Saturday, April 23. Melanie and I set off to the Wassa Domama Rock shrine. We don‘t know for sure how to get there or what we are going to see or do there but we read something in the Bradt guide and there is always a way. We have time. At Kotokuraba market we take the guide and read a name of a junction to a driver who directs us to a station where we read the name again and are pushed in the direction of a Tro. There are already two Obronis in the car which gives us hope that this actually is the right one. However, they drop at Kakum. I try to ask one of the other passengers who doesn‘t seem to understand much English but he gets the name of the junction and makes the car stop to drop us there. At the junction, we find taxis waiting and their drivers who are all too happy to see us. We just wait and let them talk, still not sure where we are going but sure they are charging us too much. From the drivers‘ conversation we find out there is an information centre and decide this is the right place to go. We are told we would have to wait a long time for a shared taxi, but at that moment a car pulls up beside us with a sign „Wassa/ Domama“ and we join it with three other persons. We pass a car that has apparently broken down and the driver offers to take more passengers. We are now eight and a half. Four plus a baby in the back and four in the front. I am used to two passengers on the front passenger seat. Two persons on the driver‘s seat are new to me, though. Melanie and I start to laugh. This is how we like it. He is the spare driver, the rest laughs back. Somehow, we arrive in Domama, a small village and the driver drops us in front of the information centre which is not much more than a wooden shack. Nobody is in there and we begin to wonder what to do when a girl runs up from behind. She shows us a map. The rock shrine we came to see is actually 7.1km from the village itself. Do we have a car or do we want to walk? We agree to charter a car and wait for a seemingly endless time while the girl arranges a guide. Two boys watch us through the windows as we are sitting in the information centre and I feel a little bit like in a zoo. Then the girl comes back with two men in tow. We just assume they are going to be our guides and follow. A third man drives the car along a narrow dirty road. Once again we are covered in dust but not that much this time. I feel like going on a roller-coaster and Melanie and I are grinning. This is crazy. We alight at a place the men call car park where one of them says he is our guide Robert. He takes the lead now as we walk along a track through green bush, the other two men following us. We suddenly pass through a forest of cocoa trees. Robert cuts one fruit, hits it against a tree trunk and gives us the seed to taste. I am not sure whether to eat the whole thing so I suck only the slippery outside without biting it as we were told to do with a fruit we were given on our hike to the Wli Falls. It doesn‘t taste like cocoa at all. The forest grows thicker again when we finally reach the rock shrine. Two gigantic rocks carrying a third rock form something like a cave where we settle down. Robert tells us a story of a hunter who found this rock. A spirit lived in the rock and disturbed by the hunter he lifted the intruder on the upper rock. He only let the hunter down to bring the village‘s chief. The chief though didn‘t believe the hunter and thus didn‘t pay the proper respect to the spirit so he, too, was lifted to the top never to come down again. He was saved by the village‘s priests who could calm the spirit down with rituals. Today, the spirit doesn‘t live in the rocks anymore. Robert points to some lianes hanging down the rock. He wants to show us around. I leave my bag and the camera with Melanie as I follow Robert up. My arms seem to weak to pull my weight up the nearly vertical rock face and I feel my feet slipping on the smooth surface but somehow I manage to do it. Another short climb which is easier as there are more lianes to hold onto and then I stand where once the hunter stood, sweating and laughing. Robert points to a big tree. Years ago, this tree was about to be cut down but as it was about to fall, the trunk jumped back into place. The spirit didn‘t allow the tree to be hurt. Everywhere around me are plants and the view therefore is not spectacular but I am still excited to stand here. I didn‘t think I could climb like this. I didn‘t think of how to get down either. But I guess I know now why we have three men with us although we are only two girls. Luckily, I don‘t need their help. Robert guides us around the rock formation, showing us the now abandoned holes of rats and nests of birds who used to watch out for intruders for the spirit. Through even denser forest, he guides us to another tree where we can see the old marks of a chainsaw. Then it is time for the second part of our tour and we head back to the track which leads to the river Pra. The path is wider now and suddenly we hear children screaming excitingly. They have spotted us and come running towards us as we approach a village. They are drying cocoa seeds here and their smell fills the air. We stop to take pictures and then continue to the river bank. The river is of a yellowish brown colour and two canoes are floating in the water. A boy is already baling out one of them. Melanie, Robert and me put on life vests and get into the boat. The two other men stay at the bank while two boys take a seat and start to paddle. It looks as if it is about to rain but only a few drops fall. We soon realise that there is a problem. The boys only take us some metres up and down the river and think that is it. But we want to go all the way down to a path that leads back to the car park as we saw it on the map. Robert starts arguing softly with the boys. They say there are troubles in the other village but they won‘t explain more. We wait and let Robert do the talking. I wonder whether it is the same with every tourist. How can they offer a tour along the river if nothing is agreed with the villagers who have the canoes? Finally, we are allowed to go back into the boat and float down the Pra. We pass some men who are working on a machine. They are searching for gold. Time passes too quickly and we soon reach our destination and have to get out of the boat. There is no trouble with anybody. As we walk through another group of cocoa trees we approach some huts where two men are sitting under an orange tree. One is fixing his shoes with needle and thread and they have a chat with Robert. He asks them to give us oranges to taste. The second man takes his machete, cuts two oranges from the tree, peels them and chops off the top. We drink the juice. The freshest juice I have ever had. And it is probably the juiciest orange I have ever had, too, as I am still not finished when we reach the car. We race along the road again and are back at Domama within a moment. We are lucky. A metro mass bus, I guess the only one for a long time, is just about to leave to Cape Coast. Melanie and I get in the front seats. The driver seems to know everybody who lives along the road. Every minute or so he waves and laughs at someone on the roadside. He seems to enjoy his job. He also seems to enjoy speed. We overtake every car in front of us, despite the size of the bus and its condition. Not even the speed bumps make the driver slow down very much. We are back at Cape Coast quicker than we think. Definitely a memorable trip.
