Road Tripping continued

Stage 4: The Gold Coast (Keta - Butre - Axim - KoSa)

Keta Fishing

So girls like sunbathing and reading and stuff like that when theyre on the beach. Boys on the other hand much prefer to go exploring and the beach at Keta held plenty of stuff to pique my adventurous spirit. On our first day at the beach in Keta I struck up a conversation with a Liberian fisherman (after leaving his country during the civil war) and before I knew it I was in a chain-gang setup with a bunch of about 50 fishermen hauling in a huge fishing net.

After an hour or so of hauling with my bare hands a fisherwoman pitied me enough to give me her headscarf to protect my lovely white Irish pelt. Now I'll be honest here and instead of telling you all how I single handedly landed the largest net of fish ever seen in Keta and that the 50 fishermen carried me head-high through the town streets and pronounced me King of Keta what actually happened is that I pus sied out after another half hour of hauling with cramped hands and red raw palms. I absconded on the premise that I needed to get some water and told them Id be back later to see what they had caught. A little while later (after a swim and some joshing with the local kids) I went back over to see the landed catch.
I was greeted enthusiastically by my Liberian comrade (apparently the fact that the catch was a good one glossed over the fact that I had disappeared in the middle of the work) and the rest of the fishermen even saw to give me some payment in kind for the work I had done. It seems the rate of pay here is two cuttlefish per hour!

I tried to refuse but they were having none of it and my accompaniment of young lads duly saw to the gutting and cleaning of the cuttlefish, proudly presenting me with the cuttlefish bone upon completion. The net contained a myriad of fish, from tiny sardine type fellahs right up to a 3 foot long barracuda with a few small sting rays thrown in for good measure. Later that day I saw a puffer fish that had been washed up on the beach...not a bad days adventuring all in all!