Butterflies, bats and beauty

The hike got a lot steeper than this!

Our car’s inaugural trip was to the Volta Region, a hilly area east of Lake Volta. We first went to a small town called Biakpa, near a monkey sanctuary, though we opted not to go see the monkeys. It was nice enough just to be in a high, relatively cool place and do some hiking. We walked up Mt. Gema, a knob above a beautiful little village called Amedzofe. Amedzofe is full of little houses painted all kinds of colors – bright pink, pastel green, yellow with blue inside veranda arches. The people were extremely friendly, and Bill and I spent a nice evening just wandering the town talking to everyone. We also hiked down into a valley to a waterfall – a hike that included a rappel down a rock wall. 

We met up with some friends on the Biakpa portion of the trip, then meandered on our own to see the big waterfall of Ghana, Wli Falls. We figured this would be anticlimactic for us, since at home there are so many high waterfalls, but of course everything is different here. For example, all along the trail we were accompanied by flitting colorful butterflies. Bill said, "It's like we are in a Disney movie," because the butterflies would fly just ahead of us on the path as if they were leading us to some magical place. When we got to the waterfall we thought we saw birds flitting in and out of it, but upon examination with the binoculars we realized the “birds” were huge bats. And then we realized that on the rock wall next to the waterfall there were hundreds – maybe thousands – of bats. They had big wingspans so we guessed they were fruit bats. Later that evening our host at the Waterfall Lodge told us the bats fly in big groups (what do you call a bunch of bats – it’s a “murder of crows,” for example, but bats?) to the fields to feast on fruit, including her pawpaws (papayas).

On one hike, to Tagbo Falls near the village of Liate Woti, the path was scented by plumeria trees. Our young guide Wisdom told us that the Ewe people (originally from “Togoland” – we could almost spit across the border to Togo we were so close) call the trees “forget-me-not trees” because wherever you see five plumeria trees together there is a cemetery. So we spent the rest of the trip watching for groves of plumeria, and suddenly saw cemeteries everywhere. 

Kente weaving is done in strips on a wooden loom.

On the trip we visited a village where men and women sit outside their huts doing intricate kente weaving; and a small factory where they make beautiful multicolored beads out of every kind of recycled glass imaginable – some pictures are on the web album, link to right.

Toes are an essential part of the process!

A good trip with a mix of culture and exercise – our favorite kind of vacation!