Call on Tamale

Tamale is the capital of the Northern Region in Ghana with vast expanse of land and the extremes of weather conditions in Ghana.

I got to Tamale on a Thursday morning via Starbow  mainly on the ticket of Google Web Academy, Ghana for a training on the web academy. I'll write about the events that are being held after they are over but this is to share my experience in Tamale as this is the first time of being in the Northern part of Ghana.

On touching down, the hotel I would lodge in, Picorna Hotel, sent a car to pick me up from the airport directly to the hotel which was quite a distance away. That was nice of the hotel because I wonder how I would have found my way around. And I enjoyed my lunch of Banku and Okro stew. It was one of the best I've had from restaurants. Thumbs up !

I noticed there was a lot of motorcycles and bicycles around. And I was amazed at the skill with which the young girls rode their bicycles. I know I'm so bad with bicycle riding...actually never ridden one in my entire life..so I was very happy to her so adept in it :) For those that know of trotro(commercial vans), they don't run in Tamale...they only run out of Tamale. So if you visiting Tamale, have that in mind :)

I finally went to town the following day after booking the return on AWA; that was after the first day of web academy training and I enjoyed it even though the sun was scorching. The taxi driver was very helpful; actually all the people I got in touch with in Tamale were very hospitable. And to top it all, I RODE on a MOTORCYCLE...it was a great experience. I was scared at first but eventually I enjoyed it when I managed the courage. So that is a lesson: Never Say Never!

After the whole training event at the first stop, I decided to go through town to get some roast guinea fowl (after buying was I only finally accepted to have really been in Tamale :-). And since I wanted to be close to Savanna Signatures, I moved from Picorna Hotel to Samnandzo Lodge. So after my expedition in town (trying to swallow roast guinea fowl with tonsilitis was a trip :-( , I got to the lodge only to find out I had been locked out :-) And since I couldn't speak the local dialect, it was very funny trying to get them to open up. Eventually we (the security, myself and the partner I went with) made some noise and were finally admitted in. Phew!!!

I went to Walewale afterwards which is farther up north and went to Muja Wal lodge and a wall gecko(well I didn't know it was a wall gecko initially) worried me a while preventing me from sleeping...so I left the light on and then was able to sleep not to talk of the tiny insects which are attracted to light hence kept crawling up my skin.

Food in Tamale wasn't as cheap as we were told they will be. However, that in walewale was very cheap as compared to food in Tamale. But the ice cream in Tamale was very cheap and lovely. And it rained in walewale and all the bikers were riding very fast to prevent being drenched by the rain. There ain't any traffics in  walewale as well. A lot of bikes and donkeys are used in moving and conveying things around the community.

 I enjoyed myself  on this trip and the training sessions were very great and inspirational.