A month away from home tomorrow! Seems like both a long and a short time somehow. The last week has been awesome - starting with a crazy night out in Kumasi with all the vols. Some rastafarians decided to accompany us out for the evening so there was a lot of "Ya Maaan!" and "Feel at home!". The beers here are GIANT - not that I'm complaining...

Was unfortunate to find out that there was no room on the bus to Takoradi (which the incredibly grumpy lady seemed to enjoy bellowing out for everyone to hear "NO TICKETS UNTIL TUESDAY!") so had the 'joy' of taking a tro tro for over 4 hours... lovely. But seeing the sea again was so good - made me a smidgen homesick for pretty Bay of Islands... In Takoradi I met an Irish guy who had cycled all the way from London!!!! Crazy, but defiantely inspiring - maybe there will be a cycle trip in the future - any one keen to accompany me???

I spent 4 nights at Green Turtle Lodge with Barbara which was awesome. The beach was stunning, the weather was great and was nice to be out of the crazy towns of Ghana for a while. We were very much the budget backpackers of the lodge - walking the half hour into the village for bread for lunch and making sure we scraped the last bit of fondu (yes chocolate fondu in ghana!) to get our moneys worth when we were outrageous to splash out the 2 US dollars for dessert (you get used to everything being so cheap here that buying a dessert which is over half of one nights accomodation seems a bit crazy...).

It was then onto Elmina where we spent the night. Checked out the town in the evening; ate prawns, lots of oranges and some ghanaian chocolate before getting lost (it maaaay have been my fault).

Cape Coast Castle tour yesterday was unreal. The castle itself is pretty breathtaking, set right on the coast with huge waves crashing up against the sides and surrounding rocks. But the history of the slave trade was something that if you go to Ghana I think you have to hear. The stories were shocking, we visited the cells where up to 200 slaves in a room smaller than the average classroom. There were marks on the wall that showed the level of human waste - about 2 feet high - that the slaves would live on. There were the tiny holes that let in the measly amount of light and the larger holes that let in the vast amounts of water when it rained. Worst of all was the door of no return, where the slaves were marched out to join the ships that awaited them; awaited them with disease, starvation, thirst and death.

Anyway, it was an experience that really made me think how lucky I am to be here, now, when things like this are a part of the distant past.