WRITING PROMPT RESPONSE

The Best Place I’ve Been — Beaches

Palm trees, fine sandy beaches on Ghana’s coastline

This is surely a difficult one. I’ve been in love with beaches since a teenager and loved swimming in the ocean even before that. Thinking back at the best beach in the world I’ve been to brings back lots of memories.

But this isn’t about the best beach. It’s about the best place I’ve been to which happened to be on a beach. It involves memories and feelings more than the simple fact of a picture-perfect beach.

It was my birthday in 2014. I was working as a volunteer in a school in Rural Ghana. The holidays had started and I wanted to spend my special day on the beach. A full day of traveling was required to make that happen but that didn’t bother me. I was resilient to heat, unknown waiting times, and being the only foreigner on a bus.

I arrived the day before and woke up in paradise.

While the village and beach I stayed at were surely not crowded, at least nothing compared to European beaches during the holidays. But I wanted more. I wanted to go out and explore.

After a casual jog in the morning with bare feet in the sand and a swim in the lukewarm ocean, I grabbed my camera and started to walk. East was the direction and first I had to climb up a cliff to get around to the next village and beach.

I had no water with me and bought the first bottle as I reached a tiny fishing village. After leaving the village behind me there wasn’t much ahead of me. People wise.

An endless beach stretched as fast as my eyes could see. A big boulder was out in the ocean and I assumed behind the corner another beach would just open up.

I was alone. Alone with my thoughts. Alone with the sound of the ocean. And alone with the beauty of paradise. I stopped now and then to take some pictures or to run into the ocean for a cool-off.

Behind that said boulder or cliff I stumbled upon another fishing village. Even smaller and more remote than the previous one. It seemed untouched and seemingly standing still in time.

A handful of fishing boats were docked in the small bay in front of it. Children were playing in the ocean and running through the sand.

I stopped on some cliffs in the distance to soak in the moment. I thought about how simple life must be out there. Far from luxuries of any civilization but also far from any distractions.

I decided not to bring my western identity into the scene and just walked past it along the beach. But I was getting thirsty now.

And as I was looking at another stretch of picture-perfect beaches ahead of me with palm trees all along the coast and coconuts high up in the treetops when I wouldn’t believe I’d be thirsty while all that nutritious water was just there.

I walked into the coastal forest and inspected the palm trees. I was looking for the smallest one with a coconut in reach of my arms. I was jumping up and down trying to use a stick to get one of them down. And eventually, I succeeded.

Now with a heavy coconut in my hands, I had another challenge ahead of me. How to open it? I looked around and finally decided to throw in onto some sharp rocks on the beach.

Yes, I managed to open the coconut, and yes, most of the coconut water leaked out before I could drink it. But, I was in paradise. Alone. Drinking coconut water on the beach.

It wasn’t long after a local man showed up and asked me if I was thirsty. I was wondering for how long he had been there and if he had watched my attempts in getting a coconut. Getting a little embarrassed I continued to walk further away from the fishing village.

Chatting to the local man, we walked a short stretch through the forest to get past some steep cliffs. Just as we turned back to the coast an incredibly untouched beach opened up in front of us.

And while I was in awe of the moment, the man climbed some of the highest palm trees and threw down 5 coconuts for me. He also opened them. What a service.

And no, he didn’t want anything in return from me. Soon after, he left me again. And I was all alone again. In paradise.

“If there’s heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached to it.” — Jimmy Buffett

Yes, this must have been the best place I’ve ever been on the beach. I’ve traveled a lot and lived in a lot of different countries. I’ve seen a lot, I’ve experienced a lot and tried lots of different activities. It’s surely not easy to pick one moment from a lifetime of memories but I’m sharing what I can.

Thank you, Warren for creating this writing prompt in the latest travel pub of Globetrotters. “The Best Place I’ve Been” is a fun idea.

Furthermore, I would like to invite you to check out Erika’s profile. She’s a passionate writer, photographer, and yogi. She travels a lot and has stunning stories to share.

“Waterfalls, Smokey Sunsets, and Sunrise Reflections at Mount Ranier National Park” is an article from last summer. Erika Burkhalter takes you up to the mountains where the real beauty is to be found.

This is part one of my series:

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