Cape Coast

Hello again!! Managed to escape for the weekend to Cape Coast with 6 other volunteers. Its about 2 and a half hours away from Accra and the bus journey took us along the edge of the coast line. I saw a completely different side to Ghana in Cape Coast, sometimes the hustle and bustle of city life becomes a bit overwhelming and it was absolutely lovely to see something green!!

We set off at 3pm Friday afternoon and arrived in Cape Coast at about 5.30ish. Immediately got into a taxi and headed off to the Oasis guest house which was situated right on the beach front...unfortunately they were full up!! so we ended up staying at Samo guest house which cost 9 cedi for a double room with a shower which was heaven for me!! seeing as back at home we have no running water and have to have bucket baths!!!

Early start on Saturday morning as we headed over to Cape Coast Castle 10 minutes away from where we were staying. Had a guided tour around the castle and told a brief history of the place...however it was a little hard to understand our guide as he spoke broken english with a heavy african accent!! After a brief lunch of coffee and egg omlette we set off to Kakum National Park about a 40 minute taxi drive away which cost about one pound each!! The attraction of Kakum National Park is the canopy walk which takes you up into the rainforest along rickety bridges held up by rope! not the safest thing ever!! We decided to do the canopy walk early morning because that would be the best chance to see the monkeys! so with that we settled down into our accomodation for the night...a couple of treetop platforms in the middle of the rainforest!!! what an experience!! you have to remember it gets dark in Ghana about 6.30ish and extremely quickly, so we were left alone for the night....the noises that we heard were incredible - we could hear the monkeys calling to each other, the various insects flying about as well as the birds squaking at all hours!! After about 7ish we all headed into our own compartments - i was sharing with Rhi originally but we had an unexpected visitor ...a huge tarantula!! I dont think I have ever screamed so much before and im not usually scared of spiders! also the monkeys were throwing things at our mosquito nets which immediately set us off screaming again so we ended up sleeping under one mosquito net with 3 other people...only way we felt safe!! Its a bit scary being left alone in an african rainforest when its pitch black, especially when we were woken at about midnight by 3 men shining torches around our camp - later learnt it was the guards patrolling the park!

Up at 4am Sunday morning and had a funny trek through the rainforest at 5am to meet our guide who was taking us to the canopy walk. As we began to walk across the bridges it was still pitch black but at about 6.30 the sun rose and we were able to take in the breath-taking scenery; we even glimpsed a couple of monkeys which made getting up so early, rewarding!! It was such an amazing experience to be submerged into an African rainforest and to explore the different smells and sounds that it had to offer. It also proved to be a funny morning as both Rhi and Si are afraid of heights - not the best phobia to have when your 50m above the ground!!

After the canopy walk we headed back to Cape Coast via tro tro's...because there was such a big group we had to split up as we all couldnt squeeze into one tro tro...Andy and I stayed behind to wait for another tro but were picked up by this white woman driving a 4x4 who offered to take us back which was very nice of her!

Afternoon was spent on the beach but mainly in the shade as we were all sleeping!! Managed a new record too...how many people can you fit into a taxi - that would be 8!! the car was scraping along the floor but the taxi driver just laughed! people will do anything for a little bit of money here!

Fantastic weekend albeit exhausting! Definately amazing to see monkeys in their natural habitats, back at the orphanage today, couple of new children over the weekend and unfortunately one child was hospitalised...but fingers crossed she'll be back soon, its almost a good thing that she has been admitted as she wasnt taking any food and has grown to skinny.

Will keep you updated, bye for now!!!

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