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Adventures with Kingsley Holgate

Adventures with Kingsley Holgate

Author: Kingsley Holgate
Date: 2017-02-17

Bushnote: Kumasi - Seat Of The Asante Empire

Traffic's a bloody nightmare on the wrong side of the road, takes some getting used to - plus good brakes and a few expletives - to pot-hole dodge whilst driving a left-hand drive on the opposite side of the road, in a Disco kindly provided by the Land Rover dealership in Accra for this 'Slaves, Castles, Voodoo and Gate of No Return' journey.

Traffic's a bloody nightmare of old Opel taxis, minibuses with religious slogans, over-ladened, unlit trucks, 3-to-a-moped, and death-wish-jay-walking hawkers selling everything from goat-on-a-skewer to small plastic bags of drinking water, which you squirt into your mouth in an attempt to survive the hot, dry, dusty heat of the Harmattan still blowing off the Sahara.

Sheelagh is the wide-eyed navigator, using out-dated paper maps, on-board GPS and a travel-worn BradtGuide that warns us that road names change with confusing regularity: many being named after influential politicians or businessmen - and then renamed when their influence wanes. It's dark by the time we reach the sprawling outskirts of Kumasi.

Next morning we meet Comfort Opoku - a pint-sized, husky-voiced 60-year old. "Call me Ghana," she says. "It's because I was born in the month of Ghana's independence." She tells us that to understand Kumasi, you need to walk the narrow alleys of the vast and very old central market. It's called Kegetia and it's the largest in West Africa.

"Leave passports and valuables behind and carry your cash in your top pocket," she instructs, before flagging down one of the numerous owner-driven taxis for a rollicking ride through Kumasi's clogged streets.Will keep you posted.