Swim, bike, run (with some hiking thrown in too)

Six weeks old in Ghana and it was time to get out of the city and see something outside of the urban sprawl.  About 30 minutes on a trotro and you are on the outskirts of the city, another trotro and another 20 minutes and you start an alpine climb up to the hills and the cooler, fresher air of Aburi.

The view from the centre of Aburi towards Accra, too bad the visibility was poor

Aburi’s main attractions to tourists are the botanical gardens and the opportunity to hike or bike in the surrounding hills.  Botanical gardens are somewhat of an overstatement, but there were some massive trees (would be great for hide and seek) and even an old helicopter!

After getting some directions and a photo guide book from the local tourist shop, we headed out into the morning heat and dust, with the aim of completing a 12km loop.  How overambitious we were!  We managed to lose our way just about 1km in and ended walking in circles until giving up and taking a perch by the side of a dirt track.  The photo guide was a great idea, the only problem being that the place has changed a lot in the 10 years since the photos were taken, and nobody we met along the way seemed to have heard about the village we were headed for.  Lesson learnt for the future – take a guide!

 Intrepid explorer

 

Who would have thought this catering container would have made it all the way from Clacton-on-Sea!

 

As if Saturday hadn’t been active enough, Sunday morning saw us re-enacting a typical triathlon day – up at 5.30am, try and eat some breakfast, an excited and expectant cycle to the start.  We were lucky enough to hear of a group (of mainly French) expats who have organised a couple of off-road duathlons, and this was to be their first triathlon.  As far as we know a first for Ghana!

With one mountain bike between us (very kindly loaned to us) and very little training since the end of the season in September last year, we decided to focus our energies as a team for the sprint distance:

• a 800m swim in the open air Olympic size pool of the University of Ghana (this is a real luxury, we will be coming back here from some training and to work on our tan)
•  a 15km off road course round the university’s botanical gardens (again, the name is an overstatement, but it actually is a nice natural shaded place with plenty of space for walks) 
• a 5km run around the gardens (which started just as it was getting properly hot)
  
  

It was a fantastic, if very sweaty, event, with two brave and strong guys going for the full Olympic distance by themselves (maybe an aim for next year).  And for the ever important recovery – BBQ and beer!

Chickens in transition - another obstacle to watch out for

 Pretty happy to be finished after the 5km run in 30 degree heat and 90% humidity