Ghana - Shai Hills

Haircut on the go

A crowded tro-tro

The next day I decided to check out a place called as Shai Hills which is a quick day trip from Accra. The Hills are famous for their olive baboons and granite hills overlooking large savannah plains. The park is not huge as it’s only spread over 51 sq. kms., but it’s pretty well protected. Recently there has also been talk of reintroducing lions into the park but I honestly don’t think the park is large enough to support a healthy population of a pride plus there are villages very close to the park borders so there definitely would be conflicts.

A quick window cleaning job as we pass
through Accra's appalling traffic

A good tarmac road heading north from Accra

To get there I had to get a Tro-tro so I headed back to Makola market the next morning to catch my ride. I packed some water and snacks as I was expecting to hike a little.

Tro-tro's are van-like vehicles for city, intercity or international travel. Typical they seat about 14 people-two in the front seat, and then three rows of four bench seats, which have a folding partition in order to maximize space. However the passengers often exceed this limit as the operators try to maximize their return for each trip.

Olive baboon

The ride was packed and pretty uncomfortable. The passengers in the tro-tro’s normally pack just about anything when traveling and in the tro-tro that I took some folks has large pieces of luggage when there was not enough space to rest even the foot (on a separate trip the next day I even encountered a lady breast feeding a child right beside me in a jam packed tro-tro…nothing wrong with a mother breast feeding her child but for me since I never experienced something like that, it was pretty unusual). I have even heard of cases of chicken and goats accompanying passengers but I missed that experience.

What do you have for me...?

I think I will take it

Can you do this...?

I am looking at you...:)

When I got to Makola market I asked a local what tro-tro I need to take to Shai hills (all I knew before I set off was that the place was north west of Accra), he asked me to take a tro-tro to a city called Ho and ask the driver to drop me off on the highway around Shai hills. The fare was pretty cheap costing about 5 Ghanaians cedis (approx 3.5 USD). The problem however was that I had to wait about 40mins for the tro-tro to fill up which makes it more financial viable for the driver.

While I was waiting for the ride to fill up, a couple of guys came and set a stool in between the tro-tro I was supposed to travel and another one parked beside it. One guy promptly pull out his shaving kit while the other one sat down for a head shave right there in the market place. Funny how people become ingenious with their use of Time (the client got a fast shave between his travels) and Space (the barber got to run a business in a parking lot of a crowded market).

Relics of stone tools left behind by
Ghana's early settlers

As we started making our way out of the city while we were waiting for the green signal, a kid came up and cleaned the windscreen. Another ingenious idea though I have seen that happen in Mumbai too.

Plains around Shai hills

After a couple hours of traveling, the driver dropped me off in the middle of nowhere and told me that that spot was Shai Hills. After he had sped away I realized that he probably did not know where exactly the entrance to the park was. I immediately took another tro-tro in the opposite direction hoping that that driver would know about it and I was glad that he dropped me off at the park entrance which was quite a relief.

Scramble

My guide leading the way

After paying a small entrance fee I got myself a guide (its mandatory) and he started to enlighten me on the history and significance of the hills to certain tribes in Ghana as we starting hiking. The parks are famous for a certain spices of baboon but I was not expecting to see any, however on our way we were fortunate to encounter a pack of olive baboons. The packs are always dominated by an alpha male but the pack that we encountered has a very curious and bold female. Since I had packed some peanuts for snacks, I tried to see if they would pick them off my hand and the bold female was very interested in them.

View from the top of Shai Hills

Hand beside the print of another primate

It was a pretty cool experience to see the wild baboon pick them straight from my hand. The male however stayed away from me and I was ok with that as the males are very well built as you see in the picture and are not particularly friendly. My view of the baboon is certainly changed now after this encounter. Over the years, watching National Geographic I had come to know of baboons to be very aggressive but fortunately our pack was more curious than aggressive. Even though I wanted to spend more time with them, I had to hike the hill and I felt right in just letting the pack wander away into the forest.

Top of  Shai Hills

As we continued our hike of the hills we encountered a monitor lizard about 4 feet in length, but before I could think of taking a picture it had dashed off to the relative cover of the bush and the rocks. The view from the top of the hill was breath taking and for a moment it seemed that the view was straight from the savannah plains of eastern African where all the big game like elephants and lions roam. I wonder how amazing this place might have been long time ago when the East African savannah plains were connected to the West African plains. One of the negatives of Ghana being a developing country is that their forests are extremely segmented and there are lots of mines around this park to mine the precious granite. This experience however certainly piqued into visiting Tanzania and Kenya some day.

Peeling cassava

In one of the pictures you will see my guide, who was one of the nicest persons I have met in Ghana and he insisted on waiting with me on the road till I get a tro-tro to Accra. The picture below is of a lady peeling cassava which is an edible starchy tuberous root that is a major source of carbohydrates to the people in West Africa. She invited me for dinner but I had to get to Accra that evening so we agreed to do it if ever I visit that her again.

After getting back from Shai Hill I took a shower and headed to an African Jazz place called Chez Afrique. I think this place is a hidden treasure in Accra and if you are ever planning on being in Accra I would highly recommend a visit here for a relaxing laid back evening listening to great music. I retired early that day as I had to wake up real early the next day to visit the Castles of Ghana which by far are the best must see places in Ghana. My next blog will cover my trip to the castles.