While Kokrobite is only 35 km outside Accra, you forget how long it takes just to get out of Accra itself. It took us a solid hour and fifteen minutes to get to the event. While driving, we witnessed our first Ghanaian funeral procession. We've been told that funerals here are massive parties (think similar to New Orleans where everyone marches down the street singing to celebrate the life of the deceased). So here comes a parade of folks being led by an ornately decorated casket. The groups behind were singing/chanting while they walked. It was quite a sight.
We finally arrived to find the event was pretty well set up, behind an inn called Big Milly's. Behind Big Milly's is an open area with restaurants, grills, and stalls with people selling local goods which is logically called "Big Milly's Backyard". We sat down and got some lunch while we watched some people surfing out in the water. I had some chicken and rice while Dan had some grilled barracuda which was really nice.
After lunch, we got some frozen margaritas (not bad!) and went out to the beach to watch the semi-finals of the day's competition. We weren't sure what to expect talent-wise from the boys paddling out. They had a slow start but then picked it up later in their heat. I was pretty impressed with the talent considering surfing is not something I would have expected young Ghanaian men to work hard to perfect. Also on the beach were some additional vendors with items for sale and a group of kids playing soccer.
Here's a photo of the beach and a fishing boat that I really liked and asked Dan to take a photo of because I left my phone at home:
I stopped at the new surf shop on the way out to get a shirt. It's not quite open yet but it's the second location for Mr. Bright's Surf Shop and Surf School. Mr. Bright is a young British guy who we briefly met. He seems to be the one who has trained many of these kids to surf.
Our taxi driver was kind enough to wait for us so around 4:45 we walked back to the car to begin the ride home. Thank goodness we left when we did as the sky opened up and dumped rain maybe 15 minutes into our ride back. Much of the road to the beach is dirt and floods easily so we were fortunate to make it through before things got ugly. Traffic was bad on the way home as vehicles were broken down left and right. Even parts of George Walker Bush Highway were flooded. Yes, you read that right. We have a highway named after Dubya. Apparently, we funded it back when he was in office and, yes, it's arguably the best road in Accra.
We got home safely, had some wine and Dan grilled some chicken wings for dinner. Topped off with a movie and called it a good weekend day.
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