another swiss guy who joined. Apparently swiss people love this game. Its similar to traditional card games such as Doppelkopf or Skat. We had a great night and went to sleep way too late.

The alarm next morning rang way to early (4:30) and we left around 5:10 because Aly had to be early back in Accra. I got dropped at Accra mall where I ate something, restocked toothpaste and sunscreen and figured out that fluid for contact lenses is extremely expensive. Around 20€ for 240ml. I guess I will wear glasses in Ghana 🤷🏻‍♂️

Then I went by Tro-tro to the bus station. 

The bus station looks like its organized by private people. There are cashiers sitting under umbrellas collecting money and giving out tickets no one wants to see. Then you go in a bus which has the sign of the city you want to go to and thats it. Extremely uncomplicated. A bus is in this case a big Ford SUV which is completely filled with Car-couches so it fits 15-18 people.

I arrived late, around 5:30, in Cape Coast (remember sundown is at 6:15.. clocks are ticking different here) and met Eric. This is him:

He is super cool and friendly. We spent the night I arrived at the beach which is really beautiful at night:

Today in the morning I was busy with washing clothes for the first time. I washed by hand:

And have gotten a different relationship to clothing and cleanliness from now on 🤣

1. I will avoid wearing socks because cleaning them is really annoying

2. I will wear clothes until they smell or are visibly dirty

3. I will appreciate washing machines from now one way more. They do an awesome job. Washing machines for president!

Also there is this super cute cat around

She is super young

And wants endless cuddles

Okidoks that's it so far, make sure you check the fotos in this entry since I dont have all of them in the text and check out the videos on GDrive.