Tue, April 23 - The Long Drive South

Breakfast at 5:30 and off at 6.  Fortunately the main north-south highway is well maintained, or just new, so we sped along, stopping for another buffet for lunch.  The food’s not bad, but it’s Always the same for lunch and dinner!  Ashanti Tours, the local agent, contacts the various restaurants along the birding route, and to avoid wasting a lot of time ordering off the menu, they must order up this buffet.  I would love to try more local foods and have, at least, gotten a few dishes, but we’re all pretty tired of two rices, one pasta, sauce, fried fish and chicken and French fries!

 I tried to photograph scenes and the people from the bus but it’s difficult at high speed.  Despite the incessant trash of plastic bags, there are lovely things to see in the towns, for instance the beautiful women in colorful long dresses with a baby on their backs carrying a large pans of bananas, water sachets, plantains, etc. on their heads!

A walled compound

At 3 PM we stopped and drove into the woods where we had birded several days ago and tried to find the elusive Blue-headed Bee-eater, but instead saw a Little Grey Flycatcher, not exciting, but a new bird, nevertheless.

Phil Gregory birding

We started into the city of Kumasi (~2 million) unfortunately at the rush hour.  Ghana is prosperous enough that there are a lot of cars in addition to buses, taxis, and large freight haulers. Trying to drive through Kumasi was insane.  Without our very experienced and authoritative driver to plow into traffic circles and weave in and out of jams, it would have taken longer than the 1.5 hours to cross the city, or whatever we did!  Whenever we stopped at a traffic light, women and some men would pass by with large pans of food and, strangely, toilet paper for sale.  They weren’t overly aggressive, but

Roasted Plantain vendor

pleasant when we smiled at them, but what a life!  A dangerous one and for only pennies!

At 7 PM we pulled into the Royal Basin Hotel where we stayed last Thursday.  I decided to skip dinner as my stomach is suddenly a little upset, so I’m writing this instead and drinking a large beer that Bob kindly brought me from the restaurant - renewing my liquids and all that - just following Alejandro’s advice!
We got a different room from last time and this one has a faulty shower - you have hold the lever up to make the water come out of the shower which means we essentially had yet another sponge bath.