Yesterday’s adventure was a wonderful investment of time! We left around 9 am to go to Abori Botanical Gardens, about an hour or two north of Accra. The only one left in my house, Erin, joined me , and her fiancée Robert came too, making the trip that much better. Issac, the Crosby’s driver, drove us in the school van. I remembered the first part of the way from a trip two months ago to “Children of the Light”, a ministry for the very poor in a rural area run by one of the teachers at my school.
It’s a beautiful county once you escape the city; lush mountains, open valleys and always the sun. Although many of the people do not want you to photograph them, when you are driving by in a car you can take photographs quickly and sort through them later. The homes in these villages, for they can not be considered a town by any means, are shacks, some made of bricks that are just sundried clay (not baked in a real kiln), many of scrap metal and bamboo.Heavy rains could easily destroy most of the homes. Termites are prevalent in the country areas, I saw several huge “anthills” five feet high, so not many structures are wooden. We drove through several towns, small cities actually, and saw the madness of market day. One of the photos in yesterday’s blog was taken in the market as we tried to drive through the street. Shoppers and vendors were everywhere, even in the street, and you just had to honk your horn and wait until they moved. I was so glad Issac was driving, he’s patient and willing to navigate around huge potholes without too many jolts; getting in a tro-tro or taxi is taking your life in your hands even in daylight. Only once did I cover my eyes as a car came directly at us as we passed an exceedingly slow vehicle.
We made it to the gardens, and hired a guide who showed us around some of the huge plant sanctuary. It’s 120 years old, and has plants from around the world (ones that can survive the heat, that is). They even had a Norfolk Island Pine, which they use as a Christmas tree sometimes. There is a Presidential Garden where world dignitaries have planted small trees that are now huge. Most of the original trees of the land have died, but there was one HUGE tree that is over two hundred years old, and it’s base has big folds that look like a stone wall (see photo with me standing in a "fold"). We went to the spice garden, which isn’t a garden at all (well, none of it is really, it’s all trees). There were cocoa trees of course (photo of a pod not yet ripe), and cinnamon trees (another photo of a row of trees), we crushed bay leaves and all sorts of aromatic spices growing there. Many plants that I can’t remember the names of have medicinal purposes and are used for folk cures. There were philodendrons that I call “Devil’s Ivy” that had leaves as big as the trunk of my body.
One of the most interesting trees was originally a cedar. A parasitic vine grows up trees for support and looks beautiful for years, but it slowly covers all the branches and leaves and kills the tree. We went inside one “holey” tree and it was beautiful. Most of the cedar had decayed, but you could still see some of the bark and wood grain. The vine was still alive, and there were several holes that let natural light in. The tree was easily 75 feet tall (see photo of the inside of the tree).
This opportunity to travel has been a real blessing. I want to post some pictures of the garden, so will write another entrie later to tell you about the Boti waterfalls.
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