A weekend in the Volta

This weekend finally brought about the opportunity for me to get out and do what I love to do, explore. A small group of us broke out of our sheltered lives here in Cape Coast and headed to the Volta Region. The Volta is claimed to be the largest man made lake on earth and lies in Ghana’s mountainous region (mountainous being about 3,000 feet at the highest). However, despite the fact that I have turned into a mountain snob (thanks alot Nepal!), I found these small Ghanaian mountains to be very impressive and beautiful. They were much more rugged than I was expecting, thickly forested down low with open green pastures around the tops. Our journey took us to the highest waterfall in the country, Wli Falls (pronounced Vlee). We decided to take a hike up to the upper part of the falls, which turned into a pretty grueling and sweaty hike due to the steep terrain and humidity. Ghana apparently doesn’t incorporate switchbacks into their trails like we are spoiled with back home. But it was well worth the hike, not only for the falls but also for the various strange insects and the superb views of the valleys and villages below. The highlight of the entire falls though was at the lower section where we were able to swim out underneath the falling water. What an amazing feeling to have water crashing down on you from 150 feet above, so much power and intensity.

Besides the natural environment that the falls and the mountains provided, another wonderful part of the region is the people. We spent the night in small village near the falls, also called Wli. I found a lot of joy in just strolling around the simple village and interacting with the young kids and other villagers. What was most appealing about these people was their warmth. Unlike Cape Coast, where a common greeting to a white person is to yell “obruni“(white man), everyone in the village would say “welcome”. And it truly felt sincere which made it that much more enjoyable to walk around.

So from Wli we headed over to Volta Lake itself for a night and stayed at what I thought was a pretty swanky hotel right on the lake. I say swanky because my hotel room budget is generally between $2 and 6$. But a room here was $30, but fortunately I only had to pay $15 since I shared a room with Paul. But the place did have wonderful swimming in the lake and a rope swing, so that eased my expensive room tension.

Before I finish this off, there was one more African moment that was pretty interesting. During the tro-tro ride to the region we made a pit stop in a village. As the van pulled in to park it was ambushed by probably 25 women all selling something different from the tops of their heads. They literally slammed into the van with their bodies and rocked it. They were selling everything from bread, yams, eggs, crawfish, smoked fish, and a lot of unidentifiable food products. It is common for Ghanaians to carry stuff atop their heads and is downright amazing how they are able to balance it all in often crowded situations. But these women ran to the vehicle in a large compact mass, were able to keep all of their goods balanced on their heads, were able to grab what was needed from their head, and receive payment, without dropping anything to the ground. It was a very impressive sight.

So at the very least, this little weekend getaway opened my eyes to what the rest of Ghana has to offer. I have certainly been inflicted with some wanderlust so I am looking forward to getting out and experiencing more of the country.

Fishing the Volta

The local Wli characters

"Really? It's safe to go in there?"

Wli village and the surrounding mountains