Eco escape at Cape Three Points

There had been small chit chat among a few of my friends and acquaintances about a beautiful little beach paradise, where one can go to swim, eat & sleep. I had seen photos from Facebook and Instagram and I wondered just how true all this chit chat was.

So I logged on to their website and made the necessary bookings with a gentleman called Akwasi. (who I later found out is a Ghanaian / Canadian architect that is running this lodge with his wife... he apparently thought I was a 40-50 year old woman due to the serious tones of my emails and phone calls... great and chilled out people). We made plans to travel to Takoradi (flight was GHC 460 round trip back to Accra, Starbow) and I arranged for a taxi, Nat (through the recommendation of Akwasi) who charged us GHC 90 for the pick up. Of course there are other options of renting a vehicle, but we wanted to add the experience to getting our of our comfort zone. Nat will insist that the drive is only 1 hour 20 minutes but when I timed it was actually close to 2 hours because the taxi was a salon car and the road wasn't exactly a comfortable one. You will drive through a rubber plantation which was nice to see. 

My two girlfriends agreed to come along with me and we made the trip, leaving our comfort zones, to discover this tropical beauty. Mind you... we aren't exactly what you would call big nature people. To paint you a picture, we are the group of girls that would scream if we see a tiny spider steady on a wall... we would find it an "adventure" to sleep in a house made of bamboo with no air-conditioning or fan... our definition of love for nature is more for the aesthetics than actually experiencing it full time... so you get the picture right?

We booked the loft type room which cost about GHC 80 per night only (such a huge difference from my usual weekend getaways in other beaches!). Can I just mention that I find it absolutely cool that all this was hand built?!

Our compost toilet... which we quickly adjusted to and got comfortable with

Shower area

Luckily at some point in our lives, all of us three girls had experienced something like this so it wasn't hard to adjust to the facilities. It did get quite hot at night at the bottom part of the house because the air wasn't hitting the lower part where the bed was. Apart from that, I can say we actually had fun getting comfortable with the house. And oh did we thank the Lord that we didn't see spiders around! (although we knew they were there!). 

The lodge relies on solar energy which I found really cool so there aren't any power outlets in the rooms. To charge your phone, you'll have to go to the restaurant bar to do so at a fee of GHC 2 per charge. 

the restaurant bar -- we didn't get to try their akpeteshie (they flavoured their one)

They write the menu for the day on one board and the activities to do on the other board

In front of this restaurant bar is where we sat every day waiting to be fed by Mr. Robert (the chef) who did a fine job if I may say so! There is a different menu everyday but being slightly spoiled kids, we would sweet talk Mr. Robert into preparing something "special for us". He politely accommodated our requests and was very sweet about it. Dishes cost from GHC 18-35 depending on the dish.

Custom made chicken curry with rice... was really tasty!

Caramelized pineapples with rum flamed up and served warm... yes it was mad delish

Our routine for the three days: wake up, eat a big breakfast (consists of eggs, pancakes and a bowl of fruit), go lie somewhere along the beach, tan, swim, come back for lunch, sit around, drink Club beer, maybe read a bit, then eat dinner, smoke a shisha and then time for bed. LOL!

We did do somethings differently on each day: 

• Friday: We did a 30 minute walk to the nearby lighthouse with a tour guide and watched the sunset. Discovered which area of the beach the other guests go surfing. And we sat around the bonfire with the other guests of the lodge at night while smoking a shisha and listening to two locals play the guitar and african drum. 

Bonfire & Shisha 

• Saturday: We walked roughly 20 minutes to the right most side of the beach where the sand was nicer and there was absolutely no one around. We ended our Saturday day by walking to the other side of the beach where we watch the sunset. It was stunning! We didn't make it to the bonfire by the beach bar that evening as we were really exhausted. But from our room, I could hear the happy beats of music that was being played. It seemed they really partied it up!

• Sunday: Yeah we mostly slept and read a book under the shade near the beach bar because we were all pretty burnt from lying in the sun for the past two days! 

Beach Bar

Loving all the bottles making the wall

Now there are more activities to do at the beach.. but our lazy a**es followed the concept of EAT, SWIM, TAN, SLEEP... which we achieved very successfully and proudly! LOL!

There is a pool table, a table tennis, and for rent - surf boards, various board games, footballs and other sport balls and flippers. You can walk to the lighthouse to catch the sun set and also take a canoe ride to their rain forest (which we only found out on our last day that we could do!).

Personally, this beach is one of the best beaches I have been to in Ghana. It was definitely worth the trip!  Thank you to Akwasi and his team for our wonderful stay at Escape 3 Points. I wish you well with the ongoing projects there!

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!

Le Grande Bleu Beach Resort, a little past Kasoa

The resort is owned by retired Ghanaian born French football player, Marcel Desailly.  Found out about it through our guy friends who play football at Lizzie's Sports Complex (also owned by Desailly).

It has several chalets that surrounds one main house which consists of a big kitchen, a dining room that seats roughly about 10 people and a cozy living room area. In front of the main house is an intimate pool with quaint sun beds perfect for those sunkisses!

The chalets - Simple but clean and decorated nicely. All have air conditioning units. :) 

Between the beach front and the pool are three areas: two of which can be used to dine so you have the view of the beach and one area for a bar. 

One area for dining with a view of the beach

The bar and the second dining area

This resort is perfect for big groups of friends, family reunions, company team-building weekends or retreats... basically any big gatherings where everyone is sort of linked. The lady of the kitchen, Georgina, will gladly help you out with preparing food. We also have our champion grilling master, Daniel.

A group of us childhood friends drove there for a weekend as a farewell for our friends, who are one of the coolest couples i know!

I'd like to share how you should go about it to make sure you thoroughly enjoy the weekend! 

1. Plan a food menu for the weekend (so you know what ingredients to take with you and if it is necessary for you to take other kitchenware needed to prepare the meals. Here are two dishes that was part of our menu: 

   

   Lobsters wrapped in bacon

   
   

   

   This photo doesn't do justice of just how huge this fish was!

   
   
   
2. Plan a list of drinks you and your friends want to have over the weekend. (include ice on the list!)
3. Assign responsibilities e.g. Transportation for everyone, drinks, entertainment etc. We had a van, we had cool boxes of drinks and we made sure we brought music, shisha and a projector for movie night (no there is no TV).
4. Check what facilities and resources the resort has that you feel you may need or want, with the resort coordinator. e.g. They do not offer beach towels but they do have towels for when you shower. They do have a volleyball net. etc.
5. The most important of all, make sure you have great company! What's a weekend like this if you don't have good peoples to share it with right?!

We had a fantastic time during that weekend! Too bad we couldn't have stayed one more day! We had brought so much food and drinks, it would have been great to do so :) 

Pathway leading to the beach. You will even catch a glimpse of the grilling area :) 

Sankofa Beach Resort, Langma

Quaint and very personal resort in Krokrobite. Hidden spot, far enough to get away from the city but close enough to be reached fast enough.

The owner, Masao is a fantastic host. I stayed in that resort for about 4 days and every day he would come to us, tell us what ingredients the kitchen had, and let us say what we are in the mood for. He surprised us every with great dishes! Too bad I wasn't able to capture the other dishes we had!

Rooms are decent. Don't expect anything fancy. We had the room on the beach front. It was not bad at all. :)

http://www.sankofabeachhouse.com/