Day Trip to Aburi

If you ever have the opportunity to come to Ghana, a trip to Aburi is a must! Located about an hour north-east of Accra, Aburi is a small town with charm and beautiful Botanical Gardens. Getting to Aburi from Accra is not at all difficult, once you find the correct tro-tro station at the Madina market. It always amazes me how helpful people are in Ghana. Being white and having the “I have no idea where I’m going” look on your face helps. Once we got off the first tro-tro into Madina every ‘mate’ from the tro-tros lined up waiting to return to town stopped us and asked “Obruni, where are you going?” We continued on until we spotted a sign which said “Aburi”. Problem was that between us and the sign was a massive ditch where workers were installing drainage pipes. We had to backtrack a little bit (and get hassled by vendors and taxis in the process) but eventually made it to the station. Having been here a month (as of today), I am starting to get used to just saying “No” or shaking my head or using hand gestures to signal no instead of the typical Canadian “No thank you” with a smile. This having been said, I do ensure that I thank anyone who helps me even in a small way as it amazes me how people will take the time to help me even if they get nothing out of it. 

The bus-truck on the Aburi road

We waited for an empty tro-tro to arrive, and got on and were immediately swarmed with women selling things like plantain chips and candy. They were very persistent and if you made eye contact they would tell you the price of their goods. Eventually we got underway. Instead of connecting to the main road out of town, the tro-tro began weaving through the maze of alleys around Madina. As you can imagine, it was very bumpy and slow. The heat was starting to get unbearable as was the dust. After about 20 minutes we finally made it to the main surfaced road to Aburi. Once we made it onto the road, it was a much smoother ride. It is always nice to escape the city and Aburi was a wonderful oasis well worth the trip. Even the tro-tro ride itself is a wonderful trip (minus being crammed into a tro-tro like a sardine). As the road climbs up the mountain, the views are beautiful and you get a birds-eye view of Accra and the surroundings. The air is cooler and fresher, and the noise dies down. There was some magnificent properties along the road (wish we had been able to take some pictures), in addition to the usual sights along Ghanian roads. One sight we did not photograph was the girls school located on the outskirts of Aburi. Apparently this is one of the top secondary schools in the country (fun fact). Once we got to Aburi, it was a little difficult to know when to get off the tro-tro. Fortunately a nice man was also on the tro-tro and rightly assumed we were headed for the Aburi Botanical Gardens. We followed the gentleman up the steep road towards the Gardens. We saw a funny sight of a bus and a truck touching one another (we thought they had collided) however the bus was trying to get past the truck and reach the Botanical Gardens.

Travellers Palm

Entrance to the Aburi Botanical Gardens

Some of the trees at the Gardens

The entrance to the Gardens is pretty spectacular. The main roadway is lined with Royal Palms that dwarf most other plants in the Gardens. It was really neat to see the area where special guests commemorate their visit to the Gardens by planting a tree. Visitors included Queen Elizabeth, the infamous Romanian leader Nicolae Cheusescu (1977), and the Prince of Wales. Some of the trees were truly epic like the Travellers Palm which, according to the sign, travellers can drink the water that accumulates at the base of the large leaves. The other very impressive tree was a very old Silk Cotton tree which was HUGE! Without explaining every small detail about the Gardens, I was delighted that my friend Sarah suggested we go visit as it was truly worth the effort! 

Our next stop was some lunch. After walking around for a while, we developed quite an appetite! Our book suggested a place called Peter’s Pizza as it has the best pizza in Ghana and it was right near the Gardens so we decided to try it. As soon as Peter opened up the package of real cheese, we both got excited and asked him where it came from. Apparently all the foreigners get very excited about the real cheese. 

Our final stop of the day was to see the first Cocoa Farm in Ghana, a short taxi ride away in the town of Mampong. The Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa farm was planted in 1879. It is a tiny little farm (0.38 hectares to be precise), tucked away at the end of a lane. We arrived and saw a group of young men with machettes cracking open the cocoa pods and emptying the seeds to be fermented. One of them gave us a bit of a tour around the farm although there wasn’t much to see. I must admit that I was a little disappointed with the farm. I was hoping that there would be more to see. It was neat to see the original cocoa trees brought to Ghana from Equatorial Guinea by Tetteh Quarshie, an illiterate blacksmith (by trade). The farm is now owned by the Government but it is still producing cocoa. An average tree is harvested three times a year and yields around 10-15 kilograms of cocoa a year. The harvesting is still done by hand so cocoa production is pretty labour intensive. The big green pods are ripe once they turn orange and then they are harvested. The beans are fermented and dried before they are ground up to make chocolate and other cocoa products. Chocolate produced with Ghanian cocoa beans is truly yummy and well worth buying! Unlike the chocolate bars we buy at the convenience store, this chocolate is less sweet but richer in taste.

Our tour guide nest to one of the original cocoa
trees from Equatorial Guinea in the 1870s

Once the cocoa pods are opened, the seeds inside are fermented
for several days. The sweet white layer is removed leaving
the cocoa to be dried

Dried cocoa seeds. Once they've been completely dried,
they will then be ground up once the shell is removed.
At this stage it does taste like chocolate!