Rainforest - Blogabond

Day two in Cape Coast and we decided to head out to the Kakum National Park, a rainforest conservation. We started early morning and got lucky with a early pickup on especial Ghanaian public transport; the tro0tro. Its something similar to South African taxi/ minibusses. We climbed the 23km hill dodging potholes and picking and dropping new friends as we went along. Ronny, the German who has been traveling with us for the past 7 days, is very keen to befriend every single person he comes across. Strange days are on us!

let's go!

Kakum park is nothing spectacular. But its conservation projects like these that make news head lines of deforestation relevant. West Africa once had an indigenous rain forest stretch from Guinea in the west, inland up to Burkina Faso and all along the coast to Togo and Benin. Now all that remains is a few projects like Kakum in Ghana and some in other neighbouring countries. All of this destruction of essential natural green spots happened in the past 60 years. In the visitors centre, one board read that if deforestation continues like it has in the past, 3 unique species will be wiped out every hour. Stuff like this makes me so angry, you know? Its like, 'What have we become?' And where do we start; what impact can a few people make? Maybe we can start by always checking the timber source of all furniture and other wood products. If its not from sustainable forests, we should boycott it. Hit them where it hurts most; the bottom line. We need to drive down the market for these products and stop these thieves. Its really a problem, and we can all make a difference.

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. So we decided on going on the suspension bridge, one of the biggest 4 in the world. It hangs 40m above the forest floor and consists of 7 bridges with stations in between. Its was a really fun walk and great to have a birds eye view on the forest canopy and surroundings. The steel ladder with rickety plywood board is supported by a net bound over the ropes. I've never been great with highest so this was quite a scarey sight at times, especially when you have some idiots for friends stalking you and swinging it ever slightly. Jeez, with friends like these... :)

All that remains for Cape Coast is visiting the slave museum and castle (which is more famous these days for Barak and Michelle Obama visiting a few months ago than its rich history; joke). Then tonight should be quite good too with a cultural night at Oasis bar. If they have Ghanaian acrobats as the ones we saw in Ouagadougou, its gonna be a super night!

written by

afrikawasbeer on November 14, 2009 from Cape Coast, Ghana

from the travel blog: Traveling Africa Overland

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