Grand Africa Cruise - Takoradi, Ghana

Cruise Day 56

Sunday, December 4, 2022

"All you need to know is that it’s possible.”  -- Wolf, an Appalachian Trail Hiker

Today we are in Takoradi, Ghana.  Here is a short introduction to Ghana from the Britannica website.  "Ghana, country of western Africa, situated on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Although relatively small in area and population, Ghana is one of the leading countries of Africa, partly because of its considerable natural wealth and partly because it was the first black African country south of the Sahara to achieve independence from colonial rule."  For more information, here is a link.

Takoradi, where we are docked, is an important and busy port on Ghana's Cape Coast and is a main depot for container ships and oil tankers.  It is actually known as Sekondi-Takoradi because it is comprised of the twin cities making up the metropolitan area.

Takoradi is the red marker near the top of the map.  It took three days to sail here from Luanda (the blue marker near the bottom).  The blue marker to the left of Takoradi is Abidjan in the Ivory Coast where we'll be tomorrow.

A map of Ghana

 

The flag of Ghana

We were supposed to dock at 8:00 this morning, but as usual in these African countries, several things led to a late docking and a delay in clearing the ship.  Val and I had a ship excursion planned that leaves at 9:00 so we got up at 7:30.  We went out on our balcony to check the weather and we knew we were in for a rough day, it was already quite warm with high humidity.

We had to check in at the ship’s theater for our excursion and when we arrived, it was full because the ship still hadn’t been cleared, and the earlier tours were still there.

Finally, the announcement came that the ship had been cleared and they started to call the various tours.  They started with the earlier ones so since we weren’t scheduled to leave until nine, we were called last.  It took a while to get off the ship as our excursion included a box lunch from the ship so they had to be distributed before we left.

When we exited the ship, we found dancers and drummers performing as well as a group of vendors selling their goods.  This is an industrial port with very limited access, but the dancers and vendors must have gotten special permission.  Last night and this morning we were told over and over again, do not take pictures in the port area!  The ban on picture taking was strongly enforced and anyone caught taking pictures in the port area would be fined.  We have never experienced anything like this before, but we abided by the rules and there will be no arrival or departure pictures from this port.

We got off the ship and found our tour group and were on our way.  We were glad to find that we were on a large bus with plenty of room, but unfortunately, the air conditioning was barely functioning.  In this hot and humid climate, the lack of air conditioning was very disappointing, but that is more the norm in these African countries as very few stores and I’m sure even fewer homes are air conditioned.

Our tour today was a visit to a coca farming village.  Coca is the primary agricultural export from Ghana and is generally grown by peasant farmers on small plots of land in the countries forested region as they get between 60 and 100 inches a year in rainfall.  Ghana is the second leading exporter of coca in the world, second only to the Ivory Coast where we'll be tomorrow.

It was about an hour’s drive to the village and as usual on this trip, the drive was as interesting as the actual purpose of the trip.   

Pictures from the bus as we drove through Ghana.

These pictures were taken from the bus as we entered the village we were visiting today.

These are coca seeds drying in the sun.

When we arrived in the village we were taken to an open, covered, communal meeting area where we were seated and greeted by a performance of dancers and drummers.

This is where we got off the bus and there was a large group of villagers to greet us although I'm sure they were mainly just curious.

We were entertained by drummers and dancers.

Up in the front were seated the village chief (I believe he was like a mayor) along with the village council and other officials including the local religious leader.  The chief and his advisors were dressed in their traditional robes, but the rest of the group was dressed in more casual clothing.  This was a big event for the villagers and particularly for the village children as they ringed the area outside the meeting area and watched the proceedings.

The chief and his council and other village officials.  The chief is in the red and orange robes at the far right.  The gentleman on the far left in the jacket was the village clergyman.

A better look at the chief sitting to the right of the empty chair.

One of the council members.

This seemed to be a big event for the villagers as they ringed the pavilion where we were seated.

After the dancing was done the formal greeting started.  It is customary to present the chief a gift and ask his permission for us to visit.  Our gift was presented and accepted by the chief and then there were speeches by him and several others that had to be translated for us by our guide.  The gift was two bottles of Schnapps (we later found out this was traditional) and during the speech, as part of the ceremony, some of the liquid was poured out on the ground.  We were then welcomed to the village and told we would always be welcome there.  We were then offered a drink of some homebrew alcoholic drink.  Val and I rarely drink alcohol, but we felt that it would be rude not to accept, so we took our sip and it tasted pretty good, but was pretty strong.

The welcoming ceremony was about to begin.

Everything was done in their own language and even though it was somewhat translated by one of our guides, it was difficult to understand the symbology.

He is holding the bottle of Schnapps and a bottle of a local brew and would alternately pour some of each on different area of the ground as he spoke.  The chief would also answer when each bottle was poured on the ground.

After the ceremony, we were led down through the village to a grove of coca trees and shown the growing and harvesting process.  We were surprised to see that the coca pods were not hanging from branches but growing on the trunk itself.  It turns out that the coca plants are used for many things, but the main use is the making of chocolate.

These are pictures of the village as we walked through it on our way to where the coca pods are harvested.

We reached the edge of the village where the coca trees were.

The coca pods actually grew out of the tree trunk.  All parts of the coca pod is used for various things.  The seeds that are used to make the chocolate and other things are removed when the pods are cut open and dried.

We were followed everywhere by the village children who loved to have their picture taken.  When Val showed them the pictures on the camera, they were delighted.  I wish we had a a way of leaving copies for them.

We were then led back up through the village where the coca pods were being processed and the seeds laid out to dry.  The processes are all done by hand with most of the village taking part.  We saw sheets covered with drying coca seeds all over the village.  We tried one of the seeds and it didn’t taste anything like chocolate, so I guess the taste comes in the later processing.

We made our way back to the village to an area where they were being dried and processed.

 

 

Fresh coca seeds being spread out to dry.

After that we made our way back to the bus and started the trip back to the ship.  

We hadn’t known what to expect from this tour, but it turned out to be very interesting as we learned a lot about coca, and also a lot about the village life and local customs.  The people and particularly the children were very friendly and as we left everyone waved as we drove through the village and back to the main road.  Ghana has very little tourism particularly since the beginning of Covid and our visit means income for Ghana and the village we visited, so this is important to them.  Our guide told us this is like a holiday for the residents, and I think as much as we find looking at their village and surroundings so interesting, I think they find looking at us and our strange habits and way of dressing equally interesting and strange.

Due to the delayed start, we were back on the ship a little later than scheduled, but still made it in time to make it to the Lido and get some lunch.  After lunch, it was back to our room for showers and rest; spending much of the day out in the heat and humidity is very draining.

We were due to leave Ghana at six and there was another sail away party so Val and I decided to go up for that.  Once again, the sail away was delayed, this time because of a late arriving ship excursion (they always wait for ship excursions).  Just before we went up to the sail away party, Val and I were out on our balcony and wondering why the gangway hadn’t been removed yet when we saw a police motorcycle with siren going and lights flashing leading a bus toward the ship.

It had cooled off a bit and the sun was going down so it was quite pleasant out on the deck.  We hung around for a while and had our “unleaded” margaritas until we finally sailed away.  By that time, it was getting close to dinner, so we headed back to the room to get ready.

After dinner, Val had another good night in the casino, even better than last night. Unfortunately, my losing continued.  We need to be up early tomorrow for a tour, so it was back to the room and early to bed for us.

Grand Africa Cruise - Null Island

Cruise Day 55

Saturday, December 3, 2022

"Love is the food of life, travel is the dessert”  -- Amanda Jane Sturges

“And when you travel with the one you love, it’s a gourmet delight.” -- Dave Brown 😊

With the clocks being set back last night I woke up early, but laid in bed for a while, and finally got up just before eight.  We had breakfast in the Neptune Lounge and then waited for the big event of the day – we would be passing through the Null Point, 0 degrees latitude and 0 degrees longitude or as some call it, Null Island.

The captain had told us yesterday that the ship would be altering course just a bit so we could pass through this point.  He pointed out there was nothing to see, just the ocean as usual, but we were looking forward to it.  As the time drew nearer the captain made an announcement that we would be crossing the Null Point around 9:45 AM and he would blow the ship’s horn at the second we crossed it and then make an announcement afterwards.

There were many people out on deck and as we looked out of our balcony, we could see that most people with balconies were out on theirs.  The moment came at exactly 9:49 and the ship’s horn blew, and it was over, but at that exact second the ship was in every hemisphere at the same time, kind of like our four corners area in the Southwest US where you can stand at a certain spot and be in four states at once.

The TV in our room has a channel that is always on that shows the ship's location and other information.  This photo is the exact moment we crossed the Null Point.

A few seconds later the captain came back on and made the announcement that we were now all Trusty Emerald Shellbacks.  When you cross the equator for the first time you go from Pollywog to Shellback and when you cross the Null Point (0, 0 lat, long) you become an a Trusty Emerald Shellback.  We didn’t know if that was a real thing or just made up, but Val did a little research and sure enough, that’s part of maritime tradition.  Another thing we learned was that it is often called Null Island even though there is nothing there but open water.  Anyway, as the captain said, there was nothing to see, but it was a unique moment and we had been looking forward to it.  We even got a certificate stating that we were now Trusty Emerald Shellbacks.  I took a video of the screen and the captain's announcement and have included it below as well as our certificates.

At the end of every year, I take our best travel pictures and make a calendar for the upcoming year, but this year there won’t be much time to get that done before the end of the year.  We decided that for next year, the calendar will be of our best animal pictures we took on safari.  We took a lot so I spent the rest of the morning going through them and picking out candidates for the calendar.  There are a lot of pictures, so I only made it halfway through the first day as it was hard to decide which ones to choose.  I only need twelve for the calendar, but I will choose quite a few and then narrow it down to the very best.

All the time I was doing this Val was out on the balcony relaxing so when I got tired of looking at pictures, I joined her until it was time for lunch.  As it has been the last couple of days, the weather was warm and humid with some heavy cloud cover at times, but no rain.

After lunch we decided to walk around the ship a bit and after we returned to the room, we took the computer to the Neptune Lounge and looked at the rest of our pictures we hadn’t seen yet.  We are finally caught up!!  By the time we were done it was after five and we relaxed until it was time for dinner.

It was our usual routine for dinner, but tonight Val did very well in the casino.  Tomorrow we are in Ghana and have to be up a little early, so we didn’t stay up too late and called it a night around ten.