GnSPowell: Canopy Walk

We finally made it out of the office thanks to the Bordens. Leaving at 5:30 am Tuesday morning, July 28th we drove to Cape Coast. Cape Coast is about 145 km west of Accra but due to traffic in Accra it takes at least 3 hours to get to Cape Coast. Once we got out of town it was a pleasant drive. Fortunately we were not coming into Accra at that time as the traffic was already bumper to bumper and four lanes of traffic were being squeezed into two.

We had several things planned for the two days in Cape Coast, the Canopy Walk was on day two. Just North of Cape Coast about 30 minutes away is the Kakum National Park. It is one of five places in the world that offer a canopy walk not to be confused with zip line rides. Costa Rica, Peru and South Africa are three others. Native to the forest are 40 species of mammals including the endangered Mona-meerkat, as well as pygmy elephants, forest buffalo, civet cats and several kinds of monkeys and snakes. We did not see any of these animals as most of them are nocturnal. We were told that even as quiet as we were the animals are still aware of the humans and remain aloof. Over 200 species of birds and 500 species of butterflies inhabit the forest. The Canopy Walkway passes over 7 bridges and runs over a length of 330 meters.

You will note that the platform is only wide enough for one person – 2 x 12. Also to avoid a lot of swaying and bouncing on the bridge while walking across it we kept the space between people rather wide - only one or two at a time.

Stephaney really enjoyed the walk. She said the little bit of swaying and bouncing was not scary as she had felt that way the past couple of weeks when she was getting over the malaria.

The bridge off in the distance that Stephaney is looking at is the highest of the seven bridges – 130 ft above the ground.

I don’t know what kind of trees these were but they were huge and even at 100 ft they still towered over us. I am standing next to the trunk of the tree that the canopy bridge is anchored to.