Another road trip
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2008
1
27
43
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
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Beyin,
Ghana
Saturday, November 15, 2008
While I was sitting in there socializing with some guests, a torrential rainstorm came sweeping through. I went to the washroom at a run and came back soaked to the skin. It was only a few metres without cover but the rain was coming down in buckets. It was actually really nice and refreshing after the heat of the day, but I decided to wait in the bar until the storm had passed before going to bed. It was a pretty late night for me.
Friday morning I got up at 5:30 so I could go on the canoe trip through the mangrove forest. Emmanuel joined me since he has never done the trip before. The canoe is kind of scary at first because it feels like you are going to tip over when the paddlers are paddling. But you eventually get used to it and then it is a pleasant journey down the river, through a beautiful mangrove forest. We saw lots of birds and lizards - even a monitor lizard - but no monkeys, which is supposed to be the highlight of the trip.
At one point the canoe guide grabbed a crab off of a mangrove tree and showed it to the tourists in the front of the canoe.
Sam and Katherine
He then passed the crab to Em so we could see it too. After we had a good look at it, Emmanuel put the crab on the ledge of the canoe. We watched the crab crawl along the ledge to the net bench, where one of the tourists was sitting. We then watched the crab walk across the bench and up onto the back of the poor guy. Emmanuel and I giggled as it crawled right up under dude's shirt. I think I would have screamed like a girl but the guy just brushed his hand up under his shirt nonchalantly and the crab fell into the canoe bottom.Once I got back to the lodge Katherine and I had breakfast and got ready for our trip. We got a free taxi ride to Agona with some friends that were heading to Takoradi. Then we took a tro to Axim which was apparently the wrong place to go. From there we had to take a series of jalopy shared taxis to villages I can't pronounce before finally arriving in Beyin. For some reason the taxi driver made us get out of the cab before we were actually at the resort, which would have been an extra 30 seconds down the same road we had been traveling along for 45 minutes. So instead we walked in the stinking heat, sweaty and dirty and miserable. That is until we laid our eyes on the Beyin Beach Resort. It is gorgeous!
It is funny that we live on a beautiful beach in a very nice resort yet we were totally blown away by this one. They have grass here, which is a treat, and there are lines of palm trees spaced throughout the resort. There are also raised wooden walkways from the rooms to the showers and restaurants.
Katherine and me
But the real luxuries are the electricity in our room and hot showers! I didn't realize how much I missed hot water until I had a shower here. It also seems to be a lot more effective in getting all the dirt off.The resort here also has a turtle conservation project but it's done differently. They move new nests to the resort property and redig them the same size in their own sand, then cover them with a mesh cage. Then in the morning they check for hatchlings and let them out of the cage while monitoring. This way they can count the eggs and hatchlings and make sure no predators stop them on their way to the sea.
Last night I had a beer with some friendly guests before dinner with Katherine. She is getting my cold and wasn't feeling great, and I was pretty tired from my long day of traveling, so we went to our room after eating. I rented a DVD and portable player - another luxury here - and watched a movie before bed. It was a nice change in my routine. This morning was the best though. I was up at 6:30 heading to the washroom to brush my teeth when Nina, one of the owners, told me there were hatchlings! I ran back to the room to wake Katherine up and we quickly headed to the beach. Everyone gathered with their cameras and then Nina lifted the cage and the hatchlings were off! Eighty hatchlings scuttling out to sea. The last one seemed quite tired and kept falling into footprint indents in the sand. We gave him some help getting back on track and he finally made it out to sea, with everyone here cheering him on. It only took ten minutes before they were all safely gone in the water, but it was so amazing to watch!
