In which I travel again...

 It’s taken me a while to get round to this but a couple of weeks ago we took to the road again.  We were a party of VSO volunteers (1 Irish, 3 English, 2 Philippino) staying at The Green Ranch at Lake Bosumtwi.

This time the journey was very smooth by Ghanaian standards; a couple of early starts, long days, stifling heat, uncomfortable seats but no long delays and mostly tarmacked roads both ways. J

Lake Bosumtwi is situated around the middle of Ghana (Paul says a third of the way up)just outside its second biggest city, Kumasi.  It is a hidden gem in an otherwise barren landscape.  The lake has established itself in a crater created by a meteorite which landed 1.3 million years ago.  It’s about 8km across and is the only natural lake in Ghana.  It seems to have its own little micro-climate and is surrounded by rainforest; the temperatures are still hot but more humid than elsewhere and there are no mosquitoes J (however, I was bitten mercilessly by some other nasty (but harmless) little bugs!).

The lake, like most other things in Ghana, is shrouded in tradition.  The Ashanti consider it to be sacred, a place where the souls of the dead can come to meet with the god, Twi.  For some reason this means that you can only fish in the lake using a wooden plank-like boat (a padua).

                  I'm not sure Paul would be able to catch any fish balancing on his padua!

 

Fortunately there are not many villages around the lake.  I say fortunate because the villages we encountered were complete eyesores which, on a larger scale, would be in danger of ruining the beauty of the scenery.  How can a few people make such an ugly mess?

Having said that, our accommodation at The Green Ranch was lovely.  The owner, a French lady (married now to a Ghanaian) is passionate about horses and keeps about 10 on the ranch.  She was an excellent riding instructor. She didn’t tempt me (or Paul) onto horseback but we watched her with other members of the group.  You can ride around the lake on horseback in about 10 hours; you can walk it in a long day but you need a guide, apparently.  You can also try out the boats (3 of the group did) and swim in the lake.  We were told not to swim in the lakes because of the bugs you can pick up so I didn’t! 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                   

 

Actually, we did very little apart from admire the view, relax and enjoy the company.  Of course the food was also great with a menu of vegetarian options with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables – you can get quite a variety in Kumasi.  And the fresh lemonade was delicious!

                                                   
                                        

                                                      

                                      

So, all in all, a successful trip; all the more so because we were slightly dubious about travelling given that we had both been suffering from stomach upsets!