Off We Go – In A Ghanaian Tro-Tro

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Tara

One of the reasons birders on a budget will love Ghana is that public transport is readily available and very cheap! After getting a good night’s sleep in the Holiday Inn, we were very keen the next morning to get to Kakum National Park, Ghana’s premier birding hotspot.

We paid around $10 for a hotel taxi (it would have been cheaper if we had gotten one in the street) to the Tema Station. I had mistakenly believed that we could get a tro-tro to Cape Coast from there. That was wrong, we needed to take one tro-tro to Kaneshie, then get another one to Cape Coast.

Since we were the last to board, we had to go to the back of the mini-bus.

The driver dropped us off at Kaneshie right in front of the section where the Cape Coast tro-tros departed. We found Ghanaians to be very friendly and helpful whenever we needed directions. The drivers of these tro-tros charged us the same as everyone else, no attempt at tourist prices.

While you wait for the tro-tro to fill up, vendors will come around selling everything under the sun. We just watched the people in the market and waited, it didn’t take more than 15 minutes or so to fill up.

You can also get buses like this to Cape Coast but the tro-tros tend to fill up quicker. Either way it’s a cheap trip, around $6-$8.

Upon arrival in Cape Coast, the driver dropped us at the station where another tro-tro went to Kakum National Park. You can actually go all the way to the park from here and hop out at the gate.

This is where we hopped out – the Rainforest Lodge. By this time it was around 2pm so we decided to just have lunch, relax and watch birds around the lodge and save Kakum for an early start in the morning.

Hotel Review: Accra Holiday Inn

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Tara

It was good enough for POTUS Barack Obama so I figured it would be good enough for us!

The Accra Holiday Inn near Ghana’s Kotoka Airport has the best meet & greet ever – a private lounge for their guests to relax and have coffee while they wait for the shuttle! First we passed through the immigration which didn’t take long as we had obtained tourist visas at the Ghanaian Embassy in Canberra.

Then we made our way to the lounge. We didn’t have to wait long until the mini-bus showed up and took us to the hotel.

It was getting late but the spotless lobby with African decor made a great first impression.

The room was what you expect from a Holiday Inn – clean, basic and good free wifi. By this time it was around 11pm so all we wanted was a shower and a good night’s sleep.

I did find the placement of the glass screen a bit awkward, you can’t move it and it makes that shell-like thing on the bathtub hard to clamber over.

The next morning we got a better look at the hotel – still a garden-variety Holiday Inn from the outside. This first night was only a layover as we were keen to get to Kakum National Park.

After visiting the park, we had 2 more nights here. We spent one morning at Shai Hills Reserve, using a taxi to get out there. There is a car booking service in the lobby, you can negotiate them down if they aren’t busy.

The pool is huge, great for a refreshing swim after a birding day trip or going to the craft market.

We had a few meals in La Cabana by the pool as the food was really good and it was nice to eat outdoors.

As you can see, we really treated ourselves!

The breakfast buffet was excellent with a nice variety of western and Ghanian items and omelets made to order.

This is a great hotel to use points on as it goes for 20k per night whereas a paid booking will run between $250-300! Hotels do run on the expensive side in Ghana so you really do want to have enough points to cover your stay. This is also one of the few places in the world where you can use points for a night and have a great place for birding within an easy day trip – Shai Hills Reserve!

Birding West Africa – What It Is Really Like

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Tara

I recently discovered Mr Currie’s YT channel and really love his filming style as he shows the whole experience and what it is really like to go birding in various locations. While it doesn’t seem that he has been to Ghana, he has been to Sierra Leone which has many of the same birds you would expect to find in West Africa such as the Picathartes, Senegal Parrot, Pin-tailed Whydah and more! The topography between the two countries is also very similar and it seems that Mr Currie also struggled to get clear shots of the birds. Sadly, Sierra Leone is off limits until the ebola crisis is over but Ghana remains a safe place to see many of these species.

West Africa is a location where you will SEE a lot more than you will be able to PHOTOGRAPH because the foliage is so thick and the birds are more shy of humans (for good reason). The glimpses of the towns his Rockjumper group pass through are equally fascinating and familiar to me from my Ghana experience except for the money changer. What I really loved was the enthusiasm of the local guide who genuinely cares about the birds. I don’t know if he is a former poacher turned into a guide but I have seen this attitude many times all over the world, where the birds cease to be just a means of getting money and the person comes to genuinely appreciate them for the wonderful little creatures they are and cares about their welfare.

Enjoy the video!

Birds of Western and Central Africa: (Princeton Illustrated Checklists)

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Tara

This book may be an older version but the countries it covers are pretty amazing! The territory covered is vast–nearly 2,500 miles down the coast and over 1,000 miles inland, including not only Senegal, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo but all or part of Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Príncipe, São Tomé, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

This is my affiliate link, if you use it to purchase this book or any other on Amazon I will get a small commission at no added cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Birding & The Hail Mary Photo Shoot

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Tara

Some of you may have heard of a “Hail Mary pass” such as it is used in football. What you may not know is that bird photographers also have their “Hail Mary photos” where you basically point your camera at a tiny speck in the sky or a clump of bushes and pray! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Mary was kind to me in South Africa where that tiny speck in Satara Restcamp turned out to be a Brown-headed Parrot.

In Ghana, Mary seemed to be not listening as my prayers in Kakum National Park (trying for African Grey Parrots) and University/Botanical Gardens area in Accra (Red-fronted Parrots) went unanswered as the birds stayed in the bushes and I just barely missed my shots.

A pair of African Grey Parrots had flown just beyond these trees and I glimpsed them through the open spaces but I was too slow to get a photo.

Red-fronted Parrots frustratingly close but refusing to come out and be photographed.

Finally, in Shai Hills, Mary took pity on me and my prayers were answered as some Senegal Parrots zoomed over head.

Point the camera and say a Hail Mary, this time she answered me with these Senegal Parrots!

If you are ever in this situation, and if you get into birding you probably will be, I’d say go for it! Maybe Mary will be benevolent to you too!

Planning A Birding Trip To Ghana

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Tara

The first thing you need to do when planning a birding trip to Ghana or anywhere is to identify your main goals. Since I am a parrot nut, I was targeting habitats where I was likely to see parrots that are known to live in Ghana and of course any birds that also live in the same habitats. Ghana has an extremely impressive bird list!

MY TARGETS

African Grey Parrot – best chance was Kakum National Park.

Brown-necked Parrot – has been reported in Kakum.

Senegal Parrot – good population in Shai Hills Reserve.

Red-headed Lovebird – can be found anywhere along the east coast of Ghana or in the north.

Red-fronted Parrot (Jardines) – has been seen in Kakum and in villages north of Kakum.

Black-collared Lovebird – seen in the far west of Ghana.

VISAS

Everyone needs a tourist visa to Ghana and you cannot get it on arrival. You will have to get it in advance from the Ghanaian Consulate in your country.

Australia

USA

THE PLAN

Since we were on a tight budget and needed to go to places accessible by public transport with taxis to exact locations I chose two of Ghana’s national parks – Kakum and Shai Hills. Group birding tours will usually hit all of the parks highlighted on the map above but organize tours were way out of our budget.

I kept costs down by using IHG Rewards points to stay at the Holiday Inn, Accra. From there, we took a taxi out to Shai Hills for a day trip. We used local minibuses called “Tro-tros” to get from Accra to Cape Coast and another one that took us to Kakum where I had booked the Rainforest Lodge on Booking.com using the American AAdvantage portal. We used public transport to get from the lodge to the park each day. At both parks, we hired official guides from the ticket office.

During our stay at Kakum, I met a guide from Ashanti African Tours who was very helpful even though he was escorting an organized birding group. He gave me the best tip on where to see African Grey Parrots. I went to their office in Cape Coast hoping to use them for the day trip to Shai Hills but they don’t keep guides in Accra, they base themselves in Cape Coast. They also gave me a good tip on where to find the Red-headed Lovebirds near Accra (although the birds proved to be very shy). I do recommend them if you want to be more organized than we were!

Ashanti African Tours – Birdwatching

Ghana is a great place to SEE birds but not so great for photography. The birds are more timid than in South Africa or even Madagascar and the terrain is much more jungly so most of the time we just got fleeting glimpses of the birds. I couldn’t get a parrot perched to save my soul! Plenty of “Video game birds” which is what I call those birds who fly swiftly overhead and I have to try to shoot quickly with my camera. It’s like playing “Space Invaders”, hence the name!

Getting To Ghana & Other West African Countries With Airline Miles

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Tara

I will be using Accra’s Kotoka International Airport as an example because that is where I went and also because Ghana is in my opinion the best country in West Africa to go birding.

The first step is to identify which airlines that participate in one of the 3 alliances serve the airport in question. You can do this by looking the airport up in Wikipedia and making a note of which airlines fly there and cross referencing with my guides on Star Alliance, OneWorld Alliance and SkyTeam. The main airports of interest to birders will be Accra, Dakar, Banjul, Abidjan & Freetown (if ebola crisis is over). Lagos, Nigeria and Douala, Cameroun could also open up to birders if the security situation improves.

This is what you are looking for and I have highlighted all alliance members in yellow.

STAR ALLIANCE

Star Alliance rules Africa in general and for most people, these are the miles you want if you are going anywhere in West Africa. Egyptair, Ethiopian Airlines, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal, Turkish (which the Wiki forgot) and South African Airways all fly here. Most people will be using United Airlines miles for their trip although Australians may be using Singapore Krisflyer miles. I advise using United or possibly Avianca Lifemiles to avoid YQ fuel surcharges. Here are some typical routes and costs with United, all are quoted as one-ways so double it for a round trip.

Traveling from the USA or Canada will cost 40k economy or 80k business class.

From the UK or Europe you will pay 30k economy or 55k business class. Watch the high airport tax from the UK!

From Australia or New Zealand you will pay 50k economy or 85k business class.

If you need intra-Africa flights, these are a bargain at 17.5k economy and 35k business class.

If you are using Singapore Krisflyer, the miles are reasonable but the YQ surcharge is insane!

Seriously? Over $500 AUD for the YQ surcharge!!!

ONEWORLD

Only 2 OneWorld Airlines serve Accra – British Airways and Iberia. Both attract YQ surcharges (BA is higher than IB) so these routes will not be most people’s first choice. Due to routing restrictions, you will need to redeem 2 awards if you are coming from Australia/New Zealand – Singapore/Bangkok – West Africa.

If you are flush with Avios from a credit card bonus, they are an option but please note the YQ surcharges!

SKYTEAM

Accra is served by 4 Skyteam partners – Delta, Kenya Airways, KLM and Middle East Airlines.

Delta has surprisingly good availability. They no longer publish an award chart so I did a few examples. From the USA/Canada mileage starts at 40k economy & 90k business class and goes up depending on saver availability.

Notice how much higher the YQ surcharges are for these examples for Sydney and London!

Using Flying Blue miles on Kenya Airways can be good for hopping around Africa and they do add certain destinations like Madagascar that Star Alliance can’t provide. For more information on using Kenya Airways, see my Madagascar post.

BOTTOM LINE

If you want to go to West Africa, collect United Mileage Plus! Chase is your friend!

Antananarivo Airport & Kenya Airways TNR-NBO-ACC

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Tara

Antananarivo’s Ivato Int’l Airport is probably not going to top anyone’s list of favourite airports but it gets the job done. There aren’t a lot of airlines serving this airport but I have already done a guide on how to get here using airline miles.

The biggest tip is to beware of security guards weighing carry-on bags. Even backpacks, which normally slide through at other airports if they look small. If you have more than 7kgs, they will send you back, ostensibly to check your bag. This is a case where Scottevest saved the day for us as we simply went out of sight, stuffed the heaviest items into our very deep pockets and returned to security. Backpacks were weighed and passed, jackets were ignored except for the usual x-rays and we were inside and awaiting our flight. We didn’t have any checked luggage so it wasn’t a money issue, it was more a concern with a tight connection and fear of the bags arriving at all.

We were in economy booked with Flying Blue miles so had no access to lounges. There are a few shops but otherwise not much to do except read. No wifi outside the lounge.

Kenya Airways was about half an hour late and I was getting nervous as we only had one hour to connect in NBO. Luckily, the same aircraft that brought us to NBO remained at the gate and also took us to ACC. The first flight wasn’t full and we had an empty middle seat to spread out in. We weren’t so lucky on the NBO-ACC segment, the plane was completely full.

On arrival at Accra, we had the usual temperature security to pass, then we ran over to the immigration “other nationals” line which went smoothly since we already had the necessary visa obtained from their consulate in Canberra. They do not give visas on arrival.

Our next birding adventure in Ghana was about to begin!

A Nostalgic Look Back At US Airways Dividend Miles

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Tara

Today is the day the programs merge. It’s the 28th of March in Australia and now also in around half of the USA. Soon we will wake up with increased AAdvantage balances and the US Airways Dividend Miles (USDM) program will be history. I can’t help but think back fondly on all the opportunities we never would have had without it. USDM was the game-changer that put extravagant premium class awards within reach of the ordinary person who had little money but was willing to put in some time and effort.

I never was a big player in the miles and points games until 2008. It always seemed to me that the best benefits were always for those who traveled a lot – actual FREQUENT flyers and were elites. I booked our trips on the cheapest routes although trying to use Star Alliance programs as much as possible as we were collecting United Miles. If we managed a free trip from BNE to RAR or PPT every 2 or 3 years we were happy.

GAMING THE GAME-CHANGER

Then United started blocking partner awards – Starnet – and I had to look for an alternative. Right around this time, one of the best ways for people to earn miles without spending money was playing Live Search Club games. I was already playing for our AAdvantage accounts so it was a natural step to add a few more accounts and start playing for US Dividend Miles. Anyone remember Chicktionary?

LSC was a great little earner while it lasted. An anagram-solver and a desk in front of the tv was all I needed to rake in around 4000 miles in 4 accounts (mine & husbands – US & AA) roughly every 2 weeks. It was a pretty hot topic on FlyerTalk while it lasted. LSC later morphed into Club Bing and by using a never ending supply of new accounts I was able to keep the miles rolling in for around 18 months until they finally shut down in 2010. But the best was yet to come!

GRAND SLAM PROMO

I was too late for the 2008 Grand Slam but ready and waiting for the 2009 version. There was a whole thread in FlyerTalk dedicated to this killer promo where you could earn 50,000 miles by using USDM’s partners. The game was to use as many free hits as possible or to use purchases you were already making at certain hotels or car rentals to create hits. Then find the cheapest item to buy from partners such as Biscoff spread (yummy!), batteries from SkyMall, screen-wipes from some telephone company, sandwiches from dining partners, GAIAM trees from the mall, churned Netflix accounts and stickers from Track-it-Back. We opened brokerage accounts for $5 with Sharebuilder, bought the cheapest Lifelock packages, swapped miles for magazines. Since I live in Australia, my Mom in California was the lucky recipient for several bouquets of flowers and assorted junk.

In 2010, the Grand Slam upped their game to 100,000 miles and in 2011 they upped it again to 110,000 though the last 4 hits were too hard for me so I had to settle for 100,000.

In the latter years, I would prep for the upcoming Grand Slam by getting hotel points for free by doing Foursquare check-ins, Facebook promos and E-Rewards. The Daily Getaways promos which used to be so much better were also a source for cheap hotel points and Grand Slam hits. I estimate that I paid around $600 between both our accounts that I wouldn’t have spent otherwise to get 200,000 miles between us those last 2 years.

TRACK-IT-BACK TAKES IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Remember those Track-it-back (TIB) stickers I mentioned? They became another game-changer in the 2009 Holiday promo. You had to spend a certain amount with various shopping partners and there were tiers to multiplying the bonus.

In a nutshell, you made the cheapest possible purchases for the first 4 transactions, then the 5th you bought as many TIB stickers as possible and got 100 miles per $! I don’t remember how much I spent, I got as many as I could manage the cash flow for. Some people on FlyerTalk spent $1000’s and got LOTS of miles!

CHURNING THE CREDIT CARD

I only managed to do this twice – once in 2011 and once in 2013. Each time I got 40,000 miles and on the 2nd one it comes with a 10,000 miles anniversary bonus so I’ve kept it. Barclays Bank has since cracked down on churners.

BUY/SHARE MILES PROMOS – UP TO 100% SHARE

The last great way to get USDM relatively cheaply (although not as cheap as Grand Slam & TIB) was to share miles back and forth between two accounts. Obviously this works better for couples than single people unless they knew someone very trustworthy. When the Grand Slam promo didn’t return in 2012 much to everyone’s disappointment, this became the best way to get USDM and on the bright side it worked equally well for people all over the world. You shared miles to your partner, they got double, then they shared back to you and you got double. USDM kept this promo up until last year, then they scaled it back to 50% bonuses.

The best seat I ever got for free from USDM – Turkish Airline’s wetleased Jet Airways plane used the first class suites as business class so if you were clever with your seating assignments you could sit in a suite for the price of a J award!

SO WHAT DID I DO WITH ALL THOSE MILES?

USDM’s fantastic promos allowed us to go places we otherwise had no chance of affording – usually in business class (bolded)!

2011 – BNE-BKK-ICN-LAX-PHX-MEX /-LAX-ICN-BKK-BNE

2011 – BNE-SIN-KTM /-BOM-SIN-BNE

2012 – BNE-AKL-RAR-AKL-BNE

2013 – BNE-BKK-ICN-YVR-IAH-BZE /-HNL-ICN-BKK-BNE

2013 – BNE-BKK-BLR /- CMB-SIN-BNE

2014 – BNE-BKK-IST-TLV /-BCN-ZRH-FCO-PEK-SIN-BNE

And I still have some USDM left to transfer to AA!

In no alternate universe could someone of my economic level even dream of trips like those! USDM and their crazy promos made it all possible! We visited some of the world’s finest eco-tourism locations and saw some amazing birds that we could only dream about before.

So here’s to you, US Airways! It’s been a wild ride the past few years and I am sad that it’s over but really happy and grateful that it happened it all. From the bottom of my heart (and my champagne glass) thanks for the memories!

Hotel Review: Hotel Brajas, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Tara

We only spent one night in Tana just before our flight to Accra via Nairobi. We had very simple requirements – WIFI, centrally located and accepts credit cards. Hotel Brajas delivered on all 3 accounts. It’s a small hotel with very attractive decor and an Indian Restaurant on the premises.

Our room was at the end of the hall.

It is a small room but at that point, all I wanted was wifi as we had been offline for 6 days!

There’s a mini-bar and tv, I don’t recall any English channels.

The bathroom is one of those glass enclosed rooms, thankfully with blinds for those who prefer privacy.

Decor and merchandise in the lobby

The bar

The Indian Restaurant, portions were huge, not even my husband could finish his. We both had the biryani which was delicious. I was more interested in catching up with emails.

The street where Hotel Brajas is located.

Miles To The Wild

Create unforgettable eco-tourism and birding adventures using miles & points!