We slept surprisingly well considering our exhaustion and time zone changes and both got up at six and joined the others for what seems to be the standard breakfast: two egg omelets, baked beans and toast. We brought some fancy decaf from Whole Foods which isn’t too bad as the only coffee available is Nescafe and no decaf.
At seven we gathered outside the hotel in the humid heat - even at that early hour,
At nine Phil told us we were free until noon, giving us a chance to organize our gear and actually relax! Very rare on a birding trip, but this is really a bonus day as the tour doesn’t officially begin until this afternoon when our last member arrives. (8PM note - her plane was cancelled; she doesn’t come in until tomorrow.)
I asked at the front desk and found there is a gizmo that plugs into a computer to connect it to the internet! It’s called AirTran; I plugged it in and ran two virus checks which passed, but when I had downloaded it and started it up, AVG closed it down! So…no blog sent!
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| Our group birding the hotel exterior |
At noon we gathered in the dinning room for our lunch. RR and I ordered vegetable soup which was very good, but very large and when our mains came - Red Red - Ghanian beef stew - very spicy- with a 4 cup molded helping of rice each, we were a little overwhelmed!! I’m afraid we didn’t do it justice, but no food goes to waste here so I’m sure someone enjoyed it.
We had another break until 2 PM, as it is SO hot at midday in Ghana, and Bob and I both napped, joining the others at the bus at the appointed time. The Alexis Hotel is located on the north edge of Tema, the main port city of Ghana, so we had to drive about 12 miles through the entire city to get to the coast which took us an hour with the heavy traffic.
We passed some enormous storage containers of cacao beans - turns out Ghana is the world’s largest producer of cacao - and huge 3- and 4- high stacks of shipping containers ready to be loaded onto the caravan of large freighters lined up to get into port. Apparently this port serves Ghana and the surrounding countries and is a major industry here. We drove along the coast with surf crashing on one side and the large Sakumono Lagoon on the other. We pulled off and got out the telescopes and Bob got his target bird, the Western Reef Egret, right off. It was quite picturesque with men mending fishing nets and women balancing piles of fruit and other foods on their head as they walked along the highway. We turned inland and drove up the lagoon to a lovely park with tennis courts, swimming pool (empty) and some murals of the famous mud huts with conical roofs from up north. We walked out on the mud flats and saw swarms of duck and other shore birds. A large cattle herd of mostly young bulls with large horns suddenly appeared and we moved out of their way although they seemed quite docile. We returned through grassland and saw Brown Babblers and Senegal Thick-knees, a shore bird, 40 cm high with a thick yellow bill and knobby knees.
We got back to the bus at 5 PM and set off home. We drove across a bridge with a sign “ Weak Bridge - No Parking”! We turned inland and hit the Tema Rush Hour! We came to a large traffic circle and traffic stopped! We sat there for over an hour as traffic, big trucks, taxis, and sedans jockeyed for space. Finally our driver just took off circling around honking trucks and made it to the circle. But it still took quite a while to get to the Alexis - at 7 PM- in the dark….and the hotel was completely dark!
The lights did come on as we pulled up. Phil told us to meet for dinner at 8 and we hurried upstairs to clean up, but when Bob turned on the bathroom light, the entire room’s electricity went off as well as our friends next door. I dashed in and with a flashlight, took quick shower as the repairmen appeared. They managed to change the bathroom light which had made a loud bang while I was trying to rinse off. Now the bathroom light is permanently ON!
I went down to dinner and got one of the large beers (21 oz) and was soon joined by the others. Bob and I decided to split a meal and got a dish of chicken curry and fried rice. After that another dish of veg soup came which, along with all the beer we drank, made us feel quite re-hydrated! After dinner we did the “List”, a ritual of birding trips in which the leader recites all the birds seen that day and we mark them off on our lists. As this trip is going to be so busy, I have elected to write the blog during the list as I can always refer to Bob’s list later.
We got dishes of strawberry ice-cream for dessert and then retired to our rooms to pack as we are going to meet for breakfast at 5 AM, ready to go!
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