Oooh, Think Twice, It's Another Day For You And Me In Paradise (Phil Collins; 1989)

So, after the jungle adventure we decided to make it easy for ourselves and head from the far West of Ghana across to the far East in search of Paradise. A place near Ada called Paradise due to the natural beauty of the place. It is a small strip of beach near the estuary of the River Volta. On one side of the beach is the calm and serine view across the palm fringed lake, on the other side the rough, crashing waves of the atlantic ocean.









We set out in search of the beach after arriving at some other volunteers accomodation and were only due to spend a couple of hours on the beach so we could get back and celebrate Jo's (another volunteer) birthday with her and friends. After drving to the small river port and getting stopped by the police for having 8 people including driver in a taxi (again....4 times in 4 weeks!!!) we boarded a boat and travelled down river to Paradise. After hearing so much about it and then Jon telling us it wasn't that great we didn't expect much so were happy to stay for a couple of hours only. On the boat down the Volta the rich poor divide was obscene....lots of large houses on the banks of the river with speedboats and jet skis, huge mansions with outside swimming pools and bathing areas and then a breeze block wall split this and a very poor community living on the riverside where the main trade was fishing!!



20 minutes later Paradise came into eye view and looked amazing, as soon as we set foot on the 'island' each and everyone of us decided we really wanted to spend the night here and would be awesome if we could get Jo, Sam and Ed to join us to celebrate Jo's birthday. The sunsetting behind palm trees and wooden huts, the white sands and cool breeze from the lake along with the isolation of the place (only we were on there) blew us all away. Jo and Sam joined us later and we spent the evening chilling, talking, listening to music and having a few beverages before hitting the sack and getting up for sunrise. We woke and watched the sunrise, unfortunatley it was mildy disappointing as it was a cloudy morning however the whole visit and night was well worth it and is definitely a highlight of our trip.









On the boat back we had to get our serious heads on as this afternoon we had a football match to play, the volunteers against local coaches and project workers. KO was 3PM so we headed to the pitch to warm up and get prepared for the big game, pride was at stake.....England V Ghana.

The game kicked off and it was so hot playing in 34+ degrees heat, instantly dehydrated and heads pounding it was going to be tough. The game went well and we grabbed an early goal, typically English football, the long ball to the big lad up front (Neil) who flicked it on to the midfielder (Jon) rushing through the middle to slot it past the goal keeper. The coaches equalised from a corner and we went in 1-1 at half time. A couple of switches made worked well and George, Toby, Ed and Rob had a solid game at the back stopping them from scoring again while Jon and Jo bossed the midfield and the link up play up front finished with Sam getting a 10 minute hatrick to finsih the game at 4-1 to England!!!!!!

After the game we had our photos taken with the team and our selected mascot who I kept standing on before grabbing some food. We are leaving Ghana on Saturday so had to say our goodbyes to Jo, Sam and Ed who we hope and believe enjoyed theire experiences as much as us. The journey back was a nightmare but don't want to end on a bad note as our final week has been a great way to sigh off from Ghana.



(Time has run out, more photos to follow)