Let’s Tour Ghana club led by Mr. Isaac Kofi Arthur (President), Mr. Lennox Leckson Leckey (Vice President), and Miss Rebecca Kumah (Financial Secretary) in partnership with Hausa Tours led by Mr. Fuseini Nawaru Mohammed, CEO of Hausa Tours on the 29th of May, 2021 embarked on their second trip to the Volta Region.
Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, Wli Waterfalls, and Mount Afadja, also and popularly known as Afadjato were the Tourist Sites that received the tourist club during their Tour Experience.
The Journey began with open prayers from Mr. Isaac Kofi Arthur, one of the founding members and President of Let’s Tour Ghana in the bus after which Tour Guide, Mr. Prosper Kwamson, Tour Guide of Hausa Tours elaborated on the history of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Tetteh Quarshie, etc and how cocoa came to Ghana, in general, to enlighten and educate the members of the club to have a general overview of the history of their homeland country Ghana to also engage them till they reached their destination.
The education was halted at a point where music and fun took over the atmosphere in the bus as almost everyone in the bus sang and danced to the various songs that were played. Mrs. Regina Aku Dzameshie, Head of Finance and Administration at Hausa Tours ensured that all COVID-19 protocols were adhered to.
The first destination for the trip was the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary where the Tour Guide Robert took them through a brief history about the Mona Monkeys.
According to Robert (The Tour guide), when feeding the monkeys, one need not peel the banana else they would reject it.
One has to hold it very firm with hand-stretched forth very straight. “When they see that, they would quickly jump on one’s hand, take the banana, peel, eat it and go back”, Robert added.
Those who followed these instructions carefully had the monkeys doing just as the Tour Guide narrated about these Mona Monkeys.
They did climb them and enjoyed their bananas in the comfort and safety around their arms and hands.
The club then further proceeded deep into the bush where more Mona Monkeys repeated this routine hovering around with people with unpeeled but firmly held bananas in hand stretched forth.
It was a nice scenery and experience. The club realizing the monkeys were satisfied proceeded to the Wli Waterfalls where they had to cross nine bridges of about 45minutes walkway upon reaching their destination to meet face to face with the Wli Waterfalls.
It was a beautiful sight and admiration of nature as most of the members of the club immersed themselves into the waterfalls, bathed, and enjoyed every tiny drop of water that fell from the rocks above. That was it for the first day when they arrived.
The next day which was a Sunday after they had done justice to their breakfast, they set off around 7:30am to engage in a climbing battle (hike) with the great Afadja Mountain (Afadjato). The Tour Guide, Albert briefed them about the history of Afadjato. According to Albert, it’s “Ava Tsa To”. Ava means War, Tsa means Plant, and “To” means Mountain.
Through series of events and evolution, over 300 years ago, one of our forefathers who lived behind the Mountain (Ngortsi, Togo) discovered this new mountain and realized it was good for the planting of garden eggs so he later informed his people and they all settled here.
There used to be wild animals but they all left. They now had to hide in between the plants whenever they were fighting to sack the animals. The plant was such that when it got stuck on the human skin, the body would itch for a long time.
So it was a war between them and the plants for survival, I.e “Ava Tsa To” (War with the plants) but the Netherlands who later found themselves here on the land during those days couldn’t find the Ewe dialect Ava in their dialect so instead of the Ava, it was rephrased to Afa, to suit their way of pronunciation. That’s why it’s Afadjato. But in an actual sense, it’s Ava Dja To.
Indeed it was a Tug of War between the club members and the pathway to the top where Mr. 885meters above sea level resided.
It was a great experience when about 99% of the club members climbed up and descended the 885meters rocky mountainous Afadjato above sea level.
The Tour came to a successful climax as some of the club members visited and fed their eyes with the beautiful Tagbo falls in the afternoon around 2:30pm. Tour Guide, Justice ensured that all went well.
It was all fun, joy, and a great learning experience in all as they returned from the trip on 30th May 2021 (Sunday) night to Accra.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Isaac Kofi Arthur
