It can be fairly intimidating when there are 70 people on the start line and only 11 of those are women. I knew this meant I would be at the back of the race, especially as I had trained for this event in my own way, with more of a fun aspect in mind. Those other women were so supportive though. We chatted to each other, we joked about who would be last and during the race we cheered each other on, it was a lovely atmosphere.
The swim in Nissi Beach was so crystal clear and not cold, but I did struggle with the long slopping entrance/exit especially since it was an Aussie style lap so it had to be negotiated twice.
The bike I wish I’d ridden beforehand. I felt a bit lost on lap one and had to stop to deal with a water bottle issue, then settled into the remaining laps. It was a really lovely undulating course, at times I just didn’t have a hard enough gear to push through the long sloping downhills. At some point during the bike my period started. I had prepared for this best I could in terms of the mess factor, but there was little I could do about the pain. I had to grit my teeth during the last 30km on the bike, wondering why on earth I hadn’t downgraded to the standard distance.
It was a huge relief to get off the bike and into my running shoes. I settled into the run, ignoring my watch and running on feel for the first few kms, getting in some nutrition and fluids. I have been in pain during endurances races before but mainly nausea, headaches, dizziness or overheating. That type of pain requires you to slow down and manage yourself well. Period pain was different though, I knew it wasn’t going to stop me, and I was also determined it wasn’t going to slow me down. So, I dug in really deep looking to see just how much pain I could take on.
The result? I had the run of my life with a 15km and 20km PR. To achieve this pace after 90km on the bike is a big achievement for me. I finished in 6 hours and 6 minutes, 57th out of 70 and 2 of 2 in my Age group, there are some advantages to being on the wrong side of 40. My second Middle Distance Triathlon complete!
When I first heard about this race in 2021, I was immediately intrigued. It didn’t matter that I had only ever raced a couple sprint triathlons, the idea of a half ironman had been on my mind for a while. However, this race is not a regular half ironman – the ascent, the altitude, the rough technical running trails, this is nothing short of an adventure half ironman.
1.9 km Sea swim
84 km Road bike with 2410m ascent
21 km Trail run with 430m ascent (at around 1900 m altitude)
After completing my first couple of ultra running events in 2022 I felt like I had some useful skills under my belt to apply to Olympus man. In January 2023 I made the decision to place the event firmly into my calendar. I am not a strong cyclist and so most of the work had to be directed at the bike element. Lucky for me I live near the route, so I broke it down in sections and started riding it, over and over and over. In March I had a test event planned, a flat half ironman to ease me into the distance. Alas, that was not meant to be as I tested covid positive 10 days before that race. I was devastated. This low point was a much-needed reminder about how important it is to enjoy the journey. You can’t put in months of effort for one day if you don’t enjoy the day-to-day training, because there is no guarantee that one day will happen exactly as you expect it to.
A few weeks later I felt just well enough to shuffle round the Paris marathon with some running buddies. However, it was May before I really felt able to get back to full training again and I made the decision to shake things up a bit. I headed to the gym with lots of positive guidance and encouragement. I sea swam less because it makes me miserable! My focus was on enjoying the journey to the start line.
The long summer school holiday was spent in the UK, with less training and structure. Then in September it was back to Cyprus for one final push, fighting the last of the summer heat. I took this opportunity to train on the higher sections which are a little cooler and help with some altitude exposure.
Three weeks before race day I was knocked out again with a virus. It felt like an action replay of March and I really struggled emotionally. Thankfully I took some really good advice and rested hard. From full-on, high-load triathlon training, to complete and utter rest, mentally that was agony. The Monday before race day I started to feel better, and I made the call that I felt well enough to try.
The day itself started nervously on the harbour front. I remember saying “it’s big – you know?” that was about all I could say. I just wanted to get going and see how my body was going to feel. Thankfully the sea swim passed by quickly and I was soon on the bike.
I have jokingly described this race as a very long way, up a very big hill. Honestly, I LOVED the whole day. Maybe it was not knowing if I’d be well enough on the day, then actually feeling great. Maybe I had trained hard enough that I knew it was possible. Maybe I felt the belief of my friends and family with me the whole way. Quite early in the race I found myself at the very back with an ambulance car on my tail. I refused to let being last on the bike fluster me. I was aware only 3 women had entered this race and racing mainly men was always going to be hard. I kept to my pace, concentrated on my plan, fuel, hydration, electrolyte, and I smiled. I smiled a lot. I thought about my husband and his belief in me, he has always described me as the most determined person he has ever met. I thought about my Mum and friends willing me on. I had to pinch myself a few times because I was out there, I was doing it!
It was a relief to get off the bike in T2 and stand up straight. There is a 10km continuous climb just before T2 and I was glad I had done that climb fives times in training. A lot of my success during this race came from knowing exactly what to expect. Each section had been broken down in my mind allowing me to mentally feel like I was making progress, even when actual progress was very slow.
From T2 I had my favourite part of the race, a beautiful trail half marathon with 430m of ascent to the highest point in Cyprus. Breathless from the altitude, I quickly found that although I was moving well, I was mentally quite tired now and of course my legs didn’t exactly have their usual spring in them. I was determined to go steady, avoid any nasty falls and get to the finish line in one piece. Finishing feeling good and with a smile on my face, that meant everything.
I loved the complexity of this challenge, breaking it down, covering all the little details. It is such an inspiring race that showcases Cyprus beauty. It’s important to remember that if we want to ride on the high elation of finishing this kind of event, we must also accept the very hard lows that come. Sometimes those lows will happen on the day when things unravel. Sometimes those lows will happen in the lead up, illness, injury, severe fatigue, mental blocks. Each Ultra event is a rollercoaster journey, it is unique and helps us grow. The journey is why we go back for more.
I am super grateful for those around me who believe in me. I am grateful to my body, for continuing to allow me to push my limits. This is not a simple process, it requires hard work, patience, extra sleep, excellent fuelling, and regular visits to the physio! It’s important to respect what the body has done and provide it care, space, and time to recover. I am also extremely grateful to my husband, for understanding and supporting what drives me and being prepared to ride the rollercoaster with me.
Is it the fact the race starts at nearly 2000m above sea level and returns there 3 times?
Is it the 5am start in the mountains leaving not much time for sleep?
Is it the June race date meaning that hydration and electrolyte must be very carefully managed in the warmer temperatures?
Is it the technical mountain trails?
Is it the 7km uphill finish?
That little plus, it means a lot!
Having run this race last year two things struck me. Firstly, the route, the support, the planning and the commitment by the organisers to put on a well-supported event is second to none. The water stations are frequent and well stocked, trails well marked and marshalled, the vibe is energetic and fun. Everything is in place to support a successful finish.
Secondly, the route is sensational! From its starting point in Troodos square you immediately climb to the top of Cyprus, Mt Olympus. This is admittedly a hard warm up, with altitude restricting the lungs and a chill in the morning mountain air. It’s worth it though, just as you arrive the sun breaks the horizon, and lights up the island with an amazing orange glow.
Of course, from here we must go down, and what a down it is. Picking up and connecting some of the most scenic hiking trails the route begins to drop. This is a favourite part of the route for me because I love the downhill sections. It snakes back and forth crossing the river, in fresh morning air, a pure joy when you have come up from the baking temperatures at sea level. Once the lowest point of the race has been reached, at 850m, it’s time to climb.
These Troodos climbs are tough, the km’s seem to pass at a snail’s pace and the terrain gets steeper and more loose, you simply have to keep moving, fuelling, hydrating. It is a relief to reach the top once more, except I knew what was coming next. A one-kilometre descent off-path, down a scree slope dropping 180 meters, just to run along a little and climb straight back up again! This is when things started to fall apart for me, now with 30km under my belt. My lungs felt tight and restricted and then nausea started to hit me in waves.
Many Ultra runners describe this as entering the pain cave. It’s the best description I know, because you kind of slip into a dark and lonely place. Sometimes you hang on near the door, sometimes you slip in deeper. In the cave you find yourself in a fair bit of discomfort. To survive you need to fire fight a little, work through a checklist. Is my heartrate high, do I need to slow down? Am I dehydrated? Do I need electrolyte? Am I over heated? Have I fuelled enough? Am I just plain exhausted? The thing about Ultra running is things go wrong and it’s about overcoming whatever crops up along the way. I usually find it difficult to talk at this point, it just becomes too hard to do much more than put one foot in front of the other.
Shuffling down the next section, another beautiful winding decent into Platres, did seem to improve things for me a little, apart from my legs which obviously just got more tired. Now back down at 1200 meters it was time for the final 7km climb back up to altitude. Not surprisingly, the nausea returned as I climbed, and my focus was divided between two equally important mantras.
1. Keep moving.
2. Don’t throw up.
Thankfully I managed both and crossed the finish line, and that is Ultra marathon success!
It was all road and I had trained on trails. It had a 10-hour cut off time, could I run 70km +1400m within 10 hours? Could I run a 54km +2800m mountain Ultra and then 6 weeks later race 70km on road? Could I also move house, juggle half term holidays and a part time university course, and expect my body to cope with all this thrown at it.
It might have been easier in many ways not to even try. That’s not me though, underneath all my questions, deep within my sole, I am a dreamer. When I am exhausted by training and life and consumed with self-doubt, I remind myself that there is no harm in trying. What is the worst that could happen? If I tried and didn’t finish, would that really matter?
17 of us stood on the start line in the dark on Saturday morning. By then the self-doubt was gone because it didn’t matter if I didn’t finish, I was brave enough to start. I had a plan, a plan that been developed, practiced, tweaked, and refined over the previous months. In the kilometres that followed I executed that plan. I paced the race, I followed my nutrition, hydration, and electrolyte plan to the letter. I crossed the finish line in 9 hours and 16 minutes, hand in hand with the two people I’d run the entire race with.
That is the story of Ultra running. The story of the characters you chat to, the people you work with to get you through the day. Some of them old friends, some of them new. There is a common goal to get to the finish line. Everyone in that race not only wanted to finish but they want everyone else to finish too, and if they can help you achieve that they will. Of course, this applies to the many amazing volunteers and marshals, helping tired hands, cheering, horn honking, singing, and dancing. These events simply wouldn’t exist without these people.
The organisers very cleverly placed the much-loved Cyprus Trail runners at the main checkpoint, 47km in. The very same duo responsible for two of my big races this year, including the 54km Sea to Sky six weeks prior. For me it felt super special to see them there. Their inspiring and inclusive events (without cut off times) were a major contribution to me building the self-belief that got me to the start line. Ultra-running could be an elusive, elite community. But in fact, it is the exact opposite, it’s an inclusive, friendly place full of mutual respect and admiration, not to mention aid stations packed with yummy food!
Yes, you need dedication, perseverance, mental strength, and desire to run an Ultra, but I think most of all you simply need to believe. It is belief that will make you take the first step.
A baptism of fire, that’s how I would describe my first Ultra. An Ultra Marathon is anything longer than 42.2km. The Cyprus Trailrunner’s Sea to Sky Ultra, at just 54km, could be considered a baby in the Ultra running world. A few things make this Ultra more extreme than its mere distance. The first is the 2800m of ascent you cover, meaning some harsh elevation profiles. The second is the technical parts of the trail, often small and narrow, sometimes scrambling, loose and rocky, and of course plenty of thorny bushes (it’s Cyprus after all). The third is the altitude, the high point of the race climbing to just short of 2000m.
The idea to run this Ultra was born in November 2021. Fairly new to Cyprus at that time I had entered the shorter 25km version and absolutely loved it. The November weather was cold, wet and there was even some snow. This is also the first time I ran with local running-club member Lee, who I quickly realised shared my love of all thing’s mountains.
Truthfully though, even before this race I realised I was unwell and maybe had been for a while. Less than two weeks later I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia and told that prolonged reflux had burned and damaged my oesophagus. After six weeks of resting, lying on the sofa and generally wallowing, I realised I needed to find a way out of my misery. During this time the medication I needed was starting to help but it would take many more months for my oesophagus to fully heal.
Fast forward to September 2022 and it felt like a miracle to even be standing on the start line of the 54km. When you dare to dream and put a plan in place nothing can be certain, but we should always follow those big dreams. Gradually over the previous 8 months I had built my endurance up. To say that journey was a rollercoaster would be a huge understatement. The reflux over long distances caused me rib pain, so I added core strength work to my weekly training. I had to experiment with so many different fuel options to find something that would stay in my stomach and not give me reflux. I had to change my electrolyte to something more reflux friendly. All these items I would have to carry on race day rather than tucking into the aid station grub. People often say they wish they had my fitness. I can’t even begin to put into words just how much work, how much trial and error and pure stubbornness has gone into getting me to this place. Many, many times I have cried out in frustration that my body was letting me down and wondered if it was time to give up on the Ultra running dream.
That was never something that mountain loving Lee was going to allow me to do though. He knew, as did I deep down, that with persistence and determination the dream was there for the taking. Believing in your strength is half the battle, ultra-running is a mental game. He has seen my struggles, heard my many cries of frustration, pushed me on through difficult training races where everything went wrong. It’s fair to say he has been instrumental in my success. Rather ironically perhaps, on the day of Sea to Sky, for the first time I saw him in a bad place. Dehydration snuck up on him and tried to knock him down. Thanks to lots of dedicated training we spotted the problem and tried to stamp it out immediately. However, dehydration coupled with an incredibly hot day can make it difficult, if not impossible, to shake off. At the halfway checkpoint we had a long rest and did everything in our power to get him back on track. I also double checked I knew the procedure to call the organisers if things deteriorated, above all we needed to stay safe. In the harsh heat of the day, I watched as he entered his cave of pain, as I had experienced many times before, and he stayed there for the rest of the day.
As it turned out we needed those emergency numbers. Around the 37km mark we came across a woman vomiting on the path. I have no medical training, but I know vomiting in the intense heat meant severe dehydration. Lee, being a former paramedic, snapped into work mode taking her pulse, checking her pupils, and assessing the situation. It was bad, she was delirious and although we tried to get some sugar and fluid into her, everything was coming straight back up. Lee later explained that her body was starting to shut down and had basically decided digestion was a non-essential function. She needed a drip, she needed to be in hospital. It wasn’t easy for the paramedics to find us or get to us. The ambulance couldn’t drive on the forest track, so a forestry commission vehicle had to be called in. It managed to drive the paramedics to the trail head, and they eventually managed to hike in up the single-track path, all of which took some time.
Once she was safely in the hands of the ambulance crew, heading to the hospital, I swallowed down the emotions of seeing someone in such distress and we turned around to continue our race. During the final few kilometres, the last bit of daylight had gone from the sky, Lee was still deep in his pain and could do nothing more than put one foot in front of the other. Route finding and not tripping over stones became so much harder without a head torch, but we did eventually stumble over that finish line.
A while later as we sat drinking tea and coffee in the hotel, coming round from the day’s exertions, the woman we had helped sat down next to us and offered to buy us a beer. Whilst we had trudged on through our final 17km she had been to hospital for the care she needed. She was like a different person, and we were pleased to see her recovered.
Someone asked me the next day why on earth we do that to ourselves. Of course, no one enjoys seeing a fellow runner in distress. When you are pushing the body to it’s limits, especially in extreme weather, things can and do go wrong. The adventure, the pain, the mental endurance, the journey. You don’t know what will be round the next corner, but you do know you will find parts of yourself you didn’t know existed in those painful and challenging moments. The elation you will feel if you do succeed in unlike any other, and the journey along the way will never be forgotten.
I experienced hotel quarantine in the UK in 2021. I was alone with my little girl and we had access to an outdoor courtyard area which was fully tarmac. The UK also allowed deliveries and I took advantage of this, getting two supermarket deliveries during our stay.
I should start by saying by far the most useful thing I had with me was a tablet filled with children’s TV, games and books. We watched a lot of TV. You have to, but hopefully this post will give you a few more ideas as well!
Top Tip!
Save everything the hotel gives you, or that you get delivered. Empty plastic bottles/ containers can be used for stacking or bowling. Plastic cutlery can be turned into home made catapults. Spare toiletries can be spread on the shower door or mirrors doors for sensory play. Empty food boxes, and toilet roll tubes can be turned into rockets and other items. Colour them in and use a bit of glue or tape. Food packaging can also be really great for little car tunnels, ramps or carparks and buildings, let you imagination – or your kids at least – lead you!
Small items I took from home
Scissors
Sellotape
A few rubber bands
A few popsicle sticks
Cheap ball of wool
Glue stick
Balloons
Water Colour paints + brush
Colouring supplies
Water beads
A few q-tips
Face Paints
A few pegs
Small Plastic Easter Eggs
A mini tub of play dough
cheap measuring spoons for sensory play
Dice (I sourced some large foam dice)
Post It/Sticky notes
Larger items I took from home
Paper – A3 can be good as it can be taped together to do large paintings/drawings
Two new action toys
Two new mini legos (if you can’t afford new hide away some items you already have for 1 month before travelling)
A pool noodle (this can be used as a bed bumper and will fold into a large suitcase)
Mini tennis rackets and foam ball from the £1 store
A few small books
Essential snacks
Tarmac Play (if you have outdoor access)
Chalk
Skipping Road
Ball
Bubbles
Frisbee (I went with a foam one since preschoolers aren’t known for their good aim)
I also took a superhero cape, that got used a lot!
Items I ordered from the supermarket on arrival
More Chalk
Skipping rope
Shaving foam
Bubbles
Wine!!
More snacks…..
Jelly cubes for sensory play (if you have a kettle and fridge)
Kids national geographic magazine
Cheap food colouring
Many supermarkets will also have a selection of toys
Activities/games
What to do with all this stuff!
Bouncing on the bed to music
Ballet/Yoga on YouTube
The Floor is Lava and other action songs
Make a fort, can you use a suitcase or blanket (maybe use the pegs)?
Can your suitcase become a boat/house/bed for other action games
Volleyball with a ball or balloon
Set some small plastic toys in jelly for sensory play
Room on the Broom, act out the story using the pool noodle, or just pretend. Use toys/teddies to play the part of the animals. If you don’t know the story you will find it on YouTube.
Draw out a snakes and ladders game on paper, add actions to each square – e.g hop 5 times, gallop like a horse, etc
Create a ninja course or spider web using the wool tied to points around the room
Plastic bottle/tub bowling/stacking
Water beads can become a cooking/potion game or sort them by colour or pre-soak and set them in the jelly
Shaving foam on the shower door, write in it with a q-tip, or just make a mess
The rain experiment – a clear container of water with shaving foam on top. Add the food colouring in drops until the shaving foam cloud is so full that it ‘rains’. We then poured the mixture into a bigger container and added some of the water beads we’d played with a few days earlier
Play with and dilute or mix food colouring to see what happens
Paint a huge hungry caterpillar, cut him out a mouth and feed him!
Post It/Sticky notes with letters/numbers can be hidden round the room. Match them to the same symbol stuck to the wall. Great for spelling out names or practicing number sequencing
An egg hunt with the plastic eggs, add saved bottle tops or sticky notes with letter/number written on inside
Home made catapults with plastic cutlery and popsicle sticks
Demonstrate static electricity using balloons. Empty any unused salt and pepper sachets onto a plate, rub a balloon and dip into the plate. My daughter also loved washing the pepper off the balloon in the bathroom sink.
Body Parts – I came across this Twinkle resource last year and printed and laminated the sheets, so I took them with me in the suitcase. I trace round my daughter (again having taped a few A3 sheets together) and we lay the parts in the correct place. We then moved on to laying the parts on her which she loves. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t2-s-055-human-body-organs-display-posters
As I stood on the start line of the London 10 Mile this morning waiting for my wave to be set off, I started to think how I might word my Just Giving update after the race. I might discuss how I have been finding it difficult to fit in training when my husband is working away a lot, the sickness bug I had 10 days ago, or the general challenge of heading out to run either before, or after, a long day entertaining an under 1.
As I passed the mile 2 marker I realised that my post should in no way focus on any of those things, because how I got there, and how fast I ran today are not the things that made it special. Before the start of the race we heard from the founder of Park Run, Paul Sinton-Hewitt. He talked about his reasons for starting up Park Run, which were simple, he wanted to spend his Saturday mornings with friendly runners. It started right here on my doorstep in London’s Bushy Park with 13 amateur runners. 10 years later there are 543 park runs worldwide and a 1,000,000 strong Park Run community. What’s even more impressive is that all these Park Runs have volunteers at their core with only 23 paid staff.
The London 10 Mile was a wonderful event, and like Park Run the volunteers are what I will remember, not my finishing time. There were those dressed as Robin Hood and the six grown men dressed as squirrels, a few couldn’t resist stopping for a selfie with these guys. The 3 piece Mexican band, the 4 dressed as Henry the VIII (I tried to give you my best running bow). To the tree surgeons cheering us on from above, how very novel. To all the pacers for giving their run to help others. Of course, as a new-ish Mummy I have to mention all the little ones, dressed as superheroes or just offering up a high-5, I did my best to thank you all. I also loved the Fact Boards dotted around the course, I did not know that Richmond Park has 130,000 tress of that there are as many as 650 wild deer living there.
This may have been a training race for a slightly bigger run in 6 weeks time but it was a fabulous event made so by wonderful volunteers and spectators. Like most runners I run for many reasons. For my physical and mental health, to relax, to switch off, and to be part of this amazing community that connects so many from all walks of life.
Lake Volta is considered the largest man-made lake in the world and accounts for 3.6% of Ghana’s surface area. The White and Black Volta Rivers converge to form the Volta River and completion of the Akosombo Dam, in 1966, created the 8500 square km reservoir. The notion of damning the river for hydro-electric was first proposed in 1915, by an Australian geologist. It wasn’t until post-independence though that President Nkrumah set up the Volta River Authority and, in 1961, contracted the work out to an Italian company.
The main purpose of the dam at that time was to provide electricity for Ghana’s growing industrial development, mainly an Aluminium plant based in Tema. The dam is made entirely from clay and rock and stands 114m tall and 660m at its widest. When the land was flooded to create the reservoir around 80,000 people had to be re-homed, many of them farmers and fishermen. Farmers were forced to use less fertile land on the slopes of the new reservoir making conditions more difficult. To make matters worse fertiliser run off into the lake has caused issues with aquatic weeds and malaria-breading mosquitoes. The flooding of the land also left many dead tree stumps spread across the lake creating problematic conditions for fishermen as their nets become entangled. This aspect of Ghana’s fishing industry has a large problem with child slavery and often children are sent into the lake with the dangerous task of untangling the nets. These children often work long hours with no education, it’s estimated there are many thousands involved in the Lake Volta fishing industry.
If you spend the night at the nearby Royal Senchi hotel they can arrange a tour of the dam and the three magic rocks. The tour of the dam, which involves a walk along the top, is very worthwhile and is run by the Volta River Authority. This can be arranged independently, if you have a vehicle, by visiting their office in Akosombo. The three magic rocks however, seems to be a mystery which I can find out little about, except what I was told by the Royal Senchi tour guide. The story goes that these three large pieces of rock where removed when building the dam. However, after moving them the workmen returned the following day to find they had returned to their original position. When this happened a second night in a row the decision was made to make a religious offering and ceremony before moving the rocks, as it was felt their magic must be respected. This process was successful and one of the three pieces was built into the dam wall. The second now sits outside the Volta Hotel and the third outside the Saint Barbara Church.
The piece outside the Volta Hotel contains a circular marking around a natural hole. The plaque describes this cup and ring formation as a prehistoric magical symbol, probably related to animal fertility. The plaque also explains that rock engravings are very rare in Ghana and it’s thought this one is 2000 years old.
The third piece sits outside the Saint Barbara Catholic Church, which was built in 1962 as a place of worship for the workers building the damn. Hanging inside the church is a plaque that remembers the 28 workers who lost their lives during its construction. The Church and rock sit high on the hillside with a wonderful view back across the mighty Lake Volta.
Kwame Nkrumah is a highly regarded figure in Ghana. Not only did he dedicate his life to freeing the country from colonial rule but he was also an active leader in the Pan-African movement, advocating the total liberation of all Africans. He was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.
Kwame was an intelligent and resourceful young man and he was determined to improve the lives of his fellow Africans. He won a scholarship to study abroad and consequently spent time in the US and the UK. In the US he experienced great inequality based on skin colour. He started to believe that if Africa could be freed from colonial rule then Africans, wherever they lived, would be respected and able to improve their living conditions.
Back in Ghana (known as the Gold Coast at that time) the British felt that Africans were not educated enough to govern themselves. After 12 years away from the Gold Coast Kwame returned, and in 1949 became involved in setting up the Convention People’s Party (CPP). Their moto was Forward Ever, Backward Never and their target was self-government, Now.
In early 1950 peaceful protests and mass refusal to work, due to dissatisfaction in the colonial government, lead to a number of arrests within the CPP party. Kwame was thrown in jail, but he refused to give up the fight for independence. From his cell, with the help of a friendly warden, he made plans with party members to run in the 1951 election. He stood as a candidate for the Accra region and the CPP won with a landslide victory. The British were left with no choice but to free Kwame, after a year of imprisonment. He was then called on by the colonial Governor to appoint 7 cabinet members. Although the party were still answerable to the Governor and had to include 3 colonial ministers, Kwame and his followers saw it as a step forward towards independence.
Kwame pushed to set up a civil service and slowly replaced colonial police and army officers with Ghanaians. In 1954, when the next general election was held, all seats were won by the CPP and the move towards self-government grew. Finally, on March 6th 1957 the flag of the Gold Coast was lowered and Ghana was born. Kwame Nkrumah became the first President of the newly independent country. Not content with this massive achievement Kwame pushed forward with his Pan-African vision. He spoke with the 7 other independent African states of that time and encouraged them to work together to gain liberation across Africa. The movement grew, and in just 6 years the number of independent African nations had risen from 8 to 32.
In addition to supporting these independence drives across Africa, Kwame was pushing forward with his vision of a better Ghana. State farms were developed, free education and health care put in place and plans for the Akosombo Dam were progressed so hydro power could improve the lives of the people. Factories were built and the harbour and township of Tema developed.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all plain sailing and Kwame’s socialist views were not shared by all. There were members of his party more interested in improving their own lives and maintaining their privileges, even if that meant betraying the trust of the people. In the early 1960’s there were several attempts on his life. In 1966 Kwame felt that Ghana was on the threshold of economic independence. No sooner did he express this than the first in a long line of Coup d’etat occurred whilst he was out of the country.
The years that followed saw all his hard fought changes undone. Factory builds were abandoned, rubber plantations sold off to western companies, free health and education was abolished. There was little he could do but watch in dismay from afar. When he died from cancer in 1972 he had never been able to return to Ghana. I can see why this man is so highly respected, having dedicated his life to freedom, not just in Ghana, but across Africa. Today you can pay your respects at the Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra. As well as being the first Presidents final replacing place there is a small museum with a collection of photographs and other artefacts.
SCOT Exploring 