I've been to hell and back

I am so over walking through the jungle for hours on end.

We decided that we would go on a mini adventure on Saturday. I had mixed feelings about this, as it was my last weekend in Elmina. Part of me wanted to just hang out by the pool, but the other part of me said, go on one last adventure......I should have stayed at the pool.

We left the house at 9:00, and set off for the Domama Rock Shrine. Getting there was easy, we just had to take one taxi, and one trotro. When we arrived at the village in the middle of nowhere, we went to the "visitors center" where we had to sit and wait for someone to come. We decided that we would do the full package deal of a guided "walk", visit to the rock shrine, and canoe trip. Reading this, it sounds lovely....in all actuality it was hell on earth.

You know how your grandparents use to say....I had to walk up hill both ways, with no shoes (or something to that effect) I can officially say that I have done that. I walked 17K in a dress and flip flops. I do not know who found this rock, because you would have to be completely mental to go on that walk for fun. We just kept walking and walking, and sweating and walking, and when we finally go to the rock, we stayed for about 5 minutes.

I must say, the rock was really cool, and if I was lost in the jungle of Ghana I would probably live in it. It would be cool if they offered overnights in the shrine. The guide who was telling us the history of the rock was so hard to understand, that the only thing I got out of his talk was that if you are on your period you can not enter the shrine....how would anybody know?

After the shrine, it was time to go to the river to canoe. Of course this meant more walking, but we thought we would canoe for an hour or so, and it would be a nice rest. Well, we got to the river, and the canoes were on the other side. We knew that we would have to pay, but they were trying to charge us way more, saying they needed money to get the boats.
At this point I was beyond crabby, and I told them that it was theor own fault that the boats were over there, and that we would not pay the any more money. So, the jumped in and got the boats for us. We then proceeded to go on the worlds shortest ride ever. I think we were on the river for 5 minutes, and that was it. I couldn't help but laugh, because it was such a joke!

After our thrilling canoe ride, we had to walk all the way back. At this point we were running low on water, as none of us knew how far/challenging the walk was. I swear every time I asked if we were any closer the response was....oh just one more hour.

At one point we did see a taxi, but I was so determined to finish at that point that we told him no thanks.

FINALLY, we arrived back at the village. We bought a ton of water, and my head was killing me. We had to take a taxi to the main road, where we once again got completely ripped off on the price, but we did manage to get the price down a little bit. As we were driving, I began feeling worse and worse, so I just shut my eyes and tried not to think about it. Then the driver had to stop for gas, then he had to stop to cool off the engine, then he had to drive slow as to not over heat again. Eventually, we made it to the road.

From the main road we needed to catch a trotro back to cape coast. It was getting dark, so we were all hoping that we could get one fast! Lucky for us, two tros pulled over...unlucky for us, the one we got in didn't have headlights. I hate to say it, but I was feeling so bad at this point that I didn't even worry about the no headlight situation. I just put my head down, and prayed we would make it back.

Eventually, we pulled over and a different tro (with headlights) took us the rest of the way. We got in, and all of the people were like, you were driving with no lights?!? Yeah....we didn't really have much of a choice. We got dropped off in Cape, and we got a taxi back to Elmina. It was a pimped out taxi, and it was one of the nicest rides I have been in....while in Ghana that is.

We were having a celebration for Tims 28th birthday, but I just went to bed as soon as we got back to the house. Thankfully when I woke up this morning, the pain of yesterdays events was minimal.

Peace. Love. Walking Shoes.