We were checked in at the reception and went straight on to enjoy a late dinner at the Branche Restaurant of the hotel, before actually making our way to our rooms for a good night rest.
At the restaurant, I discovered shito! Ladies and gentlemen; boys and girls, lend me your ears and eyes: shito is Ghana’s greatest culinary invention. Okay, maybe that’s being over the top, but believe me, if you put shito on the most insipid, bland or tasteless meal and you may end up licking the plate. That is the power of shito!
The next morning we had a sumptuous breakfast and waited for the arrival of the Nigerian tour operators from Lagos and Abuja who had signed up for the tour. They and the airlines bringing them conspired and took their time in arriving, so we left Golden Tulip well past midday and set out for the Western Region. I knew it was going to be a long drive – since I’d done the Accra to Cape Coast before.
We eventually arrived at Karela Hotel & Resort, Beyin – a mere 35mins drive to Cote d’Ivoire! Again we did the checking in and had our late dinner – it was almost midnight. The food was so good, or I was just hungry that I forgot to take pictures. We retired to our rooms afterwards.
When dawn came, most people were reluctant to get out of bed. I was surprised when I packed out of my room and reached reception with my luggage that no other luggage was there. I went into the restaurant and found Sammie Opoku, the drone pilot doing some stuff with his laptop. I took a walk to the beach before returning for breakfast which was just being laid out. We were already behind schedule and it was clear we had to drop one of the places we were scheduled to visit: Ankasa Game Reserve or Nzulezu Stilts Village – we couldn’t do both.
Brekkie over, we said farewells to Karela and got on the bus and set off to the take off point to Nzulezu. Nzulezu is a floating community very much like Ganvie in Benin Republic. I am told it’s not as large as Ganvie although the stories of both are similar: locals fleeing raiders capturing men to sell into slavery, so they found solace on water and built a community on it.
When we returned from Nzulezu, we set out for a site inspection of and lunch at the Maaha Beach Resort, an enchanting spread of a brilliant bespoke hospitality hidden away in Anochi, about 45mins from the Ivorian border. The lunch was good and we had a chat with Monsieur Jean-Jacques Mass, GM of the facility. We later met the owner of the facility and spoke with him briefly. Wish we could spend at least a night there, but we had to leave because we had a whole lot ahead of us.
We had a long drive back to Takoradi, the oil-rich capital of the Western Region where we had an audience with the genial Minister of the Western Region, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah and some members of his cabinet as they hosted us to a dinner. We had to leave afterwards and continue our long journey down to Cape Coast, arriving at Pempamsie Hotel where we spent the night at around 23:00hours.
Up the next morning, we had a good brekkie before setting out to see the famous Cape Coast Castle. It was return for me and I was amused as some of my colleagues got teary as they went on a guided tour through the dungeons. We left the castle and made our way back to Pempamsie Hotel for lunch before setting off for Accra.
We arrived Accra and drove straight to the Accra City Tourist Centre where the Women In Business And Tourism was taken place to lend our support. Afterwards, we were taken to the Accra City Hotel, our home for the duration of the expo we came to witness.
By NIYI DAVID
Source: morecreamthancoffee.com
