Wli Falls and Hohoe

I decided to visit Wli Falls, claimed to be the highest waterfall in West Africa, right up against the Togolese border in Volta Region. Most of the other Koforidua volunteers had already been there. I phoned ahead , booked a room at Taste Lodge and on Friday afternoon I went to the Ho Lorry Park to get a tro to Hohoe, the nearest town to the falls. There was no tro in the park, just a group of annoyed people sitting and standing around the ticket office. I was assured that the tro would arrive soon. One of my work colleagues and his brother arrived. They live in Hohoe and go home some weekends. With no sign of the tro, they asked if I would be interested in splitting the taxi fare. They had a friend with a taxi, so we would get a good rate. I agreed, the car was summoned and we left. We made good progress but once beyond the Volta River and the Asikuma road junction the oil light on the dashboard flickered into life. By now we were in deep in the verdant hills of Volta Region. There was an occasional village but nothing more. The driver slowed down in the hope that this would help matters. Generally, Ghanaian filling stations are not dissimilar to those anywhere else in the world with big signs, shops and forecourts. The one that appeared on our left was an open space in the scrub with a single pump in the centre. There was a small thatched shelter and to the side of this some pieces of wood and logs laid out to mark the edges of a makeshift mosque. The driver stopped the car and shouted at the attendant, enquiring whether he had any oil. He had and produced a large can and a funnel. The driver checked the quality with his fingers and bought some. Properly lubricated, my colleague’s brother said a short prayer as we drove away.

The journey to Hohoe took about two and three quarter hours. I checked into the lodge, went for a beer in a central spot and returned for chicken and jollof rice in the lodge restaurant.

On Saturday morning I walked to the tro station, breakfasted on egg and bread from a stall and found the Wli tro. I don’t know whether it was because it was a holiday weekend (Sunday was Africa Union Day and Monday is a holiday), but there were not many people about and all the transport was slow to fill. The tro had one person in it and took nearly 90 minutes to fill. I met up with three Germans. When we arrived at Wli we signed up to have a guide take us to the higher falls. We started gently ambling through the jungle towards the lower falls before striking off up a track which was in places quite a scramble. After an hour and with much sweating and a few stops to catch our breath, we reached the base of the upper falls. The guide had made the climb in flip flops and showed no sign of perspiration. He had insisted that we have at least a litre of water each but he did not touch a drop.

Wli Falls are well worth the visit. The water cascades over a shear drop into the plunge pool below. Another party arrived from Togo. People swam and splashed around in the pool. There were maybe 15 of us there by now and it felt quite a privilege to be in the presence of such magnificent scenery. The time came to leave and for some time we could hear the Togolese calling to us from their path on far side of the falls. On the way down we stopped at the equally impressive lower falls. This was much busier and clearly a popular destination for Ghanaian day trippers. Some of those present were celebrating the end of school exams and others Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea in the UEFA cup. The lower falls are also home to a huge bat colony. It had been dry and partly sunny so far, but at this point it began to rain lightly. There was no sign of a tro but we found a taxi driver prepared to take six of us back for a Ghana Cedi each.

In the evening I watched dancing in the Muslim quarter of Hohoe as part of the outdooring of a new chief.

It rained from around 2 am on Sunday morning and it was only just easing off as I checked out of Taste Lodge at 7:45. I took a tro to Ho and spent the middle of the day with volunteers Karin and Michael. Ho is a much smaller and more rural regional capital than Koforidua. We walked up to the ridge behind the town and looked out to the south west - the almost flat landscape punctuated by the odd mountainous outcrop. After lunch I took a final tro to Koforidua. The sky was heavy with black clouds and it rained intermittently. Crossing the Volta, the view upstream was of the river winding towards overlapping ranges of hills in different shades of grey. As we drove west the sun finally appeared briefly below the cloud before setting. The landscape was illuminated with an eerie golden glow and the road in front of us steamed.