A trip to Accra, Ghana

It was my first time to visit Accra, and I was excited to be heading to a new destination. After a nice and quiet flight we landed into Accra around lunchtime, and were greeted with fresh coconuts in the hotel. What a welcome!

After heading up to the room and freshening up, I popped on down to the pool to soak up some sunshine. I met up with a couple of the other crew and we sat by the pool having some cocktails and chatting. Since it was a Saturday, there was a DJ and everyone was in a party mood!

As the sun started to go down, we could smell a barbecue being prepared, and a bit later on met up with some more of the crew to enjoy a delicious BBQ dinner.

The next day we made the short trip to Abidjan and back. It’s only around 45 minutes each way, so a super quick and easy flight, although since we do have to be at the airport early and also have a bit of time on ground in Abidjan, it actually takes up most of the day.

The next day 3 of us managed to get up early to go for a tour of some of the old part of Accra, Jamestown. Prior to the flight I’d received an email from another crew member who has a brother in Accra, and so I sent him a quick WhatsApp message to arrange our tour for the day.

Our first stop of the day was the old Jamestown lighthouse, which unfortunately we weren’t able to go to the top of, but was still a nice lookout point to start the day off from.

From here we strolled on down to the beach, which is used as a fishing beach, and is absolutely full of fishing boats!

We spotted fish being laid out to dry (the small ones are used as animal feed), and a few boats which were still being carved out from tree trunks.

The beach was pretty busy, with all of the locals going about their daily life. As you can see in the pictures, it was also covered in rubbish, which is such a shame to see.

However there were lots of pretty colourful painted boats!

We walked up onto the pier to get a view back across the beach, and saw some crabs lying out to dry, as well as some of the fishermen untangling the nets.

After the beach, we walked past the James Fort prison, and as you can see our guide was very happy that Ghana is now free from the British, in his words!

We also passed by the palace which was used back in the days of “British Accra”.

From here we drove to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and memorial park, which is dedicated to the prominent Ghanian leader Kwame Nkruma.

It was interesting to learn a little bit about the history of Ghana, formerly known as Gold Coast, and the leader who fought so hard to bring freedom and justice to his country. As well as his and his wife’s graves, you could also see some of his clothes and memorabilia on display.

Our final stop of the tour was the textile and fabric market, which was full of brightly coloured clothing items and souvenirs.

Time was running out before we had to head back to the hotel before our wake-up call, but we still managed to have a good wander through the market. One of the guys bought a shirt and hat for himself, and started wearing it straight away, which all of the locals absolutely loved!

Before we knew it we were arriving back at the hotel, and with a little bit of time to spare we popped to the fruit and vegetable market next door to pick up some mangoes, avocados and passion fruit, all of which were so much bigger, juicier and tastier than you can buy in Dubai!

I’m so glad I managed to get out and see a bit more of this fascinating country, and will definitely be bidding for it again so I can explore some more!

P.s. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂

7 Comments

  1. elias
    November 10, 2017 / 3:38 am

    finally you visit my country. Glad you enjoyed your stay… next time try cape coast canopy walk… bet you’ll love it

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      November 22, 2017 / 10:36 am

      Thanks for reading Elias! Next time I’ll definitely try the canopy walk 🙂

  2. Abbey
    November 10, 2017 / 12:39 am

    I enjoy reading your post and I’m glad you enjoyed your stay in Ghana. I’ve been reading post from your blog for three years now and no dull moment
    keep it up God bless you abundan

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      November 22, 2017 / 10:36 am

      Thanks so much for reading Abbey, glad you enjoyed this post 🙂

  3. Emily
    November 9, 2017 / 11:57 pm

    Wow, what a cool place to visit!
    I absolutely adore your blog, Rachel! It is wonderful, and I get so excited every time I see a new post! I would suggest a day in the life post, either at home in Dubai or when you have a flight during the day or night. Thank you!!

    • Emily
      November 10, 2017 / 12:00 am

      I have just seen that you have done a few of these before, so maybe a day in the life at home in Dubai?

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      November 22, 2017 / 10:35 am

      Thanks so much Emily! 🙂 I’ll try and do another day in the life post of a flight – at home in Dubai would be quite boring as I don’t usually do too much haha! x

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