February 23, 2001

Kakum National Park protects one of the largest pristine rainforest habitats in Ghana. To describe its assets properly would require someone with stronger abilities in identifying trees and other flora; my ex-forester sister, Peggy, would love this. She would have to brush up her knowledge -- these forests are quite different from Colorado's and Oregon's, and the number of species per hectare is over 200! (OK, I don't know what a hectare is. With the pitiably little rainforest knowledge I have, I don't even know if that's really an impressive statistic. But it sounds impressive! Most of my info comes from a British travel guide, and I should credit the author, Philip Briggs). The chief attraction for tourist is the park's unique canopy walk, a series of seven foot bridges strung up by Canadians in 1996. By walking from perch to perch, you are able to view the forest as never before -- from above the canopy. The highest bridge is 40 meters (approx. 120 ft.) off the ground. Which brings me to the conundrum of the canopy walk. If you have a touch of acrophobia, not enough to be paralyzing (hopefully!), this walk cranks up your adrenaline to record heights. Logically, you know this is perfectly safe, but as the bridge sways and bounces, your gut is telling you otherwise. My solution was to concentrate on the planks in the bridge and use this as a meditation exercise. This strategy was pretty successful -- which meant that I observed more bridge than forest! What I did see, mainly from the platforms between the bridges, was quite incredible. I'd like to go back and do a hike on the ground, and see the forest from the other perspective. We had rooms at Hans' Cottage Botel, a one-of-a-kind establishment. It's situated on a large pond, in which swim two crocodiles! The restaurant and lounges are built above the pond, and I actually saw one of the crocodiles swimming beneath my table at breakfast. There are regular feedings of these lazy creatures, a spectacle that I'm glad I missed. As I made the photograph here, I thought, "Maybe I'm in some kind of B-grade movie, and this peaceful scene will be shattered by an enormous crocodile that will grab me and my camera and drag us underwater, never to be seen again." Happily, B movies are not real life, but they do fuel overactive imaginations... (Photos: me on the canopy walk, thankfully at a distance such that there is no record of the terror on my face!; a view of the forest and one of the bridges, taken from a platform/observation deck along the way; Hans' Botel restaurant, with menacing crocodile statue. I think the actual crocodile is less than 3/4 the size!)

Accra Dispatch - page 3