Mount Afadjato

A recent three day weekend afforded me and my colleagues the luxury of exploring some of the Eastern region offerings around the town of Hohoe. Months ago, when we first discovered the Eastern region via our guidebook, we saw this town of Hohoe, located just north of the town of Ho, and immediately felt the impulse to hit up Ho and Hohoe. Only later did we discover that Hohoe is actually pronounced ho hoy (as in Chips Ahoy!).

After a heat-intensive journey, we arrived and settled into the Grand Palace. We decided that the following morning, we would set off to climb Mount Afadjato, believed to be the highest mountain peak in Ghana. Deciding it was time to mentally and physically prepare for the arduous mountain trek the following morning, we conversed over chilled (read: warm) beer.

The morning of our big adventure arrived and we started to look for public transportation from Hohoe to the town nestled at the foot of the mountain. Well, we ran into a number of transportation obstacles. You can get public transportation from the lorry station. So we walked 30 minutes to the lorry station, finding nothing but a set of scheming taxi drivers asking for exorbitant fares. It turns out these lorries take Saturdays off. So we turned to our next option. You can catch a ride to the foot of the mountain at the post office. Great.

The only problem was finding the post office. We spent the better part of two hours in search of the elusive post office, with concerned citizens pointing us up and down the main thoroughfare. It turns out we walked past the post office no less than four times before we eventually stumbled upon it. (It’s no wonder it took four months for my mother’s package of brownies to arrive. And all this time I thought it was because someone literally had to swim my package across the Atlantic. It turns out, the postman spent four months trying to find the post office!)

Well, thankfully we finally made our way to the foot of Mount Afadjato. Mount Afadjato is said to be named after a local word Avadzeto, meaning at war with bush. (I guess everyone was at war with dubbya at one time or another). But really, the phrase comes from the local vegetation that can cause serious skin irritation. At the base of the mountain a sign greeted us Welcome to Afadjato. Take a deep breath. You are just about conquering 885m above sea level. Normally, I would dismiss the mountain as a hill, but unlike many of my previous hiker-friendly trails littered with switchbacks, this was rather hoofer-friendly and a near vertical climb. The conquest was rewarding, until you reach the top and realize that there’s a higher peak 3km away. Said to be the highest mountain peak in Ghana? Oh, yes. The Togo border is 2km away.