After a good night’s sleep (I think for everyone) we all met down for breakfast at 7:30. Our sleep was interrupted about 5:45 or 6 am by a call from the front desk. They announced that a Kingsly was here to see me. I don’t know a Kingsly, and certainly not one coming to meet me at that time of the morning! I was trying to fight through the fog and figure out what was going on when they discovered they’d called the wrong room! Oh well, at least I was able to roll back over and sleep just a little more.

They have a good buffet breakfast here! Then we went back to pack, and get ready to leave. My normal driver sent someone else to pick us up this time, but he came in a nice large Nissan van, which held us and all our luggage just fine. I settled the bill while the van was loaded and we were off basically on time.

We got around the top of Accra faster than I anticipated, and we arrived at the Elmina Beach Resort by 11:30 am. That gave us time to get settled into our rooms, and then go to the restaurant for lunch. Then about 1:30 we took off to walk into Elmina to go to the castle. It is perhaps 2 miles each way. By the time we arrived I’d sweated most of the way through my shirt

We got a very good tour guide this time, and I appreciated his perspective. He didn’t try to unnecessarily pluck at heartstrings like some in the past have done. I was pleased with the job he did. And it is a very sobering tour no matter how many times I’ve been through this castle. Man’s capacity for cruelty to another human being boggles the mind – and especially that this is done under the guise of religion. There are two churches in this castle: The Dutch church is  upstairs above the slave dungeons. The Portuguese Church is in the courtyard surrounded by the slave dungeons. It is hard to fathom.

After the castle we walked very close to the Bridge house hotel to have something to drink and sit in the shade watching some boats putting out to sea. Then we walked back to our hotel. After a little time cool off, most of us went down to the exercise area for a friendly ping pong tournament before dinner.

We ate here at the Elmina Beach, and then retired to the lobby to play cards and enjoy some good conversation. Now time to get another good night’s sleep! The van will be here at 9:30 am to take us to Kakum national park.