Wicked-a Wicked, Jungle is Massive

Had a busy few days to report on so will try and get it all down in 2 blogs today!






After celebrating our double victory on the Saturday night it was our Senior Teams chance to complete the hatrick against Ada on the Sunday, it was a one match competition, winner takes all. Kick off was arranged for the early afternoon so we headed down to talk to the team and encourage them to complete the crown for our academy. The game kicked off and we dominated from the start out playing Ada and going in 2-0 up at half time. The second half was a tighter affair with Ada getting a late goal however we held on to get a narrow 2-1 victory. Good times!!!



On the Monday we set off at 5.30AM to travel West along the coast of Ghana in search of a tree platform we planned to sleep on in the rain forest at Kakum National Park. The park was first established in 1990 and covers an area of 350 square kilometers and is entirely covered with tropical rain forest.



First up we went to the main entrance of the park and headed to the canopy walk, a suspended rope bridge high up in the canopy of the forest. A short trek into the forest we got to a small hut with the entrance to the walkway, stepping out so high up over the forest was a little worrying at first as it looked like the walkway was just a few ladders bolted together, planks of wood laid on top held up by rope.















All good though, no deaths so far apparently!!! We walked along, high up in the treetops of the forest where you could see miles and miles and miles of dense rain forest, amazing views and sounds of the forest!! The walk around the canopy was about 30 minutes before arriving back on solid, non wobbling ground, before heading back to the Tro Tro.












Next up we drove into a nearby town called Cape Coast to visit one of the old slave castles. Ghana was once occupied by Europeans and was only handed back to the Ghanaians in the not to distant past by the British, along the coast the slave trade was unfortunately a massive business so this was only 1 of many slave castles in Ghana. The castle itself was an impressive building however it obviously has a dark and sobering history of which was taught on our tour.









After the tour we needed cheering up a little so went to lunch and set out on the long, arduous journey to find a small village called Mosomagor located on the east side of the rain forest. No one we had spoken to or Patrick who takes volunteers all over the place had ever heard of the village or platform and it soon became clear why. The journey was long, into the depths of African Rain forest we saw what it was really like in poor communities a long way from cities and towns, it was an amazing experience driving through the tiny villages and seeing the look on the faces of locals who had either never seen white people or maybe don't see them very often. The roads were pure dirt tracks, kicking up dust and bouncing around in pot holes the driver began to wish he hadn't agreed to this and we could see him getting a bit peeved off!

Eventually we arrive and were told we were late as it was a 2 hour trek into the rain forest to get to the platform and it would be getting late soon. Patrick spoke to them and they eventually agreed for us to go, we drove a little way to catch up withe guide who had already set off with 2 other visitors. Sod's law, they don't have any visitors for months at a time then 2 groups come at once! The other 2 were a middle aged Danish couple who looked pretty miffed when they saw a Tro-Tro of 8 British youths arrive to join them on hte platform. After introductions and a small briefing we headed out into the forest. We walked for around 20 mins in light woodland before getting to a border between the normal forest/farmland and the rain forest. As soon as we crossed the line it became intensely hot and humid and we instantly started pouring with sweat making the trek interesting but uncomfortable. We eventually came to a clearing in the forest and looked up to see a small wooden platform about 30 metres off the ground that looked more like a tree house than a sleeping platform!!






Unsure how we were going to sleep 10 we started to climb the ladder one by one. When we had all got onto the platform it was obvious it wasn't built for 10 and we all started to try to get comfortable, this was a thankless task and was probably the worst nights sleep any of us had ever had......apart from the Danish guy who snored the whole night!!! George had to sleep near the ladder and had his legs dangling over hte edge pretty much all night and Toby, another volunteer, unfortunately had a dodgy stomach so had to go down hte ladder in the pitch dark....not good if you saw it!!

Although it was very, very uncomfortable and little sleep was got by anyone it was a brilliant experience to sleep in the rain forest with sounds of insects, birds, monkeys and hundreds of other animals bouncing around us all night. In the morning we set off back to base and were allowed to drink water from the roots of trees, told how to make poison from other plants and trees and saw wild elephant prints. The elephant had recently passed but sadly we missed it! We also stopped at the village distillery where we tasted the Palm Nut Beer which was so nice, luckily the Palm Nut Wine was not ready.....I didn't fancy drinking 70% proof wine at 7 in the morning!! Back at camp we loaded up the van and headed home, everyone agreed the last couple of days had been awesome and it was good to see the real and wild Ghana.







P.S Ignore any spelling and grammatical errors....only have limited time to get the info up. No names mentioned but I know of at least 2 people who will be tutting about it!!!