Kakum Rain Forest

The third day in Ghana a group of 6 of us went to the Kakum National Park.  We took a 2 taxi’s from the port to the tro-tro station, where we got on a tro-tro to Cape Coast where we got a taxi to take us to the rain forest.  A tro-tro is sometimes called a mini bus.  It is a large van that holds 10 people plus the driver and the money taker.  If there is room on a tro-tro, they will stop and pick people up while on route.  The money taker sits by the door and collects the money of these add-ons.  Our taxi to the Kakum rain forest was of average size but we stuffed all 6 of us in there with the driver for the 30 minute drive.  At the rain forest we went on the 7 canopy walkways.  While waiting for our trip to start we watched a group of dancers and drummers.  The leader of the group talked with us for a while.  He speaks several different languages including English, French, German, and about 4 different African dialects.  He fussed at me for only speaking one language and proceeded to try to teach me some African.  I remember how to say thank you and that’s about it.  They are little net encased plank walkways that are above the rain forest canopy and go from tree to tree.  I got some postcards that have a picture of this walkway on them.  It was amazing!  After making it across the first walkway it started to rain (well it is a rain forest).  After making it across the 7 walkways our guild took us on a nature walk where he told us about different plants in the forest, one of which was the ebony tree.  In Ghana the name they call it translates to elephant comb.  This is because the ebony tree is very strong and has a rough bark that the elephants like to scratch themselves against and it doesn’t fall over.  We ate lunch/dinner at the park restaurant.  I got to try some fufu which is this doughy blob served in the bottom of a bowl of soup.  After we ate we all piled back in the taxi to the tro-tro station where we took a tro-tro all the way back to the harbor.  We were wet and muddy and my ankle was slightly sore but we were still smiling and laughing and having a good time.