Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum & Jamestown Lighthouse, Accra, Ghana

I have lived in Ghana for quite a while now and I've never stepped foot at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum or the Jamestown Light house ever. So when my friend, Martin said he would be doing both places on a Saturday afternoon, I jumped in on the idea and joined him!! :)

Anyone looking for being a tourist in Accra for an afternoon should consider this!
Whether you are living or visiting, it's always nice to learn a little bit of history.

We ended the afternoon with rib burgers at Chix and Ribs. Uhhhh not exactly the Ghanaian experience to wrap up the day but hey, walking around was hot and tiring and we all felt we deserved a hefty and yummy meal!!! We followed it up by having some beers at Cuzzy bro's. Oh yess... it was a good tourist day!

Here are some of the photos:

So I am scared of heights.. but I made it to the top. The lighthouse has 82 steps (as claimed by our "tour guide")

Wli Falls and Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, Volta Region

I drove up with my sister and one of my best friends up to Wli during Easter weekend. Oh wow! Some adventure for us. I had heard the Akosombo bridge was under construction so we went around Ada for a longer route and scenic view.  We left on a Friday and returned to Accra on a Monday.

The road less travelled

I won't go into details on how our car broke down in the middle of no where in Sogakope on Friday and how God had sent an angel to help us out and stayed for 4 hours sorting out the car and was still really nice about it. Good samaritans out there! 

In the middle of no where

Anyway when we finally got to Wli, our lodge was easy enough to find. We stayed at Big Foot Safari Lodge. The two guys managing the place were Innocent and Gideon... such nice guys and they give great service. Better than that in Accra!!!

On Saturday, we headed off early to hike to the Wli falls with our bottles of water and packed sandwiches. We had our guide, Samuel and begun this 3 hour hike up. 

Now if you love hiking and you have prepared for it, you would like this hike up and hike down. 

The view on top was breath-taking! And as we neared the upper part of the falls, where I could here the water, it was all pretty exciting. I felt so much relief having to see that the very tiny waterfalls got closer and bigger. :) It was even more amazing to be in the water and under the falls!

Our glimpse of the falls

Finally!

up close and personal with the falls

LOOOOL! Yes we were standing there looking like that cos we felt free with the water splashes!

Now if you aren't used to hiking, the longer route of this hike is not for you! My out of shape body was in so much pain after all of this... part of the hike down included having to grab onto rocks and roots of trees where at times you would have to bend your knee all the way to your chest to be able to climb without falling. The other part of the hike down was walking on narrow trails where you miss one step and you could be rolling down that mountain. 

Don't get me wrong, at the end of the hike, I felt it was worth all of it. It will be the last time I make that long hike though :) 

I decided not to join my friend for the climb on Mt. Afadjato on Sunday. Instead, while she did another hike, I sat with a lovely Ghanaian family who were so kind to share their fufu (local Ghanaian dish) with me. Horray for great hospitality of Ghanaian people!

On our way back to Accra, we did a quick stop at Tafi Atome to see the Monkey Sanctuary. Cute litte monkeys! You feed them banana so they come to you. Nice way to end our weekend!

Thought it was cool for the baby monkey to be hanging on the
mama monkey while she jumped from branch to branch!