Weekend at the Abandze Beach

We went to the Abandze Beach Resort this past weekend with two other families, primarily to help celebrate the birthday of a boy Garrett's age. The boy's parents rented a second room for the four boys so Ahni, Meg and I shared a king bed. The resort is about two hours west of Accra and for some reason we had a planned departure of 0630, which became 0700 after all coordination and driving instructions were complete.

The resort is located between two fishing villages, and situated beneath an old fort. We arrived so early that our rooms were not yet vacated, big surprise, so the kids explored a little rock outcropping accessible during low tide named "Treasure Island." There were some crabs and sea urchins in the crevices, and Garrett captured one of the latter, then reluctantly released it after a considerable inspection period.

There was lots of relaxing to be had for those who sought it, including me, in the lounge chairs overlooking the Gulf of Guinea. The boys went swimming, running in and out of their room as they pleased, consuming copious amounts of Fanta. We ordered dinner in the afternoon so as to allow the kitchen to find and prepare our meals. Most people chose seafood, go figure, including young Garrett who ate fried calamari and fries. The kids did their thing while the adults and Meg played Hearts despite the intermittent power outages. We all trickled into bed but then in the middle of the night Garrett's diet did not agree with him causing an hour of sickness.

I awoke early in the morning, not having been involved in the midnight drama, and saw a few people coming and going from one village to another. Some young men getting a workout, practicing soccer, a woman selling some sort of broth with bread, boats going out fishing, one boat passing in the distance with music and dancing and singing, with more music and singing coming from the nearest village. We ate breakfast in shifts, played Uno, and one family left early with a sick kid. The rest of us ventured down the beach, where we saw a dead goat washed up on shore, enroute to the old fort.

There was also plenty of evidence of people doing their business on the beach. I didn't realize that it was a sport for kids who would go out in groups, drop trouser, and get to work.

Fort Amsterdam was unattended and we helped ourselves to a hassle-free tour from corner to corner. Here is a view from high up on the hill, our resort is on the left with the thatched huts and boys playing soccer on the beach is in the foreground.