12. Wli-lly?

nicholas pointing to togo

we took the easy way out and turned a potential weekend trip to wli falls (the largest falls in west africa) into a long day trip. we rented a car/driver in order to avoid the full day of public transport required to get to the eastern part of the country near the border with togo. googlemaps directions said 2.5hrs… they have obviously not been to ghana before. add in the inflation for ghana roads and ghana time and you get a multiple of 2 for a 5 hr trip each way. 


regardless, it was absolutely worth it. we were driven by joe who brought his friend uncle prince along for the ride and they were excellent company in the car and on the hike. along the way we dodged potholes, animals, picked up street food, listened to ridiculously loud music, and had random twi conversations. at one point joe’s father called and he answered ‘oh papa mabre’ which means I’m tired. this is one of the few words we know and when we both shouted ‘he’s tired’ joe basically stopped the car in shock that we understood his conversation. 

why is it white?

we arrived at noon and were introduced to francis who would be our guide to the falls. we started with the statue pictured on the right and a 5 minute discussion about why the statue was created this way. the explanation given from francis was that it is because ‘african men have a giant dick’. nicola and I smiled and said ok, but then uncle francis and brother joe reinforced the message with ‘no seriously we have a huge one’….’oh it is true’…all very entertaining and a good start to the hike. 

headpack

this is how you do it 

it was a short hike to the falls which was about an hour each way. francis showed us that backpacks are in fact an incorrect name, they should be called headpacks. he also showed us that it is inefficient to carry a water bottle in your hand.


the short hike was relatively easy so before we turned back francis asked if we wanted to see an amazing viewing point 20 mins away. an hour later after basically hiking vertically with a walking stick, dripping with sweat, we arrived at a spot that was less of a viewing point, and more of a glimpse point. although the hike was good fun, francis’s offer was more like telling someone with box seats at an event that you can show them a better view from the back row… we fell for the nosebleed seats, but we wli-lly enjoyed it anyway. 

ghana's answer to abbey road

joe and uncle prince

waterfall

waterfall and water bottle

glimpse point with water bottle