11th update
First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you. My New Years Eve was not with my book but with two Dutch girls with whom I had dinner (chicken and rice…), drank beers, had a count-down, and jumped down the chair. So it was all in all an okay evening. We had a good time and could finally go to bed half past midnight - very tired as we are used to the Ghanaian time going to bed at around 9pm :) The Ghanaians themselves were not very celebrative - they went to church New Years Eve…… and then they celebrated a bit in the morning on the 1st of January instead.

On the first day in the new year I went to the Wli Waterfalls not far from Hohoe, which are said to be one of Ghana's most popular tourist sites. I was therefore expecting to meet fellow travelers there, but when showing up at 9am I was the only one! Argh! I am pretty tired of traveling Ghana compared to for instance India: it is more or less impossible to find fellow travelers, and there are absolutely no amazing tourist attractions (at least not from my point of view which probably is affected by the amazing experiences in India). A lot of things in Ghana are nice - but nothing is fantastic or amazing, I would say. Anyway, I have now finally realised that finding fellow travelers is more or less impossible, so now when I don't expect to meet other obrunies traveling around Ghana I don't get disappointed - I just get the best out of it and enjoys my own company. And it is nice to travel around Ghana, and I do meet other obrunies whom I dine with and such (just no one to travel further with), so everything is fine. I just look very much forward to go to Tanzania and to see Natasha again - and today there are only 20 days till my flight! :)
Anyway, the Wli Waterfalls was beautiful, and the walk to the upper falls was really nice: very steep and very difficult, taking 2 hours in each direction. It was good exercise only two days after climbing Mt Adaklu, so I tell you my leg muscles were paining! But it was a good pain reminding me that I had used my body.

On the 2nd of January I continued my travels heading to the hill town Biakpa. I took a tro-tro to Fume, putted on my running/walking shoes, and started walking uphill carrying my 10 kilo backpack on my back with the sun burning. It took me just over an hour getting to the lodge where I was going to stay the night, and I was very sweaty when I arrived, but it was all worth it. It was a really nice walk, and again really nice to use my body. I was welcomed by some staff, a freshly squeezed organic mango juice, and by two elderly English/Ghanaian couples who were the sweetest. Very very nice people. My stay in this lodge in Biakpa was very pleasant: Such a peaceful place with lovely views, nice food and good company. One of the couples even paid my accommodation bill for my Biakpa stay and phoned a friend in Bolgatanga (where I am now) to make sure I would get nice accommodation at his place. So nice of them.

Even though it was a pleasant place at Biakpa, it was too peaceful for me to stay there several days. I therefore moved on to Akosombo on the 3rd (via Fume where I had to wait 1,5 hour to get a tro-tro!). There is nothing to see or do in Akosombo except for seeing a big dam (which is causing the Volta River and gives power to the entire of Ghana) and to jump on the ferry heading to Yeji in the North of Ghana. I was in Akosombo due to the last reason. I arrived Sunday, found accommodation, had dinner with 9 Asians and one Dutch guy, had a canoe ride on the Volta River, and waited for it to become Monday so that I could board the ferry. The ferry is sailing from Akosombo every single Monday all year round, arriving in Yeji 36 hours later. It is not possible to book your ticket in advance so I had to go to the ferry jetty Monday morning - only to find out that exactly this Monday there would be no ferry! - but I could come back in a week…! As if! Really really annoying. What a waste of time and money: My stay in Akosombo was only because of the ferry, and it would have been such an extremely easy and cheap way of getting to the North. Now I had to go all the way around the lake, spending too much time on the roadside and too much money on this kind of transport. Crap. I have been pretty unlucky lately. I hope my luck will turn.
It was already pretty late taken in consideration that I had to travel quite a lot. I therefore chose to break the journey into parts. That Monday I went via Kpong and Koforudia to Kumasi where I stayed one night and then headed towards Tamale (7 hours North of Kumasi) on Tuesday the 5th. This very long journey I decided NOT to go by tro-tro and went instead by the air-conditioned government owned STC-bus - quite a good choice worth the money. Driving all this way it was obvious how the scenery changed from being green and humid towards a very dry climate, dusty and Sahara-like. I didn't arrive until 6pm so it was too late to continue to Bolgatanga further north. I had dinner and went to sleep in a horrible - but cheap - hotel room in central Tamale.

Today I have arrived in Bolgatanga. I had to go by tro-tro 2,5 hours. The humidity is so extremely low. Your skin dries faster than you put on lotion, and you need to drink lots of water. On the tro-tro ride I didn't have enough water and I started to get a feeling about how it must be to be in a desert without water… I panicked a bit and feared that we wouldn't pass any village with water sachets - everything is SO completely remote up here. Very different from what I am used to in Kumasi and below. Luckily the tro-tro stopped a minute in a village where I managed to get some water. Pyh.. Well, I arrived safely and found the friend of the English/Ghanaian couple who has a guesthouse, where I am staying.
I am pretty exhausted after all this traveling so today I have just been doing internet (for too many hours…) and soon I will go for dinner. Tomorrow it is sightseeing time and I will head to Paga - the town bordering Burkina Faso. On Friday I will also do some trips around Bolga and then Saturday I plan to head back towards Tamale and from there go to Mole National Park and see elephants… :) I met an Australian guy on the bus to Tamale whom I might go to Mole NP with.

My camera situation is this: My younger brother, Jakob, has helped me buying a new camera which Natasha will bring me when she arrives in Tanzania. Until then I try to use my broken one…

Photo situation: I have succeeded in uploading photos to Facebook! All of them! Pretty amazing Ghanaian internet taken in consideration… I haven't transferred them to the blog yet, though, but I will do that as soon as possible. In a few days I hope.

I hope you are all good.

All the best,
Signe