I leave early for Kumasi with the hope of getting there in good time as I'd read it's a journey of between 5 to 6 hours from Accra by road. The bus I entered however flagged off the delay in my getting there on time as it took literally forever to fill up. When we eventually depart from Accra, the first hour or so of the journey was done on dirt roads.
Dirt roads on the way to Kumasi
I'd noticed that what we call bumps or speed breakers back home are usually written on the road signs as "rumble strips". I'd idly wondered why they were so referred until today when it occurred to me it might be so called because of the way most drivers over there drive over them making the vehicles to rumble. I get the same feeling virtually all through the time the vehicle travelled on these dirt roads.
My bus takes its time and finally we arrive at Kejetie at about 4.30 pm GMT but it takes me quite a lot of phone calls and time to get a cab from the park as I have the dual handicap of not being able to speak the local language and not knowing exactly where I am going.
A Roundabout around the Adum Business District in Kumasi
It took more phone calls back and forth for the driver of the cab I eventually take to get me to my hostel.
My hostel doesn't appear to have a name yet but though I was initially aghast at the distance, the road and traffic we had to go through, the place itself is so nice that it makes up for my initial dismay at the distance and bad road we had to traverse.
My Landlady and her daughter seem to be quite nice and I spend hours chatting and gisting with the daughter before finally and reluctantly calling it a night.
The daughter, a post-graduate student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology also went to a great expense, calling her friends in a bid to find out for me, how to get to the various places I'd penned down for visit during my stay in Kumasi.
When I mention that Kumasi seem to be very crowded compared to Accra, she replies that it's because of the festivities and that I should be very careful with my money and valuables when going out the following day because of the activities of pick-pockets during this period.
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