Exploring the Rainforest!

I have been so unbelievable busy and exhausted that I was never able to load anything about our first full weekend in Cape Coast!

So last week, on Friday we went to Kakum National Park! It was about an hour tro tro ride away from our home. I unfortunately had my first experience being sick here that entire morning so that hour long tro tro ride was not so fun...But once we got to Kakum it was amazing! We went on a guided tour through the rainforest and hiked 250 feet up to the beginning of the canopy walk. 

Once we reached the canopy walk I was amazed! I could see for miles because we were over the tree-line. The canopy walk consisted of 7 suspended bridges we had to walk on with a little platform to rest on in between. At the highest point, we would be a little over 300 feet above the ground. 

Let me just say, a canopy walk in Africa is NOTHING like anything in the US. There were no safety harnesses to have us attached to in case something broke. The bridge looked like it was built 50 years ago and never maintained, yet they still let people walk on it. As you can see in the picture, the rope is attached above and on the bottom there is a net with metal pipes laying along the bottom with a wood platform above it to make it easier to walk. The reason I know it is not maintained is because many of the wood boards were loose or missing. I'm not afraid of heights, but the mix of being sick and realizing that I am walking on a bridge that probably isn't safe in the middle of the rainforest in Africa made me start to freak out a little. 

The last thing that made the bridge unsafe was that the ropes attached to the top did not stop it from swaying. It swayed back and forth so much! People started running along it to get done faster and the brave tried jumping on it, but were yelled at because it might break. Let's just say I won't go back to do it again.

Even though I was terrified of the bridge breaking, I could not get over the view. My friends and I stopped several times along the way just to admire the views and look below. We all knew that we would probably never have this type of opportunity again, so we wanted to take it all in.

After Kakum, we went to lunch at Hans Cottage and was able to touch and sit on an alligator. I was freaking out just a tad bit because there was no workers near us in case the alligators tried attacking us. So we just hoped for the best, and luckily no one was injured.