This past week we’ve been exploring lake Volta (Africa’s largest man-made lake, or was it even the largest in the world?) and the region east of the lake. Volta region is a bit different. Their language belongs to a different group, the landscape is hilly, almost mountainous, and green. Actually it would make more sense if Volta would belong to Togo. It’s the same landscape and the same people. The whole area used to belong to the German Togoland, but the British took over after WWI.

The journey over the giant lake was fascinating in itself. We joined the cargo vessel Yapei Queen, that sails up and down the lake every week, in Yeji. It ships people to the north and transports yams and timber down south. We left with a 24 hour delay (which we spent waiting and sleeping on the concrete pier), but the journey itself went very smooth via Kete Krachi to Akosombo in the south in just two nights and a day.

The Volta region, where we are now, is probably very pretty, but it’s hard to tell because the harmattan has been blowing enthusiastically. During harmattan season winds blowing in from the Sahara deliver loads of fine dust to the coastal regions. This makes for constantly hazy skies. It’s often impossible to see more than a few hundred meters ahead. So we’ve had to miss some beautiful views across the lake and the hilly landscape.

We’ll spend our last week at the beaches close to Accra and in the city. Can’t believe it’s almost time to fly home!

Did I mention it’s hot in West Africa? Luckily it’s pretty easy to get hold of some water. “Pure water” is sold everywhere here. It’s filtered drinking water in 500 ml plastic bags and they cost 5 pesewas (p) (approximately 2 eurocents). The taste isn’t always great; sometimes plasticky or chlorinated, but it’s drinkable, cold and cheap and it’s sold on every street corner. At busstations it’s usually sold by women who have the bags in a basket on their head.

Whenever we’re at a busstation we’re usually in for a wait and during one of these waits I started doing some math. The profit margin on my bag of pure water can’t be huge. Say the people that sell them get 2p per bag (1 eurocent). Can’t be more than that, might actually be less. Say the woman selling me my water works about 10 hours a day. She get’s up before sunrise, goes to the busstation and works pretty much till sunset. And say she manages to sell 100 bags of pure water during this day; about 10 bags an hour. That means she earns 2 cedis a day. Almost a euro.

That fact in itself doesn’t mean a lot if you don’t know what things cost around here. But I’ve done some shopping and 6 bananas cost about 1 cedi, 200 grams of rice costs 50p, a pound of tomatoes costs 50p, a big yam costs 60p. Even if she feeds her kids just yams and sauce, she’s still going to spend her 2 cedis in no time on food alone.

“Living on less than a dollar a day” all of a sudden became a lot less abstract to me…

We’re down south again. We went straight from Wa (way up north) to Kumasi (in central Ghana). A not too uncomfortable 7 hour bus ride. During these 7 hours the landscape changed dramatically. The north has a savanna climate, and at this time of year that means that it is very hot and very dry. Nothing but yellow grass as far as the eye can see.

The further south we traveled, the more green everything became. So many trees everywhere! It’s funny how soon a landscape you travel through becomes “normal”. The difference is very noticeable at the markets too. Fresh vegetables everywhere. In Wa you could only get tomatoes and tomato paste…

We’re now in Ashanti. A very old and powerful kingdom. The Ashanti people we’re the ones that traded slaves with the Dutch and withstood the English the longest. Theri king still has a lot to say in modern day Ghana. Their culture is also very much alive and you see it in clothing, symbols and architecture everywhere.

We’ll be here for another week or so before heading back to Accra via the Volta region.

After three weeks in Benin and three weeks in Burkina Faso we returned to Ghana some days ago. Luckily all of the physical discomforts are conquered. We are both healthy and looking forward to getting the most out of our final month in Africa.

I really look forward to spending some more time in villages around the north. The north of Ghana looks and feels much more like the savanna of Burkina than the forests of the coast. People are predominantly muslim, the climate is dry and hot, most people live in small, traditional villages.

So far I’ve enjoyed rural Africa much more than the cities. Cities tend to be large, dirty and dusty. No sights like in European cities. Few impressive old buildings and museums. Usually lots of big markets, but markets in smaller towns are usually just as good and much less overwhelming.The nightlife can be good, but Roald and I have never really been nightlife kind of people.

I like the pace of life in the villages. Of course people are poor. They have a house, consisting of a few rooms, made of mud and straw. They have some fields and some animals, maybe a bicycle or a moped, but not much more. So of course life is hard. But people are friendly, life happens more slowly and the countryside is very beautiful. So quiet, and so beautifully dark at night. Accommodation usually lacks luxuries like electricity and running water, but although it’s nice to have a fan in the bedroom, I can live without for a few days.

Right now we’re in Tamale. Next stop, Mole National Park. Then on to Wa and surroundings, after that we travel south in the direction of Kumasi.