Ruth organised a tour for us to see the Kakum National Park. Our driver, Yao picked us up at 7am this morning and we began our 3 hour drive. Yao was very informative as we drove out of Accra. Unfortunately because of the noise from the car and his accent we didn't manage to pick up everything he said but what we could understand was interesting. One of things he explained was his name. In Ghana, everyone is named after the day of the week they are born and then a hereditory name. Yao was born on Thursday, Laura would be Ama (born on Saturday) and myself and Ruth would be either Adwoa or Ajao (either name means born on a Monday). Wonder if IT would be prepared to change our e-mail addresses?
We passed through many communities on the way to the National Park, including Winneba (our comfort stop). Winneba was actually named Windy Bay but the locals couldn't pronounce that and the shorted version ended up being the formal name of the town. We also passed through Makessim which is where we are visiting tomorrow.
When we got to the National Park we met up with our guide Doris, who took us over the Canopy Walk which is a 350 metre canopy walk, which is about 40 metres over the ground. This is the first treetop walk built in Africa, and to date there are only 4.
I think we managed to scare most of the habitants of the Rain Forest away as the walkway wasn't quite as stable as we would have liked, however we did get to see some amazing views (photo's will follow as soon as we find a computer that we can use).
After the Canopy walk we went on a nature walk. We saw many trees including Ebony, Mahogany, and fig vines, and learnt a bit about natural medicine (apparently the roots of the Mahogany tree are used to help 'weak' men!).
When we got back to the visitors centre we were lucky enough to see our first wild animal. Okay so it was a Mona Monkey but apparently it is quite rare to see in a public place. Not even Yao had seen one in the visitors area before. Laura was a bit upset that we didn't get to see any elephants though. After several hundred attempts of photographing the monkey (trying to get that perfect shot) and lizards, we decided it was time to head off for some lunch.
Yao took us to the town of Elmina and the Coconut Beach Resort for a divine meal of traditional ghanaian fayre which included Groundnut soup (a peanut soup with chicken and vegetables), Black Star (a spinach sauce over fish, served with fried plantain) - definitely our favourite of the dishes, and Kakaou (sweet plantain balls with black eyed beans) and rice balls.
To aid digestion we decided to a quick paddle in the Atlantic before making our way over to Elmina Fort.
This fort is the oldest fort in Ghana at 524 years. It was built by the Portugese, who were the first Europeans to settle in Ghana. Over it's history it has been invaded by the Dutch and then they sold it to the British.
It was originally built as a Catholic Church it eventually became a trading post which dealt first in Gold and spices and then (the darkest time during it's history) a holding place for the slave trade.
After learning about the history of the fort from our guide called Richard, we headed back to our hotel in Accra. Along the way we were stopped by the Police (they are stationed about every 100km) because our driver wasn't wearing a seatbelt. He managed to argue his way out of the situation so we were able to continue on our way.
Tomorrow we meet up with the Plan office staff in Ghana, do a bit of shopping and then make our way back to Mankessim and get our second glance at the community.
At the moment we can't load any photo's but we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will not only have access to a computer in our next hotel, but also be able to upload a few pix's of what we have done so far.
Penny & Laura
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