Backpacking from Accra to Cape Coast: Breakfast at Hans Cottage

Hans Cottage is a welcome distraction from the relative hustle and bustle of Cape Coast. It is on the way to one of Ghana’s most visited tourist attractions, Kakum Park. It has a wide mixture of chalets, double and family rooms as well as a gift shop, restaurant and bar. It looked to me as though it had seen the best of time and needed some refurbishment or perhaps its charmingly dated look added not took away from it.

Apart from being a good place to have a quick bite to eat, Hans Cottage is known for its crocodiles. Auntie Mary, our hostess (and crocodile whisperer) rustled up some toast and coffee for us when we stopped briefly at the cottage on our way to Kakum park. She was jolly and took real admirable pride in showing off the crocodiles dotted around the lake on the cottage.

Bits of chicken from the kitchen was all that was needed to tempt some of the more docile and somewhat lethargic crocodiles out of the murky waters. Apparently they can be patted but that didn’t seem like a great idea to me so I passed.

The trick was to impale a piece of the chicken to a four feet stick then wave this at the crocodiles on the edge of the water. The hungry ones then came our albeit very very slowly to come for the bait.