Kakum National Park!

My second Saturday in Ghana was spent in Kakum National Park. The Kakum river runs through the park, hence the name. The river was named Kakum due to the call of the monkeys when they go down to the river to wash and play!

Kakum is outfitted with a canopy walk that is divided into 7 sections. Each is a suspension bridge tethered to one of the large trees that make up the  emergent layer of the rainforest. Kofi, Yasuko, and I were the ones to do the walk. I still have good balance- the only point in time I can be happy I took ballet for all those years... :) Good story: I was walking along the one section without using the guide ropes and a mother (on the next section) with a child who was frighted, pointed at me and said "See, she isn't even using her hands!" I have no idea if this helped the child or not, but i blushed and Yasuko and Kofi both looked at me funny...

We were high up but as you can see in the picture, there is no way to fall out. You would have needed to climb up and jump, which then makes it entirely your own dumb fault. It was a great experience!!!

We also went on a nature tour after we were back on the ground. We learned about 8 different trees and meet a snake! He was very pretty and clearly would camouflage well in the trees. Our ranger told us he was poisonous so we had to wait while he chased it away with a stick before we carried on. We also got to see some of the other termite mounds that are created. This one looks like a mushroom:

Finally we stopped at the animal sanctuary. It is run by two dutch ex-pats and they take in orphaned animals. They have quite a few monkeys. This one is Spock (see his ears!):

They also have civet cats which we were told would bite us... They are related to foxes and will bark when agitated. They have a raccoon-like, cat-like look though:

They also have a little black deer that will come when called:

And these are the genet. They will eat snakes- taking care of keeping the monkeys safe.

Most of these animals are endangered and the sanctuary has a license for each. They have a breeding program for the civet cats and the genet in order to breed and release the offspring back into the wild. They have managed to already do this successfully with the Mongoose that is native to the area.

I also saw some crocodiles in the ponds around the area...

The day was great. It was all nature stuff and everyone could answer the questions I have been posing for a week, but no one could answer! As always I love learning about the world around me so this has been great!!!

A few of us (Lauren, Mckell, Danielle, Michaela, and I) want to go back to Kakum to do the overnight. You take a tour in the dark to see the nocturnal animals and then sleep in the trees in hopes of seeing the forest elephants! It will be great. :)

We also hope to go to Mole National Park. Its up north near the corner by the Ivory Coast and Burkino Faso. It is the sahel region so it is full of hippos, crocodiles, Africa elephants, gazelle, water buffalo, and the other stereotypical animals... It will be  a trip and probably a little more costly than some things, but when am i coming back to Africa again?!