Well worth a visit, while in Ghana, is the revived brick, roof tile and ceramics factory in Adidome, located 20km from Sogakope in the Volta Region of Ghana. In this small village it is the only industrial small-scale enterprise but it is now employing over 30 previously unemployed people to manuafcture clay bricks, traditional hand-formed bamboo roof tiles, interlocking Marseilles Roof Tiles, clay pavers, thin-brick slices and hollow blocks. The new expansion programme for 2010 is for rapid expansion of the ceramic pottery unit now that production of terracotta pottery has now commenced and a new pottery kiln has been built. During 2010 glazed pottery will be produced as soon as the large electric shuttle kiln, which is already on-site, has been installed. It is facinating to watch the highly trained artisans produce the hand-formed tradional bamboo roofing tiles from pressed slabs of the local Adidome clays.

Graham Smith

After spending about 2,5 years in Cape Coast and around, I want to recommend a few places to travellers.

First and most its “Oasisi Beach Resort”, just 500m west off the castle in Cape Coast. Budget rooms, excellent meals and very friendly staff, rounded up by a bunch of nice travellers and locals hanging out there. The owner, Ali, has excellent management skills and always an open ear for the customer.

Secondly, the “Meet me There Spot” around Adisadel Estates in Cape Coast offers basic local food of good taste, the best beef kebab in town and draught beer. A signpost at Adisadel road should guide you. Sometimes life band!

Thirdly, as many visiters complain about not seeing any animals at Kakum National Park, though it is a very impressive walk along the canopy, try “Monkey Forest Resrve”, just before you get to the Kakum main gate. Anett and Denis from Holland run the place and have always a good story and a lot of interesting local animals in their yard. Please donate generously, because they need support in their project.

Gerald Frost

The National Museum is still very nice but entrance fee is 4.50 Ghana cedis and they charge an additional 2 Gh cedis for photography.

Iana Hoff

I wanted to let future travelers know of a Basket Weaving teacher in Accra.
Her name is Beatrice and you can go sit in her peaceful and shady backyard and make your own baskets from straw she gathers herself.
Beatrice is a great teacher as well as a wonderful person.
It is not expensive to come learn to weave and make your own baskets, I think her real passion is teaching people of all ages (and levels of coordination).

Call her at 027 775 8319, she can give you directions an you can come any day of the week. I get there by taking a tro-tro towards Achimota and getting off at Kesseman Junction.

Shelby

I’m living in Bolgatanga and I’ve recently heard of a few highway robberies in the Norther, Upper East and Upper West Regions. A Ghanaian friend was traveling from Tamale to Wa, but there was no vehicle, so he went to Techiman and haggled a share taxi from there. However, the passengers were thieves. Part-way along the road from Techiman he was robbed of all his possessions and cash and left by the roadside. Apparently this kind of set-up is becoming more common. My Ghanaian partner explained that the thieves survey passengers waiting at taxi and trotro stations and relay the information to partners somewhere along route. The station thieves then either board the vehicle themselves or relay the departure time. Down the highway the thieves in waiting will set up some kind of road block and then rob the passengers. I heard of this kind of robbery happening in daylight between Navrongo and Bolga about 2 months ago when I met the robbed white travelers in a net cafe in Bolga. They also lost everything. The road from Mole continuing on to Wa is notorious for this. Even a bunch of Ghanaians selling cocoa in Accra were trailed all the way back to the Western Region and then robbed of all their cash by the robbers who trailed them. When we were biking back from Navrongo to Bolga one day I noticed a group of about ten youths sitting in a baobab tree with machetes. I asked my partner if they were robbers and he said they probably were, but they’d only be interested in full vehicles, not us on a bike. Excellent, but not very reassuring really. I was also set up and robbed this way between Elmina and Cape 2 years ago. You can read more at my blog http://gisforghana.blogspot.com I fought back and luckily it was a happy ending, but not so for many. While this seems frightening, it’s not all that bad. My suggestion is to not carry anything you mind losing when traveling over distances in Ghana. If it’s possible to have a base from which to springboard, leave your valuables there. I used to leave cash in my locked suitcase or a safe in the organisation where I was volunteering and only took what I needed. It might seem like overkill, but you could strap cash to your calves under long pants (your shoes might get stolen–unless flip flops). Also, have a second wallet hidden. I use one where I keep a token sum I don’t mind handing over (20 Cedis seems good enough) and keep the real cash hidden. I hope this helps.

Gayle Pescud

Officially opened to coincide with the UN-sponsored International Year of Astronomy 2009, the Ghana Planetarium is a 30-year dream come to fruition for the Director, Dr. Ashong and his wife. It is the first digital planetarium in sub-Saharan Africa and offers a unique interactive experience for children and adults of all ages. The Planetarium currently accepts group bookings only, at a minimum cost of GHc 60 per group. A variety of different shows are available, depending on the age range and interest of the group. The maximum number of people the dome can hold is around 40. Special events for the public are held occasionally, featuring activities such as planetarium shows, astronomy film shows and telescope viewing. The charge is usually around GHc 2 – Ghc 5 per person. A local astronomy group, GAOA (Ghana Astronomy and Observation Association) holds regular meetings at the Planetarium. Their website is www.astroclubghana.com. The people at the Planetarium are on a mission, not only to enthuse and inspire Ghanaians about astronomy and the world around us, but also on a wider scale, to encourage scientific thinking, and to make science education more creative, innovative and practical. Interactive science exhibits are currently being constructed in the grounds of the Planetarium compound, and there are other projects being planned such as: Astronomy fun days and competitions for children Astronomy outreach across the country using a mobile planetarium Astronomy teacher training Build your own telescope sessions, and sale of “Galileoscope” kits Compilation of local names of constellations and local myths/stories about the heavens etc. Please feel free to call or email to find out about upcoming events. If you are a keen amateur or professional astronomer, and would like to assist with astronomy activities at the Planetarium on an ad-hoc, short-term or long-term basis, then we would love to hear from you.

Location: 12, Osu Avenue Extension, Accra (this is the road behind Police HQ on the Ring Road, and also behind Christ the King Church and School. Cinderella’s Night Club is on the same road) Tel: 021 770600 / 769204 Email: ghanaplanetarium@yahoo.com Website: www.ghanascienceproject.net

Sarah Abotsi-Masters 

For 12GhC a night we stayed at the Sacred Heart Catholic Social Centre. They had electricity part of the time we were there and running water (a sink in the room but communal bathrooms/shower).  It rained heavily during the night and our roof was leaky, but we weren’t too phased, just moved the beds a bit. Overall cheap but not for the amenities-minded.  We ate at the restaurant, but don’t suggest it. It’s not that nice (basically just an overpriced chop bar).

Krista & Rick S

(Osu)

We ate at Mamma Mia’s! Italian restaurant. Follow the signs when you get near the Koala Market, it’s down a few back streets, but well marked. It’s got really good italian food for a lot of money. 17GhC for a personal pizza (maybe one and a half people), 15GhC or so for a pasta dish.

I don’t remember what the name was, but it was by Papaye’s fast food in Osu, on the left side of the street (coming from Danquah circle) on top of a smoothie place. It had decently priced (by Accra standard, anyway, about 6-8GhC) indian and continental food. The double cheeseburger my husband got was good, and my falafel was also delicious.  

Duncan’s bar (about a block off the main road, on the right coming from DC, near Papaye’s) is a good place to sit and listen to some music, cheap beer and minerals, and they don’t mind if you bring in outside food (like from Papaye’s) to eat.

Krista & Rick S

Tamale – We were told that the Damango bus (to Mole) was full when it was 11am! We were going to stick around and wait for standing tickets, but we really were unclear as to how to do that – perhaps the next writer of the book can clarify? We decided that waiting for 3 hours in the hot sun wasn’t what we were up for at the moment, so we overnighted at the Picorna hotel to catch the Wa morning bus. It’s important to note that when we came back through the station later to talk to somebody about the next morning’s bus, a woman mentioned that there was a scalper selling tickets past 11am – and that we could have bought them (albeit at an inflated price). We didn’t even know they had scalpers there! We would have paid, so maybe other travelers can ask around if /anyone/, not just the Metro Mass folk, are selling tickets.

Picorna Hotel in Tamale wasn’t worth the money, and the garden bar, frankly, sucked.  The restaurant there was pricey and the minerals were, too!  It was comfortable, had running water and electricity, but we paid 40GhC.  They didn’t have DSTV, only GTV.

Another night we ended up being there we spent the night at “Central” Guesthouse (indeed centralised!)  It wasn’t bad at 15GhC a night, but the window to the outside didn’t shut — we didn’t enjoy it because Ghana’s Black Stars had just won a very important game and the Ghanaians were up partying allllll night.  We were right by the Guesthouse’s spot. Not ideal, but I’d still suggest it.

We ate at “Swab” fast food – which is actually SWAD fast food.  It was really delicious, but pricey at about 10GhC per pizza (we got the U&Me size each – and it was only ME sized) and about 8GhC per indian/Ghanaian dish.

Lots of things were shut down on Sunday, but we were told to hit up Colwods for fabric and trinkets and also Zuk’s (an obruni grocery store) – neither of which we got to.

MOLE–
We attempted to bargain for a taxi to Mole from Tamale. We figured it might be worth it to spend a few extra hours there. The guide suggests around $60, and when we asked, they quoted us 200GhC at first, the lowest offer they were willing to take us for being 120GhC – which was too expensive for us. No big deal, just WAY overpriced. A group of our friends, however, did charter a tro [they didn't mention how much it cost] and ended up playing mate; picking up passengers along the way and charging them to make some of the fare back.  Interesting, to be sure.

The bus to Wa cost 10GhC per person, something to be considered as the bus to Damango is only 3.50GhC.  The guide book suggests it may fill and tickets will be sold out by 4.30, so we woke up at 3.30 to make it there by 4, only to find out that tickets didn’t begin to sell until 5.15.  We had to walk outside the bus station and it was still kind of confusing, but fine.  The other downside to this is arriving in Larabanga around 10am. If you wish to walk to Mole from here, guidebook says it’s doable, but I say “Not in this heat” and “not with my luggage”!  There were three young ’scalpers’ who tried to “help us” get to Mole, saying there were two ways: taxi or motorbike, each cost FIVE Ghana Cedi PER PERSON!!! For a 5k journey, this is so expensive it’s ridiculous! There were three of us, and we somehow ended up bargaining down to 3GhC per person (walking away after he refused the offer the first two times helped), however I wouldn’t suggest that all people could do this.  

The entry fee to the park is 10GhC per person (or 5GhC for students) and we ended up paying 3GhC extra for our taxi to go through (ugh!) I don’t know if we could have told our taxi to beat it at that point and walked the extra 1k to the motel.  Guide fees have been hiked up to 3GhCper person per hour (at two hours for the walk= 6Gc pp).  Wear long pants (not dresses) and bug spray on the hike and bring at least 500ml water per person.  The guided tour was nice, our tour guide, PK (like the gum!), was informative and tried his best, although we didn’t see any elephants. Go during the dry season if you want a guarantee.

Eating at Mole is super expensive. We brought bread, we should have brought our own water sachets (they only had bottled water), and I wish we had just packed all of our own food.  Meals were about 9GhC. If you want to eat chop, ask where the locals eat inside the park.  There is a chop bar not too far away from the hotel that serves more reasonably priced food.  We ordered dinner prior to going on the evening walk to avoid any “waiting for dinner for hours” hassle and it worked out well, dinner was served within fifteen minutes of our asking time.

A double twin at Mole cost 51GhC (with AC) or 48 (without), so we splurged the extra 3c to get the AC. It was nice, but we wish we had another couple or person to share the cost with…

The information center ISN’T, but we did check out the nice little gift shop. Reasonable prices, some interesting things to buy there, it’s at least worth a look. There’s also a convenience store right next to it.
 
Getting away from Mole, they said the bus left at 4am! Our wakeup call was at 3.20am! I wish we could have told them to not wake us up so early (neither of us shower in the morning and all of our bags were pre-packed), but we had little choice. The bus left right on time, when the driver came to get us from the hotel check in, at 4am!

[Side note: to Accra from Tamale on an STC bus was GhC 22.50 per person, but worth it for the A/C, extra room, and comfort].

Krista & Rick S

At such a short distance away from Kumasi, this is a great village to visit! NOBODY hassles you while in town and the kente weaving tour is a must-see while in country (whether at Adanwomase or not is, I suppose, up to the reader).  We got very reasonable souvenirs (Kente strips at 5-8GhC, coin purses for 3GhC, etc) and learned from our informative tour guide, Seth, all about the process. I would highly suggest it; the cost now being 5Ghc per person plus 50p for unlimited photos.  Another strange thing: this town has garbage cans!  In order to get there you actually want to alight at Nkwanta (not Ntonso like the map and book suggest). We aren’t sure whether the name got changed recently, but they dropped us in Nkwanta after we asked for Ntonso and it was the correct place… I believe it was somewhere around 40p per person for the taxi/trotro ride to and from the town.

-Krista & Rick S.