We started out at the resort this morning. It was apparent that there were a lot more rocks in the ocean than we had thought swimming around the night before. Several people did not sleep very well last night because there was no air conditioning in their rooms and at midnight the power shuts down, therefore than ceiling fan shut off. So, we roasted, but the positive point from that is we all appreciate electricity and AC that much more.
We left for Kakum National Park. First we stopped at the restaurant where we would eat lunch and placed our order. The park was not far from there. Once we entered through the gates, Manu jumped out for some reason, we did not know why. He came back with a bunch of red berries in his hand and told us to peel the skin off and suck on the fruit. Then we took an orange and ate it and it was very sweet. Yesterday these same oranges were terrible. This red berry called a “miracle berry” apparently numbs or retards the bitter taste buds on the tongue allowing anything put in your mouth to appear sweet. So, that was interesting.
Kakum National Park is a rainforest that is full of plants and wildlife. The reason we went here was a canopy walk that swings 120 feet off the ground above the tree line. The narrow one-way bridge was suspended by cable, ropes, and a wooden platform. The walk on the bridge probably lasted around 30-45 minutes. It was really amazing. Unfortunately we didn’t see any wildlife because most are nocturnal in that area of the park. When we got off the bridge we did a soil quality analysis and tested the thermal properties of the soils under a tropical primary rainforest. The group was split into ones and twos to carry on separate tasks relating to different soil characteristics. This took about an hour to complete.
We left Kakum and went back to the Han Cottage, a restaurant which was located on a crocodile pond. There were several crocs in the water; however none looked like man-eaters. Because of this we thought it would be a good idea to touch them, and for $1, we did. None of us lost any limbs and we all walked out of there feeling like Steve Irwin’s wingman. The meal was good. After that we went to the fishing town of Elmina. This was a hoppin’, busy little place, and there were a ton of wooden fishing canoes. We visited the Elmina Castle. It was similar to the Cape Coast Castle, however much bigger and nicer. It was built by the Portuguese in the 1400s for a trading post of gold, spices, and other delicacies. It then became used for slave trading until that was abolished in the 1800s. Once the slave trade was over, the British took over the castle until the 1950s when Ghana gained its independence from England. This fort was also on the shoreline and it even had a moat around it.
Click Here to see a map of where we traveled today.
