Hi! This is going to be the mega update for the recent days where I had no possibility to access good WiFi. Now I'm back in Accra for the Charly Wote festival and sitting in a Cafe.
On the way from Cape Coast to Ada Foah I decided to eat one if these boiled eggs they sell on the street.
Big mistake. This one was filled with chili. My mouth burned once again.
I also lost my hat (already.. 🙄) so I had to get an alternative - but I'm really starting to like this basecap!The car from Accra to Ada (there is no direct connection from Cape Coast to Ada) ran for quite a while and could use a new motor..And actually there was one on the street 😂But enough jokes, Ada is absolutely what you would consider a dream beach.The river from the Volta region meets the sea there so there is this really calm water which is only a little bit salty.Palm trees and kids selling fresh coconuts.Here the locals put flags on the palm trees which display everyday life on photos.This is where I slept - the mosquito net was unnecessary though.There are rasta men selling all kinds of stuff and the bar plays reggae music.This is the market from the closest small town. To get there you have to go by motorbike to the next taxi station and take a shared taxi to the town, all that takes about 30 minutes. So the beach is really isolated.Sometimes there are cows crossing and stopping the trafficThe Hilton group is trying to buy all the land and create huge luxurious hotels but the locals fight against that.They really made an effort to create a nice place. Also played some volleyball there.Here are (from left to right) Laia, Magalie, Maria and Caleb. With Laia, Maria and Xavi (all Spanish, Xavi is not in this picture) my journey will continue after Ada but I didnt know that at this time. Magalie will join me this weekend for the festival.Beautiful sunsets were something common here...The owner of the place makes a 'bonfire' every Sunday but the wood doesn't burn well, because they don't dry it. They needed a lot of fuel to actually get it started..On Monday we went for a boat trip to check out the local islands. These are some volunteers I also met in Ada and shared the boat with.Really looks a bit like paradise.There are way more pictures in the image section, check them out 👍There are also mangroves (that's what they call them)Apparently there are people also sleeping in tents.These are fisher boats. I will show you guys later in this post how they exactly fish.This was on crocodile island. This crocodile is really young and small though.Here is one that is even younger.And it's super cute 🤩Now we get to rum island. This is how they distill rum, either made out of sugar cane, banana or pineapple. Under this barrel is a fire which heats the whole thing up.This is for cooling the alcohol down again, the water is just for cooling and does not go in the pipe.Of course, there was a tasting afterwards. The rum is surprisingly tasty and I bought a small bottle of the banana rum.Fishermen resting in their boatHere is Xavi, really fun and relaxed guy!Some kid dancing on the beachDuring the boat trip, we decided to rest a bit in a local fisher town, eat something and buy avocados and mangos on the market.Turns out that they don't have mangos here and no one on the market had avocados. The locals here are super helpful though and one woman brought us to a local who sells avocados on his own, so that's where we got some in the end. In the picture, you see us waiting for the boat driver who waited 2 hours for us and showed us a good place to eat.For some reason the small pubs on the beach in Ada loved Magalies bag and lay on it whenever possible.Another beautiful sunsetBut yeah.. pollution is really an issue 🤢Me lying at night (10 o'clock in the evening) alone in the hammock, watching stars.You don't have to have studied to know that this is not safe but hey we are in Africa 🤷🏻♂️One hut is getting a new roof here, also high standards on safety.Aand this is us (Spanish guys + me) leaving Ada by boat to Anyanui already. From there we will go by a shared taxi to Keta.These kids just came and chilled with us when we arrived. This cutie was carried by its 8-year-old sister - the oldest of the 6 kids.These are the huts we slept in.Isn't it astonishingly beautiful? It also was super cheap! We shared a room and paid 60 cedis per night. That's 2,50€ per person per night. There was electricity and light but no running water. We had to shower and flush the toilet with a bucket of rainwater. I preferred the ocean to clean myself..The next morning we wanted to make food at the beach resort where we slept but they didn't even have a shared kitchen, so we went to the locals and asked if we could cook in their kitchen.The first person we asked agreed - turns out it was some sort of restaurant but without signs or a menu. So we cooked in their kitchen.This is the cooking place.The two big chefs.Afterwards, the owner invited us for dinner, an offer we appreciated a lot and accepted. In the evening he didn't even want to have money but invited us for breakfast again. Then he would accept money from us. On the last day before we left he made us breakfast again - for free.Just imagine doing this in Germany. Asking a local to cook in their kitchen, occupying it and then get invited for dinner afterwards - impossible. Every. Single. Bit. Of. It.I told you guys to tell you how they catch their fish here, so here he we. They have these huge nets which measure 100m in length, bring them out in a small boat without a motor (they row like the vikings did), throw out the net, bring an EXTREMELY long rope attached to the net on the land and then start pulling. This process takes really long and lots of human force. No motors, no electricity involved here!They got the beginning of the net, just a few dozen meters more..And there we go! 🐟Oh yeah and plastic. Lots of it. They say it gets worse every year... Did I already say that pollution is really an issue? 🙄I tried to get some money from an ATM but it was empty. The bank was about to refill it, then it worked for two people and the ATM software crashed. It had to be rebooted. At first, I wondered why it took over 20 minutes but no surprise, it runs on Windows!Us enjoying a meal at our new favorite place to eat in Keta.Best breakfast I had so far! Bread (not too sweet, usually the bread is sweet here), with butter, avocados, fresh tomatoes (the tomatoes here are soooo good!) and scrambled eggs. A dream of a breakfast!The Spanish crew also really like this - crackers with butter and powder for instant chocolate but that's just not my thing.We went to explore the area by foot and found these ruins.This strip of land keeps the ocean (right side) away from the lagoon (left side) - it's just 60 meters broad.More fishermenThey use really rudimentary methods for everything involving fishing.This is all fish, it needs to dry in the sun.Yes this is also fish. All of it. I have no idea why they do it on the street and if it's meant for human consumption but I'm not gonna eat this small fish here in Ghana.Kids like to dance hereYes this is all fish that needs to dry..We went into the lagoon to get to an island. We assumed we could cross the water by foot without getting our bags wet.Found this - looks a bit like a monster..But it's just a pile of.. things. I think this is still in use.And yes, we made it without getting too wet onto the island!Beautiful view, we were completely alone for two hours. We just saw a lonely fisher far away.Maria and Laia desperately trying to light a cigarette but the lighter had too little gas (yea it's really windy here).Yeah well the beach resort we stayed at is also used for this kind of accommodation but hey it has been awesome!We checked out the local market before we left in the morning.The market is huge and only takes place every 4 days.I kind of messed it up in the picture but to move this three-wheeled bike you have to rotate the handle. I don't want to imagine how much force that takes 🤯 Yeah, I didn't call the previous entry a digital detox for no reason, I really didn't use the smartphone so much, so that's all for now. I'm going to meet Naa soon and will be at her place here in Accra until Monday. If you read the blog post from the Wli waterfalls, yes it's the same lady 👍I will keep you updated about the festival here.So far, have a great weekend and see you soon!
