Wanderlust Ghana launches 30,000km expedition
A group of Ghanaian tourists and adventurists, the Wanderlust Ghana Expedition Club (WGEC), in collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), has launched a 30,000-kilometre expedition over land through some countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
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The expedition, launched at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra last Sunday evening, will see six Ghanaians embark on the three-month journey which commences on September 30, this year, driving through 30 countries across the world to promote Ghana and showcase its rich and diverse culture.
To embark on the memorial journey in three cars are Kwabena Peprah; Franklin Peters; Kojo N. Richard Osei-Anim; Kwadwo Saka Addo-Mensah and Kwame Peprah, who form the core team of Wanderlust Ghana.
The journey will see the adventurous team drive through some well-known countries such as Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Mauritania and Morocco.
Other countries are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey Spain, Germany, Austria, South Africa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, among others and then back to Accra.
The group came into the limelight last year when it embarked on an adventure of 10,000km, driving from Accra to London to raise funds for Eduspot, a charity organisation to help underserved communities.
The expedition involved an array of vehicles, including a Mercedez Benz G-Wagon, a Toyota Land Cruiser (V8), a Lexus RX 350 and a Ford F150 Raptor.
This year’s expedition has welcomed sponsorship from G10, a tourism-driven group, Pebble, a streaming platform that will stream live the details of the journey; GB Foods, Imperial Homes Limited, Phoenix Realty, Saka Homes among others.
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Rational, challenges
In the interview with the Daily Graphic, the leader of Wanderlust Ghana, Mr Peprah, said the motive for the expedition was to project Ghana to the rest of the world as an ideal tourism destination.
“Tourism in Ghana is the project; nothing else. We are pushing tourists into the country for the ‘December in GH’ project initiated by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).
The world is a big oyster and we are not getting any younger; so, once we want to explore the world, we keep looking at far fiels where we can go and also promote our country,” he said.
Mr Peprah added that the team would make stops at various Ghanaian embassies in some designated countries where they would link up with other Ghanaians and join by the GTA to showcase to the world some aspects of Ghanaian culture, including food, music and costumes.
On anticipated challenges, he said the team had no fears as it was fully prepared for the worst, as well as mechanical failure on the journey and how to deal with them.
“We plan for the worst and we will work hard to deal with them. We are driving cars; you can have a vehicle accident. You can have a tyre blowout or mechanical failure.
People may fall sick; this is life. You don't hold everything in your hands; we can only plan, try it and see how best it goes. If a car develops a fault on the way, we’ll just ship it back to Ghana,” Mr Peprah stated.
Opportunity, commendation
Speaking at the launch of the expedition, the Chief Executive Officer of the GTA, Akwasi Agyeman, described the move as an opportunity to sell Ghana to the destinations the adventurous team would pass through.
He emphasised that the journey would “showcase our soft power, our culture, our heritage and also try and move the tourist numbers up. Our main job is to market and promote Ghana as a tourist destination and we're always on the lookout for platforms that will grant us their mileage”.
Mr Agyeman expressed gratitude to Wanderlust Ghana for the commitment in putting Ghana on the map with the innovative expedition, adding that the advances made to them by the GTA were well appreciated by the team “who are also interested in promoting Ghana. So, it is a marriage of convenience to groups who are all interested in promoting their countries”.