We started the day with breakfast at the Davellen and Rosemay hotels in Kumasi. The rest of the day was spent on the bus driving towards Tamale where we will be spending the majority of our month. We stopped at a gas station pretty quickly into the drive to stretch our legs.
We also made a short stop on a toll bridge along the way to get street foods such as banana chips, papayas and tiger nuts.
Much of what we saw was rural Ghana which was a nice change after having spent the first 3 days in larger cities. Something we noticed along the way was how people burn a lot of the grass alongside the road. Bush burning is illegal in Ghana and numerous campaigns to stop it always fall on death ears. The reason is simple. Cigarette smokers and rodent hunters are always blamed for such bush fires. Its another way to prepare the land for farming. There are also cattle grazers who burn the bush in the believe that the new sprouting grass is sweeter for the animals. This issue is captured in Cyprian Ekwensi’s Burning Grass, where the Fulani in Nigeria engage in such behavior. Whatever the reason for burning, bush burning is illegal and a criminal act in Ghana.
After many more hours of driving, we arrived in Tamale to our brand new hotel (like it was built this week…). The group is literally the first to occupy this annex to the Global Dream Hotel in Tamale.
We played some soccer with kids then relaxed until dinner.
We ate fried chicken, spicy rice and noodles at a nearby restaurant.