02 Jan 2023
Ours was a 15-day private birding tour.
I can't select any one thing, as the entire tour was very special.
All nature tours are, in some degree, also cultural, and that was the case for us.
I can more easily pick my least favorite- the few times we had to be driving in or near Accra. No complaints about that, though. A necessity if you want to get to where the 'wild things are'. That goodness for the skill of our driver, Prince.
Ghana is special. The birding was amazing. A VERY large part of our wonderful Ghana birding experience was due to our amazing guide, Paul Mensah. His vision, his hearing, his vocalization knowledge, his ability to imitate bird sounds-- or to use recorded vocalizations or playback when needed. All very impressive.
Another thing I must mention-- how quickly he could get a bird in the scope, even when the target was very nearly directly overhead & the scope was near-vertical.
I'll mention our driver again, Prince. He was the other part of the two-some that made for such a great trip.
As always, we missed some birds.
There had been unusually heavy rains in the drier northern parts of Ghana. Fortunately for us, the rains had already happened, and didn't rain us out on any days. But the rivers were flooded, & the sandbars where the Egyptian Plover is normally found were under several feet of water. So.... we missed the Plover.
Other specialties were missed too. That's just part of birding.
All in all, I can highly recommend Ashanti.
Rosemathilda, with her endless patience and always timely & helpful responses to my many pre-trip emails, deserves a big "thank you" too.
Our group of 3 saw 320-330 species, the great majority were lifers.