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 :)