Hippo spotting on river safari and sleeping under the stars!

Our trip to Wa started with only the few small hiccups you would expect when attempting to travel in Ghana... first (after getting up at 3am and waiting two hours for him to arrive) the bus-ticket-man strolled up and began to sell tickets, only to be met with angry shouts of 'corruption!', and frustrated sighs 'this is just typical!'. We found out he had already sold three quarters of the tickets to a bunch of school children who had apparently camped out at his office overnight in desperation to get tickets to go home for Easter, and so he had ten tickets left, and there was about forty of us in the queue. Hmmmm.

This being my first 'holiday' trip since we arrived (much needed after the full on last couple of months), and John and Bev's last one before they leave to go back to Canada, we were pretty determined to get on the bus, so tried all our different tactics. We played the white man with power and an important place to be so we must get on that bus, the white man who will complain to your boss and get you fired, the white man who can be polite and patient and please just let us on the bus...and even the white man that demands they put an extra bus on (well, they just laughed at that one - 'you're in Ghana!' the bus driver kindly reminded us), none of which worked. So we settled to be the white people who would bus tickets to stand up instead; and oh boy was that a brave decision!

So, on this the longest and bumpiest and most horrendous of bus journeys we stood for a whole 7 hours. We were entertained along the way with the bus breaking down, a window exploding right by Bev's head, and one girl projectile vomiting. Nice. It was the most horrendous journey I have made here so far, but I have to say the trip was worth it in the end.

We spent one night with a volunteer friend who fed us a lovely three course meal, after which our spirits were lifted again and we were ready to tackle the hippo safari. The next morning we were met by a huge rainstorm, and when the rain comes here, it absolutely pours so we were not sure if we would even make it to the hippo sanctuary after all! We managed to make it to the tro-station, where we met some more friends, dressed fashionably in the latest accessory; a large blue plastic bag with hole-to-go-over-the-head. Very pretty!

By the time we made it to the sanctuary the sun was out and blazing. We were met by two huge skeleton hippo heads at the visitor centre, and a bunch of guides who were to take us on our trip. They kitted us up in nice bright red life jackets and we trooped off together on a long walk to the river bed where we were met by two long African canoes.

The safari was fantastic. We all piled into the canoes, our guide bailing out water as we promptly started to sink under the weight. Luckily they had some rags to hand and managed to plug the holes long enough to convince us that the boats were safe to go and we set off downstream.

The safari was fantastic, the river was so peaceful and still, surrounded by beautiful forests literally hundreds of shades of green, yellow and red. After so many weeks of being in the dry harsh heat of the savannah, it was amazing to be on water! It was very tempting to just dive in and swim, but knowing that hippos are happy to snack on humans, and the threat of the dreaded bilharzias, we opted to stay safely tucked in our canoes.

We didn't have to sail far before we saw the hippos. They were gorgeous! So many big grey round bottoms poking out of the water whilst they slept soundly in the middle of the river. It was so nice to see them wiggling their big heavy bottoms about trying to get comfortable and rolling over every now and again to splash cool water on their teeny little ones. There were two or three adult hippos, and about twelve little baby one, all huddled in a group floating in the water. How such a heavy animal can float I have no idea, but I didn't want to get too close to find out! Just being there, on the quiet water, hearing only the lapping of the river against the shore, and an occasional hippo yawn, was very peaceful indeed. We sat there for quite some time, floating on our canoes and snapping pictures and films, hoping for one to pop up and say hello. Eventually we caught James trying to take pictures of himself in the boat, and so decided it was probably time to head back.

Back at the 'base', we took bucket showers under the hot sun, and our guides helped us to cook up a small feast for dinner before sunset. We were expecting to catch a lift back into the forest to our accommodation for the night, but apparently it decided to leave without us, so as the sun started to set we decided to walk. The walk was beautiful, seeing the sun go down so slowly over the African woodland was a real treat, as was seeing Sarah and James attempt to carry our load of mattresses on their heads like true Africans, with astounding, though short lived, success!

We arrived at our tree-house after dark, so we had no idea how close we were to the river where the hippos live, it was only when we woke up in the morning that we could see we were right above the river, and the hippos could have wandered past at any time. It was a gorgeous little tree house, and we had lots of fun setting up a camp of mattresses and mossy nets, giggling like a bunch of school children, munching away on midnight snacks (well really it was only about 8pm but still...), drinking wine out of water sachet packets in the absence of cups, playing games and generally being pretty silly. It was only when we eventually got tired and decided to sleep that we realised how peaceful and quiet it was, and how nice to sleep out in the trees where we could breathe fresh cool air and oxygen for a change!

Waking up to the sound of the birds in the trees, and to the sun coming up and glinting at us between the branches was a real treat, and we spent the morning simply enjoying the peacefulness of being there (well, really we were waiting for the tro that was only about 4 hours late, but still it was nice).

The next day we went to Lawra, where Sarah is living as a one and only VSO volunteer. It was really nice to see where she lives, it' in a very poor area, and so the children who come around and hang out on the front porch are really poor and are clearly just surviving. Most of them had only scraps for clothes, and were covered in mud and dirt, and had quite a sad look about them that told me they really are struggling to survive here. When we came out with mangos and water they were full of smiles and laughter and absolutely loved playing there, utterly curious about all these 'nasaras' who have come to visit.

It's quite remote here so the plan was to have a party, a kind of house warming for Sarah, and that's exactly what we did! The day was filled with missions in preparation; we took the motorbike to collect a mattress from one of the other houses, tying it carefully African style on the back of James moto to get it back to the house so everyone would have a place to sleep, we went to market to stock up on fruit and veg, prepared looooads of rice and pasta and salad, snacks and drinks, and a Ghanaian came with full DJ set and speakers so we were all set for a party. And agood one it was. Somehow the whole community had heard about it, so we had about thirty children from nearby who came to join in dancing outside on the patio, playing games, someone even had some African drums outside, which was quite nice under the full moon.

The weekend was a lot of fun and it was great to finally let our hair down and relax. After all the preparations we all had to go through before we came, and the sheer full on experience of moving house to a developing country, acclimatising to the heat and culture, settling in and getting to grips with our life here, rolling with the ups and the downs in the whirlwind of training, inductions, introductions and new experiences, it kind of marked the end of one chapter and the start of a new one. The end of settling in, and the start of something new!

With love from the home of big bottom hippos,

Em

xxxx