We enjoyed our last breakfast at Taste Lodge. I had an omelet and Mandy had scrambled eggs (On our bill this was listed as "scumbled egg") We then strolled down to the Barclays Bank and drew some cash, under the watchful gaze of the guard with a machine gun. When we got back to Taste Lodge once again Florence told us how much she would miss us and Frances asked us to communicate by e-mail when we got back to England. We all posed for group photos and then we hefted on our rucksacks and headed off for the Tro-Tro Station. It didn't take long to find a Tro-Tro to Logba Alekpete which was the nearest town on the road to our destination, Tafe Atome.

We found ourselves sitting in the Tro-Tro behind three well to do and very fat Ghanaian ladies. I was inches from the back of their heads and found myself making an in-depth study of their three different and very elaborate hairstyles. I won't bore you with my findings but it helped pass the journey and I was surprised when the driver told us we had arrived.

We had been warned by Maria back at Rainbow Garden Village that there would be some pressure to take a ride on a taxi-bike here and true to form three or four lads were competing for our attention to take us to our destination by motorbike. Mandy had already said "There's no way I'm going on one of them" so it was relatively easy to persuade the guys that we were completely mad and wanted to walk to Tafe Atome.

Rucksacks on our backs we trudged off in the mid-day sun towards our destination. Mandy set a cracking pace and we covered the 5 kilometer trail in just over an hour and were welcomed as the first visitors to the village that day.

Tafe Atome is a rural village that has learned to harness a local feature to attract tourists. They have been able to build visitor accommodation, renovate their little primary school, build a health clinic and get an electricity supply. The feature which attracts this ecotourism is a group of Mona Monkeys and as the monkeys are most active early in the morning and just before dusk daytime visitors are quite likely to miss seeing them. This was possibly the most basic accommodation we have stayed in thus far but the room did have a mosquito net over the bed which saved me having to put up ours, When the power went out, just after dark at about 6:00, our host, Emanuel, brought us a candle which we were not allowed to put on the lino or on the table. In fact Emanuel was most insistent that there was only one place that the candle could go and that was a little area of concrete floor in the corner of the room where the lino didn't quite reach the wall. By this time two German girls, who were volunteers had moved into another room near ours and after a while we were all led through the dark village to a hut where we were given a most welcome meal of rice with a tomato sauce and boiled eggs by candle light. More guests were expected later and we were hurried back to our rooms but as usual there was little to do after dark and we were asleep under our net by 8:30 with instructions to be up and ready for a trek to see the monkeys by 6:00 a.m.

True to form we arose at 5.15, and with a walk over to the toilet, shower block, we sat and waited for the call from Emmanuel to start the tour. We were split into two groups and headed off, we only had a short walk then we were handed bananas and Emmanuel called to the monkeys and they came ready for breakfast, it's amazing they do not bite or scratch, but jump onto your arm or shoulder for the bananas. After all the bananas had gone we headed into the forest, where Emmanuel explained about the monkeys and why they have them and look after them. When the tour was over we all went to the cooks house for breakfast, toast, porridge and marmalade, with tea or coffee.

Unfortunately I lost all the photos of this bit in a taxi in Accra. J