the search continues...

Well after two weeks of checking out touristy sights along the coast, we're back in lovely Accra, and the wonders of fast internet and aircon that actually works.

First we had a (mostly) nice 8 days in a place called Kakrobite which is just outside of Accra, and has a beach that's unusually swim-friendly for West Africa (they are often full of rips and undertows, not to mention fishing nets, plastic bags and shit).

Along with the horribly ubiquitous 'African Queen' I've also heard no end of Bob Marley since arriving in Africa, and it turns out there are quite a few Rastafarians in coastal Ghana. We got to know one woman in Kakrobite who was a convert and told us all about it - I was surprised to find out they are all vegans and don't drink. Later on, in Cape Coast, we met another Rasta, this one a bloke with a long beard and a Californian-hippy accent, who has single-handledly kickstarted a Ghanain tofu and soymilk industry (a good thing too, as dairy products here are either powdered or tinned). Dave was curious about how Rastafarianism made it from Jamaica to Africa, especially to countries outside Ethiopia, but if you ask an actual Rasta about that, they just shrug and say something like 'it is originally from Africa, that's how we know about it'.

The main tourist sights along the coast are all the slave forts - we visited two, Cape Coast and Elmina, both quite disturbing. People were crowded into dark dungeons with only minimal food and drinking water, no access to cleaning or toilets etc, for as long as a month. And the slaves that died there were probably luckier than the ones who survived long enough to be forced onto the next slaving ship. Ironically both towns are stunningly beautiful, especially Elmina.

We also did the famous 'canopy walk' in Kakum National Park - flimsy, bouncing little planks of wood suspended 40m above the ground, held up by a few ropes, which allow you to look down over the beautiful rainforest. Always wondered if I was afraid of heights, and now I know I'm not. Phew! Of course being a seasoned rainforest visitor, I wasn't exactly blown away by the sights, but we had an interesting guided hike afterwards and learnt a lot about some of the trees, and it was nice to see ebony.

I had a few dance lessons in Kakrobite, but had to stop earlier than I planned because after six ailment-free weeks in Africa, I managed to get diarrhea (which is actually compulsory for travellers here) AND tropical ulcers (on my jaw and right arm) within about 2 days of each other... thankfully Dave identified the 'troppoes' for me early on, as they are highly infectious little bastards. They've just about gone now, but it's hell tricky to be hyper-hygienic here, when even the water you wash in is dodgy - at Kakrobite we had to scoop it out of a big dirty tank. And generally, there's dust and grime everywhere. I'm becoming a bit more paranoid about what I eat now, even in restaurants. Street food's usually pretty safe because you can see them cooking it - but in Elmina all the vendors just had cooked food out in the open with flies crawling all over it - right next to the stinky open sewers which line all the streets in Ghana. Eurgh.